The short answer: a private home daycare in Ontario charges about $40 to $60 per child for a full day in 2026, or roughly $840 to $1,260 a month full-time, with Toronto and the GTA at the top. Statistics Canada's survey of home child care put the Ontario median at $44.40 a day for unlicensed homes. Licensed spaces in the Canada-wide system cost parents $22 a day at most. Here's the full rate card, the rules that cap how many children you can take, and how to turn both into your price.
Home daycare rates in Ontario and Canada (2026)
These are full-day rates per child (up to about 10 hours) for a private home daycare, the kind most people mean by "home daycare". Monthly figures assume about 21 days of full-time care:
| Region | Per child, full day | Full-time, per month | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto & GTA | $45–$60 | $945–$1,260 | Toronto agency school-age full day: $55.11 |
| Ottawa | $42–$55 | $880–$1,155 | Ottawa agency school-age full day: $49.85 |
| Hamilton & Niagara | $40–$52 | $840–$1,090 | Agency school-age full day: $40 (Hamilton), $47.50 (Niagara) |
| London & mid-size Ontario | $40–$50 | $840–$1,050 | London agency school-age full day: $46.50 |
| British Columbia | $40–$50 | $840–$1,050 | 2024 unlicensed median $39.70; licensed $46.30 |
| Alberta | $40–$50 | $840–$1,050 | 2024 unlicensed median $39.70; licensed $42.30 |
| Quebec | $39–$48 | $820–$1,010 | 2024 unlicensed median $39; subsidized spaces $9.65 |
| Saskatchewan & Manitoba | $30–$42 | $630–$880 | 2024 unlicensed medians $34.80 (SK), $29.90 (MB); licensed $10 |
| Atlantic Canada | $30–$42 | $630–$880 | 2024 unlicensed medians $29.60–$39 |
Ranges compiled September 2026, checked as of September 2026. Provincial medians are full-time daily fees in April 2024 from Statistics Canada's Characteristics of home-based child cares serving children aged 0 to 5 years in Canada, 2024 (Ontario: $44.40 unlicensed, $39.80 licensed; outside Quebec the average was $41 unlicensed and $40 licensed). Ontario city benchmarks are what licensed home child care agencies charge for school-age children, whose fees are not capped by CWELCC: Global Child Care Services (Toronto, January 2026), Andrew Fleck Children's Services (Ottawa, 2025), Today's Family (Hamilton, January 2025), Niagara Region (January 2026) and London Children's Connection (September 2026). Quebec's subsidized rate is from the CCPA's 2026 fee survey. Our ranges start near those benchmarks and allow for price increases since 2024; there is no official price list for private care, and your street may differ.
What should you charge?
Two picks and a slider — your range, your projected income.
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Bill every family on the 1st, get paid by the 5thEstimates from this guide's market ranges — your market decides the rest.
A "child-day" is one child for one full day: four full-time children, five days a week, is 20. In Ontario an unlicensed home can have at most 5 children at a time, including your own under 4.
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Start free — no credit cardWhat $10-a-day child care means for a private home daycare
The Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care system (CWELCC) is the "$10-a-day" program. In Ontario it hasn't reached $10: according to the province's Canada-Ontario child care agreement page (updated September 2026), fees for children under 6 in enrolled programs have been capped at $22 a day since January 1, 2025. The CCPA's 2026 fee survey found every Ontario city it checked charging that flat $22 for infants and preschoolers.
Three things follow for a private provider:
- Unlicensed homes can't join. CWELCC is only open to licensed programs, including licensed home child care through an agency. A private home daycare sets its own rates, and parents pay all of it.
- You're competing on availability, not price. A family paying you $50 a day could pay $22 in a CWELCC space if they could get one. Statistics Canada found nearly four in five home child cares were at maximum capacity in 2024. What parents buy from you is a spot now, hours that fit their shifts, a small group, and a location near home.
- School-age children are outside the cap. CWELCC covers children under 6. Before and after school care for older kids is priced at market rates everywhere, which is why the agency school-age fees in the table are a useful yardstick for what full-day care is actually worth.
Outside Ontario, the gap is sharper. Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador and PEI licensed spaces cost parents about $10 a day or less, and the 2024 unlicensed medians there are among the lowest in the country. Where cheap licensed spaces are easy to get, private rates sit lower.
Full day, half day, and before and after school
Most home daycares sell three products, and price each off the full-day rate:
- Full day (up to about 10 hours): your base rate, usually sold as a monthly fee for a fixed schedule of days.
- Half day (up to about 5 or 6 hours): about 55% to 75% of the full-day rate, not half. You still hold the spot. Licensed agencies price it that way: London Children's Connection charges $33.50 for a school-age half day against $46.50 for a full day, and Niagara Region $25.50 against $47.50.
- Before and after school: a school-age child for a couple of hours at each end of the day. Ontario agencies charge about $21 to $26 a day for up to 4 hours ($21 in London, $22.64 in Ottawa, $25.82 at Global Child Care Services in Toronto), and more on PA days and holidays, when it becomes a full day.
Remember that school-age children count toward your limit. In Ontario the cap is 5 children under 13, so an after-school child fills a spot for the afternoon even if they're only with you two hours.
Infants, toddlers, and preschoolers
Infants cost you more capacity, not just more work: Ontario allows no more than 3 children under 2 in a home daycare. A group of three babies and two preschoolers is a full house. Price under-2s at the top of your local range, toddlers in the middle, and preschoolers at your base rate. Licensed fee schedules have long ranked the age groups the same way; even under the CWELCC cap, Toronto's Bright Minds Care charges $22 a day for infants and toddlers and $21.26 for preschoolers.
Pricing models: daily, weekly, or monthly
Quote by the day, bill by the month. Parents compare home daycares by the daily rate, but a monthly fee for a fixed schedule is what keeps your income steady:
- Monthly, in advance. Bill on the 1st for the month ahead. Many licensed agencies do the same; Bright Minds Care bills monthly with payment due on or before the start of the month.
- You're paid for the spot, not attendance. Sick days, family vacations and snow days are still paid. Say so in your contract, and give families a set number of your own closure days a year that are also paid or clearly excluded.
- Extras, priced plainly. A late pickup fee per 15 minutes, a higher rate for extended hours, and a registration or deposit policy if you use one.
- A notice period. Two to four weeks' written notice to leave protects you from an empty spot. Ottawa's Andrew Fleck asks for a month and requires at least two weeks.
Setting your own rate
The market range tells you what's plausible. Your costs and capacity tell you what's survivable:
- Start from your capacity. Five spots is the Ontario maximum, and your own under-4s take some of them. Four paying children at $45 a day, five days a week, for 50 weeks is $45,000 a year before expenses.
- Count your real costs. Food and snacks, toys and art supplies, cleaning products, extra insurance, first aid renewal, and the share of your home you give over to the daycare.
- Check the waitlist. If you have a waitlist of families, your rate is too low for new families. Raise it for new enrolments and keep current families at their rate for a while.
With first aid and CPR, a written contract, a clean daily routine, and invoices that arrive on time, you can credibly charge the top third of your local range.
Are you undercharging?
Five quick questions. Be honest — nobody's watching.
Are you booked solid more than two weeks out?
A full calendar is the market telling you your price is too low.
Have you raised your rates in the last 12 months?
Costs went up this year. If your rate didn't, you took a pay cut.
When you quote a price, does anyone ever say no?
If nobody ever pushes back, you're leaving room on the table.
Do you charge for travel time — or build it into your price?
Unpaid driving between days quietly eats your real hourly rate.
Do you drop your price whenever someone asks for a deal?
Discounting on request trains clients to always ask.
Priced about right
You're showing the classic signs of healthy pricing — price pushback now and then, regular raises, travel accounted for. Your next win isn't the rate, it's the time you lose to admin between days.
You're leaving money on the table
A couple of undercharging signals showed up. The fix is usually one honest raise for new clients — $5 more per day on a full week is thousands a year you're currently donating.
You're seriously undercharging
Almost every signal fired. Booked solid, never raising, never hearing no — that's not luck, that's a price well below what your market would pay. Raise your rate for every new client starting this week; your regulars can follow later.
Send every family one invoice a month. Get paid on the 1st.
Biller keeps your families and their invoices in one place, shows who has paid, and reminds the parents who haven't yet.
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Not ready? Try the free invoice generatorStarting a home daycare in Ontario
Ontario's child care rules under the Child Care and Early Years Act give you two routes, as of September 2026:
| Rule | Unlicensed home child care | Licensed, through an agency |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum children | 5 under age 13 | 6 under age 13 |
| Your own children | Count if under 4 | Count if under 4 |
| Children under 2 | No more than 3 | No more than 3 |
| First aid and CPR | Not required by law, strongly advised | Standard first aid with infant and child CPR required |
| Police checks | Not required by law | Vulnerable sector checks for you and adults in the home |
| Fees | You set them | CWELCC cap for under-6s; the agency collects fees and pays you |
| Fee subsidy families | Not eligible | Eligible |
From Ontario's child care rules and how many children are allowed pages, Halton Region's provider guide, and Ontario's child care subsidy page, checked September 2026.
1. Choose unlicensed or agency-licensed
Unlicensed means your own rates, your own families, and no inspections, but also no CWELCC and no subsidy families. Going licensed through a home child care agency means one more spot, families paying $22 a day or less, home visits, and an agency that finds children and collects the fees. Ask local agencies what they pay providers before you decide; that number, not the parent fee, is your income.
2. Follow the unlicensed rules to the letter
- Count carefully. 5 children under 13, including your own under 4, and no more than 3 under 2. Ontario can issue administrative penalties to providers over the limit.
- Tell parents in writing that "This child care program is not licensed by the Government of Ontario", and keep a signed copy for 2 years.
- One location only. An unlicensed provider can only offer care in one home.
3. Insurance
A standard home insurance policy often doesn't cover a business run from the house, and a daycare is the kind of business insurers want to know about. Call your insurer before your first family starts and ask about home daycare liability coverage. Our small business insurance guide covers what liability insurance and home-based business extensions cost.
4. First aid, CPR, and a police check
Get standard first aid with infant and child CPR even if you stay unlicensed. It's mandatory for agency providers, and it's the first thing many parents ask. A vulnerable sector check is required for licensed providers and reassures private families too.
5. A parent contract
One page, signed before the first day: the schedule and monthly fee, when it's due and how to pay, what happens on sick days, holidays and your closure days, late pickup fees, what you provide (meals, snacks, diapers or not), the notice period to leave, and the written unlicensed notice.
6. Getting paid and giving receipts
Bill monthly in advance and ask for payment by the 1st. Most families pay by Interac e-Transfer. Keep a record of every payment, because at year-end each family needs a receipt to claim child care expenses on line 21400. When the caregiver is an individual, the CRA says the receipt must show your social insurance number. The free receipt generator makes a clean one, and how to write an invoice covers the monthly bill.
Your daycare income is self-employment income, reported on Form T2125. Put money aside for tax every month; the self-employed tax calculator estimates how much.
Outside Ontario
The limits differ a lot. In British Columbia, a licence-not-required provider can care for only two children, or one sibling group, who aren't related to them; more than that needs a licence (licensed family child care allows up to 7). In Alberta, an unlicensed provider can care for up to 6 children, not counting their own. Check your province's rules before you take a single family.
GST/HST: home daycare is exempt
You don't charge GST/HST on home daycare. The CRA's page on collecting GST/HST on your daycare services (modified July 2026) says the service is exempt when you provide care and supervision in your home to children who are all 14 or under, for periods usually less than 24 hours a day. Exempt means you can't add the tax, even if you're registered for something else.
It also means the $30,000 small-supplier threshold doesn't come into play for a daycare-only business: exempt sales don't count toward it, so you never need to register. Two caveats. If you sell another taxable service on the side, such as tutoring older kids, that income counts toward the threshold on its own. And if you sell meals as a separately priced extra, check with an accountant first; the CRA's child care services policy treats a meal supplied separately from the care as taxable. Keeping meals inside your daily fee avoids the question. Our plain-English GST/HST guide has the full rules.
What a home daycare can earn
As an illustration, not a promise: an Ontario provider with four paying full-time children at $48 a day, five days a week, bills $240 per child a week, or $960 a week for all four. Over 50 working weeks that's $48,000 a year in fees. Food, supplies, insurance and a share of home costs come out of that before tax. Add a before-and-after-school child in the fifth spot at $22 a day and you add about $5,500 a year, but only if your own children under 4 aren't already filling it.
Rules and fees are as published by the sources linked above, checked September 2026. Private home daycare rates are set by each provider and vary by neighbourhood, hours, and age group.
Common questions
How much do home daycares charge in Ontario?
A private (unlicensed) home daycare in Ontario typically charges about $40 to $60 per child per full day in 2026, or roughly $840 to $1,260 a month, with the GTA at the top of that range. Statistics Canada put the Ontario median at $44.40 a day for unlicensed homes in April 2024. Licensed home child care enrolled in the CWELCC system is capped at $22 a day for children under 6.
How many children can I care for in an unlicensed home daycare in Ontario?
Up to 5 children under 13. Your own children count if they are under 4, and no more than 3 of the children can be under 2. You must tell parents in writing that the program is not licensed by the Government of Ontario and keep proof for 2 years. A licensed home child care provider working with an agency can care for up to 6.
Does $10-a-day child care apply to home daycares?
Only to licensed home child care providers whose agency is enrolled in CWELCC. In Ontario the parent fee in those spaces is capped at $22 a day, not $10, as of September 2026. Unlicensed home daycares can't join CWELCC, so they set their own rates, and parents who use them pay the full fee.
How do I start a home daycare in Ontario?
Decide between unlicensed care (up to 5 children, your own rules within the Child Care and Early Years Act) and licensed care through a home child care agency (up to 6 children, CWELCC fees, inspections, and first aid and police checks required). Then tell your home insurer, get first aid with infant and child CPR, write a parent contract, set a monthly fee, and give parents receipts for their taxes.
Do I charge GST/HST on home daycare?
No. The CRA says daycare you provide in your home is exempt from GST/HST if the children are 14 or under and the care is usually for less than 24 hours a day. You can't add tax to those fees, and because exempt sales don't count toward the $30,000 small-supplier threshold, a daycare-only business never has to register.
Can parents claim unlicensed home daycare on their taxes?
Yes. Parents can deduct child care expenses on line 21400 whether or not the care is licensed, as long as they have a receipt. When the caregiver is an individual, the CRA requires the receipt to show the caregiver's social insurance number, so plan to give each family a year-end receipt.
Should I charge more for infants?
Most providers do. Ontario lets you care for no more than 3 children under 2, infants need far more hands-on time, and licensed fee schedules have long priced infants and toddlers above preschoolers. Price under-2s at the top of your local range.
Can I get paid if a family uses child care subsidy?
Ontario's fee subsidy only pays licensed programs, including licensed home child care through an agency. Families who rely on subsidy can't use it at an unlicensed home daycare, which is one reason some providers join an agency.
Caring for kids in other ways? See the going rates for babysitting, tutoring, and music lessons, or browse every pricing guide.