Cats
The cheapest cat breeds to own
Every published cat priced by the same engine, cheapest first — and the uncomfortable finding that picking a breed to save money is the weakest lever you have.
On this page
Here is the table the question asks for, and then the reason it should not decide anything. Across the 27 cat breeds on this site the yearly cost runs from $1,403 for a Singapura to $1,622 for a Selkirk Rex. That is a spread of $219 a year. The same calculation across 206 dog breeds spreads $2,302 — 10.5 times wider.
All 27 cats, cheapest first
Per-year cost covers food and treats, routine vet care and preventives, insurance, home grooming, and litter, supplies and gear. Every figure is an adult cat in Texas on mid-range kibble with an accident-and-illness policy. Type a breed to jump to it; open any row to change the state, the food tier and the rest.
| # | Breed | Per year | First year | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapura · 6 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,403 | $2,307 | $17,432 |
| 2 | Cornish Rex · 7 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,414 | $2,318 | $17,556 |
| 3 | Devon Rex · 7 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,414 | $2,318 | $17,556 |
| 4 | Oriental · 8 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,449 | $2,353 | $17,957 |
| 5 | Russian Blue · 10 lb · 9.7 years | $1,459 | $2,363 | $14,983 |
| 6 | Siamese · 8 lb · 11.7 years | $1,466 | $2,370 | $18,376 |
| 7 | Turkish Van · 10 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,496 | $2,400 | $18,467 |
| 8 | Abyssinian · 10 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,500 | $2,404 | $18,513 |
| 9 | American Shorthair · 11 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,500 | $2,404 | $18,537 |
| 10 | Balinese · 11 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,500 | $2,404 | $18,537 |
| 11 | Egyptian Mau · 10 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,500 | $2,404 | $18,513 |
| 12 | Exotic Shorthair · 11 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,500 | $2,404 | $18,537 |
| 13 | Persian · 11 lb · 10.9 years | $1,500 | $2,404 | $17,494 |
| 14 | Scottish Fold · 11 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,500 | $2,404 | $18,537 |
| 15 | Somali · 10 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,500 | $2,404 | $18,513 |
| 16 | Sphynx · 10 lb · 6.7 years | $1,500 | $2,404 | $10,924 |
| 17 | Burmese · 11 lb · 14.4 years | $1,520 | $2,424 | $23,662 |
| 18 | Maine Coon · 11 lb · 9.7 years | $1,520 | $2,424 | $15,663 |
| 19 | Birman · 12 lb · 14.4 years | $1,527 | $2,431 | $23,799 |
| 20 | British Shorthair · 12 lb · 9.6 years | $1,527 | $2,431 | $15,533 |
| 21 | Chartreux · 12 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,527 | $2,431 | $18,849 |
| 22 | Ragamuffin · 12 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,527 | $2,431 | $18,849 |
| 23 | Ragdoll · 12 lb · 10.3 years | $1,527 | $2,431 | $16,712 |
| 24 | Bengal · 12 lb · 8.5 years | $1,549 | $2,453 | $14,086 |
| 25 | Norwegian Forest Cat · 12 lb · 9.9 years | $1,549 | $2,453 | $16,317 |
| 26 | Domestic Shorthair · 14 lb · 11.9 years | $1,553 | $2,457 | $19,762 |
| 27 | Selkirk Rex · 16 lb · 11.5 years* | $1,622 | $2,526 | $19,894 |
Median across all 27: $1,500 a year. An asterisk marks a lifespan we did not measure — 15 of these breeds have no survival study of their own and carry the US purebred-cat average, so their lifetime column is the same arithmetic on the same number of years.
Why the spread is so small
A dog ranking is driven by two things, weight and coat, and both of them range enormously: four pounds to a hundred and fifty, a whippet against a poodle on a six-week clip. Cats have neither range. Every cat we publish sits between 6 and 16 lb, and grooming is priced at home for all of them, because no salon schedule is standard for cats the way it is for a doodle.
So of the 5 cost categories, 3 come out identical for every cat on this site — insurance; grooming; litter, supplies & gear — and the entire $219 spread is $209 of food & treats and $10 of vet & preventive. The ranking above is, almost exactly, a ranking of how much the cat eats.
| Category | Cheapest cat | Dearest cat | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food & treats | $167 | $376 | $209 |
| Vet & preventive | $570 | $580 | $10 |
| Insurance | $422 | $422 | — |
| Grooming | $6 | $6 | — |
| Litter, supplies & gear | $238 | $238 | — |
The lowest and highest figure each line takes across the 27 breeds. Insurance is the industry's published cat average and does not vary by breed; litter is a fixed monthly quantity; grooming is a brush and clippers written off over three years. Those are modelling choices, set out on the methodology page, not claims that no cat ever needs a groomer.
What actually moves the bill
If the goal is a cheaper cat rather than a particular cat, the breed is the third of four levers, and the ones above it are decisions you make anyway. Measured on a Scottish Fold, the median cat in the table:
| Decision | Worth per year |
|---|---|
| Food: budget kibble instead of wet food | $2,837 |
| Insurance: carrying a policy or not | $422 |
| Breed: the cheapest of the 27 instead of the dearest | $219 |
| State: North Dakota instead of New York | $88 |
Food is not on that list because wet food is better or worse — it is there because the price per 1,000 kcal differs by that much between the cheapest kibble and the wet food we recorded, and a cat eats every day for fifteen years. Insurance is the one real decision in the middle: $422 a year buys cover against the year with a $4,000 obstruction surgery in it, and nothing else on this page protects you from that. Whether it is worth it is arithmetic you can run — the break-even tool does it, and the insurance guide has the benchmark premium and what your state does to it.
Per year and per lifetime are different rankings
The lifetime column reorders the table, and for an uncomfortable reason. Among the 12 breeds here whose lifespan comes from a survival study rather than an average, the lowest lifetime total belongs to the Sphynx: $10,924, because the measured median is 6.7 years. The highest belongs to the Birman at $23,799 over 14.4 years, on a yearly figure barely different from the rest.
That is not a saving and this page will not present it as one. A short-lived cat costs less in total the way a short holiday costs less than a long one. It is worth stating plainly because the lifetime figure is the one a ranking like this makes look like a score, and here it is mostly a measure of how long the animal lives — which is the opposite of what someone choosing a cat is hoping to maximise for their money.
What is not in this
- The price of the cat. Breeder prices are published nowhere we can cite, and shelter adoption fees vary. Nothing above is a purchase price.
- Illness. The vet line is routine care and preventives on a normal schedule. A blocked bladder, chronic kidney disease or a dental extraction that turns into six does not appear here — that risk is what the insurance line is for.
- 9 more breeds. A cat page is only published when we have a breed-specific fact to put on it, so 9 of the breeds we hold data for are not in this ranking at all. They are not cheaper or dearer; they are unproven.
- Indoor versus outdoor. Litter is priced for a cat using a tray every day. A cat that mostly goes outside uses less of it, and meets more of what the insurance line exists for.
If the real question is cat or dog rather than which cat, that comparison is its own page — and the answer there is much less ambiguous than this one, because the two species' ranges do not overlap at all.
Sources and method
Calories come from body weight (RER = 70 × kg0.75 with a care-needs factor) and are priced against kibble and wet food we recorded by hand at a national retailer. Vet procedures come from a 50-state survey and are adjusted to your state with the government's regional price index; the schedule — exams, core vaccines, dental every few years — is ours and is written out on the methodology page. Insurance is the industry's own published cat average. Lifespans are from a UK survival study where one covers the breed and the US purebred-cat average where none does, and the table marks which is which.
Informational only — not veterinary advice. See your veterinarian.