How much does it cost to feed a dog in the UK?

A 20 kg adult dog costs about £1.19 a day to feed on a typical dry food, or £36 a month. The same dog costs £3.92 a day on raw, £5.10 on fresh, £5.97 on wet and £8.62 on air-dried or freeze-dried food.

Smaller dogs cost less: on dry food a 5 kg dog costs £0.42 a day and a 40 kg dog £2.00. These figures come from our data: 1,545 adult dog foods in stock, with shop prices checked on 4 October 2026. “Typical” means the median, the middle price: half the foods cost less and half cost more.

Dog food cost per day, by dog weight

Daily calories (kcal, the unit on food labels) are for an adult dog of typical activity. We work them out as 70 × body weight in kg to the power of 0.75, the resting energy requirement^[1], times 1.45, our own figure for a typical adult. Our food list and how much to feed use the same calculation. The cost is those calories multiplied by the price per 1,000 kcal of the foods in each column.

Each cell shows the typical price in bold, with the range for the middle half of foods underneath.

Size matters less than you might expect. A 40 kg dog weighs 8 times as much as a 5 kg dog but needs 4.8 times the calories, because energy needs rise more slowly than weight.

The fresh (20 foods) and air-dried or freeze-dried (23 foods) columns rest on few foods, so read them as a guide.

Dog food cost per month

A month here is 30.4 days, a year divided by twelve. Monthly figures are rounded to the nearest pound.

Why the types cost so differently

Price per kilo hides most of the difference, because foods hold different amounts of energy. Price per 1,000 kcal compares them fairly. 1,000 kcal is about 280 g of a typical dry food or 1,000 g of a typical wet food.

A 20 kg dog needs about 957 g of a typical wet food a day but only 269 g of a typical dry food. Our wet vs dry guide explains why a cheap-looking tin can cost more to feed.

On our scale the median score is 29 for dry food, 61 for wet food, 74 for fresh food, 76 for air-dried or freeze-dried food and 88 for raw food. Our scale measures starch. The median dry food is 46% carbohydrate in its dry matter (the food with the water taken out), against 15% for wet and 3% for raw. How we score.

Does a Good score cost more?

Not always. We split each type into foods scoring 60 or more (Good or better) and the rest, then compared the median price per 1,000 kcal.

Dry foods scoring 60 or more cost 2.1 times as much (£2.59 against £1.23 per 1,000 kcal). Wet foods scoring 60 or more cost 23% less (£5.21 against £6.80 per 1,000 kcal). This describes the foods in stock, not why they cost what they do.

Every raw (153), fresh (20) and air-dried or freeze-dried (23) food in stock scores 60 or more, so there is no lower-scoring group to compare. Our How UK dog foods score page compares score with price within each type.

The cheapest food of each type that still scores Good

These are the cheapest in-stock foods for adult dogs that score 60 or more, ranked by price per 1,000 kcal. The pack is the shop’s best price per kg, and the date is when we last checked it. Delivery charges are not included. Links go to our food pages, where every shop’s price is listed. Prices are ordered by value, never by what we might earn (how we are funded). We never list short-dated or clearance stock, a food whose calories look wrong for its type, or a price that looks like a slip.

“Calories calculated” means the label gives none, so we worked them out from its analysis. More on our method.

Mixing wet food with dry

Some owners add wet food to kibble. This is a 20 kg dog on typical prices, with part of the day’s 960 kcal from wet food and the rest from dry.

Moving 25% of the calories from dry to wet adds about £1.20 a day, or £36 a month. The foods you pick move these figures up or down.

How pack size changes the price per kilo

A shop sells the same dry food in more than one size in 615 cases. The largest pack cost a median 24% less per kg than the smallest, and was the cheapest per kg in 96% of cases. The usual sizes were 2 kg and 15 kg.

For the other types the largest pack cost less per kg too: wet food (7% less per kg, usual sizes 2.4 kg and 6.3 kg, 261 cases) and raw food (15% less per kg, usual sizes 500 g and 1 kg, 106 cases).

Based on in-stock plain packs of foods that a shop sells in sizes at least twice apart. Samples and mixed boxes are left out. Other types have too few cases to show.

A 20 kg dog eats about 269 g of a typical dry food a day, roughly 8.2 kg a month. A 2 kg bag lasts about 7 days and a 15 kg bag about 8 weeks. A bigger bag costs more to buy at once, so the saving depends on how quickly your dog gets through it.

What these costs leave out

• Delivery. The prices are what a shop charges for the food. Delivery charges are not included.
• Treats and chews. Treats and snacks should be no more than 10% of the whole diet’s calories.^[2] They come on top of these figures, with their own price.
• Your own dog. Individual needs can differ from a calculation by as much as 50%^[1], and the feeding guide on a pack is a starting point.^[2] Feed 10% more and every figure here rises by 10%.
• Puppies. Puppy foods are left out, and the energy figure is for adult dogs.
• Price changes. Shops change prices. These were checked on 4 October 2026, and the figures are worked out again from our data when we publish an update.

How we worked this out

• Foods. 1,545 foods from 122 brands: complete foods with a score, made for adult, senior or all life stages, in stock at a shop we track, with a price per 1,000 kcal. Puppy foods and prescription diets are left out.
• Left out as unreliable. 20 foods have calories outside the usual range for their type and 19 foods have a short-dated, clearance or sample listing, or a price that looks like a slip. Their price per 1,000 kcal would mislead, so they are not counted.
• Price. Each food’s price is its best-value pack in stock, the lowest price per kg.
• Calories. Each food uses the energy on its label, or where the label gives none, a figure calculated from its analysis. That is 52% of these foods.
• Median and middle half. The median is the middle value: half the foods cost less and half more. The middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
• Thin data. Small groups: fresh (20 foods) and air-dried or freeze-dried (23 foods). A type needs at least 10 priced foods to appear.
• Release. Scores and prices come from our 5 October 2026 release. Your dog’s own costs are on every food page and list once you add them.

Sources

1. Companion Animal Nutrition Support Service, Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center
2. Calculating how much to feed, UK Pet Food

This guide is general information, not veterinary advice. Spotted an error? Tell us.