Cat Shots Cost in 2026: $40 to $502 for the Series

A cat and kitten vaccination series costs $40 to $502 in the United States, and $303 is the typical price. Regionally the typical price runs from $49 in Municipal and nonprofit clinics (Loudoun County VA, Montgomery County MD, Haven Humane CA) to $336 in the Northeast — a 6.9x spread for the same procedure.

The first question is not where you go, it is whether the cat goes outside

Midvalley Animal Clinic in Taylorsville, Utah publishes two kitten protocols side by side. The indoor one is $144 in vaccines. The outdoor one is $240, plus a required $55 FeLV/FIV combination test before the first leukaemia dose.

That is a 117% difference in one price list, in one town, on the same day, decided by a question about the cat rather than about the clinic.

Feline leukaemia vaccination is recommended for cats with outdoor exposure. Two doses of it, plus the retroviral test that has to come first, is most of what separates a cheap kitten from an expensive one.

With the practice's own $6 technician fee per visit, Midvalley's two protocols come to $162 and $313. Nothing else in this dataset moves a routine bill that far on a single yes-or-no answer.

What the outdoor decision actually buys

The FeLV/FIV test is the part owners are least prepared for, because it is a diagnostic charge inside a preventive visit. Published prices: $45 at Haven Humane in Redding, California, $55 at Midvalley, $62 for Vetco's feline triple test, $57 to $69 for PetVet's retroviral test, and $96 at Covina Animal Hospital in California.

It is not optional if leukaemia vaccination is planned. Vaccinating a cat that is already infected achieves nothing, so the test is what makes the two doses worth buying.

The doses themselves are $32 each at Haven Humane, and the outdoor protocol needs two, 3 to 4 weeks apart.

Added together at one provider's own prices, choosing "outdoor" adds roughly $110 to $160 to a kitten's first year. That is a real number to weigh against a cat you are undecided about letting out.

The kitten schedule runs longer than the puppy one

The 2020 AAHA/AAFP feline vaccination schedule starts FVRCP at 6 weeks and repeats it every 3 to 4 weeks until the kitten is 16 to 20 weeks old, with rabies given once in the same window.

A kitten first seen at 6 weeks therefore needs four or five FVRCP doses. One first seen at 12 weeks needs two or three. Each dose is $10 to $58 depending on venue, so the age at first visit is worth $30 to $170.

That upper bound is why a kitten series can cost more than a puppy series at the same clinic, even though the puppy needs more non-core vaccines.

Nothing about the schedule is negotiable downward. The reason it runs so long is maternally derived antibodies, which block the vaccine until they fade, and they fade on the kitten's timetable rather than yours.

Four venues, four totals

Every figure below is one provider's own published fees added up for the same schedule — never mixed across providers.

• County clinic: $40 to $49. Loudoun County, Virginia at $10 for FVRCP and $10 for rabies; Montgomery County, Maryland at $15 and $4.
• Nonprofit clinic with leukaemia cover: $179. Haven Humane, at $30 FVRCP, $32 FeLV and $25 rabies.
• Retail clinic: $259 bundled to $347 à la carte. Vetco's Chicago Kitten Bundle is $259 against a stated à-la-carte equivalent of $426; PetVet's ten locations total $303 to $347.
• Private practice: $502. Love City Vet in Philadelphia, at $78 per wellness exam plus $42 FVRCP, $52 FeLV and $38 rabies across three visits.

Three exam fees are $234 of that $502. The vaccines at Love City Vet are competitively priced; the examinations are what you are buying.

Which rabies vaccine your kitten gets is a $10 decision

Tractor Supply's PetVet clinics charge $35 to $42 for the adjuvanted feline rabies vaccine and $45 to $52 for the non-adjuvanted PureVax at the same ten locations — a flat $10 premium wherever you go.

The reason the choice exists is clinical. Cornell's Feline Health Center records that adjuvants were implicated as a possible cause of feline injection-site sarcomas, which is why many practices now stock the non-adjuvanted product exclusively.

Some price lists say so outright. Tequesta Veterinary Clinic in Florida states that it carries non-adjuvanted vaccines only, at $51 for one year and $69.25 for three.

The formulations, the three-year economics and the cheapest places to buy either are on our cat rabies vaccine cost page. This page just notes that $10 of your kitten total is decided by which vial is in the fridge.

How many FVRCP doses does a kitten need?

Between two and five, set by the age at the first visit rather than by the clinic. AAHA and AAFP start the vaccine at 6 weeks and repeat every 3 to 4 weeks until 16 to 20 weeks of age, so the count is simply how many 3-to-4-week gaps fit in the window that is left.

A single FVRCP dose runs $10 at Loudoun County, $15 in Montgomery County, $30 at Haven Humane, $34 as a CareCredit national average, $43 at Covina, $50 at Vetco and $49 to $58 for PetVet's PureVax version.

A kitten that arrives at 14 weeks with one dose recorded may need only one more. That is a $10 to $58 course, not a $259 one, and it is worth establishing before you buy a bundle priced for a full schedule.

Does an indoor cat need the leukaemia vaccine?

Feline leukaemia vaccination is recommended for cats with outdoor exposure, which is why Midvalley's indoor protocol omits it and its outdoor protocol includes two doses plus the $55 retroviral test. Skipping it on a genuinely indoor-only cat is what the guidelines describe, not a corner cut.

The judgement is about the cat's actual life rather than its intended one. A cat that escapes, a household that fosters, a screened porch a neighbour's cat visits — all of those are exposure.

The money argument is weak in both directions, which is the honest answer. $110 to $160 is not a large sum against a leukaemia diagnosis, and it is not a trivial one to spend on a risk that is close to zero.

Decide the question before the appointment. It is the one decision on this page you cannot make well while a kitten is on a table.

The six-month booster no bundle includes

The AAHA/AAFP schedule recommends considering an FVRCP booster at 6 months of age, to close the window left by maternally derived antibodies that may have blocked the earlier doses.

That is a fourth visit, and no retail bundle price on this page covers it. Vetco's $259, PetVet's $303 to $347 and both private-practice totals all stop at the third kitten visit.

Budget $10 to $58 for the dose, plus an exam fee if your practice charges one. The other bill landing in the same six months is the cat spay or neuter, which costs several times the whole vaccine course.

How these totals were built

No aggregator publishes a kitten-series total, so each figure here is one provider's own published per-dose or per-visit fees added up for the AAHA/AAFP schedule. Where a provider publishes a bundle price, that price is used as published.

Every underlying number is published; the addition is ours, and is stated here so it can be checked.

Three limits worth knowing. The indoor-versus-outdoor comparison rests on a single practice, because Midvalley is the only clinic found publishing both protocols separately. A 2026 peer-reviewed survey in Frontiers in Veterinary Science found only 1.91% of US small-animal clinics publish any price online, so the private-practice end rests on two clinics rather than a sample. And no figure on this page includes the six-month booster.

If a low-cost clinic near you is the plan, our low-cost vet directory is the place to start; the rest of the routine bills are priced the same way on our vet cost index.

Cat and Kitten Vaccination Series cost by region

These are the prices behind the range at the top of the page, one row per geography we could source. The basis column says how each row was arrived at.

What changes the price

Two invoices for the same procedure diverge for a small number of reasons. These are the ones that move the total most.

Indoor cat or outdoor cat

The largest single driver, and the one no price list flags. Midvalley Animal Clinic publishes $144 in vaccines for an indoor kitten and $240 for an outdoor one plus a $55 FeLV/FIV test - a 117% difference at one practice, because feline leukaemia vaccination is only recommended for cats with outdoor exposure

How many FVRCP doses the kitten needs

The 2020 AAHA/AAFP feline schedule starts FVRCP at 6 weeks and repeats every 3-4 weeks until 16-20 weeks of age, so a kitten first seen at 6 weeks needs four or five doses and one first seen at 12 weeks needs two or three. Each extra dose is $10-$58

Adjuvanted versus non-adjuvanted rabies vaccine

Tractor Supply PetVet charges $35-$42 for the adjuvanted feline rabies vaccine and $45-$52 for the non-adjuvanted PureVax at the same ten clinics, a flat $10 premium. Cornell's Feline Health Center notes adjuvants were implicated in feline injection-site sarcomas, which is why many practices now stock only the non-adjuvanted product

Where the series is done

$40 at a county clinic, $303-$347 at a retail vaccination clinic, $502 at a private practice - the same antigens on the same schedule

Whether an exam fee is charged per visit

Retail clinics fold a vitals check into the visit price; Love City Vet in Philadelphia charges $78 per wellness exam, so three exams are $234 of a $502 series before any vaccine

The 6-month booster nobody quotes

The AAHA/AAFP schedule recommends considering an FVRCP booster at 6 months of age to close the window left by maternally derived antibodies. That is a fourth visit, and no retail bundle price on this page includes it

What the itemized invoice looks like

Clinics quote a bundled number and itemize afterwards. This is the decomposition, so you can read a real estimate line by line before you sign it.

Does pet insurance cover cat and kitten vaccination series?

Cat and Kitten Vaccination Series is normally not covered by a standard accident-and-illness policy. The kitten series is preventive care and is excluded from every standard accident-and-illness policy. A preventive-care or wellness add-on is the only route to reimbursement, and as with puppies the case is stronger than usual because the whole series lands inside one policy year. Note that the FeLV/FIV combination test is diagnostic rather than preventive but is still bought as part of the kitten visit, so check which side of that line your carrier's rider puts it on.

What you would get back: Nothing under a base plan. Preventive-care add-ons reimburse actual cost against a fixed annual routine-care allowance.

Coverage rules differ enough between carriers that the only useful answer is a side-by-side: our pet insurance comparison for cat and kitten vaccination series shows which policies pay for it, what the waiting period is, and what counts as pre-existing.

Common questions

Why a pet needs cat and kitten vaccination series

The pages below are the reasons this bill happens. Each one carries the same price data you are reading, in the context of the problem that produces it.

Preventive care that avoids this bill

• cat distemper shot — Adopting an adult cat with no records and giving a single catch-up dose: An unvaccinated cat treated as vaccinated — the guidance is to give the full kitten series, not one dose
• felv vaccine for cats — Vaccinating a kitten for FeLV without testing it first: A retroviral test and two doses bought a second time when the cat's true status is finally established

More vaccines & shots costs

• cheap rabies shot for dogs — A cheap rabies shot for a dog costs $2 to $43.
• how much shots for puppies — Puppy shots cost $40 to $475 for the whole series — three visits, not three shots.
• low cost rabies shots for cats — A low cost rabies shot for a cat runs $2 to $109.
• bordetella shot cost — A bordetella shot costs $15 to $56 per dose, and the injectable needs two doses in a naive dog: an $8 sticker premium that is really $56 to $72 in year one..
• dhpp vaccine cost — A DHPP vaccine costs $10 to $60 per dose, and a puppy needs at least three of them.

Every procedure we have priced is listed on the vet cost index.

Sources

1. Feline Vaccination Schedule for General Practice, based on the 2020 AAHA/AAFP Feline Vaccination Guidelines — American Animal Hospital Association and American Association of Feline Practitioners, 2020.
2. Kitten Vaccine Protocol and Price List — Midvalley Animal Clinic, Taylorsville, Utah, 2026.
3. Vaccination Packages and Prices, Chicago, Illinois — Vetco Vaccination Clinics (Petco), 2026.
4. PetVet Vaccination Clinic Pricing, York, Pennsylvania — PetVet by VIP Petcare at Tractor Supply, 2026.
5. PetVet Vaccination Clinic Pricing, East Ellijay, Georgia — PetVet by VIP Petcare at Tractor Supply, 2026.
6. PetVet Vaccination Clinic Pricing, Walnut Creek, California — PetVet by VIP Petcare at Tractor Supply, 2026.
7. Philadelphia Pricing — Love City Vet, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2026.
8. Service Pricing — Covina Animal Hospital, Covina, California, 2026.
9. Vaccine Clinics — Haven Humane Society, Redding, California, 2026.
10. Low-Cost Resources — Loudoun County, Virginia, 2026.
11. Wellness Vaccine Clinics — Montgomery County, Maryland Animal Services, 2026.
12. New Rabies Vaccine for Cats — Cornell Feline Health Center, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, 2026.
13. Cat Vaccine Costs — CareCredit (Synchrony), 2026.