Funeral cost estimator: how much a funeral costs in 2026
Our figures come from the price lists of 2,660 funeral homes in all 50 states, and from published industry and government data.
Where is the funeral?
Prices follow local costs. Pick a state, or enter a ZIP code for the nearest city or rural area.
What kind of service?
Embalming, a viewing, and a funeral, then burial in a casket.
Across the USTraditional funeral with burial across the US
$14,090
Typically $9,575 to $21,940, depending on the funeral home and cemetery.
An estimate from national price studies and federal price data. How we calculate
- Funeral home
- $6,360
- Casket, urn, and vault
- $4,600
- Cemetery
- $3,130
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Friends and family usually want to help. A fundraiser gives them one place to do it, with no platform fee on one-time gifts.
Adjust the costs
Type in the prices you have been quoted. Set an item to 0 to leave it out.
Every funeral home must give you its itemized price list, in person or over the phone. Type its prices over ours to see your real total. How we calculate
What will cover it
Not sure what you qualify for? Find every program that helps pay with our funeral assistance finder.
How much does a funeral cost?
- Funeral with viewing and burial, cemetery included
- $14,090
- Graveside service, cemetery included
- $11,915
- Immediate burial, cemetery included
- $7,790
Funeral with viewing and burial, cemetery included
Graveside service, cemetery included
Immediate burial, cemetery included
The average funeral cost in the US is about $14,090 for a funeral with a viewing and burial, and prices typically range from $9,575 to $21,940 depending on the funeral home and cemetery. About $6,360 of that is the funeral home's services, $4,600 the casket and vault, and $3,130 the cemetery.
You may have seen $8,300 quoted as the average cost of a funeral. That is the National Funeral Directors Association's 2023 median for the funeral home and a casket alone, in 2023 dollars ($9,995 with a vault). It leaves out the cemetery, which families pay separately, and three years of rising prices.
By the Lovekept editorial team. Prices last updated August 2026.
| Type of service | Typical cost | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional funeral with burialViewing, funeral, and burial | $14,090 | $9,575 to $21,940 |
| Graveside serviceBurial with a service at the grave | $11,915 | $7,975 to $19,070 |
| Immediate burialBurial soon after death, no service | $7,790 | $4,140 to $14,865 |
Average funeral cost by state, 2026
Typical funeral and burial costs in every state, cemetery included. Where we have collected enough funeral homes' own price lists, the figures are real local prices; everywhere else they are estimates built from national price studies and federal price data. Sort by any column, or enter a ZIP code above for your city or rural area.
| USUnited States | $14,090 | $11,915 | $7,790 |
| Alabama | $12,890 | $10,885 | $7,080 |
| Alaska | $13,510 | $11,465 | $7,590 |
| Arizona, local price lists | $11,790 | $11,175 | $8,045 |
| Arkansas, local price lists | $10,785 | $10,970 | $7,310 |
| California, local price lists | $13,655 | $11,765 | $8,535 |
| Colorado, local price lists | $12,475 | $11,000 | $9,195 |
| Connecticut, local price lists | $15,085 | $12,735 | $9,800 |
| Delaware | $13,880 | $11,745 | $7,695 |
| District of Columbia | $14,375 | $12,200 | $8,085 |
| Florida, local price lists | $13,165 | $11,855 | $9,085 |
| Georgia, local price lists | $13,450 | $11,300 | $9,505 |
| Hawaii | $13,815 | $11,760 | $7,855 |
Local price lists: figures from that state's own funeral homes. Every other state's figures are estimates.States marked local price lists use figures from their own funeral homes' price lists. Every other state's figures are estimates.
Funeral cost breakdown
What each part of a traditional funeral and burial typically costs, in August 2026 dollars. The estimator above starts from these figures and adjusts them for where you live.
| Item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Basic services fee | $2,735 |
| Transfer to the funeral home | $435 |
| Embalming | $925 |
| Dressing, hair, and cosmetics | $325 |
| Viewing or visitation | $520 |
| Funeral ceremony | $605 |
| Hearse | $410 |
| Service car or van | $190 |
| Register book and programs | $215 |
| Casket (mid-range metal) | $2,740 |
| Vault or grave liner | $1,860 |
| Cemetery plot | $1,200 |
| Opening the grave | $1,085 |
| Grave marker | $845 |
| Typical total, before optional items | $14,090 |
How much does a burial plot cost?
A burial plot for one adult typically costs about $1,200 at a public cemetery, and we found prices from $500 to $3,295. Private and religious cemeteries often charge considerably more, and plots in large cities cost more than rural ones.
The plot is only the first cemetery charge. The cemetery also charges to open and close the grave on the day of the burial, usually more on weekends, and later to set the headstone or marker. Many require a vault or grave liner and add a perpetual care or endowment fee to the plot price.
Companion plots for two, cremation plots, and lawn crypts are priced differently, so ask the cemetery for its full fee schedule before you choose.
| Cemetery cost | Typical | Range we found |
|---|---|---|
| Burial plot (one adult grave) | $1,200 | $500 to $3,295 |
| Opening and closing the grave | $1,085 | $500 to $2,393 |
| Setting a marker | $125 | $30 to $300 |
| Flat grave marker (retail) | $719 | $489 to $1,498 |
| Upright headstone (retail) | $1,979 | $1,499 to $2,398 |
Your rights to a funeral home's prices
A federal rule, the FTC Funeral Rule, sets out what every funeral home owes you before you spend anything. Most families never hear about it.
Prices over the phone
Any funeral home must tell you its prices when you call and ask. You do not have to give your name or visit in person.
An itemized price list to keep
When you ask about funeral arrangements in person, you must be handed the General Price List, with every service and its price, before anything else is discussed.
Buy only what you want
Apart from the basic services fee, you can decline anything on the list. Packages are allowed, but they cannot be your only choice.
A casket from anywhere
You can buy a casket or urn online or from another seller. The funeral home must accept it and may not charge you for doing so.
No embalming you did not approve
Embalming needs your permission, and the funeral home may not charge for it if you did not agree to it.
A written statement before you pay
Once you have chosen, you receive an itemized statement of everything selected and its total, so nothing is added later without your knowing.
Use the price list with the estimator: type each price over ours and the total becomes that funeral home's real quote.
How to cut funeral costs
Choose a simpler service
- A graveside service instead of a chapel funeral: about $11,915 instead of $14,090
- Immediate burial, with no embalming or viewing: about $7,790
- Cremation instead of burial: from about $1,995 for direct cremation to $6,885 with a viewing and funeral
- Natural or green burial, without embalming or a vault, where a cemetery offers it
- Whole-body donation, which many programs cover at no cost to the family
Pay less for the same funeral
- Compare two or three funeral homes' price lists by phone before choosing
- Buy the casket online or from another seller
- Choose a public or municipal cemetery, often cheaper than a private one
- Ask whether the cemetery accepts a grave liner instead of a vault
- Hold the gathering at home or a place of worship instead of the funeral home
Most states also let families care for their loved one and file the paperwork themselves, a home funeral, although a few require a funeral director for some steps.
How families pay for a funeral
Few families pay for a funeral from one source. Life insurance is the most common, and many funeral homes accept an assignment of the policy so they are paid directly once the claim clears. A final expense policy, or a bank account payable on death to a family member, serves the same purpose.
Social Security, the VA, your state and an employer may each pay part of it too. See every program that helps pay for a funeral, with amounts and deadlines, in our funeral assistance finder.
Funeral expenses are not deductible on a personal income tax return, though an estate large enough to file a federal estate tax return can deduct them there.
When there is still a gap, let people help.
The estimator above works out what is left once insurance, savings, and benefits are counted, and starts a fundraiser for exactly that amount. Lovekept takes no platform fee on one-time gifts, and the money is paid to your own bank.
Burial benefits for veterans
Veterans who did not receive a dishonorable discharge are generally eligible for burial in a VA national cemetery, and so are their spouses.
Provided at no cost in a national cemetery
- The grave
- Opening and closing it
- A grave liner
- A government headstone or marker
- Perpetual care of the grave
- A burial flag
What the family still pays
A veteran's funeral followed by burial in a national cemetery comes to about $9,100, the funeral home alone. The cemetery may also charge to set a government headstone in a private cemetery.
Some families also receive a VA burial allowance. Check the VA allowances and who qualifies in our funeral assistance finder.
Good to know
Caskets and vaults: the biggest single choices
After the funeral home's services, the casket is usually the largest item on the bill. A mid-range metal casket typically costs about $2,740, but the spread is enormous: on one Wyoming funeral home's 2026 price list, caskets run from about $2,100 to more than $66,000. Cloth-covered and simple wood caskets sit at the low end, bronze and copper at the top.
You do not have to buy it from the funeral home. Online sellers and warehouse stores sell caskets, often for less, and the funeral home must accept one without a fee.
A burial vault or grave liner typically adds about $1,860. No state law requires one, but many cemeteries do. Where the cemetery allows a plain grave liner, it usually costs less than a vault.
When embalming is actually required
Rarely by law. The FTC Funeral Rule states that, except in special cases, embalming is not required by law, and a funeral home must have your permission to do it. Where it truly is required, it is usually because of how long the body will be kept, or because it is being taken across state lines or out of the country.
It is more often a funeral home's policy for a public viewing with an open casket. If you want a viewing, embalming usually comes with it. If you do not, refrigeration, a closed casket, or a prompt burial usually makes it unnecessary, and leaving it out removes the embalming and the dressing and cosmetics lines from the bill.
Planning and prepaying a funeral
Planning ahead lets you compare funeral homes without a deadline and write down what you want, which spares your family those decisions later. Paying ahead is a separate choice. A prepaid funeral contract locks in some prices, but state laws on how the money is held differ, so ask whether it goes into a trust or an insurance policy, whether you can cancel and get it back, and what happens if you move or the funeral home changes hands.
Many people keep the money themselves instead, in a savings account payable on death to the person who will arrange the funeral. It stays theirs until it is needed.
Where the figures come from
The funeral home part of each estimate is built from the National Funeral Directors Association's 2023 survey of its members' price lists, which gives a median for a funeral with a viewing and burial in each of nine regions. The individual lines, from embalming to the hearse, are the survey's own item medians, scaled to add up to that total. The survey publishes no median for a graveside service, so that line uses its funeral ceremony median.
We update the survey to August 2026 prices with the federal price index for funeral expenses and account for local prices with the federal regional price levels for services, down to your metro area or the rural part of your state when you enter a ZIP code. Immediate burial starts from a 2026 national median from more than 800 funeral home price lists.
The cemetery lines are a separate, less certain estimate built from public cemeteries' fee schedules adjusted for local prices, and the marker is a granite flat marker's retail price plus a typical setting fee. As we collect real price lists from funeral homes state by state, those states switch from the estimate to the prices we found.
Funeral cost questions
How much does a funeral cost?
In 2026, a funeral with a viewing and burial typically costs about $14,090 in the US once the cemetery is included: about $6,360 for the funeral home's services, $4,600 for the casket and vault, and $3,130 for the burial plot, opening the grave, and a marker. A graveside service averages about $11,915 and an immediate burial about $7,790.
What is the cheapest funeral option?
Direct cremation, at about $1,995, is the least expensive way to handle a death, followed by immediate burial. Whole-body donation to a medical school or donation program can cost the family nothing. Whatever you choose, calling two or three funeral homes for their prices is the single biggest saving.
What is the most expensive part of a funeral?
The funeral home's services taken together, about $6,360 nationally for a funeral with a viewing. Of single items the casket is usually the largest, about $2,740 for a mid-range metal one, and the cemetery charges (plot, opening the grave, and marker) add about $3,130 more.
Is $10,000 enough for a funeral?
Often, but not always. It covers the funeral home's services and a mid-range casket in most of the country, about $9,100 nationally, but a full burial with a plot, vault, grave opening, and marker typically comes to about $14,090. A cremation with a memorial service costs a fraction of that.
Is $5,000 or $20,000 enough for a funeral?
$5,000 usually covers a direct cremation or a cremation with a memorial service, and in some places an immediate burial before the cemetery charges. $20,000 covers a traditional funeral and burial in most of the country, where the typical total is about $14,090.
Is it cheaper to have the funeral at a church?
Not always. Many funeral homes charge the same to staff a service at a church as in their own chapel; one Wyoming price list we read charges $625 for either. The church may also ask for a fee or donation. You do save when the gathering needs no funeral home staff at all, such as a memorial service after a direct cremation.
Is a burial vault required?
No state law requires one, but many cemeteries do, because a vault or grave liner keeps the ground from sinking. Ask the cemetery what it requires; where a plain grave liner is allowed, it usually costs less than a vault.
Do we have to buy the casket from the funeral home?
No. The Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule lets you buy a casket from any seller, including online, and the funeral home must accept it without a handling fee.
Is embalming required by law?
Except in special cases, no. The Funeral Rule says so, and a funeral home must have your permission before embalming. Many funeral homes require it for a public viewing, and some states have rules when a body is kept for some time or taken across state lines.
Are funeral expenses tax deductible?
Not on a personal income tax return. Funeral costs can be deducted on the estate's federal estate tax return when the estate is large enough to file one, and some states' estate or inheritance taxes allow the same.
Does life insurance cover funeral costs?
It can. A life insurance payout goes to the named beneficiary, who may use it for the funeral, although it can take weeks to arrive. Many funeral homes accept an assignment of the policy so they are paid directly from it. A final expense policy is small life insurance bought for exactly this.
Is there financial help for funeral costs?
Often. Social Security, the VA, your state's crime victim and burial assistance programs, employers, unions and life insurance can each pay part of it, depending on the family. Lovekept's free funeral assistance finder checks every program against your situation, with amounts, forms and deadlines.
Know the number, then share the load.
Once you know what the funeral will cost and what is left to pay, a fundraiser on their Lovekept memorial page gives everyone who wants to help one place to do it.