What a cat sitter costs for a weekend depends on your city, your sitter and how many cats you have, so this cat sitter cost calculator uses your own quotes. Put in what you were offered for visits, for boarding, and for the gear you would buy, and it shows each total side by side, with the lowest marked.
Apartment Cats earns a commission when you buy through the Amazon links on this page, at no cost to you. Picks are made on published specs, never on commission. How this works
The calculator needs JavaScript to run. Without it: visits a day times nights times the price per visit, against the boarding price times nights times cats.
What to buy for the gear option
If you price the gear option, these are the picks from our feeder and fountain guides. None of them replaces the visits.
PETLIBRO Granary Automatic Feeder 3L
- What it is
- A 3 L dry-food feeder set from buttons on the unit, so it needs no Wi-Fi or app.
- Why it fits
- For the gear option: our automatic feeder guide’s first choice. It serves the meals on time, and the visits above still check the cat and the box.
- Skip if
- You want proof from your phone that each meal went out; the Wi-Fi Granary does that.
Details
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.PETLIBRO Dockstream 2 Smart Cordless Fountain
- What it is
- A cordless 3 L fountain whose tank has no motor in the water: a magnet in the base turns it.
- Why it fits
- Water keeps moving for the whole trip with no cord across the floor; our cordless fountain guide ranks it first.
- Skip if
- Your cat has never used a fountain; set it up well before the trip, beside the usual bowl.
Details
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.PETLIBRO Granary Smart Feeder (Wi-Fi), 5L
- What it is
- The 5 L Wi-Fi model of the Granary, on the same 7.5 in (19 cm) square base and 13.4 in (34 cm) tall.
- Why it fits
- For three nights or more: its app alerts you if food runs low, the outlet jams or the battery fades while you are away.
- Skip if
- There is no home Wi-Fi for it to join; the 3L model works without one.
Details
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.How the cat sitter cost calculator compares the options
- Paid sitter visits: price per visit, times visits a day, times nights away, plus any extra a sitter charges for each cat after the first.
- Boarding: the nightly price for one cat, times the number of cats, times nights.
- Gear and a friend’s visits: what you would spend on a feeder or fountain, divided by the trips it will cover, plus the electricity it uses while you are gone and any thank-you you give a friend per visit.
We publish no typical sitter or boarding prices. The ones circulating online are rarely dated or sourced, and they vary too much by city to help anyone budget. A quote from someone near you beats any national average.
Why every option still has visits
Cats Protection, the UK charity, recommends that a sitter comes at least twice a day, and more often for kittens, older cats and cats with health conditions. So the calculator starts every option at two visits a day, including the gear option, where a friend or neighbor makes them. A feeder can hand out meals on time, but it cannot notice a cat that has stopped eating or a box that has not been used. We found no veterinary source that names a safe number of hours to leave a healthy adult cat on its own, and we will not invent one here.
The electricity number
Gear power comes from the wattage on each listing. The calculator multiplies it by 24 hours and by the nights away, then by the price per kWh, which starts at the US average residential price of 18.31 cents for July 2026 from the Energy Information Administration. Change it to the rate on your own bill. For scale: a 2 W pump running for two nights uses about 0.1 kWh, under 2 cents. Power is almost never what tips the comparison.
Leaving the cat with a sitter or a friend? Print the cat-sitter instruction sheet first, so the routine, the vet’s number and the poison control lines are on paper.
Sources
- Cats Protection, Going on holiday. Read Oct 16, 2026.
- US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly: end-use prices, July 2026 data. Read Oct 16, 2026.
- San Francisco SPCA, Playing with your cat (on time alone and play before you leave). Read Oct 16, 2026.
Related: care guides on time alone, sitters and travel, automatic feeders the cat-sitter instruction sheet and the weekend-away checklist.