Paying for care
What home care actually costs in Ontario in 2026
Hourly rates, minimum visits, the surcharges that do not show up until the first invoice, and what a realistic month looks like.
The short version
- Private home care in the GTA runs $29.50–$46 an hour in 2026.
- Almost every agency bills a minimum of 2–4 hours per visit, so a one-hour job costs two to four hours.
- Ontario Health atHome funds some hours at no cost, but the wait after a referral is typically 5–10 days.
- Care invoices usually qualify for the medical expense tax credit — keep every receipt.
The hourly rate is not the price
Every agency quotes an hourly rate, and almost none of them charge you only that. Three things move the real number: the minimum visit length, the evening and weekend premium, and whether travel is billed.
A $31-an-hour agency with a three-hour minimum costs $93 to put someone in the house for forty minutes of help with a shower. A $34-an-hour agency with a two-hour minimum costs $68 for the same visit. The cheaper rate is the more expensive service.
This is why every listing here shows the minimum alongside the rate, and why the comparison table prices a typical week rather than an hour.
What a realistic month looks like
Most families start at three visits a week of about three hours each — mornings, usually, because that is when bathing, dressing and breakfast all land at once.
At the GTA median of $33 an hour, that is roughly $297 a week and about $1,290 a month. Add a weekend visit and you are near $1,700. Overnight supervision, at $280–$340 a night, changes the arithmetic completely: seven nights a week is $8,400–$10,200 a month, which is more than most assisted living.
The crossover point matters. When someone needs more than about six hours a day, a residence usually costs less than care at home, and that is the moment to run the numbers rather than assume.
The charges that surprise people
Assessment fees of $75–$150 are common elsewhere and are not charged by any provider on this site — we do not list providers who charge families to be quoted.
Mileage surcharges apply when the caregiver travels outside a defined zone. Statutory holidays are usually billed at 1.5×, and Ontario has nine of them. Cancellation windows run 24 to 48 hours, and a hospital admission at 7am is inside every one of them.
Ask for the cancellation policy in writing before the first visit. It is the single clause families most often discover at the wrong moment.
What the public system pays for
Ontario Health atHome funds personal support at home for people who qualify, typically one or two visits a day. It is real, it is free, and it is rationed — the assessment takes time and the hours allocated are usually fewer than a family expects.
The common pattern is to bridge: pay privately from discharge, get the public assessment under way the same week, and taper the private hours down as funded hours arrive. Nobody at the hospital will necessarily tell you to do this.
Want the numbers for your own situation?
The cost calculator uses the published rate cards on this site, not national averages.