How Much Does Cremation Cost?

Every figure on this page is computed from prices that cremation providers publish themselves, read live from this directory and refreshed hourly. Nothing here is a national estimate or a trade-association average. If you want to know what cremation costs where you actually live, that distinction is the whole point: the national median is a reference point, and the price you will be quoted is set almost entirely by which provider in your city you happen to call first.

The clearest evidence of that is the last number in the row above. Across the 223 cities here with at least two providers publishing a price, the median gap between the cheapest and the most expensive direct cremation in the same city is $1,005. Two funeral homes a few miles apart, performing an identical service, routinely differ by more than the entire cost of the cheaper one. Nearly all of that difference is overhead and margin, not the cremation.

If you want the explanatory material instead — what each line item on a funeral bill is, what the FTC Funeral Rule entitles you to, and which fees catch families out — start with the complete cremation cost guide. This page is the numbers.

The average cost of cremation in the United States

We publish the median rather than the mean. A small number of very high prices drag an average upward until it describes nobody: the mid-point of the real distribution is far more useful when you are trying to work out whether a quote you have just been given is reasonable. Here is the full shape of 1,013 published direct cremation prices.

Direct cremation prices published by 1,013 active providers across 33 states and 465 cities.

Cremation prices by service level

"Cremation" is three different purchases at three very different prices. The cremation itself is the same in all of them; what changes is how much funeral home service is wrapped around it. These medians come from the same provider rows, so they are directly comparable.

The premium figures are the honest way to read this: they compare each provider against itself, so they are not distorted by the fact that cheap cremation-only firms rarely offer a full funeral at all. A memorial service is not a small add-on — at the median it roughly triples the bill. Many families cremate directly and hold their own gathering later, which costs a fraction of the same event run through a funeral home. The line-by-line cost breakdown explains exactly which items appear when you move up a tier.

Cremation cost by state

Median direct cremation price in each state, computed from the providers we list there. "Lowest" is the cheapest published price anywhere in the state and "Top 10%" is the level only the dearest tenth of providers exceed. Every state name links to its provider directory.

States need at least 3 providers publishing a direct cremation price to appear. For written state-by-state guides with historical context, see average cremation cost by state.

Where cremation prices are highest and lowest

State medians hide a lot. Metro areas are where the real spread shows up: among the 10 metros here with at least 8 providers publishing a price, San Diego, CA has a median of $913 while San Francisco, CA sits at $1,940 — roughly 2.1× the price for the same disposition. Metro price levels track how many cremation-only firms compete locally far more closely than they track cost of living.

Note the "From" column against the median in the expensive metros. Even in the priciest cities on this list, someone local is publishing a price well under the local middle. A high metro median is a reason to compare harder, not a reason to accept a high quote.

Cremation cost questions

Cremation cost guides