COBRA Cost Calculator
Turn the health premium on your pay stub into your real COBRA monthly cost, including the employer share, the 2% admin fee, and the total over 18 months.
COBRA Cost Calculator
Where Your Number Comes From
Your pay stub is the most accurate starting point. Your COBRA election notice has the binding figure, but it can take weeks to arrive.
Premium Taken From Each Paycheck
Employer's Share Per Paycheck
Pay Frequency
A biweekly deduction is paid 26 times a year, so we multiply by 26/12 (about 2.17), not by 2. Two months a year carry three biweekly paychecks.
W-2 Box 12, Code DD
That works out to $1,520.00 a month of full premium.
Code DD is the full annual cost of your medical plan, employer share plus your payroll deductions. It is informational only and is not taxable. It excludes standalone dental and vision plans and HSA contributions (Code W), so your real COBRA bill may be higher if you keep those. Employers filing fewer than 250 W-2s are not required to report it, so the box may be blank. If yours is blank, use the pay stub method instead.
Who Is Covered
KFF 2025 survey average: $9,325 a year for single coverage, $26,993 for family coverage.
Months of Coverage You Need
Your Federal Tax Bracket
Used to show what your old pre-tax payroll deduction really cost your take-home pay, and how much gross pay it takes to cover an after-tax COBRA bill.
Disability extension and employer subsidy Optional
Premiums your former employer pays directly to the plan are generally tax-free to you. Cash severance you use to pay COBRA yourself is taxable wages. Check your separation agreement for which one you have.
Estimates only. Not tax, legal, or insurance advice. Your COBRA election notice carries the binding figure.
The Employer Share You Were Getting
of invisible compensation per year, paid on your behalf while you had the job
Pre-Tax Payroll vs After-Tax COBRA
Section 125 payroll premiums skip federal income tax and the 7.65% in Social Security and Medicare. COBRA premiums do not.
Month-by-month schedule 18 months
| Month | Rate | Full premium | Employer pays | You pay |
|---|
Notes and Assumptions
Budget the Whole Post-Job Month
Pay44 works out your take-home pay in any of the 50 states, so you can see what is actually left once a COBRA payment lands.
Why COBRA costs five times your paycheck deduction
The plan did not get more expensive. The subsidy stopped. KFF's 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey found workers pay about 16% of the premium for single coverage and about 26% for family coverage. The employer covers the rest, and none of it shows up on a pay stub.
Take the default example above: $120 out of every biweekly paycheck. Twenty-six paychecks a year works out to $260 a month of your own money. But the full premium is $1,473.33 a month, and COBRA bills you up to 102% of it, or $1,502.80. The 2% administrative fee is $29.47 of that. Federal law caps the charge at 102% of the applicable premium (26 CFR 54.4980B-8), so a plan may charge less, and some employers charge exactly 100%.
Then look at the gap: $14,560 a year that your employer was paying on your behalf. None of it ever showed up on a pay stub, and it stops the day the job does. To see what your own deduction was doing to your take-home pay while you still had the job, state treatment included, use the health insurance premium paycheck calculator.
Three ways to find your full monthly premium
From your pay stub. Add your per-paycheck deduction to your employer's per-paycheck contribution, then annualize. This is where most calculators go wrong. A biweekly deduction is paid 26 times a year, not 24, so the monthly conversion is 26/12 (about 2.1667) rather than a flat 2. On a $680 combined biweekly premium, multiplying by 2 gives $1,360 instead of $1,473.33, which understates the COBRA bill by $115.60 a month once the 2% fee is applied. Over 18 months that is more than $2,000 of missing budget.
From your W-2. Box 12, Code DD reports the total cost of employer-sponsored coverage, employer share plus your deductions. It is informational and not taxable. Two things to watch. It is an annual figure, so if you were hired or terminated mid-year, divide by the months you were actually covered rather than by 12. And it leaves out standalone dental and vision plans plus HSA contributions (Code W). If you plan to continue dental or vision on COBRA, your real bill runs higher than Code DD suggests. Employers filing fewer than 250 W-2s do not have to report it at all, so the box is sometimes blank.
From a national average. If you have neither number handy, the KFF 2025 survey average is $9,325 a year for single coverage ($777.08 a month) and $26,993 for family coverage ($2,249.42 a month). Treat that as a placeholder. The authoritative figure is on your COBRA election notice, and this page exists for the weeks before it arrives.
102%, 150%, and severance-paid COBRA
Losing a job or having your hours cut generally gives you up to 18 months of continuation coverage at up to 102% of the premium. If the Social Security Administration determines you were disabled at some point during the first 60 days of coverage, your whole family can extend to 29 months, and the plan may charge up to 150% of the full premium for months 19 through 29. That 150% applies to the full applicable premium, not on top of the 102%. A second qualifying event, such as divorce, death, or a dependent aging out, can extend a spouse or dependent to 36 months, still at 102%.
Severance agreements often pay the first few months of COBRA outright. Enter the subsidized months and the percentage covered in the advanced panel, and the month-by-month schedule splits the total into what the employer pays and what you pay. Premiums your former employer remits directly to the plan are generally tax-free to you; cash severance you use to pay COBRA yourself is taxable wages, so read the separation agreement carefully.
Deadlines matter as much as the money. You have 60 days from the election notice to elect. The plan cannot demand the first payment earlier than 45 days after you elect, and each later payment gets at least a 30-day grace period. Coverage is retroactive to the day you lost it once you pay.
COBRA is after-tax money, so budget accordingly
If your employer ran a Section 125 cafeteria plan, your premium came out of gross pay, before federal income tax and before the 7.65% in Social Security and Medicare. COBRA premiums come out of money that has already been taxed. In the 22% bracket, the combined rate is 29.65%, so a $260 monthly payroll deduction only cost about $182.91 of take-home pay. The real month-over-month change is not $1,242.80, it is $1,319.89. Put another way, you would need $2,136.18 of gross wages to net enough to cover a $1,502.80 COBRA bill.
Two things can cut the real cost. HSA dollars can pay COBRA premiums tax-free and penalty-free, one of the rare exceptions to the rule that insurance premiums are not a qualified medical expense (IRC 223(d)(2)(C)(i), IRS Publication 969). Check your balance with the HSA contribution calculator. And COBRA premiums you pay yourself can count toward itemized medical expenses on Schedule A, though only above the 7.5% AGI floor.
Losing job-based coverage also opens a 60-day Special Enrollment Period on the ACA Marketplace. Marketplace premium tax credits are set by your projected income for the year, and after a job loss that projection is usually far lower than it was. Run your exact COBRA number here, then get a real quote before you elect.
For the rest of the post-job budget, the final paycheck calculator covers the last check, and the severance pay tax calculator shows what the payout nets after withholding. To keep the whole picture on your phone, download Pay44.
Estimates only. Not tax, legal, or insurance advice. Verify your specifics with your plan administrator and a tax professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about cobra cost calculator
How much does COBRA cost per month?
COBRA costs the full price of your old plan: your payroll deduction plus everything your employer was paying, and then an administrative fee of up to 2% on top. Federal law caps the charge at 102% of the plan's applicable premium (26 CFR 54.4980B-8). For scale, the KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey put the average employer plan at $9,325 a year for single coverage and $26,993 for family coverage, which works out to roughly $777 and $2,249 a month before the 2% fee.
Why is COBRA so much more than what came out of my paycheck?
Because your paycheck deduction was never the price of the plan. KFF found workers pay about 16% of the premium for single coverage and 26% for family coverage, and the employer quietly covers the rest. When the job ends, the subsidy ends with it, so a $260-a-month deduction can become a $1,500-a-month bill for exactly the same coverage. For a look at what that deduction cost you in take-home pay while you still had the job, try the health insurance premium paycheck calculator.
What is the 2% COBRA administrative fee?
It is the surcharge federal law lets a plan add for running COBRA billing. A plan "may require payment of an amount that does not exceed 102 percent of the applicable premium" (26 CFR 54.4980B-8). That is a ceiling, not a requirement, and some employers charge exactly 100%, so check your election notice for the figure that actually applies to you.
Can I use my W-2 to estimate my COBRA cost?
Yes. Box 12, Code DD reports the total cost of your employer-sponsored health coverage, including "both the portion paid by the employer and the portion paid by the employee" (IRS, Form W-2 Reporting of Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage). It is informational and not taxable. Two catches. It is an annual figure, so divide by the months you were actually covered rather than assuming 12. And it leaves out standalone dental and vision plans and HSA contributions, which are reported under Code W.
How long does COBRA last, and when does the 150% rate apply?
Losing a job or having your hours cut generally gives you up to 18 months. If the Social Security Administration determines you were disabled at any point during the first 60 days of coverage, everyone in your family can get an 11-month extension for up to 29 months total, and for those extra 11 months the plan may charge up to 150% of the full premium instead of 102%. A second qualifying event, such as divorce or a dependent aging out, can extend a spouse or dependent to 36 months, still at the 102% rate.
Can I pay COBRA premiums with my HSA?
Yes, and it is one of the few insurance premiums you can. Health insurance premiums generally are not a qualified medical expense, but IRC 223(d)(2)(C)(i) makes an explicit exception for coverage "during any period of continuation coverage required under any Federal law," and IRS Publication 969 lists health care continuation coverage such as COBRA as eligible. Withdrawals are tax-free and penalty-free with no annual cap. Estimate your balance with the HSA contribution calculator.
Is COBRA pre-tax like my payroll deduction was?
No. If your employer ran a Section 125 cafeteria plan, your premium came out before federal income tax and before the 7.65% in Social Security and Medicare. COBRA premiums you pay yourself come out of money that has already been taxed. In the 22% bracket that means a $260 payroll deduction really cost you about $183 of take-home pay, so a $1,503 COBRA bill is a $1,320 hit to your monthly spending, not a $1,243 one. You may be able to itemize COBRA premiums as a medical expense on Schedule A, but only for costs above 7.5% of your AGI.
When are COBRA payments due?
You have 60 days from your election notice to elect coverage, and a plan cannot require your first payment "earlier than 45 days after the date on which the election ... is made" (26 CFR 54.4980B-8). After that, each monthly payment gets at least a 30-day grace period. Coverage is retroactive to the day you lost it once you pay, which is why some people elect COBRA and then hold off paying unless a claim comes up during that window.