ER vs Urgent Care Cost Calculator
The same visit at three settings
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Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. Confirm the assumptions, current rules, fees, and rounding that apply to your situation before making a decision.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
First, decide whether this is a choice at all. If the problem could be an emergency, go to an emergency room or call 911. healthcare.gov describes an emergency medical condition as one so serious that a reasonable person would seek care right away to avoid severe harm, and plans must cover emergency care without prior authorization.
- 02
For a visit where you do have a choice, enter the emergency room's facility fee and physician fee separately. They are billed separately, and the facility fee is the larger of the two.
- 03
Enter the urgent care and telehealth prices your plan or the clinic quotes, plus any imaging or labs you expect. The imaging figure is added to the emergency room and urgent care, but not to telehealth.
- 04
Add your coinsurance and the deductible you still have to meet. Before the deductible is met you pay the full allowed amount everywhere, which is what makes the gap between settings so wide.
- 05
Compare the three settings in the table, then look at the last two rows, which price the same visits as if the deductible were already met.
Formula
Each setting is priced the same way, from its own total. Emergency room price = facility fee + physician fee + expected imaging and labs. Urgent care price = the clinic price + the same imaging and labs. Telehealth price = the visit price alone. For each of the three, if the plan charges a flat copay for that setting you pay the copay and the plan pays the rest; otherwise the amount applied to the deductible is the lesser of the price and the deductible you have left, coinsurance is your percentage of whatever is above that, and your share is the sum. The gap is the emergency room's share minus the urgent care or telehealth share. The last rows repeat the calculation with the deductible set to zero, showing what the same visits cost once it is met.
Example
A visit that could be handled at any of the three settings runs to a $713 emergency room facility fee plus a $321 physician fee, an urgent care price of $250, or a $75 telehealth consultation, with $400 of imaging and labs expected at either in-person setting. The plan has 20% coinsurance and $1,500 of deductible still to meet. Because the deductible is outstanding, each setting is paid in full: $1,434 at the emergency room, $650 at urgent care and $75 by video, with the plan paying nothing at any of them. The emergency room therefore costs $784 more than urgent care and $1,359 more than telehealth, and the facility fee alone is 50% of its total. Once the deductible is met, the same three visits cost $287, $130 and $15, and the emergency room's premium over urgent care falls to $157.
Definitions
- Facility fee
- A charge for being treated in a hospital department, separate from any physician's bill. Peterson-KFF put the average emergency facility fee at $713 in 2021, against $321 for the professional claim.
- Emergency medical condition
- healthcare.gov defines it as an illness, injury, symptom or condition so serious that a reasonable person would seek care right away to avoid severe harm.
- Severity level
- The code a hospital assigns to an emergency visit, from level 1 to level 5, which largely sets the facility fee. Peterson-KFF put the 2021 average at $257 for level 1 and $930 for level 5.
- Urgent care
- A walk-in clinic treating problems that need attention the same day but are not emergencies. It bills no facility fee, which is most of why it costs less than an emergency department.
- Telehealth
- A consultation by video or phone. It carries no facility fee and no on-site tests, so it is usually the cheapest setting for anything that can be diagnosed without an examination.
Good to know
When the choice is not a choice
This page prices a decision, and the first thing to say about that decision is that sometimes it does not exist. healthcare.gov defines an emergency medical condition as an illness, injury, symptom or condition so serious that a reasonable person would seek care right away to avoid severe harm. That standard is deliberately written around what a reasonable person would think at the time, not around what a doctor concludes afterwards. Chest pain that turns out to be indigestion was still, at the moment it started, a reasonable trip to an emergency room. If what is happening could be an emergency — chest pain, signs of a stroke, serious bleeding, difficulty breathing, a head injury, a severe allergic reaction — the correct action is to go to an emergency department or call 911, and no figure on this page should weigh against that. Federal law supports this rather than undermining it. Plans must generally cover emergency services without requiring prior authorization, and they cannot treat an out-of-network emergency department as out of network for cost-sharing purposes: under the No Surprises Act the most you can be billed for emergency services is your plan's in-network cost-sharing amount, and what you pay counts toward your in-network deductible and out-of-pocket limit. The protection extends to care you receive after you have been stabilised unless you give written consent to waive it. What this page is for is the large category of visits that are genuinely discretionary in setting: a child's persistent fever on a Saturday, a sprain, a rash, a suspected urinary tract infection, a cut that may or may not need stitches. For those, the same complaint treated at three different places produces three very different bills, and the difference is worth understanding in advance — before you are standing in a waiting room at ten at night deciding where to go. Deciding in advance, while nothing is wrong, is the only time the decision can be made calmly.
The facility fee, and the shape of an emergency room bill
An emergency room bill is not shaped like other medical bills, and the reason is the facility fee. This is a charge for being seen in the emergency department at all, levied before anybody treats you and independent of what treatment you receive. It pays for the department's capacity to handle anything at any hour: staffing overnight, equipment held ready, capability that must exist whether or not it is used. It is billed separately from, and in addition to, whatever the physician charges for the professional work of examining and treating you. The scale of it is the point. Peterson-KFF's analysis of 2019 claims from large employer plans found that facility fees made up eighty percent of the cost of an emergency department visit. By 2021 the average emergency facility fee was $713, against $321 for the average professional evaluation and management claim — more than twice as much for the room as for the doctor. Facility fees also scale sharply with the severity level the hospital codes for the visit, from an average of $257 at level 1 to $930 at level 5 in 2021, and within level 5 the top quarter of visits were billed at $1,352 against $576 for the bottom quarter. Those fees have grown far faster than professional fees: between 2004 and 2021 facility fees rose 531 percent while professional fees rose 132 percent. An urgent care clinic has no equivalent charge, which is the single largest reason the same complaint costs so much less there. In this page's example the emergency room total of $1,434 is made up of a $713 facility fee, a $321 physician fee and $400 of imaging and labs, so the facility fee alone is fifty percent of it, and the whole visit costs $784 more than the $650 it would cost at urgent care. Understanding this also explains a common frustration: being seen briefly, sent home, and billed as though something substantial happened. The facility fee is what happened.
What the deductible does to the comparison
The gap between care settings is not a fixed thing. It depends almost entirely on where you stand against your deductible, and it is at its widest exactly when most people can least afford it. Before the deductible is met, you pay the full allowed amount at every setting. The plan contributes nothing, so the cheaper setting is cheaper by its entire price difference. In this page's example, with $1,500 of deductible still outstanding, the emergency room costs you $1,434, urgent care $650 and a telehealth visit $75 — and the plan pays nothing at any of them. The emergency room therefore costs $784 more than urgent care and $1,359 more than the video visit. Once the deductible is met the picture changes completely. Only coinsurance applies, so you pay twenty percent and the plan pays eighty. The same three visits then cost $287, $130 and $15, and the emergency room's premium over urgent care falls from $784 to $157. The care is identical; only the accounting moved. Two consequences follow. The first is that high-deductible plans make the choice of setting far more consequential than traditional plans do, because for much of the year their holders are effectively cash payers who happen to benefit from negotiated rates. Someone on a plan with a $5,000 deductible is making a real $784 decision in January and a $157 decision in November. The second is that the calculation inverts once you approach your out-of-pocket maximum. If you are going to reach the maximum this year regardless, the marginal cost of the more expensive setting falls toward zero, because everything above the ceiling is paid by the plan. None of this changes the clinical question. It changes only how much the answer to the financial question is worth, and it is worth knowing which part of the year you are in before you need to decide.
Matching the setting to the problem
The three settings on this page are not simply cheaper and more expensive versions of the same thing; they do different work, and choosing the cheapest one that can actually treat the problem is what saves money. Telehealth is the cheapest because it carries no facility fee and no on-site testing, and it handles a genuine range of problems: prescription refills, rashes, coughs and colds, suspected urinary infections, follow-up questions, and the specific question of whether something needs to be seen in person. What it cannot do is examine you physically, take an X-ray, run a blood test, stitch a wound or set a bone. A telehealth consultation that ends in a referral means paying twice, so it is a poor choice when you already know hands-on care is needed. Urgent care sits in the middle. It can usually do basic imaging and laboratory work, stitch wounds, treat sprains and fractures, and handle infections — the whole category of problems that need attention today but are not emergencies. It bills no facility fee, which is why the same visit costs a fraction of the emergency room price. Its limits are serious illness and anything needing admission or specialist intervention. The emergency department is the only setting equipped for genuine emergencies, and it is also the only one obliged to see everyone. Two practical notes. First, check your own plan's terms for each setting: many plans set a separate and higher copay for urgent care than for a primary care office visit, and a different one again for the emergency room, sometimes waived if you are admitted. Second, know your options before you need them. Find out now which urgent care clinics near you are in network, what your plan's telehealth service is and how to reach it, and where the nearest emergency department is. That is a fifteen-minute task on a quiet evening, and it is the difference between choosing a setting and defaulting to one.
Frequently asked questions
How much cheaper is urgent care than the emergency room?
Usually several times cheaper, and most of the difference is the facility fee. In this page's example the emergency room comes to $1,434 — a $713 facility fee, a $321 physician fee and $400 of imaging and labs — while the same visit at urgent care is $650 and a telehealth visit is $75. With $1,500 of deductible still to meet you pay all of each in full, so the emergency room costs $784 more than urgent care and $1,359 more than the video visit.
What is an emergency room facility fee?
A charge for being seen in the emergency department at all, separate from what any doctor bills, covering the department's readiness to treat anyone at any hour. Peterson-KFF found facility fees were 80% of the cost of an emergency visit in 2019 claims, and that by 2021 the average emergency facility fee was $713 against $321 for the physician's own claim. Facility fees scale with the severity level coded: an average of $257 at level 1 and $930 at level 5 in 2021. Urgent care clinics have no equivalent charge.
Should I avoid the emergency room to save money?
No. This page exists for visits where the clinic, the video consultation and the emergency room could all reasonably treat the problem — a minor injury, a rash, a suspected urinary infection. A possible heart attack, stroke, serious bleeding, trouble breathing or a head injury belongs in an emergency room, and delaying that care to save money is not a trade worth making. Federal law requires plans to cover emergency services without prior authorization, and the No Surprises Act limits you to in-network cost sharing even at an out-of-network emergency room.
What does my deductible do to the comparison?
It widens the gap enormously. In the example, with $1,500 of deductible outstanding you pay the full price at every setting: $1,434, $650 and $75, and the plan pays nothing. Once the deductible is met and only 20% coinsurance applies, the same three visits cost $287, $130 and $15, and the gap between the emergency room and urgent care narrows from $784 to $157. On a high-deductible plan early in the year you are effectively a cash payer, so the choice of setting matters far more.
What does an emergency room visit cost on average?
Peterson-KFF's analysis of 2019 claims from large employer plans put the average emergency department visit at $2,453 in total, with $646 paid out of pocket. The spread was wide: a quarter of visits cost more than $907 out of pocket and a quarter less than $128. Even the least complex visits, the sort a clinic could have handled, averaged $592 in total and $205 out of pocket. Those are claims figures from 2019 rather than current prices, and your plan's allowed amounts decide your own bill.
Is a telehealth visit always the cheapest option?
It is usually the cheapest when it can treat the problem, because there is no facility fee and no on-site imaging or labs. In the example it is $75 against $650 at urgent care. The limit is what it can do: a video visit cannot set a fracture, stitch a wound, take an X-ray or run a blood test, so a telehealth consultation that ends in a referral means paying twice. It suits prescription refills, rashes, infections and advice about whether to be seen in person.
Will my plan cover an urgent care visit the same way as an office visit?
Not necessarily. Many plans set a separate, higher copay for urgent care than for a primary care visit, and a different one again for an emergency room visit, which is sometimes waived if you are admitted. Some plans apply the deductible to urgent care but a flat copay to the office. Check the summary of benefits for the specific line, and enter your own plan's copay in the relevant field rather than assuming the settings are treated alike.