What Does Gym Childcare Actually Cost? We Checked 990 Gyms

“Childcare included” is the most misleading phrase in the gym business. Sometimes it means exactly that. Sometimes it means childcare exists, at one location, for an extra monthly fee, if you bought the top membership tier. Before we launched ParentFitGuide, we recorded the childcare cost structure at every one of the 990 gyms in our directory, straight from each gym’s own website. Here’s what we found.

The short version

Of the 990 gyms we checked, 473 publish how their childcare is charged — and 517 don’t say. Among the ones that do publish it:

• 350 gyms include childcare with membership — no separate childcare fee
• 72 charge a monthly add-on
• 29 charge per visit
• 15 are free
• 7 charge per hour

Only 92 of the 990 gyms publish an actual dollar figure anywhere on their site. For everyone else, the price is a phone call, a tour, or a surprise at the front desk. That’s worth knowing before you fall in love with a gym: if cost matters to you, ask about childcare pricing specifically, not just the membership rate.

Chain by chain

YMCA (377 locations in our directory). The most transparent big operator, and the friendliest cost structure. 246 of the YMCAs we checked include childcare with membership, and 14 list it as free outright. Only 9 publish a dollar amount — the ones that do are small per-child fees, like $5 per child. The catch: 116 YMCA branches don’t state their cost structure on their site at all, and YMCA pricing is set locally, so your branch really does decide.

Life Time (156 locations). Childcare runs through Life Time’s kids programming, and at every location we checked it sits inside a “Junior” membership add-on for your child. The honest catch: not one of the 156 locations published the actual price of that add-on on the pages we checked, and 139 of the 156 don’t state the cost structure at all. Life Time may be worth it — parents love the facilities — but you cannot learn what childcare costs from their website. Budget for a phone call.

LA Fitness (94 locations). Kids Klub is a well-known program, which makes this surprising: none of the 94 LA Fitness locations in our directory publish what Kids Klub costs, or even how it’s charged, on their club pages. It’s the biggest “just ask” chain in our data.

EōS Fitness. One of the clearer add-on models. 21 of the 25 EōS locations we checked charge a monthly add-on for the Kids’ Club, and the published per-child figures we found were $20 and $25.

Chuze Fitness (19 locations). Childcare is included with membership at 15 of the 19 locations — but “membership” here means the top tier. The tier that includes the Kids Club shows at $39.99 a month at most locations we checked, with a few branches at $49.99 to $54.99. So childcare is “included,” as long as you’re on the plan that includes it.

VASA Fitness (17 locations). The most clearly priced chain in our data. Most VASA locations offer KidCare two ways: a $25-per-child monthly add-on, or pay per visit — $3 per child (ages 2–12) and $5 for infants (6 weeks to 2 years). 13 of the 17 locations publish those numbers. Other chains could learn from this.

Crunch (23 locations) and Genesis Health Clubs (18 locations). Between them, 41 gyms — and not one publishes its childcare cost structure or price on its site. If you join either, the childcare cost is something you’ll learn in person.

Gold’s Gym (8 locations). Mostly unpublished too; the one location with figures listed a $10/month add-on and $5 per child.

What this means for you

1. “Included” is the most common model — if a gym publishes anything at all, childcare folded into the membership is the single most likely answer. That’s genuinely good news.
2. Price silence is normal, not a red flag. More than half the gyms in America don’t publish childcare pricing. It usually means “sold at the club,” not “expensive.”
3. Ask the childcare question separately. Membership price and childcare price are two different numbers, set two different ways. Ask both, plus whether childcare requires a higher membership tier — that’s the Chuze-style catch.
4. Local beats national. Especially at the YMCA, the branch sets the deal. The gym across town may include what yours charges for.

We’re contacting the gyms that don’t publish their pricing and updating their listings as they answer. In the meantime, every ParentFitGuide listing tells you plainly whether a gym publishes its cost — so you know before you visit whether to bring questions.

See what childcare costs at gyms near you