Rover Pet Sitter / Dog Walker Earnings Calculator
Estimate monthly Rover earnings after the 20% fee for dog walking, boarding, drop-in visits, and daycare.
Enter your rates and bookings to see net income.
The 20% Rover takes from every booking
Rover charges sitters a flat 20% service fee on all bookings: dog walks, overnight boarding, doggy daycare, drop-in visits, and house sitting. You keep 80% of what the client pays. No sliding scale, no level-based discount.
The maths is straightforward per service:
| Service | Gross formula |
|---|---|
| Dog walking | rate per walk × walks per week × 4.33 weeks |
| Boarding | rate per night × nights booked this month |
| Daycare | rate per day × days booked |
| Drop-in visits | rate per visit × visits per month |
| House sitting | rate per night × nights booked |
Net = total gross × 0.80.
A sitter charging $20/walk, doing 10 walks/week, plus $45/night for 8 nights of boarding, plus $30/day daycare for 4 days = ($20 × 10 × 4.33) + ($45 × 8) + ($30 × 4) = $866 + $360 + $120 = $1,346 gross. After Rover’s 20% cut: $1,077 net/month.
Typical rates by city tier (2024 averages)
| Service | Small town | Mid-size city | Major metro |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-min walk | $15 to $18 | $20 to $25 | $25 to $35 |
| 60-min walk | $22 to $28 | $30 to $40 | $40 to $55 |
| Boarding (per night) | $30 to $40 | $45 to $60 | $65 to $90 |
| Daycare (per day) | $25 to $30 | $30 to $45 | $50 to $75 |
| Drop-in visit | $15 to $18 | $18 to $25 | $25 to $35 |
Sitters in NYC, SF, LA, and Seattle routinely charge double the small-town numbers. Cost-of-living and what local dog owners are used to paying both push rates up.
What separates a $500/month sitter from a $3,000/month sitter
- Repeat clients. Steady weekday clients (3 walks/week year-round) anchor income. New clients are time-expensive — meet-and-greets, getting house keys, building trust.
- Boarding over walking. Boarding pays more per hour even at lower headline rates. One $65 night with one dog (8 hours of active care plus sleep) often beats three $25 walks (3 hours of work plus travel).
- Holiday rates. Set boarding rates 1.5x to 2x your normal price for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, and Easter weekends. Booked solid? You priced too low.
- Profile completeness. Verified background check, full profile photo, 8+ photos with dogs, multiple service offerings. Sitters with completeness scores under 80% get less search visibility.
- Response time. Rover’s algorithm rewards sitters who reply to inquiries within 1 hour. Set your phone to alert you immediately.
- Local awards (Top Sitter, etc.) Local “Top Sitter” badges appear when you have 10+ five-star reviews from the past year. They lift bookings 20 to 30%.
Expenses sitters often forget
- Vehicle wear and time. A 30-min walk plus 25-min drive each way is actually 1h20 of work. At $25, that’s $18.75/hour — before gas.
- Treats, poop bags, supplies. $30 to $80/month for active sitters.
- Liability beyond Rover. Rover’s Trust & Safety covers third-party damages and vet bills up to a certain amount, but lawyers in serious dog-bite cases have argued the coverage is thin. Personal umbrella insurance is wise for high-volume sitters.
- Taxes. Rover sends a 1099 when you exceed federal thresholds. Self-employment tax (US) adds 15.3% on top of regular income tax. Plan to set aside 25 to 30% of gross.
Hidden ceiling
You can only physically handle so many dogs at once. Two well-behaved dogs is comfortable; four is hard work; six is unsafe in a public space. A sitter who hits $3,000/month is typically running near their physical limit. Past that, the only growth path is hiring helpers — at which point it becomes a small business, not a side hustle.