An online vet visit costs $40 to $80 pay-per-visit, or $99 to $420 a year on subscription. Chewy's vet tech chat is free for customers; its video visits run $49.99. Pawp costs $99 a year, Vetster $120, Dutch $132 (five pets included), and Airvet $35 a month. At one visit a month the right subscription saves $470 to $740 a year over paying per visit — and far more over clinic exams, which run $50 to $150 before treatment. Here's who charges what, what they can actually do for you, and where the break-even sits.
| Service | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Chewy Connect with a Vet | Chat free; video $49.99 | Vet tech chat free for Chewy customers; one pet per video visit |
| Pawp | $99/yr (base) | Unlimited 24/7 video and text; Emergency Fund tier (~$24/mo) adds $3,000/yr |
| Vetster | $120/yr; ~$19.99/mo unlimited | 4 same-day video visits in the annual plan, 50% off after; bookings from ~$60 |
| Dutch | $132/yr or $35/mo | Unlimited consults for up to 5 pets; behavior focus; meds delivered where allowed |
| Airvet | $35/mo | Unlimited on-demand video, also sold as an employee benefit |
| In-person exam | $50–$150 | Hands-on medicine: palpation, labs, imaging, treatment |
These are published list prices, and this category reprices constantly — promotions, tiers, and bundled deals shift quarterly. Verify before you subscribe; the shape of the market below changes far more slowly than the numbers.
The decision is a classic break-even. A $99 annual plan versus $49.99 per video visit: the subscription wins the moment you'd use it three times or more in a year. Run it at one visit a month and the annual totals sort themselves:
Two visits a year flips the ranking toward pay-per-visit and the free chat; a new-puppy year flips it hard the other way. The online vet cost comparison calculator runs this ranking live at whatever usage you enter, which beats guessing.
The strongest use cases don't try to replace the clinic — they replace the uncertainty around the clinic:
No palpation, no bloodwork, no X-rays, no surgery — and prescriptions are state-dependent, because many states require an established vet-client-patient relationship built on an in-person exam before a vet can prescribe. Dutch and similar services structure their intake around the states where they can prescribe; in stricter states you'll get advice, not medication. That's a regulation to know about, not a dealbreaker: for the triage-and-advice jobs above, it never comes up.
Enter how often you'd actually use a virtual vet and get a live cost ranking across every major service.
Open the Online Vet Cost Comparison →For most pet owners the subscription is insurance against the 2 a.m. panic, and at $99-$132 a year it's priced like a nice toy but functions like a damper on expensive decisions. The pet owners who lose money are the ones who sign up during a health scare, use it twice, and forget the renewal — same as gym memberships. Set a calendar check for month ten: if you haven't used it, cancel or downgrade.
Where telehealth doesn't fit: emergencies (go, don't video-call), chronic disease management that needs labs, and anything your own vet should be coordinating. For the rest of the pet-budget stack, the vet visit cost calculator prices in-person exams and procedures, the pet insurance calculator frames the premium side, and the cost-of-owning-a-dog calculator puts telehealth in the full annual budget.
Anywhere from free to about $80 a visit. Chewy's Connect with a Vet chat with a vet tech is free for customers; video visits cost $49.99. Independent services charge roughly $40-$80 per booking. Subscriptions flip the math: Pawp is $99 a year, Vetster $120, Dutch $132, and Airvet $35 a month, all with unlimited or near-unlimited access.
If you'd use them at least twice a year, generally yes — a $99 annual membership breaks even against $50 pay-per-visit at two visits and saves roughly $470 to $740 a year at monthly use. Below that, you're paying for peace of mind, which is a legitimate purchase but a different one. Multi-pet households get outsized value from Dutch, which covers up to five animals on a single $132 membership.
Solid work: triaging whether a symptom is urgent, behavior and nutrition advice, post-op questions, medication guidance, reviewing photos of a rash or limp, and deciding whether an ER trip at 2 a.m. can wait. Not available: hands-on exams, bloodwork and imaging, surgery, and — in states requiring an in-person vet-client-patient relationship — prescriptions.
State-dependent. Many states require an established vet-client-patient relationship, which traditionally needs an in-person exam, before prescribing; some have added telehealth-specific rules. Services like Dutch navigate this by establishing care within the rules where they operate. Practically: expect prescriptions to work in some states and not others, and expect advice-only elsewhere.
Usually not by default — traditional policies exclude exam fees and many exclude telehealth unless a wellness add-on includes it. A handful of newer plans bundle virtual visits. If 2 a.m. triage is your main use case, the subscription itself (under $150 a year) is often cheaper than the premium uplift of a plan that covers it.