Gift budget calculator
$30Typical limit per gift
$628Average planned gift budget
Two questions, one tool. How much should everyone spend in a gift exchange? And how do you split your own holiday budget across the people on your list?
Americans planned to spend $628 per person on gifts for family and friends in the 2025 holiday season (NRF).
Who are you buying for?
- Partner
- Parent
- Parent
- Friend
A medium gift gets twice the money of a small one, a big one four times. Already know what one gift should cost? Type the amount in its row and the rest is shared between the others.
How to set a gift budget that survives December
- Start from the total, not from the gifts. Decide what the whole season may cost, then split it. Adding up gifts one by one is how budgets double.
- Decide the size of each gift before the price. Big, medium or small is an easier call than a dollar figure, and the calculator turns it into money.
- Leave a little unassigned. Wrapping, shipping and the person you forgot all come out of the same pocket.
- In a group, agree on one limit and say whether it is a ceiling or a target. That single sentence prevents most awkward exchanges.
- Ask instead of guessing. A wishlist tells you what fits the amount, and nobody gets a third candle.
Where the numbers come from
No averages pulled out of thin air: each figure in the calculator comes from a named survey or from our own anonymised data.
- National Retail Federation / Prosper Insights & Analytics, 2025 — Holiday survey of 8,247 US adults, October 2025: $890.49 planned per person in total, $627.93 of it on gifts for family and friends.
- secret.gift, 2026 — The spending limits that gift exchange groups set on secret.gift since October 2025, anonymised: the middle value and the range half of the groups fall into.
Gift budget questions
How much should I spend on gifts in total?
There is no correct number, only one that fits your month. As a reference point, Americans planned to spend about $628 per person on gifts for family and friends in the 2025 holiday season, and UK adults about £514. Put your own total into the calculator and it splits it across your list.
How does the calculator split the budget?
By gift size. A small gift is one share of the budget, a medium gift two shares, a big gift four. You choose the size for each person, the tool does the division and rounds to a tidy amount. Nothing is hidden: change a size and every amount moves.
How much should I spend on one person?
Surveys rarely break spending down by recipient, so we do not publish an "average for a mom" or "average for a boss". What works is relative: a partner or a child usually gets a big gift, parents and siblings a medium one, friends, coworkers and teachers a small one. The calculator applies exactly that to your total.
What is a fair limit for a gift exchange?
Among groups that set a dollar limit on secret.gift, the middle one is $30, and half sit between $20 and $50. The Secret Santa budget calculator shows the range for your market and starts a draw with the limit you pick.
Is the calculator free?
Yes. No account, no email, nothing to install. The numbers stay in your browser.