Au Pair Agency Comparison
Every designated sponsor works under the same federal rules and places au pairs on the same visa. So the real question is not which agency is cheapest. It is which one puts the right person in your home, and who picks up the phone in month seven.
Every au pair on a J-1 visa is placed by an agency the U.S. Department of State has designated as a sponsor. The rules are identical at all of them: au pairs are 18 to 26, they live with your family, they provide up to 45 hours of childcare a week and no more than 10 hours a day, and you provide a private bedroom, meals and up to $500 toward their required coursework.
Three things genuinely differ between sponsors: who they let into the candidate pool, what support you and your au pair actually get once she arrives, and what it costs. This page covers all three, ours included, so you can compare us honestly against the others. Verify anything here with the agency directly before you sign.
Who gets into the pool
A profile is only as good as the screening behind it. Ours is done by our own team, in house, and never outsourced to third-party recruiters. Before an au pair reaches your search results she has cleared every one of these.
We also run a proprietary personality assessment built on the IPIP-NEO-120, a validated 120-item instrument measuring the Big Five dimensions. Results are percentile-scored against a large normative sample and shown on the au pair's profile, because "she seemed lovely on the call" is not a basis for a year-long decision.
And you see the evidence, not a summary of it. Background and reference checks, the full application, photos, video, and the assessment results are all on the profile. You interview candidates yourself, directly, with no subscription and no limit on how many families or au pairs you talk to before you decide.
Trained before she gets on the plane
Our au pairs complete the GreatAuPair USA Au Pair Training Academy before they leave home: 32 or more hours across 15 courses, with quizzes, interactive scenarios, assignments and a final exam, each passed at 80 percent or better.
That sequencing is not an accident, and it saves you money. Because training is finished before departure, we fly au pairs directly to your city rather than routing them through a mandatory arrival orientation in another state. That removes the domestic airfare surcharge of up to $600 that most other agencies add to your bill, and it means your au pair walks through your door ready rather than jet-lagged from a second flight.
What support actually looks like
Federal rules set a minimum contact cadence. What differs between sponsors is who does it and how well they are prepared. We support both sides of the placement, because a host family is only as happy as its au pair.
For your family
A Local Childcare Coordinator who lives near you calls within 48 hours of arrival, runs an in-home orientation inside the first two weeks, and contacts you every month for the whole year. Every LCC works through a structured training curriculum covering the welcome call, monthly contact, the home tour, mediation and problem-solving, culture shock, transitions and dismissals, so the person supporting you is trained for the hard conversations, not just the easy ones. Behind them is 24/7 support.
For your au pair
Her own learning center walks her through the application, her documents, the consular interview, arrival, her stipend and hours, monthly check-ins and how to get help. Her LCC builds her a welcome packet, points her to local education options, and runs community activities and Host Family Day through the year. Travel and accident cover runs to $100,000 per injury or illness, above what the Department of State requires, serviced 24 hours a day by case managers, nurses and a medical director on the AETNA PPO network.
If a placement does not work out, you can begin searching for a new au pair immediately while still in the program, we support you through the transition, and your program timeline can usually be extended to cover the gap.
We have been doing this since 2001, when two working parents started the company, and we are one of a small number of agencies the U.S. Department of State has designated to run the J-1 Au Pair Program. Coverage is nationwide.
Ask every sponsor these questions
Including us. The answers tell you more than any brochure. Here are ours.
And then there is price
Service is the reason to choose a sponsor. Price is the reason it stings when the service is poor. Ours happens to be the lowest of the six agencies compared below, which we think is the right way round.
2026 fees compared
A standard 12-month placement with an au pair arriving from overseas. Read from each sponsor's own published pricing page on September 7, 2026.
Two things this comparison does not say. It does not say the cheapest sponsor is the right one for your family, and it does not include what you pay your au pair. The stipend matters as much as the fee, because it is paid 52 weeks a year.
What a full first year actually costs
Agency fees, plus 52 weeks of stipend, plus the $500 education contribution every host family owes.
None of these totals include room, board, utilities, a car, or a phone plan, and none include the $35 SEVIS fee the U.S. government charges. Add those and most families land between $27,000 and $30,000 for the year, whichever sponsor they choose.
A note in fairness to AuPairCare and InterExchange: both set a stipend floor above the federal minimum, $215 and $225 a week. That is more money in your au pair's pocket, not agency margin, and in a competitive metro you may end up paying that much anyway. Read those two rows as a different allocation of the same budget rather than as a worse deal.
Our three programs
Signature Au Pair
- Pay upfront
- $10,750
- Pay as you go
- $11,420
- Minimum weekly stipend
- $195.75
- In-country or extra months
- $896 per month
Premier Au Pair
- Pay upfront
- $11,850
- Pay as you go
- $12,520
- Minimum weekly stipend
- $250
- In-country or extra months
- $988 per month
Specialized Au Pair
- Pay upfront
- $14,350
- Pay as you go
- $15,020
- Minimum weekly stipend
- $300
- In-country or extra months
- $1,196 per month
The tiers differ by the au pair's experience and training, not by how hard we work for you. Pay as you go on the Signature program is a $3,270 arrival payment plus ten monthly installments of $765. Full detail is on our au pair program costs page.
Sponsors not in the comparison
The Department of State designates more sponsors than the six above. EurAupair, Agent Au Pair, Expert AuPair, Au Pair International, ProAupair and A.P.EX. American Professional Exchange are also designated. They are not in the fee comparison because we included only agencies whose 2026 host family pricing we could read from their own published page on the date above. If you are considering one of them, put the questions above to them in writing before you pay a deposit.
Questions families ask when comparing agencies
Does a higher fee mean better au pairs? No, and that is exactly the point. Every designated sponsor recruits from the same eligibility pool under the same federal rules. What separates them is the screening behind each profile, how much of it you get to see, and who supports you once she arrives. Ask what the screening consists of and who performs it.
What should I ask before I pay a deposit? How much of the deposit is non-refundable, what happens if the placement ends early, who your local coordinator is and how many families they already support, and whether extension and in-country pricing is published.
Is the stipend negotiable? It is a floor, not a ceiling. You and your au pair can agree on more, but never less, and never in exchange for hours beyond the federal limits.
Can I switch sponsors? Yes, and most sponsors including this one offer a discount to families arriving from another agency.
New to the program? Start with what an au pair is and how the au pair program works.
Fees on this page were read from each agency's own published pricing page on September 7, 2026 and are reproduced for comparison. Everything stated about GreatAuPair USA is our own published program information. We are not affiliated with the other agencies named. Confirm current pricing with any sponsor before you commit.