How we calculate this

Where the numbers come from

When a pet owner uploads a vet estimate to FairVet, they can choose to share a de-identified version of it to help build our regional pricing data (this is an opt-out checkbox, checked by default — owners can uncheck it). Before anything is added to that shared pool, we strip everything that could identify them, their pet, or their clinic. What's left is just three things: a rough region, a standardized procedure name, and a dollar amount. No name, no clinic, no exact address, no link back to any individual account ever enters that pool.

That regional data is reviewed periodically — not in real time — by an automated process that recalculates each region and procedure's typical range as new estimates come in.

What "typical range" means

For a given procedure in a given region, we sort every de-identified price we have from lowest to highest. The "typical range" we show is the middle 80% of that sorted list — we trim off the bottom 10% and top 10% as outliers, so one unusually cheap or unusually expensive estimate doesn't skew what we show you. The single number we call the "typical price" is the middle value of that same sorted list (the median), not an average — medians are less distorted by a handful of extreme outliers than averages are.

Why we show "Based on N data points"

On our public reports and tools — Insights, the Pricing Index, the quick price check, and our cost guides — we tell you plainly how many real submissions a number is based on, instead of inventing a qualitative label like "high confidence." A number is just a number; how much weight to give it is something you can judge for yourself once you know the sample size behind it. If a region/procedure combination doesn't have enough submissions yet, we say "Not enough data yet" and hide the figure entirely, rather than show a number built from a tiny handful of estimates.

The bar for "enough data" isn't one-size-fits-all — it depends on how specific the cut is. Our quick price check needs at least 10 submissions for a region/procedure pair. Breed-specific breakdowns need at least 15, since splitting data by breed spreads the same submissions across more, smaller buckets. Trend and flagged-pricing summaries need at least 5, since those are about the direction of a change rather than a precise dollar figure.

A different label when you check one specific estimate

When you upload your own estimate and we compare a specific line item against your region, we show a confidence rating instead — High, Moderate, or Limited — rather than the raw count. That rating considers two things: how many submissions we have for that exact region and procedure (a high rating generally needs at least 100; moderate generally needs at least 30), and how consistent those prices are with each other. A region where prices cluster tightly scores higher confidence than one with the same number of submissions but wildly different prices, since a wide spread means any single typical figure is a less reliable stand-in for what you might actually be quoted.

We use a quick rating here, rather than the raw count, because in that moment you're trying to make a fast read on one specific line item on your bill — not study a dataset. On our aggregate reports, where you're looking at numbers more analytically, we show the raw count instead.

What this isn't

Our regions are broad — roughly the first three digits of a ZIP code, not precise city or neighborhood boundaries — so "your area" is an approximation. Our data reflects estimates that FairVet users chose to share, not a scientifically designed survey of every clinic or pet type, and it may not represent every breed, clinic type, or part of the country evenly. This is informational benchmark data, not a statistically audited research product, and not a determination that any individual price is fair, unfair, or correct. It's a reference point to bring into a conversation with your vet — see our Privacy page for how we handle the data behind it.