How much pocket money, by age?
The question usually comes from a child who has heard what another one gets. Switzerland has guideline figures for it. They're a reference point, not a rule.
The guideline figures by age
The Dachverband Budgetberatung Schweiz has published these since 1980. They're the numbers banks, schools and advice centres in Switzerland refer to.
per week
- From age 6 CHF 3.00 per week
- From age 7 CHF 4.00 per week
- From age 8 CHF 5.00 per week
every two weeks
- From age 9 CHF 15.00 every two weeks
- From age 10 CHF 18.00 every two weeks
- From age 11 CHF 20.00 every two weeks
per month
- From age 12 CHF 50.00 per month
- From age 13 CHF 60.00 per month
- From age 14 CHF 70.00 per month
- From age 15 CHF 80.00 per month
- From age 16 CHF 90.00 per month
- From age 17 CHF 100.00 per month
- From age 18 CHF 110.00 per month
Guideline figures: Dachverband Budgetberatung Schweiz, read on 31 Jul 2026.
What these numbers leave out
This is the freely available amount. The part a child really decides about. Fixed costs like a phone plan, clothes or a travel pass sit alongside it and are worked out separately. Put both in one figure and you arrive at a number nobody recommended.
How often to pay it
For younger children a week is the stretch they can hold in their head. So weekly up to year three, every two weeks from year four, monthly from secondary school. A month's worth at eight is gone by the tenth of the month.
And then
The guideline figures say how much. They don't say what happens to it. That's the question batzenbox exists for: split the amount, keep the weeks, and after two years see what became of it.
Read on
Start with this week.
batzenbox is the pocket-money notebook for your family: four amounts a week, and the interest comes from the history. Set up your family, put in the first week. That's all it takes.
batzenbox came out of our own family. Who is behind it is in the legal notice.