What the New York Times charges for an obituary
The New York Times places obituaries through Legacy.com, which quotes $263. That is where the price starts, not where it lands. What follows is what the starting price buys, what pushes it higher, and how to keep a notice short without making it feel thin.
Checked 2026-08-28
Source: Legacy.com's placement page for the New York Times, which states “Starting at $263”. Newspapers change their rates without notice. Confirm the figure in the placement form before you pay.
What the starting price actually buys
A starting price is the shortest notice the New York Times will run: a plain weekday death notice, no photograph, one day. Almost nobody buys that. The published figure exists so the paper can answer the question you are asking now, and it is quoted before anything a family would recognise as an obituary has been written.
The number families remember is the one at the end of the placement form, and it is set by length.
Why length is the number that matters
Metro dailies charge by the line. A line is not a sentence; it is a physical row of type in a narrow column, holding roughly 30 characters. That makes the arithmetic unforgiving, and it runs in one direction only.
Names, dates, service details, immediate family. about 30 lines
The above plus a few lines of the life story. about 41 lines
Room for career, service, and a longer survivor list. about 61 lines
What families write when nobody mentions the cost first. about 92 lines
Estimated at 6.1 characters per word including the space, and 30 characters per printed line. Column widths differ between papers and between sections of the same paper, so treat these as the shape of the problem rather than a quotation. We have stopped at lines deliberately: the New York Times does not publish a per-line rate, and multiplying out to a total would mean inventing the one figure you most need to trust.
The practical consequence is simple. Trimming a notice from 450 words to 200 removes roughly 51 lines of charged type, and it is very hard to do that well while looking at a finished draft you have already grieved over. It is much easier to decide the length first.
How to write a version that fits
Write two versions, not one. The newspaper version carries what must appear in print: the full name as the family uses it, the dates, where they lived, the service details, and the immediate family. The web version — on the funeral home's site, on a memorial page, in the order of service — carries the life story, and no newspaper charges you for it.
- Set the word count before the first sentence, and write to it.
- Keep the survivor list in one agreed order, and count it rather than reconstructing it from memory.
- Cut adjectives before you cut people. A single specific detail outweighs three superlatives, and it costs fewer lines.
- Ask the paper what a photograph adds before you assume you cannot afford one.
- Read the final text aloud to one other family member. Corrections after publication are expensive or impossible.
How to place it in the New York Times
Use Legacy.com's placement form for the New York Times, or call (888) 823-8554 or email postanobit@legacy.com. Deadlines vary by publication day and the form shows the next available date once you begin. Submit earlier than feels necessary; the paper verifies the death before it runs, and that takes time you would rather not be counting.
MemorialSuite prepares the text and the files. We do not submit obituaries to newspapers, and we are not affiliated with the New York Times or Legacy.com.
Common questions
How much does an obituary cost in the New York Times?
Obituaries in the New York Times are placed through Legacy.com, whose page for the paper quotes “$263”, checked on 2026-08-28. That is the floor. It buys the shortest notice the paper will run. The final price depends on how long the notice is, which days it runs, and whether you add a photo, and it is shown to you at the end of the placement form before you pay.
Why doesn't the New York Times publish a price?
Because there is no single price to tell you. Metro dailies charge by the length of the notice, so the total is only known once your text exists. This is why families are so often surprised: the writing feels like the free part, and it is actually the part that sets the bill.
Does the New York Times have a word limit?
No consumer-facing word limit is published for the New York Times. In practice the limit is your budget rather than a rule. A 200-word obituary runs to roughly 41 printed lines, and each additional line is charged.
How do I make an obituary cheaper without making it worse?
Decide the length before you write, not after. Put the facts that must appear in print — name, dates, service details, immediate family — in the newspaper version, and let the longer life story live in a web version the paper does not charge for. Cutting a notice from 450 words to 200 removes roughly 51 printed lines.
How do I place an obituary in the New York Times?
Through Legacy.com's placement form for the paper, or by calling (888) 823-8554 or emailing postanobit@legacy.com. Deadlines vary by publication day, so the form shows the next available date once you start. Submit earlier than you think you need to; the paper verifies the death before it runs.
Is a newspaper obituary the most expensive part?
It is often the most surprising part. Across the 30 metro dailies reviewed here, starting prices run from $20.65 to $654, before length is taken into account.
If the writing is the part you are dreading
MemorialSuite asks you the questions a funeral director would ask, then prepares a newspaper-length obituary written to a word count you set, a fuller web version, a printable funeral program, and a eulogy with delivery notes. One guided intake, $79 for the bundle, and you can see a free preview before deciding anything.
Start with a 200-word limit set for the New York Times
200 words is our suggested newspaper length, not a rule the New York Times imposes. You can change it at any point.
