Google charges whatever the ad auction sets for each click, often less than your maximum bid, so there is no fixed price. WordStream's 2026 benchmark of US search campaigns puts the median at $5.42 per click, ranging from $1.63 in arts and entertainment to $9.87 for legal services.
Google Ads has no price list for clicks. Every search runs an auction, and you set a maximum cost-per-click (max. CPC) or use an automated bid strategy that bids for you. Google states that you are often charged less than your max. CPC, sometimes much less. The final amount is called your actual CPC.
What decides the price of a click?
According to Google, you only pay what is minimally required to clear the Ad Rank thresholds and beat the Ad Rank of the competitor immediately below you. Google combines several factors to get there:
- your max. CPC bid
- auction-time ad quality: expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience
- Ad Rank thresholds and how competitive the auction is
- the context of the search, such as location, device and time
- the expected impact of assets and other ad formats
Ads above the search results have higher thresholds, so a top position usually costs more. Your actual CPC can go above your max. CPC if you set bid adjustments. If prices still feel high, here is why Google Ads clicks get expensive.
What do clicks cost by industry?
WordStream's 2026 benchmark looked at 13,474 US search campaigns that ran from April 2025 to March 2026. The sample includes Microsoft Ads campaigns too, and the "averages" are medians. The overall figure is $5.42 per click.
| Industry | Median CPC |
|---|---|
| Attorneys & Legal Services | $9.87 |
| Home & Home Improvement | $8.33 |
| Dentists & Dental Services | $8.00 |
| Business Services | $5.87 |
| Apparel / Fashion & Jewelry | $4.44 |
| Real Estate | $3.22 |
| Restaurants & Food | $2.05 |
| Arts & Entertainment | $1.63 |
Treat these as a rough starting point. Your own CPC depends on your keywords, your location targeting and your ad quality.
How much will you pay in total?
Your budget caps the total, not the click price. Google says a campaign can spend up to 2 times its average daily budget on a given day. Over a billing period you are never charged more than 30.4 times the average daily budget. With a $10 daily budget, the most you would pay in a month is $304.
Not every campaign charges per click, either. On YouTube and the Display Network you can pay per 1,000 impressions, and video campaigns can charge per view. For a full rundown, see how Google Ads charges you.
My advice: judge a click by what it costs you per sale or lead, not by its CPC. A $9 click that converts 1 in 10 times gets you a customer for $90. A $2 click that never converts costs you money and gets you nothing. To work out your own numbers, see how to calculate cost per click.
Sources
- Google Ads Help: Actual cost-per-click (CPC): Definition - https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6297
- Google Ads Help: Ad Rank: Definition - https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1752122
- Google Ads Help: Choose your bid and budget - https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375454
- Google Ads Help: Determine a bid strategy based on your goals - https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472725
- WordStream benchmarks 2026: Google Ads Benchmarks 2026 - https://www.wordstream.com/blog/2026-google-ads-benchmarks