A prenup for a straightforward couple typically runs $600–$3,000. A contested divorce runs $15,000–$30,000+ per person — and without a prenup, you also surrender control of the outcome. The math only fails when you have essentially nothing to protect.
Let’s drop the romance for ninety seconds and talk about this like the purchase it is.
You’re about to spend an average of $33,000 on a wedding. Someone in the comments will say prenups are unromantic. Meanwhile the prenup costs less than the floral arrangements — and unlike the floral arrangements, it still matters in ten years.
Here’s the actual math.
The cost of a prenup vs. the cost of not having one
| What you’re comparing | Typical cost (US) |
|---|---|
| Online prenup service (flat fee) | $600 – $1,500 |
| Attorney-drafted, straightforward | $1,500 – $4,000 |
| Attorney-drafted, complex (business, real estate, stock) | $5,000 – $15,000+ |
| Contested divorce, per person | $15,000 – $30,000+ |
| Uncontested divorce with an existing prenup | $1,000 – $5,000 |
Read that table twice. The most expensive prenup on the list costs about the same as one party’s share of a mid-range contested divorce — and the prenup is the bad case scenario for the document itself.
The insurance analogy isn’t cute, it’s accurate: you don’t buy car insurance because you plan to crash. You buy it because the crash, if it comes, arrives at the worst possible moment — and you’d rather have decided the terms in February than argued them in November.
What a prenup actually buys
Three things, in order of value:
1. You keep the pen
Without a prenup, your state’s legislature already wrote your divorce terms — sight unseen, for a generic couple, decades ago. Community-property states default to 50/50 of marital assets. Equitable-distribution states hand a judge a wide discretion and let them call it “fair.”
Neither is evil. Both are average. Your marriage isn’t average, and the assets in it aren’t average either.
A prenup replaces “what a stranger decides is fair” with “what we decided together, while we still agreed on everything.”
2. You cut the bill if it ends
Divorce lawyers bill hourly — $300–$500 an hour in most metros — and the fights that eat those hours are almost always property fights: who gets the house, whose business is worth what, whether the pre-retirement account grew with marital money.
A prenup settles those questions in advance. Custody and support still go to court no matter what — but the expensive, emotional property war is off the table before it starts.
3. You protect people who aren’t in the room
If you have kids from a previous marriage, a prenup is less about your spouse and more about your children’s inheritance. If you expect a family business or trust, it’s about the relatives who built it. These are the cases where “not worth it” turns into permanent regret.
When a prenup is genuinely not worth it
Honesty matters more than conversion here. Skip it if:
- You’re both truly starting at zero. No house, no savings, no inheritance, similar earnings, no kids from prior relationships. A prenup would only protect future earnings — a values call, not a math call.
- One partner will refuse to sign fairly. A prenup forced under deadline pressure is a prenup a court may throw out later — meaning you paid for a false sense of security.
- Your assets are simple and your state’s defaults already match your values. Some couples look at their state’s default rules and shrug: that’s what we’d choose anyway. Fine. Document that conversation somewhere and move on.
The number that actually matters
Ask one question: if we divorced in three years, what would we each walk away with — and would we both think that’s fair?
If the answer is obvious and mutual, you may not need much. If the answer makes either of you hesitate — because the house is in one name, the business is in another, or the earnings gap is wide — then a prenup isn’t a bet against the marriage.
It’s the cheapest fight you’ll ever avoid.
Next step: pull your state’s real price range with the prenup cost calculator — five seconds, no email. Already know the number? Then read How Much Does a Prenup Cost? for the line items that surprise people.