How much does university cost in Canada?

A university bill has more lines than tuition. Here, a first-year total adds four things. They are tuition, the fees every full-time student must pay, a residence room and the meal plan that goes with it. We add books only when the university prints its own book estimate. Travel, a laptop, a phone plan and spending money are left out. Your real budget will be higher than the chart.

Each school uses its own words for fees. Waterloo calls them incidental fees. Toronto lists an incidental and system access fee. McGill splits its charges into seven lines. Where a school prints its own total, we use that total. Where it only prints the parts, we add them to the cent. No figure here is rounded by us, projected forward or adjusted for inflation.

Domestic totals ran from $21,671.30 at UBC to $34,475.77 at McGill. International totals ran from $45,968.00 at Dalhousie to $86,650.13 at Toronto. Each row is one program and one room at one school. A different room or program gives a different number. Use the chart to see the size of the gaps. Don't pick a school on price alone.

The rows aren't all built the same way, so read the status column. Alberta prints a single estimate for a Canadian Arts student in residence, and we copy it. Dalhousie prints ranges, so its rows use the low end of each range. Waterloo prints rounded tuition-and-fee estimates. The other rows are our exact sums of published charges.

Most rows describe an Arts program. Arts sits near the low end of the price list at most schools. Engineering, business and computer science usually cost more. Check the line for your own program before you copy any total.

Domestic doesn't mean one price everywhere in Canada. Many schools charge more to Canadians from another province. U of T Mississauga lists 2026-27 tuition of $6,220 for Ontario students and $7,610 for other domestic students. Waterloo's Arts estimate is $9,000 for Ontario residents and $10,000 for Canadians living outside Ontario.

McGill has a separate rate for Canadians from outside Quebec. Our McGill domestic row uses that rate, because many readers live in Ontario. Its BA estimate for this group is $15,594.52 in fees before housing. Quebec residents pay a different rate, so open the table that matches your home province.

Some schools charge every domestic student the same. UBC charges $206.69 per credit for domestic Arts students. A 30-credit first year comes to $6,200.70 in tuition. Alberta's estimate uses $7,200 in tuition for a Canadian Arts student. Dalhousie gives one domestic range of $10,790 to $13,462 for tuition and fees.

For an international student, tuition is the largest line by far. Toronto's 2026-27 program fee for first-year Arts & Science is $66,110.00. UBC lists $51,530.40 for a 30-credit Arts year. McGill's BA estimate starts with $54,000.00 in tuition. Alberta's Fall 2026 Arts rate is $39,233. A room costs about the same for everyone at a given school, so most of the gap is tuition.

Health coverage is another line that changes by school. Toronto's international total includes $948.00 for UHIP, the plan for international students. Ottawa's example adds $316.00 per term for UHIP. UBC charges $204.30 for iMED, a 90-day plan for new international students. After that, British Columbia charges international students $75 a month for provincial coverage. That monthly fee isn't in our UBC row.

Several schools promise how tuition will change. McGill says new international BA students keep the same cost per credit, as long as they don't break enrolment or switch programs. UBC says tuition for new international students will rise no more than 3% a year for the next 4 years. Alberta gives international students a tuition guarantee for their program. Read each promise for its conditions.

In most of our examples, a room and meals cost more than domestic tuition. Waterloo's Village 1 double is $8,254 for eight months. With the required Traditional B meal plan at $4,020 a term, Waterloo's own total is $16,294. New College at Toronto lists $17,520 for a double room with the Access 10 plan. That price also covers utilities and internet.

Ottawa's traditional double was $16,403 for 2026-27, including the required 5-day meal plan. The single was $18,733. UBC's Totem Park shared room is $6,376.00, plus a $7,712.32 meal plan, for $14,088.32 in total. That contract runs from September 5, 2026 to April 28, 2027.

McGill bills rent by the month. A McConnell Hall double is $1,325 a month on an 8.45-month lease. That's $11,196.25 by our math. McGill then adds a $6,150 meal plan, $500 in oneCard Flex and a $35 activity fee. Your own room choice can move these totals by thousands of dollars, so price the room you'd actually choose.

Ontario has one application system, but each university sets its own fees and residence prices. Among our Ontario rows, Ottawa had the lowest domestic total at $23,982.43. Toronto came to $25,812.13. Waterloo came to $26,794.00, which includes its $1,500 book estimate. The domestic spread was under $3,000.

The spread grows for international students. Waterloo came to $75,794.00, Ottawa to $81,568.81 and Toronto to $86,650.13. Ottawa's international example already includes UHIP, as Toronto's does. Waterloo says its incidental fees include health and dental plans.

For a program-by-program Ontario view, read our Ontario first-year cost comparison. Each school also has its own guide, such as Toronto tuition and fees, Waterloo tuition and fees, Ottawa tuition and fees and Queen's tuition and fees. If you live in Ontario, the OSAP guide explains how provincial aid works.

Alberta prints the clearest single estimate. For a Canadian student in general Arts, it lists $7,200 for tuition and $3,700 for books, supplies and fees. Residence with a meal plan is $14,800+, based on a single room with a private washroom in Schäffer Hall and a seven-day plan. Its total is $25,700. The plus sign means the room figure is a starting point, not a cap.

Alberta's international viewbook uses a different residence figure, $14,200+, and adds $3,700+ for books, supplies and fees. We use each publication's own numbers for its own row. Dalhousie publishes ranges based on approved 2026-2027 rates. The domestic range for tuition and fees is $10,790 to $13,462. Residence with meals is $12,877 to $16,792.

Dalhousie's high-end domestic total would be $30,254.00 by our math, and its high-end international total would be $68,295.00. For more detail, read UBC tuition and fees, McGill tuition and fees, Alberta tuition and fees and Dalhousie tuition and fees.

Book costs depend on your courses, so many schools don't print one figure. We only add books when the school gives its own estimate. Waterloo estimates $1,500 for most programs and $8,100 for Architecture, which also covers a laptop, studio supplies and field trips. McGill says to expect about $1,000 for books over an 8-month undergraduate year.

Alberta folds books into a $3,700 line with supplies and fees. U of T Mississauga suggests about $1,000 to $2,000 for books, but our Toronto rows use St. George, so we left that UTM number out. The UBC, Ottawa and Dalhousie rows have no book line. Their real totals will be higher once you buy your course materials.

On October 19, 2026, the schools in our chart had not posted 2027-28 tuition in the pages we checked. Every total here uses 2026-27 figures, so treat them as a starting point. Note the year beside every number you copy.

Ottawa is the one school here that already lists 2027-2028 residence prices. Its traditional double with the 5-day meal plan rises to $16,863. The 5-day meal plan alone goes from $7,125 to $7,400. McGill tells out-of-province BA students to expect yearly increases, with the rate known about 9 months before a fall term. Alberta's viewbook shows a Year 2 (2027) column, but that column is for students who started in 2026.

Start with the program you want, then find that school's tuition table for your fee status. Add the required student fees and any health plan. Next, pick a real room and add its meal plan. Add books if the school prints a figure, or price your own course list. Then add travel, a phone plan and personal spending, which no chart here includes.

Last, take away the money you expect to receive. That might be a scholarship you've been offered, provincial student aid or family savings. Our guide to paying for university walks families through those choices. The university cost calculator lets you enter your own choices.