March for Peace
+ DemocracyOct 23 · Washington, DC
Counted, sourced, and in plain sight

The cost

What these wars cost in human lives and in our tax dollars. Every number on this page links to its source. Where sources disagree, we tell you.

The war in Iran

Day 211 · since Feb. 28, 2026
Estimated cost to U.S. taxpayers, counting up in real time
$45,100,000,000

About $341 per American household. Since you opened this page: $0.

Starts from the Pentagon's own figure reported to Congress, $45.1 billion through Sept. 3 (CNN, Washington Post), and adds about $82 million a day, the midpoint of the Congressional Budget Office's projection of $2–3 billion a month (Taxpayers for Common Sense). Independent analysts put the true cost far higher.

22+
American service members killed

At least 22, according to five U.S. officials; the Pentagon's public tally shows 19. More than 820 wounded. Washington Post, Sept. 22, 2026

3,636+
people killed in Iran, including 1,701 civilians and at least 254 children

Documented by the rights group HRANA through April 7. Iran's government reports a similar 3,528. Heavy fighting has resumed since, so the true toll is higher. Compiled sources

8,000–10,600
people killed across the region, in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Iraq and the Gulf

Range across compiled government, UN and independent counts, including more than 4,000 dead in Lebanon. Compiled sources

Why the ranges? Wartime death tolls are hard to count. Governments hide military losses, and whole areas can't be reached. We use the most carefully documented figures and say so when the real number is likely higher.

Gaza, and our role in it

Since Oct. 7, 2023
74,016
Palestinians killed, and 175,068 wounded

Gaza Ministry of Health, Sept. 26, 2026. That includes 1,145 people killed since the October 2025 ceasefire. UN agencies consider the ministry's records generally reliable. AP via ABC News

$21.7 billion
in U.S. military aid to Israel in the first two years of the war

$17.9B in year one and $3.8B in year two, not counting tens of billions more in arms sales still to be delivered. Costs of War Project, Brown University

90,000+ tons
of U.S. weapons and military equipment shipped to Israel by May 2025

800 cargo planes and 140 ships, according to Israel's Defense Ministry. Times of Israel

115,600+ tons
more flown and shipped to Israel in the first two months of the Iran war, from the U.S. and elsewhere

403 airlifts and 10 sealifts since Feb. 28, Israel's Defense Ministry said in April 2026. Jerusalem Post

$31.35B+
total U.S. spending on Israel's war and related U.S. operations in the region, Oct. 2023 to Sept. 2025

Military aid plus $9.65–12.07B for U.S. operations in Yemen and the wider region; the full range is $31.35–33.77B. Costs of War Project

$3.8B
every year in baseline U.S. military aid to Israel, before any wartime extras

Under the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding, which covers 2019–2028. Congressional Research Service

To put that in perspective: In its first six months, the bombing of Gaza dropped about twice the explosives that fell on London, Hamburg and Dresden, the most notorious bombings of World War II, combined. Gaza is about twice the size of Washington, DC.

Gaza, 70,000+ tons by April 2024: Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. WWII, about 37,000 tons combined: London 24,000 (World History Encyclopedia, the highest published estimate), Hamburg 9,000 (Operation Gomorrah), Dresden 3,900 (Feb. 1945 raids).

The cost to the American public

At the pump, the store and beyond
$102.8 billion
extra that Americans have paid for gas and diesel since the war began. That's about $769 per household, on top of the war's cost to taxpayers above.

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, fuel-cost tracker, as of Sept. 27, 2026. Compares actual prices with normal seasonal prices. itep.org

$4.31
a gallon for regular gas, up from $2.98 the day before the war: +45%

AAA national average, Sept. 14, 2026 (WJAR). Pre-war price: Center for American Progress

$6.28
a gallon for diesel, an all-time U.S. record: +78% since the war began

National average, Sept. 14, 2026. The Conversation (Colorado School of Mines)

~$1,000
per household by June in higher costs for gas, groceries, airfare and interest rates, and "if anything, conservative"

Mark Zandi, chief economist, Moody's Analytics. CBS News, June 29, 2026

Why diesel matters: diesel moves nearly everything you buy. It runs the trucks, trains, ships and farm equipment that get food to your grocery store. This year, higher diesel prices alone added more than $1.4 billion to the cost of planting America's major crops, up 63%. You'll see it at the checkout counter, in delivery fees and in airfare.

Congressional Joint Economic Committee analysis, via The Conversation, Sept. 2026

Cuba

Fuel blockade since January 2026

In January 2026, on top of a trade embargo more than six decades old, the U.S. moved to cut off Cuba's fuel. An executive order threatened tariffs on any country that sells Cuba oil. UN human-rights experts have called the result "energy starvation."

Without fuel, the power grid fails, and with it hospitals, water pumps, refrigeration and food production. Ordinary Cubans pay the price, not governments.

Sources: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, May 2026; ACAPS humanitarian analysis; compiled reporting.

20–22 hrs
of blackout a day in parts of the country, after a nationwide grid collapse in March
~60%
drop in food production by June 2026, per the UN
~30%
of normal medicine supply available

How we count

We only use figures from governments, the UN, academic research projects, established human-rights monitors and major news organizations, and we link every one. When sources disagree we show the range or the more conservative number, and we say when the real toll is likely higher.

The live cost counter is an estimate. It starts from the Pentagon's own reported figure and adds the Congressional Budget Office's projected monthly cost. Per-household figures divide by the roughly 132 million U.S. households counted by the Census Bureau.

Numbers last checked September 27, 2026. Spotted an error or a newer figure? Email [email protected]. We'd rather be right than loud.

Sources

  1. CNN, "Iran war has cost $45.1 billion, Pentagon tells Congress," Sept. 18, 2026. cnn.com
  2. Washington Post, "Iran war cost is now at least $43.6 billion, U.S. Central Command says," Sept. 18, 2026. washingtonpost.com
  3. Taxpayers for Common Sense, "The Cost of the Iran War Keeps Growing" (CBO: $38B through Aug. 1; $2–3B per additional month). taxpayer.net
  4. Washington Post, "Another U.S. service member dies amid Iran war, Pentagon tally shows," Sept. 22, 2026. washingtonpost.com
  5. Casualties of the 2026 Iran war: compiled figures from HRANA, Iran's Health Ministry, UN OCHA and regional governments. wikipedia.org
  6. Associated Press, "Palestinian death toll in Gaza war rises above 74,000," Sept. 27, 2026. abcnews.com
  7. William D. Hartung, "U.S. Military Aid and Arms Transfers to Israel, October 2023 – September 2025," Costs of War Project, Brown University, Oct. 2025. costsofwar.watson.brown.edu
  8. Times of Israel, "Israel marks 800th planeload of US guns, bombs and ammo as war nears day 600," May 2025. timesofisrael.com
  9. Jerusalem Post, "US ships 6,500 tons of equipment, munitions to Israel in 24 hours," April 2026 (115,600+ tons since Feb. 28). jpost.com
  10. Congressional Research Service, "U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel" (RL33222). congress.gov
  11. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, "200 days of military attack on Gaza," Apr. 24, 2024 (70,000+ tons of explosives). euromedmonitor.org
  12. WWII bombing tonnage: London (World History Encyclopedia), Hamburg (wikipedia.org), Dresden (wikipedia.org).
  13. Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, "Iran War Fuel Costs" tracker, as of Sept. 27, 2026. itep.org
  14. WJAR, "After six months of war with Iran, gas prices continue to rise" (AAA national average), Sept. 14, 2026. turnto10.com
  15. Center for American Progress, "State-by-State Increases in Gas Prices Since Trump's War on Iran" (pre-war baseline). americanprogress.org
  16. Morgan Bazilian and Jamie Webster, "Iran war pushes diesel to record high prices," The Conversation, Sept. 17, 2026. theconversation.com
  17. CBS News, "Iran war has cost Americans $1,000 per household, economist estimates," June 29, 2026. cbsnews.com
  18. UN OHCHR, "United States must end 'energy starvation' of Cuba," May 2026. ohchr.org
  19. 2026 United States fuel blockade on Cuba: compiled reporting including UN figures on blackouts, food and medicine. wikipedia.org