Tool · Updated August 10, 2026

Cremation or burial: cost comparison tool

Put your two quotes side by side, line by line, and see where the gap actually opens up. This tool supplies no average price: it only calculates your own numbers.

This tool does your own arithmetic, in your browser. It does not calculate a premium and it transmits nothing: no figure you enter here ever reaches us. The result is an estimate based on your numbers, not a quote. Learn more.

This tool contains no prices — no funeral prices and no insurance prices. It adds up two columns of amounts that you copy from your own written quotes.

Why we do not give you an average. We looked for a reliable public breakdown of what a cremation costs compared with a burial in Québec, line by line. It does not exist. The figures in circulation compare different bundles of services: a bare-bones cremation against a full funeral. Rather than serve you an invented average, this tool has you enter your two real quotes.

What the comparison almost always shows. Look at the list below: the method of disposing of the body takes up a single line. Every other item — transport, visitation, funeral service, death notice, director's services — is identical in both cases. The real gap plays out on three lines: the container, the space at the cemetery or columbarium, and the monument.

How to get the two columns. The Office de la protection du consommateur regulates funeral service contracts in Québec. Ask the funeral home for a detailed written quote for each scenario, then copy the amounts here.

Your two quotes, line by line

Leave at zero any item that does not apply to the scenario. Amounts are in dollars.

Funeral director's servicesDirection, coordination, administration

Funeral director's services — cremation

Funeral director's services — burial

Transport, storage and preservation of the body

Transport and storage — cremation

Transport and storage — burial

EmbalmingRequired if there is a visitation, in both scenarios

Embalming — cremation

Embalming — burial

CasketOften a rental for the visitation on the cremation side, a purchase on the burial side

Casket — cremation

Casket — burial

Urn or keepsake container

Urn or keepsake container — cremation

Urn or keepsake container — burial

Disposition of the bodyCremation on one side, interment on the other. The only line where the two methods differ by nature.

Cremation of the body — cremation

Interment — burial

Visitation and funeral service

Visitation and funeral service — cremation

Visitation and funeral service — burial

Space at the columbarium or cemeteryA niche or a crypt on one side, a plot on the other. They compare neither in size nor in price.

Columbarium niche — cremation

Cemetery plot — burial

Plaque or monument

Columbarium plaque — cremation

Headstone — burial

Death notice, cards and memorial bookmarks

Death notice and cards — cremation

Death notice and cards — burial

Other costsFlowers, reception, opening and closing the grave, taxes

Other costs — cremation

Other costs — burial

The totals update as you type.

Your two totals

Calculated only from the amounts you entered.

Cremation

Burial

Difference between the two scenarios $0

Nothing to compare yet. Fill in at least one item in one of the two columns.

Plan for these costs in advance One request, with partners licensed in Québec. Free and with no obligation.

Sources

No average, no price list and no constant is used in this calculation. Both totals come entirely from the amounts you enter.
The list of items follows the expenses recognized by Retraite Québec for the death benefit, which is the only official list of what a funeral bill is made of (accessed August 2026): retraitequebec.gouv.qc.ca
Office de la protection du consommateur, funeral services and prearranged arrangements (accessed August 2026): opc.gouv.qc.ca
Our detailed guide: Cremation or burial in Québec: what each choice costs

This result is an arithmetic comparison of two sets of amounts you entered yourself. It is not a funeral quote, not an insurance quote, not a price, and not a recommendation in favour of either option. Only a funeral home can give you a written quote. Nothing you enter in this tool is transmitted, recorded or stored: the entire calculation runs in your browser.

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