The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.

Average Cost to Buy French and English Bulldog Puppies

French bulldog puppies cost around £3,100 and English bulldog puppies cost around £3,700 to buy in the UK. If these seem surprisingly high, you're right—Bulldog puppy prices have increased tremendously since before the coronavirus lockdown. We've researched prices so you'll know what to expect to pay for a Bulldog in 2024, including the extra cost to get a health-tested puppy or a particularly desirable colour.

How Much are French and English Bulldog Puppies?

The average cost of a French Bulldog puppy is £3,100 and the average cost of an English Bulldog puppy is £3,700 in the UK. To find these prices, we gathered hundreds of pricing data points for Bulldog puppies for sale in the UK from Pets4Homes, for puppies with a pedigree and without, and for puppies with a health check and without.

In particular, we found that puppies who've had a series of recommended health tests cost a bit more—£500 to £1,000 more on average—but this extra cost helps ensure you're buying a puppy who is less likely to suffer from health problems later in life.

How Much are Bulldog Puppies?French BulldogEnglish Bulldog
Average Puppy Cost£3,100£3,700
Cost of Health-Tested Puppies£4,100£4,200
Cost of Popular colours (e.g., Merle)£4,700£4,400

Popular colours command a significant premium. For example, our data showed that breeders were asking an average price of £4,700 for merle French Bulldog puppies, and £4,400 for English Bulldog puppies—a 50% premium for French Bulldogs (only an 18% premium for English Bulldogs).

Chart showing the average cost of French and English Bulldog puppies
Pay more for a healthy puppy

The most expensive French Bulldog puppy we found for sale was an Isabella (the rarest colour), health-checked puppy for £10,000; the most expensive English Bulldog we found was a "fully suited" girl going for £8,000. The cheapest French Bulldog puppy we found was £1,200; English Bulldog puppy prices started at £1,500.

We should point out also that in 2024, compared to a few years ago, there are now more 'cheap' bulldogs for sale. That is, our price check in 2024 found dozens of puppies for sale for less than £1,500. Perhaps the market is becoming flush with more breeders and dogs.

Huge Increase in Bulldog Prices

Bulldog puppies have essentially more than doubled in price compared to a few years ago.

How Much Have Bulldog Puppies Increased in Price?French BulldogEnglish Bulldog
A few years ago£1,300£1,900
2024£3,100£3,700
Percentage increase138%95%

Why are English Bulldogs so expensive?

One reason English Bulldogs cost so much is that 80% of English Bulldog births are performed via caesarian section due to their large heads. As a result, breeders need to factor in the cost of birthing by a qualified vet to make sure mum and pups are all safe, which contributes to the cost of the puppies. While the average cost of a scheduled dog C-section in the UK is around £800, the cost of a cesarean for litters born at night jumps up to around £1,450.

Other Costs of Bulldog Ownership

Besides the purchase price of your puppy, the other major cost of Bulldog ownership is the cost of health care. Bulldogs are known for recurring health illnesses such as breathing problems, spinal, eye, skin and dental conditions, which can cost their owners hundreds or even thousands of pounds to treat. For this reason we recommend that you also budget enough for pet insurance. The cost of pet insurance for a bulldog starts from under £40 a month for Lifetime cover, but around 1 in 7 bulldog owners pays more than £100 a month for pet insurance.

Compare Pet Insurance Quotes

Find out much it will cost to insure your Bulldog puppy today. One form to fill out.

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FAQs

Cost of bulldog puppy around £3,100, but a French Bulldog puppy with health check certificates can cost over £4,000.
Cost of bulldog puppy around £3,700, but a Bulldog puppy with health check certificates costs around £4,200. We think the additional cost is well worth the extra cost as a healthier pet will save you money in vet bills and pet insurance in the long run.
When choosing an English Bulldog puppy, you'll first want to make sure the puppy came from a good home and breeder—not a puppy farm. That means visiting the puppy's home and ideally meeting both its mother and father. Be wary of anyone who wants to bring a puppy to you—even if they pitch it as for your convenience. Also, look for a puppy that has been health checked.
Puppies tend to act like puppies until 12 to 18 months of age. Until that time you should expect chewing, nipping and other puppy behaviour like the "crazies" when they run around the house like a lunatic! By two years old, they should be very settled and well into "adult" dog behaviour.
Legally, a dog cannot have more than 6 litters of puppies—however the more common guidance for the mother's health is to limit the number to a maximum of 4 litters, or even 3. Before buying a puppy ask how many litters the mother has had.

Change in Number of Bulldog Puppies for Sale

To get an idea of how many more (or less) bulldog puppies are for sale now than a few years ago, we looked back in time at the Pets4Homes website using the Wayback Machine, a tool that saves snapshots of webpages at various points of time. There we found snapshots of the French and English Bulldog 'inventory' from previou years. This shows there were 1,518 French Bulldogs for sale in 2016, 2,954 for sale in 2020, and this is now back down to 1,309 in 2024. So there are essentially twice as many puppies for sale on that platform now than 4 years ago. The number of English Bulldogs for sale on the site has changed from 712 to 1,162 to 351 over the same time period.

Methodology

To find out how much the average Bulldog puppy costs in the UK, we gathered over 250 data points on the cost of French and English Bulldog puppies for sale from Pets4Homes. We looked at the most recently posted ads. This included a mix of puppies that have been health checked and puppies that have not. We analysed this data to determine average costs for each type of Bulldog and also for the additional cost to buy a health-checked puppy, as well as the costs of premium colours.

Comments

The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.