How much is the Iran war costing taxpayers? Here's what estimates show

The first six days of war in Iran cost U.S. taxpayers at least $11.3 billion in munitions alone, according to Pentagon estimates reviewed by lawmakers, and experts say the final cost will only increase. That total does not include the cost of operating and maintaining the military force engaged in the war or battle damage sustained from Iran’s attacks.

The military used about $5.6 billion in munitions in the first two days of the conflict, according to a person with knowledge of the estimate. The munitions cost was first reported by The Washington Post.

The money spent on munitions, and the added expense of any damage done to U.S. military infrastructure by Iran's retaliatory attacks on U.S. bases, aren't factored into the Pentagon's yearly trillion-dollar budget. Given this deficit, President Donald Trump could ask Congress for more money to fund the war, but no such request has been submitted as yet.

The United States and Israel launched joint attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, bringing to an abrupt end at least a year of negotiations between the Trump administration and the country over its nuclear program. Since then, U.S. and Israeli forces have killed many of Iran's top political and military leaders and launched a bombing campaign that has killed more than 1,200 Iranians. Iran launched retaliatory attacks on U.S. bases and allies in the region that have killed seven U.S. servicemembers and wounded at least 140.

Trump officials have refused to lay out a definitive timeline for the war. Trump told reporters on March 9 that it is "very complete" and will wrap up "very soon," without elaborating on when it would end.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said at a news conference the following day, "Today will be, yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran."

The Pentagon has declined to provide further comment on the war's cost.

First days of war cost nearly $1 billion per day

Democratic lawmakers – including Sens. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland – have cited a daily cost of the war of about $1 billion, based on media reports. According to a cost analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in the first 100 hours of the war, the U.S. military burned through an estimated $891.4 million per day, for a total of $3.7 billion.

"I’ve heard the $1 billion a day number," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, told USA TODAY, adding he couldn't fully confirm its veracity.

"I’ve asked this question before, and it’s been avoided by the top Pentagon officials. They have been totally unforthcoming about the cost. So I’m not holding my breath," he added.

Before entering a classified briefing with military leaders on March 10, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, told reporters, "While there is no money for 15 million Americans who lost their health care, there's a billion dollars a day to spend on bombing Iran."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-South Carolina, among the leading war hawks on the Hill, called the reported $1 billion daily Iran war cost the "best money ever spent."

"What's it worth to America to take down a religious Nazi regime who's trying to build a nuclear weapon to deliver to America? That's a really good investment," he told Fox News on March 8.

The $11.3 billion spent on munitions in the war's first days is more than Congress allocated to the National Cancer Institute – $7.4 billion. And it is nearly as much as the $12.4 billion Congress marked off for Head Start, the widely used preschool program for low-income children across the United States.

Munitions eat up greatest portion of cost

The CSIS report estimated that the vast majority of the cost for 100 hours of war – about $3.1 billion out of $3.7 billion – represents the value of expended munitions.

The daily cost will likely diminish as the U.S. military shifts from firing the expensive weapons it used in the first few days to hit Iran from afar to dropping free-falling bombs, now that Iran's air defenses have been degraded, according to Mark Cancian, senior adviser for the center's defense and security department, who coauthored the report.

"The costs were very high for the first couple of days," Cancian said. Going forward, the cost will be "probably half that," since "we're using much less expensive munitions," he added.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said on the fourth day of the war, the United States used more than 2,000 munitions to hit nearly as many targets.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on March 4 that the military was shifting from using "large, deliberate" weapons fired from outside the reach of Iran's defenses to "precision strikes" with weapons like free-falling Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs, and Hellfire missiles, which hit targets up to 15 miles and 6 miles away, respectively.

Those are much cheaper than the long-range weapons the U.S. military was launching at Iran in the war's first few days, such as Tomahawk missiles, which cost about $3.6 million apiece, as compared with the $80,000 price tag for a JDAM, according to the CSIS report.

The United States also fired dozens of expensive Patriot and THAAD missile interceptors in the war's first 100 hours to defend against Iran's attacks targeting U.S. bases and its allies in the region. All told, defensive munitions used in that span cost more than $1.6 billion, the report found.

Those costs could drop as the United States takes out more of Iran's ballistic missile launchers. Caine told reporters on March 10 that Iran's ballistic missile attacks "continue to trend downward 90%" and its one-way attack drones have "decreased 83%" since the beginning of the war.

But the cost of operating the massive U.S. naval fleet stationed in the Middle East will steadily grow by about $15.4 million every day, the report found.

Long-term costs could quickly add up

Heidi Peltier, a senior researcher at Brown University's Costs of War project, said any specific dollar figure for the war's cost would be "in some sense, always an underestimate."

If the military's attacks on Iran intensify, "the cost per day might not go down, even if the cost per weapon is going down," Peltier said.

Peltier noted that the war is being funded through debt that will carry extra interest costs. Other costs will compound down the line, like "obligations to veterans serving in this war," as well as economic impacts, some already emerging as the conflict threatens to engulf the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping channel.

Past precedent for the United States' wars in the Middle East suggests the final price tag could dwarf current estimates, according to Peltier.

While initial cost estimates of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were around $50 billion to $60 billion, they ended up costing a combined $8 trillion, according to analysis by Costs of War.

Speaking on the Senate floor on March 11, day 12 of the Iran war, Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said reports have said Trump could ask for "potentially more than $50 billion" in emergency funding for the war.

The day prior, Reed sent a letter to Hegseth urging the Trump administration to provide more information to Congress about the daily cost of the war, how much more money the military may request to support troops in the region and when Hegseth plans to request it.

"The American people deserve to know what this war is costing in blood and treasure," he wrote.