Illustrative ranges for a Chinese wedding's bride price, dowry and wedding-day costs in 5 regions (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia) and 3 tiers. What each family gives is shown separately and never added together, with the mainland rules on when a bride price is returned.
Chinese Wedding Bride Price (聘金计算)
Wedding parameters
How to use
Pick a region
Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan or Malaysia. Amounts are in each region's own currency and are not converted, so regions cannot be compared directly.
Pick an illustrative tier
Economy, Standard and Premium are bands this tool draws, each starting where the one below ends. They are not survey data and not anyone's local going rate.
Read three columns
What the groom's side gives, what the bride's family gives (dowry), and wedding-day costs whose payer varies. The columns are never added together: the first two move in opposite directions, and the bride price often goes back with the dowry.
Mainland: compare with income
For Mainland China the tier's bride price is also shown as a multiple of 2025 per-capita disposable income from the National Bureau of Statistics. The Supreme People's Court tells judges to weigh that income, but where the payer lives; these are national figures, and the ratio is not a legal test.
Chinese bride price in five regions: custom, sample amounts and the law
This tool lists the usual cost lines of a Chinese wedding by region and tier, in each region's own currency. Every amount is an illustrative range the tool sets, not a survey result. We found no official national or provincial bride-price statistics, so the ranges can show what a wedding is made of and which way the money moves, but not what anyone "should" pay.
Why there is no total
The bride price goes from the groom's side to the bride's family; the dowry comes from the bride's family. The two move in opposite directions and are not one party's spending. Many families send part or all of the bride price back with the dowry, and adding the two would then count the same money twice. So the result comes in three columns that are never added together: what the groom's side gives, what the bride's family gives, and wedding-day costs whose payer varies from family to family.
What the tiers mean
Economy, Standard and Premium are bands this tool draws, and each begins where the one below it ends, with no gap between them. They are not anyone's local "going rate". The one national survey we could trace, Tencent News 谷雨数据's 2020 bride-price survey, collected 1,846 answers. The most common single amount was a round ¥100,000 (9.2%), followed by ¥20,000 (7%) and ¥50,000 (6%). The sample is small and self-selected, so it is not a national average. The province-by-province "rankings" that circulate online trace to no source we could find.
What mainland Chinese law says
- Civil Code, Article 1042: arranged and mercenary marriages are prohibited, and so is "demanding property by way of marriage" (借婚姻索取财物). The law sets no ceiling on the amount of a bride price.
- Supreme People's Court Interpretation (I) on the Marriage and Family Book, Article 5 (法释〔2020〕22号, in force 1 January 2021): a court shall uphold a claim for the return of a customary bride price if the couple never registered the marriage; if they registered but never actually lived together; or if it was paid before marriage and left the payer in hardship. The last two apply only on divorce.
- Supreme People's Court Provisions on bride-price disputes (法释〔2024〕1号, in force 1 February 2024): where the couple registered and lived together, a claim on divorce is generally not upheld, but if they lived together only briefly and the amount was excessive, the court may decide whether any is paid back and in what proportion. Whether an amount is excessive is weighed against per-capita disposable income where the payer lives, the payer's family finances and local custom (Art. 5). Where they lived together without registering, the court looks at how the money was used, the dowry, cohabitation, pregnancy, fault and local custom (Art. 6). Small gifts on holidays or birthdays and everyday spending are not bride price (Art. 3). The court says it deliberately set no fixed period of living together.
- Outcomes vary widely: the Supreme People's Court's published typical cases run from nothing paid back to everything. In one registered marriage of a little over a year, the court held ¥188,000 excessive for a low-income family and ordered ¥56,400 of it paid back. That ¥188,000 sits almost exactly at the top of this tool's Standard band for the mainland (¥188,888). In another, a registered couple lived together for ten days and all ¥200,000 went back; in a third, an unregistered couple had lived together for about three and a half years with a child, and none of it did.
- Policy: the central government's No. 1 document named "sky-high bride prices" (天价彩礼) in 2019 and has called for action on bride price every year from 2021 to 2026, the wording moving from 高价 to 高额彩礼.
This describes the legal texts. It is not legal advice; for a live dispute, speak to a lawyer or a legal aid office.
Outside the mainland
- Taiwan: Civil Code Article 979-1 lets either party reclaim gifts made because of an engagement if the engagement is void, dissolved or revoked; Article 979-2 extinguishes that claim if it is not exercised within two years; Article 975 says an engagement cannot be enforced.
- Singapore and Malaysia: we found no provision on bride price or dowry in the table of contents of Singapore's Women's Charter, or in the full text of Malaysia's Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 as reprinted with amendments to 2006. That is a limited search, not proof that no rule exists.
- Malay mas kahwin is not 聘金: Singapore's Administration of Muslim Law Act defines emas kahwin as the obligatory marriage payment due under Muslim law from the husband to the wife when the marriage is solemnised. The Chinese bride price is customary and goes to the bride's family. They are different institutions.
- Hong Kong: this tool makes no statement about Hong Kong law.
This tool's limitations
(1) The amounts are illustrative ranges, not quotes, and carry no accuracy figure; (2) each region is in its own currency and nothing is converted; (3) wedding dress, honeymoon, home purchase and wedding cars are not included, though the Supreme People's Court's 2026 typical cases treat house and car money given with marriage in view as bride price; (4) Three Gold and Five Gold are fixed amounts, and the tool reads no gold price; (5) Hong Kong's "Guo Da Li gift items" line excludes the cash, which has its own line; (6) the income comparison applies to the mainland only and uses national figures.
Sources
- Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, Supreme People's Court Gazette: gongbao.court.gov.cn
- 法释〔2020〕22号: court.gov.cn/fabu/xiangqing/282071
- 法释〔2024〕1号: court.gov.cn/fabu/xiangqing/423442; press release: 423432
- Supreme People's Court typical bride-price cases: batch 1, 419922 (Dec 2023); batch 3, 486051 (Jan 2026)
- No. 1 central documents: 2019, gov.cn; 2026, gov.cn
- National Bureau of Statistics, 2025 household income and consumption (19 Jan 2026): stats.gov.cn
- Taiwan Civil Code, Laws & Regulations Database: law.moj.gov.tw
- Singapore Administration of Muslim Law Act, s. 2: sso.agc.gov.sg
- Tencent News 谷雨数据, 2020 bride-price survey, via CBNData's authorised republication: cbndata.com
- Xinhua, 新华视点 (15 Feb 2023): news.cn, news.cn
No statutory ceiling on a bride price, but courts can order it back
No statute caps a bride price in mainland China. Civil Code Article 1042 bans mercenary marriage and "demanding property by way of marriage": the target is extortion, not the size of a gift.
A couple who registered and lived together generally keep the bride price on divorce. The exception is a short marriage with an excessive amount, where the court sets a proportion (法释〔2024〕1号 Art. 5, in force 1 February 2024).
"Excessive" is judged against income where the payer lives, together with family finances and local custom. NBS per-capita disposable income for 2025 was ¥43,377 nationally, ¥56,502 urban and ¥24,456 rural; this tool sets each mainland tier against those three figures.
There is no "after so many years you keep it" rule. The Supreme People's Court said a fixed period could itself harm one party, so the provisions name none.
What counts as bride price: small holiday or birthday gifts and everyday spending do not (Art. 3). In the court's typical cases, money for a house or car given with marriage in view does, and so did a transfer annotated "五金" (five gold).
China's No. 1 central document named "sky-high bride prices" in 2019, and has named bride price every year from 2021 to 2026; the 2025 and 2026 documents single out high bride prices in rural areas.
The commonest amount was a round number, not 8888: in Tencent 谷雨数据's 2020 survey of 1,846 answers, ¥100,000 came up most often (9.2%). Lucky figures such as 88888 and 66000 appear too, but less often.
Local "going rates" exist: Xinhua reported in 2023 that in northern Jiangxi the rate had climbed from ¥88,000 to ¥188,000 and ¥288,000, and now usually stood at ¥388,000, while Yanhu district in Yuncheng, Shanxi wrote a ¥60,000 cap into village rules. Village rules are not law.
The dowry: the Supreme People's Court notes that, traditionally, whatever dowry survives a divorce belongs to the woman, and that when a bride price is paid back, dowry already spent or merged into the man's property is deducted.
Taiwan has its own rule: Civil Code Article 979-1 lets gifts made because of an engagement be reclaimed if it is void, dissolved or revoked, and Article 979-2 ends that claim after two years.
Mas kahwin is not 聘金: in Singapore law it is the obligatory payment under Muslim law from husband to wife, while the Chinese bride price is customary and goes to the bride's family.
Pairs with Wedding Date Selector, Bazi Match and Baby-Parent Zodiac.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. It is a custom, and no law requires it. In mainland China, Civil Code Article 1042 goes the other way and bans "demanding property by way of marriage". Whether to give one, and how much, is for the two families.
Under the Supreme People's Court's rules a court shall uphold a claim where the couple never registered, registered but never lived together, or where payment before marriage left the payer in hardship (the last two on divorce only). A registered couple who lived together generally keep it, unless the marriage was short and the amount excessive. For an unregistered couple who lived together, the court weighs how the money was used, the dowry, cohabitation, pregnancy, fault and local custom. There is no fixed period and no fixed share. This is not legal advice.
Not in mainland China. A court decides afterwards whether an amount was excessive, weighing per-capita disposable income where the payer lives, the family's finances and local custom. Some villages write caps into their village rules, but those are not law.
Traditionally the groom's family (his parents) pays the bride's family (her parents), though families differ. In a mainland betrothal-property dispute, parents who actually paid or received it can be parties; in a divorce, only the spouses are (法释〔2024〕1号 Art. 4).
This tool does not recommend an amount. Its ranges are illustrations, not standards. For Mainland China it shows the bride price as a multiple of national per-capita disposable income, because that is the measure the Supreme People's Court names for "excessive"; a court, though, uses the figure for where the payer lives and also looks at the family's circumstances.
They are illustrative ranges the tool sets, not survey results, so they carry no accuracy figure. We found no official national or provincial bride-price statistics; the only national survey we could trace is a self-selected 2020 survey of 1,846 answers. For real costs, go by what the families agree and by vendors' quotes.
Because the bride price and the dowry are money moving in opposite directions between two families, not one party's spending, and part or all of the bride price often goes back with the dowry, so adding them would count the same money twice. The result is three columns, each with its own subtotal: what the groom's side gives, what the bride's family gives, and wedding-day costs.
Not in this tool. It reads no gold price: Three Gold and Five Gold are fixed illustrative ranges. Real gold jewellery moves with the gold price and the workmanship charge, so go by a jeweller's quote.
No. Singapore's Administration of Muslim Law Act defines emas kahwin as the obligatory marriage payment under Muslim law from the husband to the wife when the marriage is solemnised. The Chinese bride price is customary and goes to the bride's family. This tool covers only the Chinese bride price.
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