Should I repair or replace my toilet?

Repair when the porcelain is sound and a wear part has failed: a running toilet is usually the flapper ($5–$25), a slow or hissing fill is the fill valve ($10–$40), and water at the base means the wax ring ($150–$300 to reset by a plumber). Replace when the tank or bowl is cracked and weeping, when it clogs again and again with a clear drain line, when it is a pre-1994 high-flow toilet that needs a repair anyway, or when the repair passes about half the cost of a new installed toilet on an old one.

Why does my toilet keep running?

Usually a worn flapper, the rubber seal at the bottom of the tank. Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank and wait 15 minutes without flushing. If color shows up in the bowl, the flapper is leaking. A new flapper is $5–$25.

How much water does an old toilet use?

Toilets made since 1994 are limited by federal law to 1.6 gallons per flush. Older ones commonly use 3.5 gallons, and the EPA says older, inefficient toilets can use as much as 6 gallons per flush. WaterSense labeled toilets use 1.28 gallons or less. The EPA estimates an average family replacing old, inefficient toilets with WaterSense models saves nearly 13,000 gallons and more than $170 a year in water costs.

What does a new toilet cost installed in 2026?

$350–$1,000 for a standard two-piece or one-piece toilet, including removing the old one. Wall-hung and smart toilets cost well past that. A plumber visit for a tank repair is $150–$350, and a reset with a new wax ring is $150–$300, plus $100–$300 if the flange needs repair.

What if the floor around my toilet is soft?

A wax ring that has leaked for months can rot the subfloor around the flange. Have the plumber check the subfloor while the toilet is off. Repairing a small section then is far cheaper than finding the damage later from the ceiling below.

Repair or replace a toilet?

A toilet is mostly a porcelain shell with a handful of cheap moving parts inside the tank. The shell almost never wears out; the parts wear out all the time. That makes most toilet problems a $5–$40 part or a $150–$350 plumber visit, not a new toilet. The exceptions are a cracked shell, a toilet that keeps clogging because of how it was designed, and an old high-flow toilet that is spending real money on water every year it stays.

What to repair

Repair when the porcelain is sound and the problem is one of the wear parts:

It runs or refills on its own. Almost always the flapper, the rubber seal at the bottom of the tank. Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank and wait 15 minutes without flushing. If color shows up in the bowl, the flapper is leaking. A new one is $5–$25.
It fills slowly, hisses, or will not stop filling. The fill valve, the tower on the left side of the tank. A new one is $10–$40, and it is a common do-it-yourself job.
The handle is loose or the flush is weak. A handle, chain, or flush valve adjustment, usually a few dollars.
Water on the floor at the base, or the toilet rocks. The wax ring under the toilet has failed, or the bolts holding it down have loosened. The toilet comes up, gets a new wax ring, and goes back down: $150–$300 by a plumber, more if the flange it bolts to is broken.
Water at the tank bolts or the supply line. New tank-to-bowl gaskets or a new supply line, both cheap parts.

Shut the water off at the valve behind the toilet before you open anything up. If that valve will not turn or drips when it does, replace it too; it is the only thing between a failed fill valve and a flooded floor.

When to replace it

Replace the toilet when:

The tank or bowl is cracked. A hairline crack above the waterline can be cosmetic, but a crack that weeps water is not repairable. It can let go all at once.
It clogs over and over with normal use, and a plumber has ruled out a blockage in the drain line. Some early low-flow toilets from the 1990s were designed poorly and never flushed well.
It is an old high-flow toilet. Look for a date stamped inside the tank, usually on the underside of the lid or the back wall. Toilets made since 1994 are limited by federal law to 1.6 gallons per flush. Older ones commonly use 3.5 gallons, and the EPA says older, inefficient toilets can use as much as 6 gallons per flush.
The repair bill passes about half the cost of a new installed toilet on a toilet that is old, stained, or hard to find parts for.

The water math on an old toilet

The EPA's WaterSense program says toilets account for nearly 30 percent of an average home's indoor water use. Its labeled models use 1.28 gallons per flush or less, 20 percent less than the current federal standard of 1.6 gallons. By the EPA's estimate, an average family that replaces old, inefficient toilets with WaterSense labeled models can cut the water used for toilets by 20 to 60 percent, which is nearly 13,000 gallons a year, and save more than $170 a year in water costs.

Those are national averages for a family replacing its old toilets, not a promise for one toilet in your house. They are the reason a pre-1994 toilet that needs a repair is usually the one to replace. A toilet made in the last 20 years is already at 1.6 gallons or less, and the saving from swapping it for a 1.28-gallon model is small. Some water utilities offer a rebate on WaterSense labeled toilets, so check yours before you buy.

Check the floor while the toilet is up

A wax ring that has leaked for months can rot the subfloor around the flange. If the floor around the toilet feels soft, or the toilet rocks again soon after it was reset, the plumber should look at the subfloor while the toilet is off. Fixing a small section of subfloor then is far cheaper than finding it later from the ceiling below.

What it costs in 2026

Flapper: $5–$25 for the part.
Fill valve: $10–$40 for the part.
Plumber visit for a tank repair: $150–$350.
Reset with a new wax ring: $150–$300, plus $100–$300 if the flange needs repair.
New toilet, installed: $350–$1,000 for a standard two-piece or one-piece toilet, including removing the old one. Wall-hung toilets and smart toilets cost well past that.

See our methodology for how we build these bands. A repair over about half the installed price, on an old toilet, is the point where replacing it is usually the better spend.

Toilets and the rest of the plumbing

A toilet is the cheapest fixture in the house to replace, so it is rarely the plumbing decision that matters most. If you are seeing leaks in several places, low pressure, or discolored water, the pipes are the bigger question. Our guide on when to repipe a house covers how to tell, and our water heater and sewer lateral guide covers the two other plumbing parts that fail on a schedule.

The bottom line

Fix the parts; replace the shell. A running toilet is a $5–$25 flapper, a slow fill is a $10–$40 fill valve, and a leak at the base is a $150–$300 reset with a new wax ring. Replace the toilet when the porcelain is cracked and weeping, when it clogs again and again with a clear drain, or when it is a pre-1994 toilet that needs a repair anyway. A new toilet installed is $350–$1,000.