The State of Lease Prices: August 2026

The headline numbers

The median advertised lease in August 2026 is $469 a month. The range is enormous: the cheapest lease any manufacturer is advertising is the Chevrolet Trailblazer at $149, and the most expensive is the Land Rover Range Rover P400 SE SWB at $1,879 — a spread of more than 13×.

56 models lease for under $300 a month; 34 ask more than $1,000. 73.4% of offers are 36-month terms, which is why almost every comparison you see quoted is a 36-month figure.

Sedans lease higher than SUVs

The intuitive ordering is wrong. Sedans carry a higher median payment than SUVs, because the sedan segment has hollowed out at the bottom — what remains is disproportionately luxury, while SUVs still span everything from a $149 subcompact upward.

The monthly turnover is mostly theatre

Lease programmes are re-published every month, which creates an impression of constant movement. Comparing the same model, in the same market, on the same term across July and August 2026, most payments simply did not move: 127 of 167 (76%) were identical, 25 rose and 15 fell. The median change was $0.

The averages hide the one thing that did happen. Ford re-priced every single one of its 18 comparable offers, by a mean of $112 a month, while Mazda held 59 of 60 flat. When a headline says “lease prices rose this month”, it is usually one manufacturer moving, not a market.

Scoped to the 6 brands we tracked in both months, and to offers that pair exactly on model, market and term. It is not a market-wide index — see the method note below.

Cheapest and most expensive brands

Method, and how to cite this

Every figure comes from offers published by the manufacturers themselves — the same data behind the model pages on this site — captured in August 2026 across 35 brands, 286 models and 2,463 individual offers. No dealer listings and no estimates.

Two choices are worth stating, because both change the answer. Headline medians are per model, not per offer: brands differ enormously in how many metros they advertise separately, and a per-offer median would measure that rather than what a lease costs. (The per-offer median is $449.) And the month-over-month comparison is matched — the same model, market and term in both months — never a comparison of one month’s median against another’s, which would mostly reflect changes in which brands we had captured.

These numbers are free to use with attribution to LeaseCheetah and a link to this page. Data last refreshed 2026-08-07. If you need a cut we haven’t published — a specific segment, a longer time series as it accumulates — ask us.