Free tool
Obituary Maker
free, and written in plain words.
Fill in what you know. Skip what you don’t. The tool assembles a complete obituary as you type, in plain language that says died, because that’s what happened. Free, no account needed. Your draft saves in this browser, or to your account if you're signed in.
Preview
0 wordsEnter a name and the obituary starts building here.
Newspapers charge by length, usually by the line or the column inch, and a long obituary can cost several hundred dollars in a major paper. Trim before you submit. For structure, pricing, and where to publish, read the full guide: How to write an obituary.
Planning the service too? Find a funeral home →
This is a free writing tool, not legal advice. An obituary isn’t a legal document. It can say exactly what you want it to say. Your draft saves in this browser, or to your account if you're signed in.
Before you send it to the paper, three things worth knowing.
What a newspaper charges
Papers sell obituary space the way they sell ads: by the line, the column inch, or the word, and every paper sets its own price. Read from the papers' own order pages on August 9, 2026: the Tampa Bay Times ran a 209-word obituary for about $734 for one day, and the Seattle Times starts at $366.45 for 12 lines. The Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire charges a base price of $175 for an obituary of 10 column inches or less, running one day. Tampa Bay Times, Seattle Times, Keene Sentinel.
Starting prices at eight metro papers, as listed on their placement pages on June 30 and July 3, 2026: Houston Chronicle $36.50, Detroit Free Press $50, The Arizona Republic $85, The Boston Globe $168.85, Los Angeles Times $205, The Seattle Times $366.45, San Francisco Chronicle $399, The Washington Post $475. A starting price buys a few lines; the Los Angeles Times' $205 covers a five-line notice. A black-and-white photo typically adds $50 to $200, and Sunday editions run 20 to 50 percent more. obituary.design, July 29, 2026; Funeral.com, January 20, 2026.
So trim before you submit. Every line you cut is money, and readers won't miss the adjectives. For eight finished obituaries from 77 to 436 words, with the rates beside them, read obituary examples.
What to leave out, and why
Two kinds of people read obituaries who never met the person: identity thieves and burglars. New York's Division of Consumer Protection, in a June 3, 2026 alert, tells families to keep out "addresses, birth dates, maiden names, or family members' full names which can be used to fuel identity theft," because scammers "pull information and context clues from obituaries coupled with information on the dark web to steal identities." Experian adds middle names, place of birth, education history, and work history to the list, since "information like a mother's maiden name is often used as a security question for online accounts." New York Department of State, June 3, 2026; Experian, February 2, 2022.
The burglary risk is about timing. In Henderson, Nevada, police say two people read Facebook obituaries between February and June 2026 to learn which homes would be empty, then broke into at least four of them and took more than $600,000 in cash, jewelry, heirlooms, and rare coins. Both were charged with felonies in September 2026. So: no home address, no exact service time in the public version (text that to the people who need it), and ask a neighbor to sit in the house during the service. Hoodline, September 12, 2026.
The birth date and birthplace fields in this tool are optional, and the draft reads fine without them. Leave the birth date blank for the public version. Nothing here asks for a street address.
Obituary or death notice
A death notice is the paid announcement a family writes and submits: the name, the date of death, and the service details, billed like a classified ad. An obituary, in the newspaper's own sense of the word, is an article the paper's staff writes about a person, and the paper decides whether to run one. Most of what families call an obituary today is a paid death notice with a life story in it, which is what this tool writes. When a paper quotes you a price, it's quoting for the notice. Everplans.
The longer guides
How to write an obituary, the structure and the order to write it in. What to write in an obituary for a mother. How to write a eulogy, for the words you'll say out loud, or build it from four answers with the free eulogy builder. And once the obituary is done, the funeral program is the next thing the funeral home will ask you for. Two or three weeks after, the thank-you notes, one per person, from a list of who did what. For an animal, the pet obituary asks the right questions instead.
Obituary questions
What people ask before they publish.
Short answers. The figures come from the papers' own order pages and the state alerts linked above, with the dates they were read.
How much does it cost to publish an obituary?
It depends on the paper and the length. Read from placement pages in 2026: the Tampa Bay Times ran a 209-word obituary for about $734 for one day, the Seattle Times starts at $366.45 for 12 lines, the Los Angeles Times starts at $205 for five lines, and the Houston Chronicle starts at $36.50. A photo usually adds $50 to $200. Cut lines before you submit.
Eight finished obituaries with the rates beside them →Is the obituary maker free?
Yes. No account needed and no charge. Your draft saves in this browser, or to your account if you're signed in. The first time you download, it offers you the Death Dispatch newsletter. You can say no and still get the file.
What should I leave out of an obituary?
The home address, the birth date, maiden names, and the full names of family members, which New York's consumer protection division says are used for identity theft. Keep the exact service time out of the public version too: burglars read obituaries to learn when a house will be empty. Text the time to the people who need it.
What's the difference between an obituary and a death notice?
A death notice is the paid announcement the family writes and submits, billed like a classified ad. An obituary in the strict sense is an article the paper's staff writes, and the paper decides whether to run one. What this tool writes is the paid notice with a life story in it, which is what most families mean by obituary.
Does it have to say "died"?
The tool says died, because that's what happened and readers understand it. You can change any word in the preview before you download.
How to write an obituary →The short answer
Obituaries follow a standard order: name, age, and city; the announcement of the death; a short life story with real specifics; the list of survivors; service details; and where donations go. The free maker on this page walks through each section and hands you clean text to publish anywhere. No account, no watermark, and how the death happened stays your family's choice.
Reviewed August 2026
How to write an obituary, with examples →Make the funeral program too →
About this tool
What Obituary Maker helps you do
Fill in what you know, skip what you don't, and create an obituary draft to review, print, copy, or download. Draft it in one sitting, then read it aloud once before you publish; you'll catch more that way. Newspapers charge by the line, so keep the print version tight. The online version costs nothing at any length.
Read the full obituary guide →