Cheap Litter Plus an Additive vs Premium Litter
Two ways to spend the same money. Here is how to work out which one is cheaper for your house, and when the additive is not worth buying at all.
Quick answer
- 1Work out four numbers: the premium bag per week, the cheap bag per week, the additive per week, then compare.
- 2Use your own shelf prices. Any guide handing you a fixed monthly figure is guessing at your receipt.
- 3The additive route wins when the cheap litter already clumps well and odor is the only complaint left.
- 4Buy the better bag instead when the cheap one fails on clumping or dust. Activated carbon fixes neither.
- 5Add delivery to the additive line before you compare, not after.
The choice, in one line
You can buy a pricier bag of litter. Or you can buy a cheaper bag and add something to it. Both are ways of spending money on the same job, and the cheaper one is not always the second option. Most guides skip that second half. This one does not.
What an activated carbon additive actually does
Activated carbon is carbon that has been treated so its surface is full of tiny pores. Those pores hold on to gas molecules that pass through them. That is the same idea behind the carbon filter in a range hood or a fish tank.
In a litter box, the gas that bothers you is mostly ammonia coming off waste as it breaks down, the same gas the CDC ATSDR says most people can smell above roughly 5 parts per million. Carbon holds those molecules instead of letting them drift into the room. It is not a perfume, and it is not a cleaner.
Two things follow from that. Carbon does nothing about clumping, dust, or tracking, so a bad cheap litter stays a bad cheap litter. And carbon fills up. Once the pores are taken, that scoop of carbon is done working, which is why additives are sold as something you keep buying.
Several brands sell activated carbon additives for litter boxes. Purrify is one of them, and the one we have reviewed. The method below works whichever brand you pick.
Do the money math on your own shelf prices
Bag prices swing by store, by province, and by week. So do additive prices. Any guide that hands you a fixed monthly figure is guessing at your receipt. Use your own instead.
Four numbers, five minutes
- Premium cost per week. Take what you pay for the premium bag. Divide it by the number of weeks that bag lasts you.
- Cheap cost per week. Do the same for the budget bag you would switch to.
- Additive cost per week. Take the price of the additive. Divide it by the number of weeks one container lasts you at the dose the label gives.
- Compare. Line one against line two plus line three. Whichever is smaller is the cheaper route for you.
Run it for a month before you decide. The weeks-per-bag number is the one people guess wrong, and it is the number that moves the whole answer.
Our cost comparison guide shows the same method worked through on litters we have measured.
When the additive route tends to win
- The cheap litter is already fine on the things carbon cannot fix. It clumps well enough, it is not a dust storm, and your cats use it. Odor is the one complaint left.
- The gap between the two bags is wide. The bigger the price jump to premium, the more room there is for an additive to come in under it.
- You want to keep a litter your cat already accepts. Switching brands can put a fussy cat off the box. Adding to the litter you have does not.
- Perfume is the problem. If scented litters bother you or someone in the house, an unscented base plus a fragrance-free additive avoids the perfume entirely.
When you should just buy the better bag
- The cheap litter fails at clumping or dust. Carbon fixes neither. You will still be picking apart broken clumps and wiping a grey film off the floor, and now you are paying for two products.
- The math comes out even. If both routes land in the same place, take the one with fewer steps. A single bag is fewer things to remember and fewer things to run out of.
- You know you will not keep it up. An additive is a repeat chore. If the top-up gets forgotten, you are back to a cheap litter on its own.
- Shipping eats the saving. Additives are often bought online. Add delivery to the additive line before you compare, not after.
What to watch for
Read the ingredient line, not the front of the pack. Some litter additives are baking soda, some are scent, some are activated carbon, and some are a mix. They do not behave the same way. We put the two most common side by side in our baking soda vs activated carbon comparison.
Watch the cat, not the box. Any change to the litter surface can put a cat off. Add a small amount first and check the box is still being used before you commit.
Follow the label for how much and how often. Doses differ between brands, and more is not a shortcut. The maker of the additive you buy is the source for that, not us.
Keep scooping. An additive changes what the box smells like between scoops. It does not change how often the box needs one.
Questions people ask
Is a cheap litter plus an additive really cheaper than premium litter?
Only if the cheap bag plus the additive costs less per week than the premium bag does. Work out both weekly costs using the prices you actually pay, then compare.
Do carbon additives work with crystal or silica litter?
An additive sits on top of the litter rather than replacing it, so it is not tied to one base material. Read the label of the additive you buy, because each brand sets its own guidance.
Will an additive let me stretch a bag further?
It can, but how far depends on your cats, your box routine, and the litter itself. Count the weeks you get before you add one, then count again after, and use your own number.
Is an additive a fix for a box that is not scooped often?
No. Carbon holds odor compounds, it does not remove waste. If a box is skipped for days, the additive will not save it.
Purrify - keep the cheap bag, add the odor control
A cheap litter your cat likes is worth keeping. Purrify is activated carbon you add to it, so smell is not the reason to trade up. It costs what it costs on their site, and we have not measured what it saves you.
Read our Purrify guide to what a carbon additive does to a litter you already own.
- Activated carbon, sold in bags
- 5.0 Google rating
- Stocked in 40+ pet stores across Canada
Written by the ReviewCatLitter editorial team. The cost method uses your own shelf prices rather than a price or savings claim from us.