Ohio Sales Tax Calculator by County

Ohio’s state sales tax is 5.75% everywhere. Your county (and sometimes a transit authority) adds its own tax on top, so the combined rate runs from 6.50% to 8.00% depending on the county. Pick the county and enter a price.

Buying a car? Read this first

For vehicles, Ohio does not use the rate where you buy the car. Tax is charged at the rate of the buyer’s county of residence — the county where the vehicle will be titled and registered. So select your home county above, not the dealer’s county. Trade-in credit rules and title fees are separate; the figure here is the sales tax on the taxable price only.

Rates at a glance

Lowest combined rate: 6.50% (Butler, Lorain, Stark, Wayne). Highest: 8.00% (Cuyahoga, Franklin). Hamilton County is 7.80% and Lucas County is 7.75%. Warren County rose to 7.25% on October 1, 2026. In a few counties (Delaware, Fairfield, Licking, Union, Wood), a transit-district rate applies in part of the county and is higher than the base rate shown — the calculator notes this when you pick one of those counties. For an exact address-level rate, use the Ohio Tax Finder from the Department of Taxation.

How Ohio sales tax is calculated

Every taxable purchase in Ohio is taxed in layers. The state takes a base rate of 5.75% — a rate that has not changed since September 1, 2013. County commissioners can add a permissive county tax on top of it, and in some areas a transit authority levies its own share as well. Add the pieces together and you get the combined rate, which is the rate that actually shows up on your receipt. The math itself is simple: sales tax equals the purchase amount multiplied by the combined rate, rounded to the nearest cent, and the total is the amount plus the tax. Everything in the breakdown above — the state portion, the county and transit portion, and the total — comes from that one multiplication.

The rates in this calculator are the base county rates published by the Ohio Department of Taxation. Counties can vote to change their rate, and changes take effect at the start of a calendar quarter, so a county’s rate can move in January, April, July or October. That is why the calculator is rebuilt from the Department of Taxation’s county table rather than a single statewide number: there is no single Ohio rate, only 88 county rates.

Worked example: a $1,000 purchase in Franklin County

Say you buy $1,000 of taxable goods in Franklin County (Columbus). Franklin’s combined rate is 8.00% — the 5.75% state base plus 2.25% in county and transit tax. The calculator multiplies $1,000 by 8.00% and gets $80.00 in sales tax, for a total of $1,080.00. Of that $80.00, $57.50 is the state’s 5.75% share and the remaining $22.50 is the county and transit share. At the other end of the scale, a $100 purchase in Butler County, which sits at Ohio’s lowest combined rate of 6.50%, carries just $6.50 in tax, for a total of $106.50. Where you shop in Ohio can move the tax on a big purchase by a noticeable amount.

Ohio sales tax rates by county

The combined rate — state 5.75% included — for all 88 Ohio counties is listed below. These are the base county rates. In Delaware, Fairfield, Licking, Union and Wood counties, a transit-district rate applies in part of the county and is higher than the base rate shown here; the calculator flags it when you select one of those counties.

How to use this calculator

1. Pick the county where the purchase is taxed. For a vehicle, that is your home county — the county where the car will be titled and registered — not the dealer’s county.
2. Enter the purchase amount before tax.
3. Click Calculate.
4. Read the breakdown: the combined rate, the tax amount, how it splits between the state and the county/transit share, and the total. If a note appears under the result, part of that county is taxed at a higher transit-district rate.

Ohio sales tax questions, answered

What is Ohio’s state sales tax rate?

The state rate is 5.75%, and it is the same everywhere in Ohio. What changes from place to place is what gets added on top: county and transit levies push the combined rate you actually pay to somewhere between 6.50% and 8.00%, depending on the county.

Which Ohio counties have the highest and lowest sales tax?

At the base county level, Cuyahoga and Franklin counties tie for the highest combined rate at 8.00%, while Butler, Lorain, Stark and Wayne counties are lowest at 6.50%. One partial-county exception sits above the table: addresses inside the COTA transit district in parts of Licking County pay 8.25%, the highest rate in Ohio.

Why is the rate higher in part of my county?

Five counties — Delaware, Fairfield, Licking, Union and Wood — contain transit districts (COTA or TARTA) that cover only part of the county. Addresses inside the district pay the district’s higher combined rate; addresses outside it pay the base county rate. The calculator shows a note for these counties, and the Ohio Tax Finder can confirm the exact rate for a specific address.

What sales tax do I pay when I buy a car?

Vehicles are taxed at the rate of the buyer’s county of residence — where the car will be titled and registered — rather than the county where the dealership sits. Select your home county in the calculator to get the right figure. Title fees and any trade-in credit are handled separately from the sales tax itself.

When do Ohio sales tax rates change?

County rate changes take effect at the start of a calendar quarter. The most recent one in this table is Warren County, which rose from 6.75% to 7.25% on October 1, 2026. If you are checking a rate for a high-value purchase, confirm it against the Department of Taxation’s current county table, since a county vote can move a rate between your last visit and your next one.

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