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Updated November 5, 2026

How to adopt in The Sims 4

Adopt in The Sims 4 from the computer or phone for §1,000. Covers babies, infants, teens, pets, console, the 8 Sim limit and mods.

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How do you adopt in The Sims 4?

Click a computer on the home lot, open the Household menu, and choose Adopt. Pick a child from the list and pay the fee of §1,000. Your Sim leaves the lot and comes back with the new family member.

Sims Community and Snooty Sims both give this path. Snooty Sims also gives a phone path. A Young Adult or older Sim can adopt, and the Sim does not need a partner.

You read this on the LifeSim blog. We make a free life sim, and we say plainly where our game does not fit.

How do you adopt a baby, toddler or child?

Use the computer or the phone. Both paths open the same list of children.

On the computer

  1. Select a computer on the home lot of your Sim.
  2. Choose Household, then Adopt.
  3. Look at the list of children. Sims Community says the ages go from baby to child.
  4. Select one child and accept. The game takes the fee of §1,000.
  5. Wait while your Sim leaves the lot to pick up the child.
  6. Give the child a new first name and last name if you want to. The game asks you when your Sim comes home.

On the phone

  1. Open the phone of an adult Sim.
  2. Go to the Home tab.
  3. Choose Call Adoption Agency.
  4. Pick a child from the list.

The sources do not use the same menu names. Snooty Sims (2024) says Call Adoption Agency. GamerTweak (2021) says Hire a Service, then Adopt a Child. Gamepressure (2019) calls the computer menu Family, not Household. Use the name that your game shows.

What about infants?

The free base game update of March 14, 2023 added infants. The EA patch notes say that adopted babies also get the infant needs and emotions. Snooty Sims lists newborns, infants, toddlers and kids as the ages that you can adopt.

How much does adoption cost, and how long is the wait?

Each child costs §1,000. Sims Community says that you pay this fee each time. You cannot adopt more than one child at a time. You can adopt again right after, if you have the money.

The wait is short. Your Sim leaves the lot for a period of time and comes back with the child. No source that we opened gives the exact number of hours.

Snooty Sims says the Sims get a few days off work after the adoption. GamerTweak calls it parental leave. A baby or toddler cannot stay alone at home, so plan for care. Our guide shows how to hire a nanny in The Sims 4.

  • Child adoption: §1,000 for each child.
  • Pet adoption (Cats & Dogs): §200, according to Snooty Sims.
  • A stray pet: no fee, according to Snooty Sims.

Can you adopt a teen in The Sims 4?

Not with the base game list. Snooty Sims says the adoption list always holds babies, toddlers and children only. To adopt a teen, you need a mod.

  • Adopt a Teen by randyxx. The Mod The Sims page says you open adoption on the computer and pick an option of $2,000. This adds six teens to the list. A second version makes adoption free. The page lists the mod as base game compatible.
  • Teens Can Adopt by randyxx. Snooty Sims says this mod lets teens adopt babies, toddlers and children. Teens cannot adopt other teens.
  • Foster Family by LittleMsSam. Snooty Sims says this mod lets a Sim foster children, teens and pets. The family gets weekly child support.

The Mod The Sims page was last updated in September 2022. Check that each mod still works with your game version before you install it. Our guide to Sims 4 mods shows how mods go into the game.

Do you need a pack to adopt?

No, not for children. The sources describe child adoption as a base game feature. You need Cats & Dogs only to adopt a cat or a dog.

What you adoptPackCost
Baby, infant, toddler or childBase game§1,000
TeenA mod (not in the base game list)Set by the mod
Cat or dogCats & Dogs expansion pack§200
Stray cat or dogCats & Dogs expansion packFree

Parenthood is not needed to adopt. That pack adds parenting play. Read our Sims 4 Parenthood overview for what it adds.

How do you adopt a pet?

Install Cats & Dogs first. Then use the same phone or computer menu as for children, and pick a cat or a dog.

  1. Open the phone (Home tab, Call Adoption Agency) or the computer (Household, Adopt).
  2. Look at the traits, the age, and whether the pet is neutered or spayed.
  3. Wait for the Adoption Agent. The agent brings the pet in a cage to the house.
  4. Play with the pet before you decide. Then give it a name.

Sims Community says a Sim can also befriend a stray and then adopt it. Strays show up in Brindleton Bay, or on a lot with the Cat Hangout or Dog Hangout lot trait. For the full steps, read how to get a pet in The Sims 4.

Can you adopt on PS4, PS5 or Xbox?

Yes. Magic Game World wrote a guide for PS4 and Xbox One. It says Sims adopt babies, toddlers or children through the Household option on a computer. The cost is the same §1,000.

That guide is from 2017. It gives no button presses. The EA patch notes of March 2023 list a console version of the infants update. We found no page that gives console steps for that update.

The mod pages that we opened are for the PC game. None of them names a console version. Expect the base game list of babies, toddlers and children on console.

Why can’t I adopt? Household limit, cheats and mods

The most common reason is a full house. A household holds at most 8 members. Sims Community says that pets count toward the same limit of 8.

  • Check the age of your Sim. A teen cannot adopt in the base game. The Sim must be a Young Adult or older.
  • Check the money. The fee is §1,000.
  • Count the members, pets included. To make room, move a Sim out of the household.

Can a mod raise the limit of 8?

Yes, on PC and Mac. Snooty Sims names two mods. Full House by TwistedMexi expands a household to 24 Sims. MC Command Center has a Maximum Household Size setting under Gameplay Settings. Sims Community gives 25 as the maximum in MC Command Center.

Snooty Sims warns about large households. The game can lag or crash. Create a Sim can show only 8 Sims, and the rest disappear from that screen. Read our MC Command Center guide before you change the setting.

Is there an adoption cheat?

We found no source that gives a cheat code for adoption. If you want to put a Sim you made into a family, use Create a Sim instead. Our guide shows how to add a Sim to a household.

Is an adopted child different from a biological child?

No, not in the game rules. Sims Community says the game treats adopted and biological children the same. The only difference is the look. A biological child gets genes from the parents. An adopted child gets random genes.

If the adopting Sim is married, the spouse becomes the second parent. If the Sim is single or dating, that Sim is the only parent. For the other way to grow a family, read how to have a baby in The Sims 4.

Lumpinou made a larger adoption mod for PC. It adds a foster system, an adoption agency with a home visit, and a search for birth parents. It also lets a Sim put a child up for adoption.

Does LifeSim have adoption?

Only for pets. In LifeSim, you can adopt a pet from an animal shelter, for a fee. You cannot adopt a child, and LifeSim has no household of 8 and no mods. For child adoption, LifeSim does not fit here. Stay with The Sims 4.

LifeSim is a free life sim in the browser and on iPhone and iPad. You make a character, pick a real city, and live one life a day at a time. Every person in the city is an AI character with a job, a home, friends and goals. They answer what you type, and they remember you.

You can bring your family across. LifeSim can import a Sims 4 household, and the Sims become people of your life in a real city. For the full comparison, read LifeSim vs The Sims.

What we could not verify

  • The exact time that a Sim is away to pick up the child. No source gives a number.
  • Whether the list of children changes each day. One guide says so, but the page did not load for us.
  • The current menu names. The sources disagree: Household or Family, and Call Adoption Agency or Hire a Service.
  • The “Adopt as Care Dependent” option for a child or teen who already lives in the household. Forum posts describe it, and some say it needs Parenthood. The EA forum pages did not load for us.
  • Console button steps. The only console guide we opened is from 2017 and gives none.
  • How many pets one household can adopt. Snooty Sims says up to three. Sims Community says up to 7 next to one Sim.
  • An adoption cheat code. We found none in the pages that we opened.

More Sims guides

Sources

New to life sims? Read what a life simulator is, or play LifeSim, a free online life simulator on a real map of Earth.

Sims 4 database

Look it up in the Sims 4 database, read from the game files: cheats, traits, careers, moodlets, deaths, packs, challenges, recipes, popular mods, pack finder, and the death odds calculator.

On this topic: testingcheats, motherlode, and Genius trait.

Step by step: all Sims 4 how-to guides.

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