WhatiMeme WhatiMeme

Multi-panel · Labels · Popular meme template

What Did It Cost meme template

What Did It Cost is a meme format on WhatiMeme. Used to joke that an ordinary win required a ridiculous personal sacrifice. The girl asks whether something was done, then what it cost; the man answers with a flat, total price — classically “Everything.” Everyday chores, deadlines, and small victories are treated like a cosmic bargain.

Make this meme Browse more templates

A four-panel grid divided by thick black lines, all set against a hazy orange-and-yellow sky. Top left: a young girl with reddish hair in two high buns, in a dark high-collared coat, standing and looking slightly upward with a neutral face. Top right: a close-up of a large bald man with purple skin, a heavy brow, and a deeply ridged chin, looking toward her. Bottom left: a closer shot of the same girl, looking up with a faint smile. Bottom right: a closer shot of the same man, expression somber, looking slightly downward.

How to write this meme

Keep the bottom-left line as “What did it cost?” so the template stays recognizable. Put a small, ordinary win in the top left, a one- or two-word yes in the top right, and save the joke for a flat, oversized price. Shorter is funnier.

Caption zones

  • Top left — Opening question about whether something was achieved
  • Top right — A very short confirmation
  • Bottom left — The follow-up asking the price; classically “What did it cost?”
  • Bottom right — The deadpan reveal of an absurd or total cost

Example captions

  • Top left: You got the promotion?
  • Top right: Yes.
  • Bottom left: What did it cost?
  • Bottom right: Every evening and my hobbies.

A normal career win is priced like a total life trade, which is the template’s whole joke.

  • Top left: You finally cleaned your room?
  • Top right: I did.
  • Bottom left: What did it cost?
  • Bottom right: An entire Sunday and my back.

The achievement is tiny and domestic, so the exhausted price feels both ridiculous and familiar.

  • Top left: Did you reply to that email?
  • Top right: Yes.
  • Bottom left: What did it cost?
  • Bottom right: Forty minutes of overthinking.

The task took seconds to name and forever to send, so the deadpan cost lands as pure relatability.

  • Top left: You made it to the gym?
  • Top right: Barely.
  • Bottom left: What did it cost?
  • Bottom right: My legs and tomorrow’s plans.

“Barely” already signals strain, and the last panel inflates one workout into a full-body sacrifice.

  • Top left: You kept the plant alive?
  • Top right: Somehow.
  • Bottom left: What did it cost?
  • Bottom right: Constant fear and a watering app.

Survival of a houseplant is treated like a grim victory, matching the somber faces with a petty crisis.

Common mistakes

  • Putting the punchline in the top row instead of the last panel
  • Giving a realistic price instead of a total or absurd one
  • Writing long sentences that will not fit the close-ups
  • Changing the question so much that nobody recognizes the format
  • Leaving the top-right reply longer than a couple of words
  • Explaining the joke instead of letting the last line land

Also known as

Thanos What Did It Cost · What Did It Cost Everything

Related templates

Make yours

Open the free editor to caption this frame by hand, or use WhatiMeme’s AI tools when they are available on your account.

Open What Did It Cost in the editor