Written by the Kopipets team · Singapore · Published 15 August 2026
We sell pee pads. That is a reason to be suspicious of this article, so we have put the two arguments against pee pads near the top rather than at the bottom, and we have published our own pack prices so you can do the arithmetic yourself instead of taking our word for it.
The problem almost nobody outside Singapore has to solve
Most dog-training advice in English is written for houses with gardens. Open the back door, dog goes out, done.
About eight in ten households here live in an HDB flat. There is no garden, no yard and no back door. A dog still needs to relieve itself several times a day, and for most working households three or four walks a day is not something that happens on a Tuesday.
So the toilet has to be indoors. That is the whole question, and it is why pee pads are a much bigger category in Singapore than in most countries.
Two things we would rather you knew before you start
1. Pad-training can make outdoor-only training harder later
If what you actually want is a dog that only ever goes outside, understand what a pad teaches: that relieving itself indoors, on a soft absorbent surface, is allowed. Some owners find that undoing that later takes longer than starting outdoors would have.
Decide which you are doing before you buy anything. Pads as a permanent indoor toilet is a legitimate choice for a flat, and so is pads as a temporary stage for a puppy or for the hours you are out. Drifting between the two is what causes trouble.
2. Pee pads are single-use plastic and are not recyclable here
A dog on three pads a day is roughly 1,100 pads a year. Those go in the rubbish chute. There is no version of this that is good for the bin, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
If that weighs on you, the options that reduce the count are a washable pad, or a tray with an artificial-grass top that you rinse. Both trade rubbish for washing. Neither is free.
We sell disposable pads and that is most of what we sell in this category. We are putting this here because you will work it out on your own eventually, and we would rather it came from us.
The three indoor setups
Pad flat on the floor. Cheapest, nothing to buy beyond the pads. The failure mode is the dog dragging or chewing it, which is common with puppies and with dogs left alone.
Pad in a tray or holder. A frame grips the edges of the pad so it stays put. Fewer dragged pads, easier to pick up. Costs more up front and you have to match the tray to the pad size.
Artificial grass toilet. A turf top sitting over a collection tray. Some dogs take to it faster because the texture is closer to what they are used to outdoors. It needs rinsing, and in Singapore's humidity it needs rinsing properly rather than occasionally.
We sell a grass toilet, so read this next line with that in mind: it is not better than a pad for every dog. It tends to help with a dog that already associates grass with going, and it does very little for a puppy that has never been outside.
Sizing: match the pad to the dog, not to the price
These are our own pads and these are our own measured figures. Absorbency here means how much liquid one pad holds — not how much your dog produces.
| Size | Dimensions | Pads per pack | Measured absorbency per pad |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | 33 × 45 cm | 100 | about 400–500 ml |
| M | 45 × 60 cm | 50 | about 600–800 ml |
| L | 60 × 60 cm | 40 | about 900–1100 ml |
| XL | 90 × 60 cm | 20 | about 1200–1500 ml |
Figures are for our activated charcoal pads, measured by size. Our five-layer pads are the same four dimensions and pack counts.
We are deliberately not publishing a table of how much a dog of a given weight urinates. That varies with water intake, heat, age, diet and health, and a sudden change in it is something to raise with a vet rather than something to solve with a bigger pad. We sell pet supplies; we are not going to hand you a physiology chart we are not qualified to write.
What we can tell you from selling more than 60,000 packs of these through our Singapore channels is the practical failure mode: a pad that is too small usually does not fail by soaking through. It fails because the dog stands on it and misses the edge. If you are cleaning the floor around the pad rather than the pad itself, the answer is a size up, not a thicker pad.
What it actually costs a month
Nobody publishes this, so here it is. The assumption is a 30-day month and a whole pad changed each time. Pick the column that matches your dog and your tolerance.
Five-layer pads — S$3.87 a pack
| Size | Cost per pad | 2 a day | 3 a day | 4 a day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S — 33 × 45 cm, 100 per pack | S$0.039 | S$2.32 | S$3.48 | S$4.64 |
| M — 45 × 60 cm, 50 per pack | S$0.077 | S$4.64 | S$6.97 | S$9.29 |
| L — 60 × 60 cm, 40 per pack | S$0.097 | S$5.80 | S$8.71 | S$11.61 |
| XL — 90 × 60 cm, 20 per pack | S$0.194 | S$11.61 | S$17.41 | S$23.22 |
Activated charcoal pads — S$6.50 a pack
| Size | Cost per pad | 2 a day | 3 a day | 4 a day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S — 33 × 45 cm, 100 per pack | S$0.065 | S$3.90 | S$5.85 | S$7.80 |
| M — 45 × 60 cm, 50 per pack | S$0.130 | S$7.80 | S$11.70 | S$15.60 |
| L — 60 × 60 cm, 40 per pack | S$0.163 | S$9.75 | S$14.62 | S$19.50 |
| XL — 90 × 60 cm, 20 per pack | S$0.325 | S$19.50 | S$29.25 | S$39.00 |
Two things in those tables surprise people, and both are worth knowing before you buy:
Bigger is not slightly more expensive per pad. It is several times more. An XL pad costs about five times what an S pad costs, because the pack shrinks from 100 pads to 20 while the price stays the same. A large dog on XL pads four times a day is a S$23 a month habit; a small dog on S pads twice a day is S$2.32. That is a ten-fold difference driven mostly by size, not by brand.
The charcoal version costs about 68% more per pad. Whether that is worth it depends on how you change pads. If you change on a fixed schedule, the difference buys you less than you might think. If you change when you notice the smell, and that is what decides your timing, it may buy you a longer interval — which can make the more expensive pad cheaper per day. We cannot tell you which of those you are. You probably can.
Where to put it
- Away from where the dog eats and sleeps. This is the one most people get wrong in a small flat, usually because the only free floor space is next to the bed.
- The same place every time. Moving the pad resets a lot of the training.
- In a corner, against a wall. Dogs generally prefer to face outward with their back protected.
- Near a door if you eventually want to move the whole arrangement outside the flat or transition to walks.
- Not on a wet bathroom floor. The backing slides, and a sliding pad is a pad the dog stops trusting.
"My dog pees next to the pad, not on it"
This is the question we get most. In rough order of how often it turns out to be the cause:
- The pad is too small. The dog stands on it and aims past the edge. Size up before you change anything else.
- The pad moved. Adhesive corners or a tray fixes this. A pad that shifted once while the dog was standing on it can put a dog off it for weeks.
- The pad is already used. Some dogs will not step on a soiled pad at all, and will find the nearest clean surface instead. If this is your dog, you are on the four-a-day column of the table above, and a bigger pad is cheaper than a more frequent change.
- The spot changed, or something near the spot changed — a new bin, a fan, a laundry rack.
If none of those fit and the change was sudden, particularly if the frequency or the amount has changed, that is a vet question rather than a pad question. We would rather send you there than sell you a bigger pad.
What we sell, briefly
Both of ours come in the same four sizes above.
- Kopipets five-layer training pee pads — quilted top, dual tissue layers, pulp and polymer core, backing. S$3.87 a pack.
- Kopipets activated charcoal pee pads — 1408 g core, six layers, an activated charcoal layer and adhesive on four sides. S$6.50 a pack.
Delivery is free on orders over S$20, and S$2.50 below that. Order before 2pm on a working day and it arrives the next day. Saturdays yes, Sundays no. Returns come to our office and we pay the postage.
If you want to compare against something else on the market, the numbers to ask any seller for are the ones in our tables: dimensions, pads per pack, and millilitres held per pad. Most listings will give you the first two.
Frequently asked questions
What size pee pad do I need for my dog?
Match the pad to the dog's footprint rather than to the price. Our four sizes are 33 × 45 cm, 45 × 60 cm, 60 × 60 cm and 90 × 60 cm. The usual sign that a pad is too small is not leaking through but the dog standing on the pad and missing the edge — if you are cleaning the floor around the pad, go one size up.
How much do pee pads cost per month in Singapore?
Using Kopipets pack prices and a 30-day month: a small dog on two S pads a day is about S$2.32 a month; a large dog on four XL pads a day is about S$23.22 a month. Activated charcoal pads cost roughly 68% more per pad than five-layer pads.
How many pee pads does a dog use in a year?
At three pads a day, about 1,100 pads a year. They are single-use plastic and are not recyclable in Singapore.
Are pee pads a good idea in an HDB flat?
They are the most common indoor toilet solution here because most flats have no garden and few households manage three or four walks a day. The trade-off is that pad-training a dog can make later outdoor-only training harder, so it is worth deciding up front whether pads are a permanent arrangement or a temporary stage.
Why does my dog pee next to the pad instead of on it?
Most often the pad is too small and the dog is missing the edge. Other common causes are the pad sliding, the pad already being soiled, or the location changing. A sudden change in frequency or amount is a question for a vet rather than a sizing problem.
Are charcoal pee pads worth the extra cost?
It depends on how you decide when to change a pad. If you change on a fixed schedule, the extra roughly 68% per pad buys less. If you change when you notice the smell, a longer interval can make the more expensive pad cheaper per day.
What is the difference between a pee pad, a pad tray and a grass toilet?
A pad on the floor is cheapest and can be dragged or chewed. A tray grips the pad edges so it stays in place. A grass toilet is an artificial turf top over a collection tray, which suits some dogs that already associate grass with going, and needs regular rinsing.
About this article
Kopipets is a Singapore pet supplies brand for cats and dogs, operated by Surplus Media Pte. Ltd. (UEN 202448810R), a Singapore-registered company and the importer of record for the products we sell. We hold our own stock in a local warehouse, inspect it on arrival, and deliver islandwide with our own vans and drivers.
Prices and figures in this article were correct on 15 August 2026. Absorbency figures are our own measurements on our own pads. If you find something here that is out of date or that does not match what you received, we would rather hear about it than have it sit here.
Related: how to care for your dog's skin in Singapore's humid weather.
