Adoption agencies can range from government-funded agencies that place children at little cost, to lawyers who arrange private adoptions, and even international commercial and non-profit agencies. The fees charged by these adoption agencies vary wildly and the adoptive parents can pay from nothing to US $40,000 for an adoption, with private adoptions generally costing more. Infants are more commonly sought than toddlers or older children, and adoptive parents often seek the same race as their own, but the growth of the international adoption market and less ethnic pressure this trend is slowing.

Agencies specializing in International adoption have become more popular with a perceived lower risk of birth family contact post-adoption and younger healthy children available than in major domestic adoptive countries. China is currently the leading country for American international adoptions.