How Much Are Passport Photos at Walgreens (2026 Data)

A US passport photo is the same 2x2-inch print wherever it is taken, yet in 2026 its price runs from $7.64¹ at Walmart to $17.99² at CVS, a gap of $10.35.³ Walgreens charges $16.99⁴, and the Post Office charges $15⁵, a price it has not changed since 2005.⁶

Demand for the photo has never been higher: the US issued a record 27,348,416⁷ passports in fiscal 2025, and each application carries one photo.⁸ This page prices the photo at every major chain, follows those prices back to 2011, sets them against inflation and the passport fee, and compares photo rules in other countries. It also covers the cheapest route of all, since about two in three online renewal applicants paid nothing for their photo.⁹

Walgreens: $16.99 for two prints and a digital copy

A Walgreens passport photo order is a single package. The store takes the picture, prints two 2x2-inch (51 x 51 mm) photos and emails a free digital copy, all for the $16.99 listed on the chain's own photo page.⁴ The digital copy matters more than it used to, because an online passport renewal needs a digital photo rather than a print, so one order covers both routes.⁹

That price puts Walgreens in the upper half of the market. It is $1.00 below CVS and $1.99 above the Post Office, and it is the only one of the two big pharmacy chains that includes the digital file at no extra charge.³² Against FedEx Office's $15.95 it costs $1.04 more.³

Walgreens has also raised its price faster than most. The nationwide price of a two-photo set there was $9.99⁶ in 2011 and $12.99¹² in 2015. The climb to $16.99 is 70.1% since 2011 and 30.8% since 2015.³ After inflation the 2011 price equals $14.30³ in 2025 dollars, so the 2026 price is about 1.19 times the 2011 level in real terms.¹³

How much passport photos cost at every major chain

Six national chains list a price for taking a passport photo in 2026, and the most expensive charges 2.35 times as much as the cheapest.³ FedEx Office asks $15.95¹⁰ and Staples, like CVS, lists $17.99.¹¹ Each price in the chart is for one standard order of two 2x2-inch photos; what else comes with it differs from chain to chain. The Post Office, at $15.00, sits between Walmart and FedEx Office.⁵

How much are passport photos at CVS?

CVS charges $17.99 for two 2x2 ID prints.² A digital copy by email costs $3.99² more, and a copy on a USB drive $10.99² more, so a print-plus-digital order comes to $21.98.³ In 2011 the chain charged $9.99 and in 2015 $11.99¹²; the rise to $17.99 is 80.1% over 15 years, and 50% since 2015 alone.³

How much is a passport photo at Walmart?

Walmart charges $7.64 for two prints, and no digital copy is included.¹ It is the one chain whose price has fallen: two photos cost $7.99⁶ in 2011 and $7.96¹² in 2015, so the 2026 price is 4.4% below the 2011 one in plain dollars.³ A Walmart photo costs less than half as much as one from CVS or Staples.³ Without a digital file, it suits a paper application rather than an online renewal, which needs the photo as a file.¹⁹

How much does FedEx charge for passport photos?

FedEx Office charges $15.95 for two government-compliant photos, and the customer can take them printed or as a digital file.¹⁰ The price has risen more slowly than at the pharmacies: $12.95⁶ in 2011 and $14.95¹² in 2015, so the increase since 2011 is 23.2%.³

How much does Staples charge for passport photos?

Staples lists $17.99 for two prints and $24.99¹¹ for prints plus a digital copy on a USB drive, so the digital file adds $7.00.³ The chain notes that some stores charge a different price.¹¹

How much does UPS charge for passport photos?

UPS Store locations have no national price. Each franchised store sets its own, and the chain's photo page lists the service without a dollar figure.¹⁴ A 2026 price guide from a passport-photo app maker, not from the chain, puts the typical price of two prints at $11.99 to $13.99¹⁵, which would put a UPS Store photo between Walmart and the Post Office.¹⁵ It also advises calling the local store first, since franchise prices vary.¹⁵

How much is a passport photo at Costco?

Costco no longer takes passport photos. It told customers by email in January 2021 that the Photo Centers at all its warehouses would close on February 14, 2021, and that in-store services, passport photos among them, would end with them; prints are still sold through its website.¹⁶ The reason it gave was the fall in demand for printed photos since camera phones and social media arrived.¹⁶ Two other chains that once sold passport photos have dropped out as well. Sam's Club's photo service is now online only, and the club says there is no in-club photo center.¹⁷ Rite Aid, which charged $8.99 for passport photos in 2015, closed all of its stores in 2025 after its second bankruptcy filing.¹²¹⁸

One seller has not changed its price in two decades.

The Post Office: the same $15 since 2005

How much is a passport photo at the post office?

A passport photo at the post office costs $15.00 in 2026, at the offices that offer the service.⁵ Thousands of post offices accept passport applications, 4,885 of them in the 2026 acceptance-facility file, and a customer can also bring a photo taken anywhere else, since the rules do not say who must take it.⁵¹⁹⁸ The price was set in calendar year 2005 and had not been adjusted by 2011, it was still $15 in 2015, and it is still $15 today.⁶¹²⁵ The Post Office also offers a paid digital photo for online renewal at many locations, but its page lists no dollar figure for it.⁵

Standing still has moved the Post Office down the price ladder. In 2011 it charged anywhere from $2 to $10 more than five other national sellers, and in 2015 as much as $7 more than its competitors, whose prices ran from $8 to $15.⁶¹² In 2026 it undercuts FedEx Office, Walgreens, CVS and Staples. In real terms the price has fallen in almost every year: the $15 of 2005 equals $24.73 in 2025 dollars, so the same photo costs 39.3% less than it did then.³¹³

The dotted continuation of the line is a straight-line trend fitted to 2005-2025: our calculation, not a forecast. It assumes the $15 never changes, which is exactly what a price review could end. The photo is also the smaller of the two passport charges at a post office counter, next to the $35 execution fee on each application accepted there.²⁰

Fewer than half of post-office applicants buy the photo there

The photo counter is a side business next to the passport counter. In fiscal 2010 about 6,300 postal units processed passport applications and about 5,500 of them offered photos at $15 for two, bringing in more than $46 million⁶ in photo fees against about $170 million from the passport execution fee.⁶ From fiscal 2008 to 2010 the Post Office averaged about 43% of the market for photo revenue among its passport customers: fewer than half of the people who came in for a passport bought the photo there.⁶

The gap was large enough to price. If every passport customer in fiscal 2010 had bought the photo at the counter, revenue would have been about $56 million higher.⁶ In March 2011 the rules changed to one photo per application instead of two, yet post offices kept taking two.⁶ At the time, about 70% of new passport applications were estimated to come through the Post Office.⁶

Photo revenue rose 1.4% in fiscal 2014, to $37,357,845 from $36,847,290, or roughly 2.5 million photo sets at $15, still below the more than $46 million of fiscal 2010.¹²⁶³ Had 48.1%¹² of the passport customers who did not buy a photo bought one, fiscal 2014 revenue would have been about $19.1 million higher.¹² Service gaps held the number down: 435 passport facilities offered no photo service, 235 offered it but processed none, and 5 of 27 low-photo facilities contacted had an inoperable camera.¹²

Photo quality also drew complaints. Of 237 passport complaints logged at post offices in fiscal 2014, 171, or 72%, were about customer service, a category that included substandard photo quality.¹²

A record year at the counter

Post offices handled more passport applications in fiscal 2025 than in any other year shown here. About 5.2 million were processed in fiscal 2014, and after a pandemic drop the count reached 8.9 million²¹ in fiscal 2025, some 12% more than the year before.¹²²² The points below use three definitions: applications processed in fiscal 2014, first-time applications in fiscal 2019 and 2020, and all applications accepted from fiscal 2021, so only years with the same definition can be compared.

Revenue followed the same path. Passport-related revenue at post offices was $298.6 million in fiscal 2019; in fiscal 2020, when about 4.4 million first-time applications came in, acceptance and photo fee revenue was $197.3 million, a decline the audit put at $101.4 million.²³ It recovered to $272.3 million in fiscal 2021 and $337.3 million²⁵ in fiscal 2022, a rise of 23.9% in one year.²⁴³ Self-service kiosks for booking passport appointments now stand in 2,200 post office locations.²² Spread over the 4,885 postal facilities in the 2026 acceptance-facility file, fiscal 2025's 8.9 million applications come to roughly 1,822 per facility.¹⁹³

How much does AAA charge for passport photos?

AAA prices are set by each regional club, so there is no national figure. At one Pennsylvania club, a non-member pays $15.00 for one set of two photos, the same as the Post Office, while a Classic member pays $8.45²⁶, $6.55 less.³ Plus members get one set a year free and pay $8.45 for a second, and Premier members pay nothing for any passport photo.²⁶

Membership is not free, so the photo discount only pays off for someone who already holds a card or needs one for other reasons. Classic dues at the same club are $69²⁷ a year, Plus $99²⁷ and Premier $139²⁷, plus a $15 enrollment fee in the first year.²⁷ Adding a household member as an associate costs $43 a year on Classic and $71 on Plus or Premier.²⁷ Premier dues alone equal 9.27 Post Office photo orders.³

For a household that renews one passport a decade, the free photo is a small perk next to the yearly dues.²⁷

So did every chain simply follow inflation?

Fifteen years of passport photo prices

Nationwide price checks of the main passport photo sellers exist for 2011 and 2015, and they give a baseline for the 2026 prices. In 2011 the Post Office's $15 was the top price, FedEx Office charged $12.95, Walgreens and CVS $9.99 each, Walmart $7.99 and Sam's Club $4.96⁶.

By 2015 the pharmacies had started to climb. Walgreens charged $12.99 and CVS $11.99, FedEx Office $14.95, and Rite Aid $8.99¹², while Walmart was at $7.96 and the Post Office still at $15.¹² No 2015 price was recorded for Sam's Club.

Set side by side, the three years split the market in two. CVS rose 80.1% and Walgreens 70.1% from 2011 to 2026, FedEx Office 23.2%, and Walmart fell 4.4%, while the Post Office did not move.³ Only three dated points exist per seller, so no trend line is drawn for these prices.

Inflation explains only part of the pharmacy increases. CVS's $9.99 of 2011 equals $14.30 in 2025 dollars, and its 2026 price of $17.99 is 1.26 times that.³¹³ The Post Office went the other way: its $15 of 2011 equals $21.47³ in 2025 dollars, so in real terms its price has fallen by 30.1% since 2011.¹³³

Photo prices vs inflation

The consumer price index tracks photographers and photo processing as one category, which covers studio fees and prints in general, not passport photos in particular. Between 1998 and 2025 that index rose 31.4%, while prices of all goods and services rose 97.5%.¹³³ Photo services, as a group, have become cheaper in real terms.

The category did not move in a straight line. It rose to 125.134 in 2016 (December 1997 = 100), eased to 120.045 by 2019, and then jumped to a peak of 137.349¹³ in 2023 before slipping 3.8% to 132.089 in 2025.³ The 2023 peak was 36.7% above the 1998 level.³

Inside the category, the two parts behaved differently until the separate series ended in 2020. Photographer fees, the part closest to having a photo taken, rose 23.8% from 1998 to 2020.³¹³ Their highest annual reading was 129.709, in 2016.¹³

Photo processing, the printing side, barely moved for a decade: its index was 100.0 in 1998 and a low of 98.882 in 2007.¹³ It then climbed to 123.303 in 2016 and fell 8.9% to 112.290 by 2018, ending 13.0% above its 1998 level in 2020.³

In August 2026 photo prices rose faster than prices overall for the first time in the months published this year. The photographers and photo processing index stood at 134.623, 3.8% above August 2025, while all items were up 3.4%.¹³³ Earlier in the year photo prices had risen more slowly than prices overall, by 0.6% in February against 2.4%.³ In June 2026 photo prices were 1.9% above a year before, against 3.5% for all items.¹³³

The photo inside the total passport bill

The photo is the one part of a passport's cost that is not in the federal fee schedule. A first-time adult passport book costs $165 in government fees, made up of a $50 application fee, an $80 security surcharge and a $35 execution fee paid where the application is handed in.²⁰²⁸ The federal fee schedule has no photo line at all.²⁰

With the photo added, the share it takes of the total depends on where it is bought. A Walmart photo is 4.4% of a first-time total of $172.64, while a CVS order with the digital copy is 11.8%.³ For a renewal by mail, where the government fee is $130²⁰, the same photos take a bigger share, from 5.6% to 14.5%.³ A fully rushed first-time application, with expedited service, 1-3 day return delivery and a Post Office photo, costs $262.05, and the photo is 5.7% of it.³

Because the Post Office price has not moved since 2005, its share of the total has shrunk each time passport fees went up. It was 13.4% of a first-time total in 2005, 13.0% from 2008, 10.0% from 2011, 9.4% from 2019 and 8.3% since 2022.³ The CVS digital add-on alone moves the photo's share of a first-time passport by 2 points, from 9.8% to 11.8%.³ The trend line is our calculation, not a forecast, and the series only moves when fees change.

For a renewal the same $15 counted for more, because the renewal fee is lower. It was 18.3% of a renewal's total cost in 2005 and is 10.3% today.³ The dotted line is again our calculation, not a forecast, fitted to a series that moves only in steps.

The fee side of that ratio has almost tripled. A first-time adult passport cost $60²⁹ in government fees in 2000 and $165 since 2022, so the fee has grown while the $15 photo stood still.²⁰

How much an online passport photo costs

Online renewal changed the photo from a print to a file, and for most applicants that made it free. Among domestic online renewal applicants in the government's model, only 34%, or 2,060,234⁹ people, reported getting the photo from a post office or another paid photo service.⁹ The other 66%, about 3,999,277 people, got their photo in a way that cost them no money.³

Paying remains possible: Walgreens includes a digital copy in its $16.99 order, FedEx Office offers a digital version for $15.95, and CVS adds one for $3.99 on top of its prints.⁴¹⁰² Post offices started a digital photo pilot for renewal applicants in 2025, with a goal of 1,500 locations by mid-2026, but the price is not published.²²⁵ Children under 16 must apply in person on the paper form, so every child's application still carries a printed photo.⁸

The government puts a dollar value on that free photo. It counts $15.00 for each applicant who would otherwise pay, which comes to $30,903,506 a year, 20.8% of the $148,685,935 in yearly savings it expects from online renewal from fiscal 2027.⁹³ Only postage is worth more, at $72,411,156 a year, while travel to a mailing facility is valued at $26,358,873.⁹

The same model expects about 6,279,511 of an estimated 10,509,576 renewal applicants, roughly 60%, to file online in fiscal 2027.⁹ Each of those who takes a free photo keeps the whole photo price. That leaves about 40% of renewals, and every first-time and child application, filed on paper with a printed photo.⁹⁸

What the photo must look like

Every US passport application carries one color photo that is 2x2 inches, with the head 1 to 1-3/8 inches from chin to crown, taken within the last six months against a plain white or off-white background.⁸ Glasses are not allowed unless a doctor signs a statement, head coverings only with a religious or medical statement, and uniforms not at all.⁸ The regulation itself says only that photos must be as the department prescribes; the form instructions carry the actual rules.³⁸

These rules are the same whether the photo costs $7.64 or nothing, which is why a home photo can be accepted. What a paid photo buys is the setup, a plain background and, at most chains, printing on the required photo paper.⁸⁴

The glasses rule is the newest big change. From November 1, 2016, glasses have had to come off for passport photos, and the announcement gave the reason: in the year before, more than 200,000³⁹ passport customers had submitted poor-quality or non-compliant photos, which delayed their applications.³⁹ Measured against the 16,838,457 applications of fiscal 2016, that is about 1.19%.¹⁹³

No official rejection rate for passport photos has been published since, so that count is the only official measure of how often photos fail.³⁹ Other rules have loosened. Since March 2011 an application needs one photo instead of two, and in 2023, during the processing backlog, experienced specialists were given discretion to decide, case by case, whether an already-filed application's photo more than six months old could still be used.⁶⁴⁰

The six-month limit also means a photo left over from an earlier application cannot be reused once it is older than that.⁸ Head coverings and uniforms are judged the same way at every seller, because the rules apply to the photo, not to where it was taken.⁸

A rejected photo costs time more than money, and the wait is sensitive to backlogs. From May to July of fiscal 2023, routine applications took an average of 10.5 weeks, against 5.2 weeks in the same months of fiscal 2019, and the advertised routine time is 4-6 weeks today.⁴⁰⁷ Expedited applications averaged 6.1 weeks in those months of fiscal 2023, against 2.4 weeks in fiscal 2019.⁴⁰

Passport photo requirements by country

Photo rules differ from country to country. The US asks for a square 2x2-inch print, while the other five countries here use taller rectangles or digital files, and some no longer want a print at all.⁸⁴²⁴³ The table sets out passport photo size requirements by country, together with background, glasses and who may take the picture.

The UK wants a digital photo of at least 600 x 750 pixels for online applications, less than one month old; Canada wants a 50 x 70 mm (about 2 x 2.75 in) print from a commercial photographer, never a home print.⁴³⁴² The UK sets no government fee for the photo itself.⁴³ Germany's passport regulation sets the rules in its own annex. The photo must be a frontal picture with no head covering, eyes uncovered and no uniform, and the face must fill 70% to 80% of the height of the picture, against a plain, single-color background that contrasts with the face and hair.⁴⁴ Glasses may stay on if the frames do not cover the eyes, the lenses are not too dark and there is no reflection.⁴⁴ Instead of a set print size, the photo must meet a federal technical standard (TR-03121): it is taken electronically and sent to the passport office over a secure connection, either by a commercial photographer or at the office itself.⁴⁴

Germany is also the one country here with an official photo fee in its passport law: EUR 6⁴⁴, about $6.88, when the passport office takes the photo itself.⁴⁸³ That is 8.6% of Germany's EUR 70 adult passport fee.⁴⁹³ In the UK the Post Office's Digital Check & Send service costs GBP 16 and includes the photo.⁴⁵

The passport fees these photos go with range widely too. At September 2026 exchange rates, an adult passport costs $300.08 in Australia and $26.08 in India, with the US first-time fee of $165 in the upper middle.⁵⁰⁵¹⁴⁸ Mexico charges $248.18 and the UK $136.39, while Japan charges $59.28 and South Korea $37.46.^52535455 Canada's fee, $116.72, is also below the US first-time fee.⁵⁶

Australia asks for a print 35-40 mm wide and 45-50 mm high with the head 32-36 mm, on a plain white or light gray background and without glasses, and India for a 35 x 45 mm print plus a 630 x 810 pixel upload on plain white.⁴⁶⁴⁷ The US and Australia ban glasses; Canada and Germany allow them if the eyes are clearly visible and there is no glare, and the UK only if you must wear them.^846424443

How many passport photos America needs

Each application carries one photo, so the number of applications is the number of passport photos the country needs.⁸ Applications passed 20 million for the first time in fiscal 2023, at a record 21,577,377¹⁹, and were 20,437,207 in fiscal 2024, 1.77 times the pandemic low of 11,533,128 in fiscal 2020.¹⁹³ After an earlier peak of 18,581,977 in fiscal 2007, applications fell for four straight years, to 12,028,710 in fiscal 2011.¹⁹

Issuance tells the same story from the other end. The US issued 5,547,693 passport books and cards in fiscal 1996 and 27,348,416 in fiscal 2025, 4.93 times as many, with the fiscal 2025 total 11.6% above fiscal 2024.¹⁹⁷³ The sharpest break was fiscal 2020, down 43.4% in one year.³ Fiscal 2007 alone jumped to 18,382,798 from 12,133,537 the year before.¹⁹

The stock of valid passports shows how many people will need a new photo at renewal time. It grew from 7,261,711¹⁹ in 1989 to 169,915,821 in 2024, 23.4 times as many, and fell only once, in 2020.¹⁹³ The count passed 100 million in 2010, at 101,797,872.¹⁹

Before 1996 the counts were kept by calendar year. Issuance was 2,415,003 in 1974, fell back to 3,282,488 in 1992, the lowest since 1981, and reached 5,263,989 by 1995, 60.4% above that low.¹⁹³ The 2025 total is 11.3 times the 1974 one (fiscal 2025 against calendar 1974).³ The 1985 total of 4,967,895 was not passed again until 1995.¹⁹

The share of Americans who hold a passport has grown with it. About 5% did in 1990, around 28% to 30% in 2008, 42% in fiscal 2017, 46% in 2023 and 48% in 2024.^761626340

Demand is concentrated in a few states. In fiscal 2015, the last year with a state breakdown, California accounted for 2,067,980 passports, about 15.0% of the state total, and New York and Texas each for more than 1.1 million.¹⁹³ Every one of the top 10 states issued fewer than in fiscal 2007; California's count was 24.4% lower.³ The state file adds up to 13,793,148, about 11% less than the national total of 15,556,216, so the state figures do not cover all issuance.¹⁹³

Where the photo gets handed in

The photo goes in with the application at an acceptance facility, and most of those are post offices. Of the 7,313 named facilities in the 2026 file, 4,885, or 66.8%, are postal, and 1,191, or 16.3%, are courts.¹⁹³ County and state offices account for 491 more and municipal offices for 437.¹⁹ So the $15 photo is sold at most post offices, and post offices are two in three acceptance facilities, though not every one of them sells photos.⁶³

The network is thinner than it was. There were over 9,400 facilities in June 2008 and about 8,000 in fiscal 2017, against 7,313 named ones in 2026; post offices processing applications fell from about 6,300 in fiscal 2010 to 4,834 in December 2020.^616362319 In fiscal 2017 the government also ran 29 passport agencies and centers of its own.⁶³

Access also varies by state. Measured against population, Vermont has 7.1 facilities per 100,000 residents and Florida 1.1, so Vermont's rate is about 6.5 times Florida's; the national figure is 2.13.¹⁹⁶⁵³ Next to Vermont at the top are North Dakota with 6.0, Wyoming with 5.9, Montana with 5.8 and Alaska with 5.7.¹⁹⁶⁵ Several large states sit near the bottom: Texas at 1.3, and California, Arizona and North Carolina at 1.2.³

In absolute numbers the picture flips. New York has the most named facilities, 630, ahead of California with 487 and Texas with 423, even though those two states have among the lowest rates per resident.¹⁹ Ohio, with 381, and Illinois, with 374, come next.¹⁹

What this means for your wallet

The cheapest paid photo in 2026 is Walmart's $7.64, and the cheapest of all is a photo with no monetary cost for an online renewal, the route about 66% of online renewers already use.¹⁹ A Walmart photo is 4.4% of the $172.64 first-time total, a Post Office photo 8.3% of $180.³ For an in-person application, the Post Office's $15 has the advantage of being sold at most post offices, and post offices are two in three acceptance facilities; it now costs less than Walgreens, CVS, Staples or FedEx Office.⁵⁶¹⁹

Walgreens' $16.99 is the better buy of the two pharmacy chains for anyone who might also want a digital file, since CVS charges $3.99 extra for the same copy.⁴² At Staples the same combination, prints plus a digital copy, costs $24.99.¹¹ AAA members on the top two tiers at one Pennsylvania club pay nothing for the photo, but that only helps if the dues are paid for other reasons.²⁶²⁷

Whatever the price, the rules are the same: a 2x2-inch photo, taken within six months, on a white or off-white background and without glasses.⁸ A photo that fails them costs more in delay than any price gap between chains.

Conclusions

1. The Post Office went from priciest to mid-pack without changing its price. Its $15 was $2 to $10 above other sellers in 2011; after Walgreens rose 70.1% and CVS 80.1%, it undercuts both in 2026.⁶³
2. Pharmacy photo prices outran inflation; photo services overall did not. CVS's 2011 price of $9.99 equals $14.30 in 2025 dollars against $17.99 now, while consumer prices for photographers and photo processing rose 31.4% from 1998 to 2025, against 97.5% for all items.¹³³
3. The photo got relatively cheaper because passports got dearer. The Post Office photo was 13.4% of a first-time passport's total cost in 2005 and has been 8.3% since 2022.³
4. Record demand meets a thinner network. Applications peaked at 21,577,377 in fiscal 2023 and issuance at 27,348,416 in fiscal 2025, while named acceptance facilities number 7,313, against over 9,400 in 2008 and over 7,400 in 2023.^1976162
5. Where the photo is taken shapes the price more than the photo itself. The same 2x2-inch print costs from $7.64 to $17.99 at the chains, nothing to $15 at one AAA club, and nothing at all for most online renewers.¹²²⁶⁹
6. The free photo is the growth route. About 66% of online renewers paid nothing for their photo, and the avoided photo fees make up 20.8% of the yearly savings expected from online renewal.⁹³