How much does a passport photo cost?
From the price of one ordinary print to a full counter fee, depending on who does the crop.
The price of a passport photo is almost entirely the price of someone else doing a 30-second job: taking the picture, cropping it to 2 × 2 inches and printing two copies. The picture and the crop can be done at home for nothing; the print is the only part that has to cost money, and a 4×6 print is the cheapest thing a photo counter sells.
Make this photo → Opens the tool with the US passport (2×2 in) preset selected.- 100% freeNo account, no paid download, no watermark.
- Nothing is uploadedYour photo is processed on your device and never reaches a server.
- Official rules, citedEvery size and head-height figure links to the government page it comes from.
- Cheap to printDownload a 4×6 sheet and print it at any photo kiosk instead of paying counter prices for two prints.
What each option charges
Pharmacy chains — CVS, Walgreens and their equivalents — charge a flat counter fee for two prints, sometimes with a digital copy as a paid extra. Shipping stores and post offices that offer the service are in the same range. Membership warehouses and some discount retailers undercut them a little. Online passport-photo services charge about as much as a pharmacy for a digital file, and more to mail prints. The fees differ by store and are revised often, so look up the current figure on the store's own page rather than trusting a number on a third-party site — including this one.
Making the photo yourself costs the price of a print: a single 4×6 at a pharmacy kiosk is a small fraction of the counter fee, and that one print carries six 2 × 2 photos or eight 35 × 45 mm photos. The crop, background and measurements are free here.
Where the money actually goes
A passport photo is a background replacement and a crop to a published size. None of that is what the fee pays for; the fee pays for a person standing at a counter. Online services have even less cost — no counter — and charge the same because most people do not know the rules and are nervous about rejection. The rules are public: every figure on this site links to the government page it comes from, and the tool draws the head-height rule on the frame for you to line up against, so the nervousness is unnecessary.
When paying is worth it
A Canadian passport requires a studio stamp on the back, so a studio is the only option there. Some people prefer to have an agent check the print before mailing an application; a passport acceptance facility will look at your photo when you apply in person, which is the same check for free. For everything else — US passports and renewals, USCIS forms, visa uploads, UK and Australian applications — a phone photo and this tool produce the same result as the counter.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest way to get a passport photo?
Take it with a phone, make it here, and print the 4×6 sheet at a pharmacy kiosk: six photos for the price of one print.
Do post offices take passport photos?
Many US Post Office locations that accept passport applications also take photos for a fee in the same range as pharmacies. Not all do; check the location.
Is a free passport photo app really free?
Most 'free' apps charge at the download step. Here both downloads are free at full resolution with no watermark; the site is supported by ads.
Can I print passport photos at home?
Yes, on photo paper with the printer set to actual size at 300 dpi. A kiosk is more reliable and costs about the same as the paper.