Calculate your price
Enter your own figures: the result updates as you type. The starting values describe a typical four-hour wedding with an attendant and a DSLR booth.
Your price
- Full cost per event
- $330
- Recommended price
- $507
- Per hour of service
- $127
- Extra hour
- $54
- Margin per year
- $7,097
Prices before tax. The attendant is paid for set-up and tear-down too (2 hours on top of the service). Equipment is written off over 3 years. Yearly fixed costs cover software, insurance, website and advertising.
What clients pay in 2026
Published ranges vary a lot from one source to another, because they mix self-service booths, attended packages and premium formats. These are the most useful benchmarks:
- United States: about $680 for a typical event, with half of rentals between $450 and $1,020 (Check Cherry, analysis of some 118,000 bookings). By the hour, $125 to $200 is common, usually with a 2 or 3 hour minimum (Thumbtack).
- France: €350 to €900 for 3 to 4 hours, with prints (Lokki).
- Portugal: €250 to €600 for a fixed-price package (Fixando).
- Brazil: R$1,500 to R$3,000 for a wedding (Cronoshare).
- 360 and mirror booths sit above these ranges; self-service booths with no attendant, below.
Use them to check that your price is credible in your market, not to set it: two companies charging the same price can have very different costs.
What goes into your cost per event
- Print media: paper and ribbon, around $0.20 to $0.40 per 4×6 print on a dye-sub printer, half that for a 2×6 strip.
- The attendant: hours on site plus set-up, tear-down and travel time. It is often the largest line.
- Travel: fuel, tolls, parking, and a van if you rent one.
- Equipment: camera, printer, PC, screen, light, enclosure, backdrop. Spread its purchase price over the events of its useful life.
- Yearly costs: software, insurance, website, advertising, accounting. Divide them by the number of events you really book, not the number you hope for.
- Wear and breakage: a printer head, a cracked screen, props that never come back.
Add these lines up and you have your floor price: below it, every event costs you money, even if the till is ringing.
From cost to price: margin and packages
Margin is a share of the price, not a markup on the cost. A 35% margin on a $330 cost gives a price of about $510, not $445. Between 30% and 50% is a common target: lower, and one canceled weekend wipes out the month; higher, and you need a premium product and a brand to match.
- Two or three packages by duration: 2 hours, 3 to 4 hours, the whole evening. The middle one is the one people buy.
- An hourly rate for extra time, announced in advance, at the attendant cost plus the margin.
- Unlimited prints in the top package, a print limit in the others: printing is the variable cost that grows with the guests.
- A minimum price for small events: below a certain duration, travel and set-up cost the same.
Options that raise the average booking
- A custom template with the couple’s names or the company logo.
- An online gallery and digital sharing by QR code or email.
- A video guestbook or GIFs and boomerangs.
- A second booth for large events, or a backdrop and themed props.
- Green screen with a themed backdrop, or AI portraits for part of the night.
- A guest book where the attendant sticks a copy of each print.
Most of these cost you little once the software handles them: they belong in the price list, not as free extras.
AI portraits are the one option with a direct cost per photo: with Froozbooth, from €0.15 a portrait in prepaid credits. Bill them as a separate line in your quote. AI photo booth software
Pricing mistakes that eat the margin
- Copying the competitor’s price without knowing their costs or their volume.
- Forgetting set-up and tear-down time: on a 3-hour booking, the attendant often works 5 or 6.
- Offering unlimited prints with no limit on duration.
- Counting on 80 events a year when the calendar holds 30 Saturdays that sell.
- Never raising prices while paper, fuel and wages go up.
Software: the smallest line
Booth software weighs little in your cost if it is not billed per event. Froozbooth costs €139 a year for two machines, or €299 once: about €3.50 per event at 40 events a year, with the online gallery, QR and email sharing included. Those are exactly the options you can bill. Photo booth software for Windows
Still building your business plan? The full guide covers the market, equipment and first clients. How to start a photo booth rental business
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for a photo booth rental?
Start from your full cost per event (prints, attendant, travel, share of equipment and yearly costs), then add a 30% to 50% margin. For a typical four-hour wedding with an attendant, this usually lands between $450 and $1,000 in the United States, and between €350 and €900 in France.
How much do photo booths charge per hour?
In the United States, $125 to $200 an hour is common, with a minimum of 2 or 3 hours. Charge extra hours at your attendant cost plus your margin: the travel and set-up are already paid for by the base package.
Is a photo booth rental business profitable?
It can be, if each event covers its full cost and you book enough of them. With the calculator’s starting values, 40 events a year at the recommended price leave about $7,000 of margin before tax. Every extra weekend booked improves the result, because equipment and yearly costs are already covered.
Should I offer unlimited prints?
Yes in the top package, but with a fixed duration: print media is the cost that grows with the number of guests. In the other packages, a print limit keeps the cost predictable.
Should prices include tax?
The calculator works before tax. Quote businesses before tax and private clients with tax included, according to the rules of your country.
Should I ask for a deposit when a client books?
Yes, asking for a deposit to hold the date is common practice, because a canceled Saturday is hard to resell at short notice. Write the amount, when the balance is due and what happens if the client cancels in your contract or terms. Rules on deposits and refunds differ by country, so check them with a local adviser.
How should I charge for travel?
Charge travel as a real cost: fuel, tolls, parking, the van if you rent one, and the attendant’s time on the road. A simple approach is to include a local area in your packages and quote a travel fee beyond it. The calculator on this page counts round-trip travel in the cost per event, with $50 as the starting value.
Should I charge less on weekdays than on Saturdays?
You can, as long as the weekday price stays above your full cost per event. Saturdays are the dates every client wants, so they carry your full price; a lower weekday rate helps you book corporate events and smaller parties that would not have paid the Saturday price. Publish it as a rate rather than negotiating a discount case by case.
Should corporate clients pay more than private clients?
Charge for what the booking requires, not for who the client is. Corporate events often need more: the brand on every photo, a branded welcome screen, digital sharing, answers on personal data, sometimes a survey whose results you hand over afterwards. Sell those as options or as a corporate package; in Froozbooth they are all included in every plan, so they add margin, not software cost.
How should I present my photo booth packages?
Show two or three packages by duration, for example 2 hours, 3 to 4 hours and the whole evening, with the middle one as the obvious choice. State the extra hour price up front, keep unlimited prints for the top package, and give each option its own price: custom template, online gallery, video guestbook. A minimum price for short events protects you, because travel and set-up cost the same.
When should I raise my photo booth prices?
Whenever your cost per event goes up: recalculate it at least once a year, because paper, fuel and wages go up. Never raising prices is one of the mistakes that eat the margin. Apply new prices to new bookings and honour the quotes you have already sent.