The short answer: Walgreens charges $16.99, CVS charges $17.99 — both for two 2×2 inch prints taken in-store. The dollar difference matters less than what the price buys, and what it doesn’t.

Prices below were checked against the chains’ own photo pages in late September 2026. They drift with promotions, so treat this table as a comparison, not a quote — each source is named so you can re-verify.

Service prices, compared

Provider	Price	You get	Digital copy	Source
CVS	$17.99	2 × 2×2 in prints, taken in-store, while you wait	+$3.99 emailed (select stores); $10.99 on USB	cvs.com/photo/passport-photos
Walgreens	$16.99	2 × 2×2 in prints, taken in-store, no appointment	free emailed copy on request	photo.walgreens.com
Walmart	$7.64	2 × 2×2 in prints (upload online or in-store kiosk)	upload-your-own flow	photos3.walmart.com
USPS	~$15	2 prints, plus they accept the passport application itself	no	usps.com
UPS Store	~$12–13	2 prints	varies	ups.com
FedEx Office	~$15–16	2 prints	varies	fedex.com
Staples	~$17–20	2 prints	varies	staples.com
Costco	—	in-store photo labs closed 2021	—	costco.com

CVS vs Walgreens, honestly

The service itself is nearly identical: a staff member photographs you against the store’s backdrop, software checks the frame against the federal template, two prints come out of the lab printer. Choosing between them comes down to three differences:

1. Price — Walgreens is $1 cheaper at list price, and both run occasional photo coupons.
2. The digital copy — the real gap. Walgreens emails you the digital file free with the service; CVS wants $3.99 more (where offered) or $10.99 for a USB drive. If any part of your application is online — a US online renewal, a visa portal — the Walgreens bundle is the better buy.
3. Availability — CVS runs the service only at locations with a photo counter; Walgreens’ network is larger (~7,700 stores). In both cases, call first if it’s your sole reason for the trip.

Neither can sell you a guarantee of acceptance — what they offer is a compliance check at capture and a free retake if the photo bounces. That’s genuinely useful: the photo gets verified by something more rigorous than your own eye. It’s worth paying for when the photo is hard to get right — infants, low-light homes, mobility constraints — or when a deadline makes a retake painful.

The DIY route, priced honestly

The same 4×6-inch sheet the lab prints sells as an ordinary photo print for $0.38–$0.45 at CVS or Walgreens (about $0.09–0.25 at Walmart, $0.12–0.20 at mail-order labs — see where to print). A PrintSheet layout tiles six 2×2 photos on one sheet, so the math is roughly:

Route	Cost for a compliant set	What it buys
CVS / Walgreens service	$16.99–17.99	photo taken + checked + 2 prints
Walmart service	$7.64	same, self-serve kiosk or associate
DIY: make + print one 4×6 sheet	$0.38–0.45	6 prints; compliance check is on you

The honest disadvantages of DIY: nobody verifies your photo. If your background photographs grey, your head lands outside the band, or the kiosk silently rescales the sheet, the prints are cheap and useless — mitigation is running the file through a checker first (photochecker.passports.pics does it free, on-device) and ruler-checking one print before cutting (cutting guide). A few kiosks recognize ID-photo layouts and push the paid service; ordering online for pickup sidesteps the prompt. And a rejected application costs more than $17 — that risk is the service’s real product.

Need a digital file only? Skip all of it

For an online passport renewal or a visa upload you don’t need prints at all — the portal wants the original file. PassportPhoto crops a phone photo to the exact pixel spec in your browser (nothing uploads), photochecker verifies it against the published rules, and idphotoapp covers non-passport IDs if that’s what you’re after. Total cost: $0 — the honest floor of this entire table.

Frequently asked questions

Is CVS or Walgreens cheaper for passport photos?

Walgreens, by a dollar: $16.99 for two 2×2 inch prints versus $17.99 at CVS (prices checked on their official photo pages in late September 2026). The meaningful difference is the digital copy — Walgreens emails one free with the service, CVS charges $3.99 extra for it at participating locations. For an online renewal or visa upload, that makes Walgreens effectively $5 cheaper.

What do you actually get for $16.99–$17.99?

A trained associate takes your photo in-store, the store's software checks it against the federal template, and you get two printed 2×2 inch photos on the spot — no appointment at either chain. What you are paying for is the compliance check and the convenience, not the paper: the same 4×6 sheet the print comes from retails for about 40 cents.

Can I just print my own photo at CVS or Walgreens instead?

Yes — this is the well-known workaround. Both chains sell ordinary 4×6 prints for roughly $0.38–$0.45 (cheaper with the near-constant app coupons). Upload a correctly laid-out sheet — the PrintSheet tool makes one free — and order it as a normal print for pickup. One sheet holds six 2×2 photos, so the per-photo cost drops to about 6 cents. The trade-off: nobody checks your photo, and the rare kiosk may flag ID-photo layouts — ordering online for pickup avoids that prompt.

Do the store photos guarantee acceptance?

Both chains market a compliance promise — CVS issues a verification certificate, Walgreens advertises 'government compliant' photos — and in practice a rejected photo gets retaken free at the store. What no retailer can do is overrule the State Department: compliance checks cover size and pose, not a photo that's too old or an application problem. The guarantee is a retake policy, not acceptance authority.

What about Walmart, USPS and the others?

Walmart is the budget in-store option at $7.64 for two prints ordered through its photo page (some stores ring up $7.44). USPS charges about $15 but can take your passport application in the same visit. UPS Stores run about $12–13, FedEx Office about $15–16, Staples $17–20. Costco's in-store photo labs closed in 2021 — members can still mail-order prints, but there's no walk-in passport service anymore.

I only need a digital photo for an online application — do I have to pay?

No. If you're renewing a US passport online or uploading to a visa portal, you don't need prints at all. Take the photo at home, check it free at photochecker.passports.pics, and upload the original file — the renewal portal accepts plain phone photos and crops them in the application. The $17 service buys paper you never needed.