Business card cost calculator.
Paper against digital, for one person or a whole team. Dated printer prices, Cardr’s real prices, and every assumption yours to change.
- Paper, a year
- $97.50for one person, before tax
- Cardr Free
- $0the card, Wallet pass and contact list, forever
- Cardr Pro
- $144$144 a year each, billed yearly
- Over three years
- $292.50 on paperagainst $0 on Free, or $432 on Cardr Pro, at today’s prices
Paper costs you $97.50 a year at these numbers: 1.25 packs of 200 per person, about $0.49 for every card actually handed out, with 50 cards a person bought and never used.
Free replaces the printed card. Pro and Teams are priced beside it for what they add after the meeting: drafted follow-ups, reminders and, on Teams, one place to run everyone’s card.
Cardr Teams gives everyone a card in your company’s design, updates every card from one place when a title or address changes, and includes Pro for each person. 30 days free, no card needed to start.
See Cardr Teams →This business card cost calculator works out what paper cards cost you or your team in a year, against a digital card. Paper is priced from MOO’s dated US price list or your own printer’s, Cardr from its billing table, and every assumption is a box you can change.
Every number, and where it came from.
No discard rate, no “admin hours”, no figure you cannot check. Just packs, prices and your own estimates.
Packs a person buys in a year = the cards they hand out divided by the pack size, rounded up, plus one pack for every change of details. Paper a year = people × packs × (pack price + shipping). That is the whole paper model.
What it leaves out on purpose: design fees, the time someone spends ordering, and the share of cards people throw away. Those are real for some teams, but the figures usually quoted for them are estimates without a source we could check, so we would rather you add them in your head than have us bake one in.
| Printer and pack | Price | Per card |
|---|---|---|
| MOO Original, 50 cards | $23 | $0.46 |
| MOO Original, 100 cards | $45 | $0.45 |
| MOO Original, 200 cards | $78 | $0.39 |
| MOO Original, 400 cards | $135 | $0.34 |
| MOO Original, 600 cards | $171 | $0.29 |
| MOO Original, 800 cards | $228 | $0.29 |
| MOO Original, 1000 cards | $263 | $0.26 |
| Vistaprint trial offer, 50 cards | $10 | $0.20 |
MOO: Original paper (16pt), standard 2 x 3.5 in, US site, before shipping and tax. Vistaprint’s page showed no price table to a reader, only “Try 50 standard business cards for just $10.” (Standard 14pt, 3.5 x 2 in). Both are the printers’ prices, checked October 29, 2026; they change often.
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | The card, the Apple Wallet pass, your page, QR and the contact list. No time limit. |
| Pro | $15 | $144 | Drafted follow-ups, reminders on the day, all designs. |
| Teams | $49 for 5, then $10 a person | $490, then $100 a person | Company design, central updates, Pro for everyone. |
Prices before any sales tax. Teams starts with a free trial; see pricing and Teams.
Paper still has its moments.
A paper card needs no phone, no signal and no explanation, and some people, in some trades, still expect one. A small pack for those moments costs little, and nothing here says to stop. The money goes on everything else: the boxes ordered for cards never handed out, and the boxes thrown away when a title or number changes. A digital card changes in place, so the reprint line drops to zero.
For a team, the cost that grows is the reordering. Every promotion, new starter and office move is another order per person. With Cardr Teams, a change made once updates everyone’s card and Wallet pass.
Your number changes.
Old number, forever
New number, same code
Related tools and guides.
Beyond cost: what each does in the room and after.
ResearchThe 88% thrown away figureWhere the most quoted business card statistic comes from.
PricesDigital business card pricesWhat each digital card costs, from their own pages.
TeamsCardr TeamsA card for everyone, updated from one place.
Cost questions.
How much do paper business cards cost?
It depends on the printer, the stock and the quantity. On October 29, 2026, MOO’s US site listed Original cards at $23 for 50 and $263 for 1000, before shipping, and Vistaprint offered 50 standard cards for $10 as a trial. The calculator takes your printer’s price if it differs.
Are digital business cards cheaper than paper?
For the card itself, yes, when the digital card is free: Cardr’s Free plan has no time limit and no limit on exchanges or contacts, so paper costs more as soon as you buy one pack. Paid plans buy something else, the follow-up after the meeting, and are worth comparing on what they do for you rather than against the price of paper.
What does a business card cost per employee?
Multiply the packs each person gets through in a year, including reprints when titles change, by the pack price and shipping. Enter your team’s numbers above. Published per-employee figures vary widely because they rest on different assumptions, which is why every assumption here is yours to change.
Why count a reprint for every change of details?
A card with an old title, number or employer on it cannot be handed out, so whatever is left of the box is thrown away and a new pack is ordered. A rate of 0.25 a year means one change every four years for each person; a team with promotions and new starters will run higher.
Does Cardr cost anything for one person?
The card is free forever: the Apple Wallet pass, the page at cardr.co/yourname, the QR code, the two-way exchange and your contact list. Pro is $15 a month or $144 a year and adds drafted follow-ups and reminders.
How is Cardr Teams priced?
$49 a month (or $490 a year) covers up to 5 people, and each person after that is $10 a month ($100 a year). Everyone on a team gets Pro. It starts with a 30-day trial with no card needed. Details on the Teams page.
Should I stop printing cards altogether?
Not necessarily. Some people still expect a paper card, and a small pack for those moments is cheap. The saving comes from not reordering every time a detail changes and not buying for cards that are never handed out.
The card behind one code.
- No reprints, ever
- Saves to their phone
- Free, no card details
More on digital business cards
Start with Digital business cards: What one is, what it costs, and which format still works when the signal does not.
- Do 88% of business cards get thrown away?Guide
- GDPR and business cards in the UKGuide
- Digital business cards on AndroidGuide
- Are paper business cards dead?Guide
- How to make a digital business card
- Card designs, rendered live
- What the free plan includes
- Digital vs paper, row by row
- Digital business cards in the UK
- Digital business cards in Australia
- Digital business cards in Canada
- Digital name cards in Singapore
- Do you need a business card app?
- Profession by profession
- Glossary: the terms, defined
The card is the part that costs nothing.
A Cardr card is free forever, with a signed Apple Wallet pass and nothing to reprint when your details change.