Photo Booth Rental Cost in 2026: Real Prices and Hidden Fees

You got a quote for a photo booth, or you are about to, and you have no idea whether the number is fair. Here is the short answer. A typical photo booth rental costs about $450 to $1,000, with a median of $681, according to Check Cherry's analysis of roughly 118,000 booked rentals (updated August 2026). Weddings and corporate events run higher, with medians near $890. 360 and mirror booths cost more than a classic open-air setup. And the headline price is often not the price you pay.

We make an event camera, not a booth, so we have no rate card to defend here. Everything below comes from published data and real vendor pages, checked in November 2026. Local prices will differ, but you will know what a sensible quote looks like and where the extra charges tend to hide.

The three price sources you will find, and why they disagree

Search for wedding photo booth cost and you will see several different "averages." They are measuring different things, so it helps to know which one to trust.

Source	Figure	What it measures
Check Cherry (updated Aug 2026)	$681 median, $867 average, all rentals. $886 median for weddings	Full billed totals from about 118,000 bookings since January 2024
WeddingWire (undated)	$650 average, most couples $425 to $1,000	Wedding spending. The page says the data covers both event rental and photo booth costs
Kruu (undated)	Weddings $400 to $1,000, birthdays $300 to $600, corporate $500 to $1,100	A rental company's own estimate

Check Cherry is the strongest of the three because it reports what clients were actually billed, with a stated sample and method. It has a bias worth knowing, though. It sells booking software to booth operators, so its numbers describe businesses that use that kind of software. A weekend side-hustle operator with a booth and a spreadsheet is not in the data. The page also does not name a country, though the figures are in dollars.

WeddingWire's numbers are softer because photo booths are mixed in with a broader rentals category. It does add one useful point: a starting price of about $551 for three hours.

Our read is to use Check Cherry for benchmarking and treat the others as a sanity check. If you are planning a wedding, assume about $630 to $1,300, which is the middle half of Check Cherry's wedding bookings. If you are planning a birthday party, assume about $450 to $850.

What each booth type costs

Booth type is the first thing that moves the price. Here is Check Cherry's breakdown. It comes only from single-service bookings where the booth type could be identified, so about 62 percent of rentals are excluded from this cut.

Booth type	Lower quarter	Median	Upper quarter	Top 10% start at
Classic / open-air	$495	$615	$810	$1,100
Roaming	$464	$702	$1,073	$1,681
360	$500	$750	$1,113	$1,577
Mirror	$600	$866	$1,185	$1,525
Glam	$725	$950	$1,265	$1,700

Those are event totals, and rental lengths vary. Rate cards show how wide things get within a single type.

Open-air booths

This is the camera, backdrop, and props setup most people picture. On Zola, Infinia Photo Booth in St. Louis lists a three-hour open-air package at $350 with digital copies only, and $600 with prints. Hello Happy House in Utah lists its Open Air package at $400 for three hours, with prints, an attendant, and an extra hour at $50. Those are the low end. CaptureME in Colorado starts its staffed Signature booth at $1,100 for four hours on Zola.

Enclosed booths

Check Cherry does not break out enclosed booths, so vendor pages are the best we have. The two we checked sit far apart. Hello Happy House prices its curtained Classic Enclosed package the same as its open-air one, $400 for three hours with $50 extra hours. Tru-View Productions lists a customizable enclosed vintage booth at $600 for two hours, with extra hours at $300. Don't assume enclosed always costs more or less. Ask the vendor directly, and check how many people fit inside if you want group shots.

Mirror booths

Mirror booths are full-length touchscreens, and Check Cherry's data puts them near the top. Fun Frame Photo Booth in Alabama starts at $550 for a two-hour, fully hosted, digital-only mirror booth, with listings running up to $1,050 and prints sold as an upgrade. Monipix lists a vintage mirror booth at $1,000 for three hours, including unlimited prints, an attendant, and an online gallery, with extra hours at $100.

360 booths

A 360 booth is a platform with a camera arm that circles the guests and records a short video. The rental price varies more here than for any other type we looked at:

Vendor	Package	Price	Extra hour
Tru-View Productions	360 Photo Booth, 2 hours	$450	$225
Proof It Happened (Texas)	360 Video Booth, 2 hours	$649	Not stated for 2-hour
Proof It Happened (Texas)	360 Video Booth, 3 hours	$849	$150
Signature Photo Booths (Florida, via Zola)	Cursive 360, 3-hour minimum	$1,000	$150
CaptureME (Colorado, via Zola)	Signature 360, 4 hours	$1,750	$300

So 360 photo booth rental prices run from about $450 to $1,750 in this small sample, and part of that spread is simply more hours. Note what you are buying, too. A 360 booth produces video, so if you want a print on the fridge, confirm that the package includes one. Proof It Happened's 360 listing mentions instant sharing but does not mention prints. CaptureME's 360 package also requires venue Wi-Fi.

Roaming and drop-off setups

Roaming means an attendant walks around with a handheld unit. Proof It Happened's mobile unit is $300 for two hours and Tru-View's Roamer is $350 for two hours, both digital only. Drop-off means the booth is delivered and runs without staff. We cover that in the attendant section below, because it is one of the biggest savings available.

What photo booth prices look like by the hour

Rental length is the second big lever. Check Cherry's medians, with the per-hour math added:

Rental length	Median total	Median ÷ hours	Top 10% start at
2 hours or less	$495	about $248 per hour (at 2 hours)	$1,130
3 hours	$699	$233 per hour	$1,250
4 hours	$800	$200 per hour	$1,595
5 hours or more	$993	at most about $199 per hour	$2,221

The effective hourly rate falls as you book longer, and the jump from three to four hours is small, at $101 ($800 minus $699). That roughly matches the $100 extra-hour rate on many rate cards, including Proof It Happened and SnapShots in Stockton.

Extra-hour rates are worth reading as carefully as the base price. In the vendors above they run from $50 (Infinia, Hello Happy House) to $300 (CaptureME's 360 and glam packages, Tru-View's enclosed booth). A $250 or $300 overtime rate can erase a low starting price if your reception runs late.

What it costs by event

Check Cherry records event type on about one-third of its bookings, so this cut is based on a partial sample.

Event	Lower quarter	Median	Upper quarter	Top 10% start at
Party / personal	$450	$606	$845	$1,200
School / prom	$495	$650	$900	$1,395
Wedding	$631	$886	$1,305	$1,973
Corporate	$650	$899	$1,369	$2,100

The data does not explain the gap, but rate cards hint at one reason. Wedding packages tend to be longer. E&A Photo Booths in the Sacramento area treats four hours as standard, and CaptureME starts at four. If someone quotes you more for a wedding than a birthday with identical hours and inclusions, ask why.

What is included, and the fees that are not

A rental usually bundles a booth, a backdrop, a template, and some way of delivering photos. Beyond that, packages differ a lot. Check Cherry found 26 percent of rentals carry at least one add-on, with a median add-on spend of $147, and the top 10 percent start at $500. Here is where the money tends to go.

Attendant. This is one of the biggest line items and sometimes the cheapest to remove. Check Cherry puts attended bookings at a median around $656 and drop-off around $450, a gap of $206. Drop-off is also close to flat by length, running from about $370 at two hours to $480 at five or more. But in a single vendor's pricing, the gap can be small. The Director's Cut in Charlotte lists a half-day (up to four hours) self-serve at $600 and attended at $650, and only the attended option lists up to 100 prints. At that price, $50 for a person and prints is an easy call.

Travel. Less common than you might expect. Check Cherry says 18 percent of rentals carry a travel fee, with a median of $50, and the top 10 percent start at $150. Rate cards fit that range. SnapShots starts at $50 for events more than 40 miles from Stockton, and E&A charges $75 beyond 45 miles.

Setup. Usually included, but look for limits. Infinia's listing says setup more than 1.5 hours before contract time may cost extra. E&A starts 60 to 90 minutes before the event, and Fun Frame says to plan for one to two hours before guests arrive. If your venue only grants vendor access early in the day, tell the booth company before you sign, because early arrival is the sort of thing that gets billed.

Overtime. Covered above. Get the rate in writing, and agree on who can approve it on the night.

Prints. Some packages are digital only, some cap prints, and some are unlimited. A cap sounds generous until you do the math against your guest count. SnapShots includes 200 prints in its $650 package and The Director's Cut includes up to 100 at half-day. Monipix's vintage mirror booth and Proof It Happened's Celebration packages offer unlimited prints.

Custom templates. Many vendors include one. The catch is often timing rather than money. The Director's Cut recommends 30 days' notice for custom overlays and 60 days for custom physical backdrops. Ask whether revisions are included.

Props. Do not assume these come with the booth. Monipix's two cheapest packages exclude props, Tru-View's drop-off booth charges $50 for them, and CaptureME's glam package treats them as an upgrade.

Venue space and power. This is the fee that does not appear on the invoice. Infinia asks for a 6x8 ft space out of traffic and not on the dance floor. CaptureME wants a dedicated 110V outlet within 25 feet, plus an indoor or enclosed space. If your venue charges for extra power or has no room near the action, the booth may cost more than the quote or end up in a hallway. Send your vendor the floor plan before paying a deposit.

Guest count. SnapShots adds a fee when you exceed a package's recommended party size, and E&A says guest counts over 200 may incur a fee. Neither page states the amount.

Deposits. Check Cherry reports about 47 percent of operators take a flat deposit and about 44 percent take a percentage, with 50 percent being the most common percentage. Fun Frame requires a 50 percent non-refundable retainer. E&A takes a $250 retainer that is applied to the total. A deposit is normal. What matters is the refund and reschedule terms, so read them before you pay.

The money questions to ask before you sign

Our guide to what to ask before renting a photo booth covers quality, backups, and privacy. For pure cost, these are the ones that matter:

1. Is this the total, including tax, travel, setup, and any venue fees?
2. How many usable hours does this cover, and are setup and breakdown inside or outside that time?
3. If a pause is planned, such as during dinner, do I pay for those hours?
4. What is the overtime rate, and who can approve it on the night?
5. Is there a print cap? What happens when it is reached?
6. Is an attendant on site the whole time?
7. Are props, the template, and revisions included?
8. Is there a fee based on guest count?
9. What space, power, and Wi-Fi does the booth need?
10. How much is the deposit, when is the balance due, and what are the terms if we cancel or reschedule?

Ask for the answers in an itemized quote. Then you can compare vendors line by line.

A worked comparison: three hypothetical quotes for one wedding

Say you have 120 guests, want four hours of booth time, and want prints. The vendors and fees below are made up, though we have set them in the range of the rate cards above. You collect three quotes.

• Vendor A advertises $450 for three hours, digital only, with an attendant.
• Vendor B advertises $650 for four hours with 200 prints and an attendant. The package is rated for 75 guests.
• Vendor C advertises $1,100 for four hours with unlimited prints and an attendant.

At first glance, A looks like the bargain and C looks like a splurge. Now itemize them.

Line item	Vendor A	Vendor B	Vendor C
Base package	$450	$650	$1,100
Fourth hour	$100	Included	Included
Prints	$150 add-on	Included (200)	Included (unlimited)
Travel	$50	Included	Included
Guest count over package size	None	$100	None
Total	$750	$750	$1,100
Per guest (total ÷ 120)	$6.25	$6.25	about $9.17

The $200 gap in headline price between A and B has gone. C is still $350 more, but the question is now whether that $350 buys something you want. Two more scenarios can help decide.

The first is overtime. Say the party runs an hour long. If A and B charge $100 and C charges $250, then A and B reach $850 and C reaches $1,350. Now C costs $500 more, which is why the extra-hour rate belongs in your comparison.

The second is print volume. If each session prints two copies, B's 200 prints cover 100 sessions (200 ÷ 2) before the cap. That may be plenty, or it may not, so ask B what extra prints cost.

Put every quote on a grid like this and you can see the actual choice.

How to lower the cost without ruining the booth

Book fewer hours and place them well. Dropping from four hours to three saves about $101 at Check Cherry's medians. Two or three hours that start after dinner may get more use than four hours with a long gap in the middle, though that depends on your timeline.

Go digital only if prints aren't the point. On Infinia's rate card, removing prints cuts the three-hour package from $600 to $350, a saving of $250. If your guests just want a fun image to post, that is a very good trade. If you want a strip for the fridge, it isn't.

Choose drop-off for a relaxed crowd. The roughly $206 median saving is real, but someone still has to fix a paper jam or herd people through. At a backyard party with a tech-savvy friend nearby, that's fine. At a wedding, it means a guest loses part of the evening.

Avoid peak months where you can. Check Cherry shows May at about 14 percent of the year's events, with June and December at about 12 percent each, and January under 5 percent. The article doesn't claim that quiet months are cheaper, and we can't either. But you have more leverage when an operator has open dates, so it's a fair thing to ask about.

Skip upgrades you won't notice. SnapShots jumps from $650 to $1,250 between its middle and top packages, and only part of that is one extra hour. The rest includes a red carpet, premium backdrops, and more.

When a booth is absolutely worth it, and when it is not

A photo booth is good value for reasons a price table can't show. It gives guests something physical to do together. It pulls people who don't know each other into one small, silly project. Your aunt and your college roommate will wear the same fake mustache. And with prints, every guest leaves holding something. Nothing on a phone does exactly that.

So it is worth paying for if your guests enjoy this kind of thing, the event has some slack in it, you want printed keepsakes, and the venue has a good spot near the party.

It is probably not worth it if your event is small, your budget is tight enough that $886 means cutting something you care more about, your schedule has no downtime, or the only available spot is a hallway. At a 30-person dinner, a median-priced wedding booth would cost about $29.53 per guest ($886 ÷ 30), compared with about $7.38 at 120 guests ($886 ÷ 120). A booth also captures only what happens in front of it, so if your goal is candid coverage of the whole day, it is the wrong tool. Our longer take on when wedding photo booths are worth it goes through that decision. If you are planning the rest of the day, see our wedding page.

Buying your own, or building a DIY booth

If you search for how much does a photo booth cost, you will also find prices for buying one. For a single event, buying rarely makes sense. For someone who hosts often, or wants a side business, here are the numbers.

Commercial-grade hardware runs into the thousands. Simple Booth's own comparison of its HALO kit with a competitor's booth lists the HALO Event Kit at $2,590 and the Salsa Booth Starter Package at $2,999. Add a $749 iPad Air if you don't own one, and you reach $3,339 ($2,590 + $749) or $3,748 ($2,999 + $749). The page is headlined June 2024 and comes from a company selling one of the two products, so confirm these on each company's site.

Software is a separate, ongoing cost. Simple Booth's plans page lists Core at $24 per week or $49 per month, Plus at $49 per week or $99 per month, and Pro at $149 per month. The App Store-only Lite plan is $15 per week.

Compare that with renting. Against Check Cherry's $886 median wedding, a $3,339 kit equals about 3.8 rentals ($3,339 ÷ $886). That sounds fast, but it excludes software, paper, a backdrop, lighting, transport, insurance, and your Saturday nights. If you plan to buy for a single wedding and resell, you are betting on the resale price, which we have no data for.

The cheaper DIY version uses an iPad you already own. Put it on a stand or tripod, run a booth app, and add a backdrop. Here is a rough budget for one event, using the Lite plan for one week:

• Software: $15
• Prints: two 108-sheet Canon SELPHY RP-108 packs, at about $35 each per CameraLabs' 2022 review, so $70 for 216 prints (about 32 cents each)
• Total before hardware: $85 ($15 + $70)

That leaves out the printer, stand, backdrop, lights, and props. Check current prices, and confirm that your chosen plan supports printing and the features you want before you pay. The CameraLabs pricing is also several years old.

Time a print and run a full test before the event. Someone also has to restock paper and solve problems during your party, and that person should not be you. For a casual birthday, DIY is a great option. For a wedding, assign a willing friend, or rent.

Cheaper alternatives, and what you lose with each

The right alternative depends on which part of a booth you actually want.

If you want prints in guests' hands, disposable cameras are the classic low-tech alternative, though you wait for developing and you pay per roll. Our guide to buying disposable cameras in bulk does that math per camera. We compare them with phone-based options on our disposable cameras page. A DIY setup with a printer is the other way to get prints at the event.

If you want a shared activity, a printed game works surprisingly well. Our free photo scavenger hunt gets guests moving and taking pictures with their own phones, at no cost.

If you want guests' photos in one place and on a big screen, a shared camera on guests' phones is the closest digital option. Revel is one of these, and its Live Slideshow is the nearest thing we have to a booth moment. Guests scan a QR code, shoot from their phone browser with no app or account, and the host can cast a moderated feed to any screen in the room.

To be clear, it is not a booth. There is no backdrop, no attendant, and no props unless you bring them, and it does not produce physical prints. If instant prints are why you want a booth, rent the booth. Where Revel makes more sense is when you want coverage of the whole event, including the corners a booth never sees. Plenty of hosts could reasonably do both.

Photo booth cost FAQ

How much does it cost to rent a photo booth for 3 hours?

Check Cherry's median for a three-hour rental is $699, based on booked rentals. The top 10 percent start at $1,250. Vendor rate cards we checked range from $350 for digital-only open air to $1,000 for a 360 booth or a mirror booth with unlimited prints.

What is the average wedding photo booth cost?

Check Cherry's median for weddings is $886, with the middle half of bookings between $631 and $1,305. WeddingWire reports a lower average of $650, with most couples spending $425 to $1,000, though its data also covers other event rentals. Budget near the Check Cherry figure if you want prints and an attendant.

How much is a 360 photo booth rental?

Check Cherry's median is $750, with the middle half between $500 and $1,113. Vendor rates we checked ran from $450 for two hours to $1,750 for four. Check the extra-hour rate, since 360 booths were often $150 to $300 per hour.

How far in advance should I book a photo booth?

None of the sources give a firm lead time. But The Director's Cut recommends 30 days' notice for custom overlays and 60 days for custom backdrops, so those are practical minimums for a custom design. Check Cherry shows May, June, and December are the busiest months, so book earlier for those dates.

Is it cheaper to buy or rent a photo booth?

For one event, renting is almost always cheaper. A commercial kit plus an iPad can pass $3,300 before software and supplies, while the median wedding rental is $886. Buying only starts to make sense if you will run several events.

Try the free version before you decide

If you are not sure whether you need a booth, spend ten minutes testing the phone option. Download Revel, create a free Moment for up to 10 participants, and cast the Live Slideshow to your TV while a few friends shoot from their phones. If that gives you the feeling you were after, you may have just saved yourself a rental. If it makes you want prints in people's hands, you will know the booth is worth it, and you now know what to pay for one.