How Much Does It Cost to Grade a Card? (Price Guide)

Grading means sending a card to a third party that scores its condition, seals it in a tamper-evident holder and records the result in a population report. The fee you pay depends on three things: which company you use, how fast you want the card back, and how much you declare the card to be worth. The declared value matters because it sets which service level the company will accept the card under.

Prices in this hobby moved several times in 2026, and some companies paused their cheapest tiers because of backlogs. The tables below show the figures most recently published for each grader. CGC's numbers come from its own services page. The PSA, Beckett and SGC numbers come from independent grading guides, because those companies' own fee pages could not be read automatically. Check the grader's current order form before you ship anything.

CGC is the only grader here whose fees are read straight from its own page. Each tier has a maximum declared value per card, shown in the row label, and the cheapest tier needs a minimum batch size. Bulk and Economy are the slow, low-cost options. Express and WalkThrough exist for people who need a card back quickly, and the price climbs steeply as the turnaround shrinks.

CGC grades trading card games and sports cards, which is why it shows up often in searches about Pokemon grading costs. A single Pokemon card follows the same fee schedule as any other card: the tier is chosen by declared value and speed, not by the game.

PSA is the grader most collectors name first, and it has the most complicated schedule. According to the guides listed below, PSA paused its cheapest Value tiers earlier in 2026 because of a large backlog, so the entry point today is the Standard tier. Priority sits one step above it, and Express, Super Express and Premier cover faster turnaround and higher declared values.

A card worth more than a tier's limit cannot be submitted under that tier, so a valuable card often has to go to a more expensive level even if you are in no hurry. That is the main reason PSA submissions cost more than the headline entry price suggests.

Beckett prices its Base tier with subgrades included, which means you get separate scores for centering, corners, edges and surface. Its public website has been offline for maintenance, and orders have been taken through a temporary form. Tier availability has also changed more than once, so a tier listed below may be closed when you read this.

SGC raised its entry price on September 2, 2026, and its schedule now depends heavily on declared value. The two figures below are the Standard and Expedited entry levels. A separate page covers the full SGC schedule, including the higher declared-value bands.

Guides disagree because grading companies change prices often and each guide freezes a different moment. Some include only the lowest tier that is currently open. Others list every tier up to the most expensive, which stretches the range. The table shows two guides that quote the same PSA span from Standard to Premier.

Old articles are the biggest source of error. A guide written before the 2026 changes may still quote entry prices that no longer exist, so look at the date before trusting any figure.

The grading fee is only part of the bill. Plan for these as well:

• Shipping to the grader, with insurance that matches the value of the cards
• Return shipping, which graders often charge separately
• Protective supplies such as sleeves and semi-rigid holders
• Any add-ons, such as autograph grading or oversized-card handling
• Membership fees, where a grader ties its cheapest tier to a paid program

Small submissions spread these costs over fewer cards, so a single card usually costs more per card all in than a batch.

Grading pays off when the graded card sells for noticeably more than the raw card plus every cost above. For cheap cards the fee can exceed the gain even when the card earns a top grade. Compare recent sold listings for the same card in raw and graded condition before you commit. A pre-screen of centering and surface helps, because a card that comes back with a low grade can lose money.