PSA Grading Cost: Every Tier Priced
As of October 2026, PSA grading costs between $59.99 and $599 per card at the service levels that are open to the public, plus shipping and insurance. The cheapest open tier is Standard at $59.99, followed by Priority at $79.99, Express at $199, Super Express at $349 and Premier at $599. The four low-cost Value tiers that used to start near $25 have been paused since June 2, 2026. Prices and turnaround times at PSA change often, so use this guide to understand the structure and the trade-offs, then confirm today's numbers on PSA's own website before you submit.
One note on sourcing. PSA's own pricing pages did not load for our research, so the figures below come from industry coverage and tracker sites that reported PSA's September 2026 changes, and where those sources disagreed we say so. Treat every dollar figure as "as of October 2026" and verify it.
The current tiers at a glance
| Service level | Price per card | Maximum insured value | Estimated turnaround (business days) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $59.99 | $1,000 | 90 to 100 |
| Priority (formerly Regular) | $79.99 | $1,500 | 70 to 80 |
| Express | $199 | $2,500 | 20 to 30 |
| Super Express | $349 | $5,000 | 10 to 15 |
| Premier (formerly Walk-Through) | $599 | $10,000 | 7 to 10 |
These are the figures on PSA's own trading card grading page as checked in October 2026. Express used to cost $149 before PSA's September 2026 restructuring, so older guides still quote that. For a card worth more than $10,000, PSA points submitters to separate Premium options above Premier. Turnaround is an estimate, and PSA marks every range with an asterisk because it moves with the backlog.
What changed in 2026
The tier list above is the result of a few moves that happened within about a year.
February 2026 price increases. PSA raised prices on its lower tiers. Reported figures: Value Bulk went from $21.99 to $24.99, Value from $27.99 to $32.99, Value Plus from $44.99 to $49.99, Value Max from $59.99 to $64.99, and Regular from $74.99 to $79.99.
June 2, 2026: the Value tiers pause. PSA announced on May 28 that it would stop accepting new submissions for Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus and Value Max starting June 2. It cited a backlog approaching 10 million cards after a jump in submissions, and said its grading capacity was already about five times what it was in 2021. For a collector with a stack of modest cards, that was the biggest change of the year, because the old low prices were the reason many people graded in bulk.
September 14, 2026: a new Standard tier and new names. PSA added Standard at $59.99 with a $1,000 declared value cap, renamed Regular as Priority and Walk-Through as Premier, and raised Express to $199. PSA also opened a submission center in Frankfurt, Germany, which matters mainly to European submitters. Coverage described Standard as a middle-ground option, not a replacement for the Value tiers, which PSA said would remain paused until the active backlog falls to roughly 5 million cards.
Where the backlog stands. One tracker reported an active backlog of about 8.2 million units on October 6, 2026, down from about 9 million on September 22. Other coverage estimated reopening for the Value tiers anywhere from October 2026 to early 2027. Nobody outside PSA can promise a date, and a falling backlog does not by itself tell you when your order will finish.
What the declared value cap means
Every tier has a maximum declared value, and this is the part of the pricing that surprises people. You declare what you believe each card is worth on the submission form. If the card's value is above the cap for the tier you paid for, PSA can charge an upcharge to move it to a tier whose cap fits.
Here is how it works in practice. Say you submit a card at Priority, whose cap is $1,500, and the card is worth $3,000 at the grade it earns. You should expect to be billed for a higher tier, and in this structure that would be a tier with a $5,000 cap. Under-declaring to avoid the charge is a bad idea. It can create problems with insurance if the package is lost, and third-party guides treat the declared value as the number that matters. Declare honestly.
The cap also affects tier choice for high-value cards. A card worth a few thousand dollars cannot go through the cheapest tiers at all, so the real price is the tier whose cap fits it.
Turnaround: what the numbers mean
The turnaround figures are estimates in business days, and they are targets, not promises. Three details are worth knowing:
- The clock generally starts when PSA logs your submission into its system, not on the day you drop it at the post office. Add days for shipping in both directions and for intake.
- The estimates move. During a backlog they stretch, and sources reporting the same tier in the same month sometimes show different ranges. Regular, now Priority, was quoted at 40 to 50 business days earlier in 2026 and at 70 to 80 after the September changes.
- The faster tiers are not a different quality of grading. You are paying to be earlier in the line.
A 90 to 100 business day estimate for Standard works out to roughly four to five months on the calendar. That is a long time to have a card out of your hands, and it is part of the real cost.
The costs that are not on the price list
The per-card fee is the headline, but it is rarely the total.
Shipping to PSA. You pay to send the cards in with tracking and a signature requirement. Costs vary by carrier and weight. One guide put insured domestic shipping on the order of $30 to $60 for a typical box, though that range comes from a third-party source and your own quote may differ.
Insurance. You should insure the package for the declared value of the cards. One third-party guide cited a rate of about $1 per $100 of declared value, which is a common structure with carriers, but confirm the rate with whichever carrier you use.
Return shipping and handling. PSA charges to send the slabs back, and the charge usually scales with the number of cards and their declared value. Reports vary widely, from modest flat fees on small submissions to much higher figures at the top tiers.
Supplies. Penny sleeves, semi-rigid holders and a sturdy box. PSA's packing instructions ask submitters not to use rigid top loaders for the cards, and a badly packed submission can be returned or charged a handling fee. Read the current packing rules first.
Upcharges. Covered above. They apply when value exceeds the tier's cap.
Membership. Reports on membership conflict. Third-party sites describe a Collectors Club membership at prices from $99 to $199 per year, with discounts on grading fees and, in some reports, a requirement for certain tiers. Because the numbers differ, check the membership terms on PSA's website, and do the arithmetic on whether the discount pays for the fee at the number of cards you plan to send.
What the real per-card cost looks like
Take a simple example with round numbers and no promises. Suppose you send ten cards at Priority. The fee alone is $799.90. Add shipping both ways and insurance, which could plausibly add somewhere in the range of $50 to $150 for the batch depending on declared value and carrier, and the effective cost per card lands near $85 to $95. For a single card sent alone, the shipping share per card is far higher, and the effective cost can be well over $100.
That is why a card has to be worth meaningfully more graded than raw before the math works. A card whose graded premium is $30 does not cover a fee that large. Our guide How Much Are Pokemon Cards Worth? shows how to find the sold prices you need for the comparison.
A basic break-even check:
- Find what the card sells for raw in the condition you honestly think it is.
- Find what it sells for at each grade you might plausibly get.
- Subtract the all-in grading cost, including the time value of waiting.
- Weight the result by how likely each grade is. Be pessimistic about the 10.
If the answer is only positive when you get the top grade, the submission is a gamble, not an investment.
Choosing a tier
Standard ($59.99). The cheapest open option. It fits cards worth up to $1,000 that are not time-sensitive. You trade price for a long wait.
Priority ($79.99). A modest step up in price and speed, with a higher cap of $1,500. A reasonable default for a valuable card you are not in a rush to sell.
Express ($199). For when speed matters, such as a card you want to sell while a market is hot or a grading result you need before a deadline. The price is about two and a half times Priority.
Super Express ($349) and Premier ($599). For high-value cards, where the cap is the main reason you are there, and for situations where the card's value is large enough that a few weeks of waiting costs real money. At these prices the fee only makes sense when the card's value is high.
A general rule: spend on speed only if the card's value is likely to move in the waiting period or you need the cash. Otherwise the cheaper tier gets the same grade.
Alternatives and context
PSA is the largest name in grading, but it is not the only one, and prices elsewhere moved in 2026 too. Trackers reported that Beckett paused its lower-cost services in the summer, that SGC raised its entry price in September, and that CGC kept a lower-priced bulk option open, with figures that varied by source. Which company is best depends on the card and on how the market you want to sell into values each brand, so check the current terms at each one directly before you decide.
Watching before you buy graded
If you would rather buy a graded card than pay to grade one, you avoid the fee and the wait, but you take on the job of checking the slab. Live selling makes that easier because you can see the slab on camera, ask the seller to read out the cert number, and look it up before you bid. Our guide PSA Grading: How the Whole Process Works explains the verification step. On ShopBidz, guzgang (CardsGG LLC), from Lathrop, California, who sells cards and collectibles, and HobbyboxNY, from Davie, Florida, who sells collectibles, are two sellers you can watch live for this. Ask the questions you would ask at a card show before you place a bid, including how the card is stored and whether the cert number matches. HobbyboxNY has also hosted a Trevon Diggs autograph signing on ShopBidz.
Bottom line
As of October 2026, PSA's open tiers run from $59.99 for Standard to $599 for Premier, with Priority at $79.99, Express at $199 and Super Express at $349, and each tier has a declared value cap that triggers an upcharge if the card is worth more. The four Value tiers have been paused since June 2, 2026, and turnaround for the cheapest open tiers is measured in months. The real cost per card is the fee plus shipping, insurance, return charges and the time you wait, so grade only the cards whose likely graded value clears all of that comfortably. Verify the current prices and turnaround on PSA's website before you commit, because both have changed several times this year.