Blog / grading costs

PSA Grading Cost in 2026: Every Tier and Hidden Fee

September 29, 2026 / 10 min read / MintGrade Team

You have a card that might be worth something, and you want one number: what will PSA charge? The price list is only the start. Shipping, insurance and the odd surprise upcharge decide what you really pay.

How much does PSA grading cost in 2026?

Here is PSA's trading card price list as of September 2026, from its own services page. PSA rolled out this lineup on September 14, 2026: it added the new Standard tier, renamed Regular to Priority and renamed Walk-Through to Premier.

"Max insured value" is the most a card can be worth, once graded, and still fit that tier. Cards worth more than $10,000 go into PSA's separate Premium options. The turnaround times are estimates, and business days skip weekends and holidays. For what that looks like on a real calendar, see how long PSA takes to grade cards.

Quick vocabulary check. A "raw" card is one that has not been graded. A "slab" is the sealed plastic case a graded card comes back in, with the grade and a certification number on the label.

What happened to PSA's Value tiers?

If you remember grading being cheaper, you are not imagining it. PSA's Value tiers, including Value Bulk, Value Plus and Value Max, were the budget way in. PSA paused them effective June 2, 2026, after a spike in submissions. The queue kept growing anyway, to nearly 14 million cards in June.

PSA then launched a public backlog tracker. Its rule for reopening Value is simple: the backlog has to fall below 5 million cards. At the September 22, 2026 update the backlog was reported at about 9 million, down from 9.9 million two weeks earlier. So there is no reopening date, only a finish line.

What do you get when you pay for a faster tier?

Moving up the table buys you four things:

• Speed. Estimated turnaround drops from 90 to 100 business days at Standard to 7 to 10 at Premier.
• Room for value. Each step up raises the max insured value, from $1,000 at Standard to $10,000 at Premier.
• A fitted sleeve. Priority and higher return the slab in a fitted sleeve protector.
• Grader Notes and imaging. Express and higher include Grader Notes, which list the flaws the grader found. Super Express and Premier add PSA's Premium Imaging.

What you do not buy is a kinder grader. Nothing on PSA's price list says a pricier tier changes how the card is judged. You are paying for time, insurance headroom and extras. If you want to know what the grades themselves mean, our PSA grading scale guide walks through every number from 1 to 10.

What is max insured value, and what if my card is worth more?

When you submit, PSA asks you to enter a Max Insured Value for each card. Its FAQ calls it "a realistic, educated guess" of what the card will be worth after grading. That number does three jobs: it caps any claim if something goes wrong at PSA, it sets the shipping insurance, and it decides which tier you have to pay for.

Here is the catch. If PSA decides your value was understated, it can reject it and require you to pay for the tier that fits the card. In practice that means paying the gap between tiers. Some made-up numbers, just to show the math with PSA's fees as of September 2026:

• You send a card at Standard ($1,000 limit) and it grades well enough to be worth about $1,400. Priority covers up to $1,500, so the gap is $79.99 minus $59.99, which is $20.00.
• The same card lands closer to $2,000. Now Express ($2,500 limit) is the fit: $199 minus $59.99 is $139.01 more.

PSA decides the value, not you, so a pleasant surprise on the grade can come with a small bill.

What hidden fees come with PSA grading?

These are the costs that do not show up on the tier table.

1. Shipping to PSA, plus insurance. PSA says you are responsible for insuring your package on the way in, and it takes no responsibility for the cards until your order reaches the Order Prep stage. In the contiguous US, PSA also offers prepaid FedEx labels.
2. Return shipping. "You will be responsible for shipping both ways," says PSA's FAQ. Return postage comes from PSA's postage chart and depends on how many items are in the order and their total declared value. It is charged per order, not per card. We could not confirm the current chart this month, so check the figure at checkout.
3. Upcharges. Covered above: if the graded card is worth more than your tier allows, you pay to move up.
4. Cards that do not get a number. A card that comes back "Authentic" (genuine, no numeric grade) or "Authentic Altered" (genuine but trimmed, recolored, restored or cleaned) is still charged the grading fee.
5. Supplies. Sleeves, semi-rigid holders and a sturdy box are small costs, but they are real.
6. Selling fees later. If you plan to sell the slab, marketplace fees come off the graded price too. That is the heart of whether your card is worth grading.

How much does it cost to PSA grade a card, all in?

Time for real arithmetic with PSA's fees as of September 2026. We need one made-up number: shipping. We will pencil in $45 for shipping and insurance both ways for the whole box. That is the starting placeholder in our calculator, not a PSA price. Your carrier and PSA's checkout set the real one.

Example 1: one card at Standard

1. Grading fee: 1 card times $59.99 is $59.99.
2. Shipping and insurance placeholder: $45.00.
3. Total: $59.99 plus $45.00 is $104.99 for one card.

With our placeholder, shipping alone adds about 75 percent to the sticker price. Ouch.

Example 2: ten cards at Standard

1. Grading fees: 10 cards times $59.99 is $599.90.
2. Shipping and insurance placeholder for one box: $45.00.
3. Total: $599.90 plus $45.00 is $644.90.
4. Per card: $644.90 divided by 10 is $64.49.

In real life, return postage for 10 cards runs higher than for 1, because PSA's chart climbs with item count and declared value. Spread across 10 cards, though, it still shrinks per card. That is why batching wins.

Here is the same math for every open tier, using PSA's fees as of September 2026 plus the $45 placeholder:

What is the cheapest way to grade cards right now?

If the lowest fee is the goal, PSA is not it. Here is CGC's official price list as of September 2026:

Run the same 10-card math at CGC Economy: 10 times $20 is $200, plus the $45 placeholder is $245, or $24.50 a card. That is well under the $64.49 a card at PSA Standard. CGC Bulk needs 25 cards: 25 times $17 is $425, plus $45 is $470, or $18.80 a card. CGC members save 10 or 20 percent on top, and CGC also moves a card to a higher tier (and bills you) if it decides the card is worth more than you stated.

Speed is a surprise too. CGC Standard, at $55, estimates 10 business days. PSA's closest price, Standard at $59.99, estimates 90 to 100.

So why does anyone still pay PSA? For many popular cards, buyers pay more for a PSA slab than for another company's slab at the same grade. The cheapest fee is not the cheapest choice if the slab sells for less. Look up sold listings for your exact card at each company before you decide. Our PSA vs CGC and SGC vs PSA guides dig into that. For the record, SGC's Standard tier was reported at $50 per card after a September 2, 2026 increase, a figure we could not confirm on SGC's own site.

How can you keep your PSA bill down?

1. Pre-screen before you pay. Centering is the easiest flaw to measure at home, and a PSA 10 needs about 55/45 or better on the front. Measure it with the card centering calculator, and read how graders measure centering if the numbers are new to you.
2. Batch your cards. Return shipping is per order, so fill the box.
3. Pick the tier by value, not by impatience. Premier costs about ten times what Standard does as of September 2026.
4. Declare honestly. An honest value keeps you insured and keeps upcharges small.
5. Skip cards where the math fails. If the graded price after fees cannot beat the raw price, grading only makes the card more expensive.
6. Watch the backlog tracker. If you can wait, Value tiers may return once PSA's queue drops below 5 million.

The bottom line on PSA grading cost

As of September 2026, a PSA slab starts at $59.99 per card. With our $45 shipping placeholder, that becomes about $64 to $105 a card, depending on how many cards share the box. The real savings come from sending only cards that deserve it, in one well-packed order, at the tier their value calls for. The MintGrade app, coming soon, will estimate a card's likely grade from a single photo so you can decide before you pay.

MintGrade is made by Viral Labs and is not affiliated with any other app, price guide or grading company named here.

MintGrade guides explain how grading works and help you decide what to submit. Only a grading company can assign a grade, and prices change daily, so check recent sold listings before you buy, sell or submit.