You spend 45 minutes designing the perfect digital invitation. You choose the card, pick a liner, add a backdrop, select a stamp. Then you hit “Send” — and Paperless Post shows you the bill.
That moment of sticker shock is surprisingly common. The platform’s coin system isn’t intuitive, and the costs add up faster than most couples expect.
Here’s the full breakdown before you commit.
How Paperless Post pricing actually works
Paperless Post uses a virtual currency called coins instead of charging you directly per guest. You buy coin packages and spend them as you send. The catch: nearly every premium design element costs extra coins per recipient, and those costs are per-send — not per event.
Coins are sold in tiered packages, and the unit price drops as you buy more:
- 25 coins — $12 ($0.48/coin)
- 100 coins — $25 ($0.25/coin)
- 200 coins — $46 ($0.23/coin)
- 300 coins — $57 ($0.19/coin)
- 450 coins — $77 ($0.18/coin)
- 600 coins — $96 ($0.16/coin)
- 1,000 coins — $140 ($0.14/coin)
The cheapest rate — $0.14/coin — only kicks in at 1,000 coins. Most couples don’t need that many and end up paying closer to $0.19–$0.23/coin.
The coin math for a real wedding (100, 150, 200 guests)
Here’s where it gets real. A fully dressed Paperless Post invitation — the kind that looks like the premium product they advertise — uses roughly 6 coins per recipient.
The breakdown per guest:
- Base card: 2 coins
- Liner: 1 coin
- Backdrop: 1 coin
- Stamp: 1 coin
- Envelope customization: 1 coin
That’s 6 coins per guest for a complete send. If you strip it back to just the base card with no add-ons, you’re looking at 2 coins per guest — but the free-looking designs aren’t what most wedding couples actually want.
Here’s what that costs at common guest counts, using the 300-coin package rate ($0.19/coin) and the 600-coin package rate ($0.16/coin):
100 guests
- Minimal send (2 coins/guest): 200 coins → $38–$46
- Full premium send (6 coins/guest): 600 coins → $96
150 guests
- Minimal send: 300 coins → $57
- Full premium send: 900 coins → $144–$160
200 guests
- Minimal send: 400 coins → $77–$92
- Full premium send: 1,200 coins → $168–$192
The average US wedding has 117 guests, according to The Knot’s 2026 Real Weddings Study (surveying 10,474 couples married in 2025). At that guest count, a premium Paperless Post send runs roughly $100–$135.
And that’s for one mailing. Most wedding couples send at least three: a save-the-date, the formal invitation, and a thank-you note after the wedding. Run the math on three sends and you’re looking at $300–$400 or more.
Add-ons that stack up fast
The coin cost per guest is just the start. A few things couples often don’t factor in:
Multiple sends. Each mailing is a separate coin purchase. A save-the-date at 2–4 coins/guest, the formal invitation at 6 coins/guest, and a thank-you note at 2–4 coins/guest adds up to 10–14 coins per guest over the full wedding cycle.
Guest list growth. If 20 guests are added after your initial purchase, you buy more coins to cover them. There’s no bulk discount for topping up a small amount — you’re usually buying a 25-coin or 100-coin pack at a higher per-coin rate.
Resends. If a guest says they didn’t get the email, Paperless Post lets you resend — but it costs coins again. An accidental resend to your full guest list is a real and expensive mistake.
Design changes. If you upgrade a design element after your initial configuration, the coin requirement can change for future sends.
The free tier gotcha
Paperless Post does have a free tier. But it’s more limited than most people realize, and the limitation trips people up at the worst moment.
The free tier covers 50 recipients per year — not 50 per event, and not 50 per send. That 50-recipient limit is shared across every event you create in a 12-month window.
According to Paperless Post’s Help Center, this free allotment resets annually. So if you used Paperless Post for a birthday party or bridal shower earlier in the year — even just for 20 people — those sends count against your annual free quota.
For most wedding couples, this means: by the time you send your formal invitation to 100+ guests, you’ve already used your free sends. You’re paying from the first coin.
The free tier is genuinely useful for couples with very small weddings — under 40 guests and no prior sends that year. For everyone else, budget for coins from the start.
The annual subscription — worth it?
Paperless Post also sells a Pro subscription at around $250 per year, which covers up to 250 guests annually across all your sends.
On paper, this sounds great for a high-guest-count wedding. In practice, it’s designed for businesses and event professionals who send frequently throughout the year — not couples who have one (or at most two or three) sending occasions over a 12-month period.
Here’s the honest math: if you’re a couple sending a save-the-date (150 guests), a formal invitation (150 guests), and a thank-you note (150 guests), that’s 450 total recipient-sends. The Pro plan at 250 guests per year wouldn’t even cover your send volume — you’d still need to buy coins for the overage.
For a single couple planning a single wedding, the annual subscription rarely pencils out better than buying coin packs. It’s worth checking the math for your specific guest count and number of mailings, but most couples will pay less with a la carte coins.
What you actually get for your money
To be fair to Paperless Post: the product is genuinely good.
The design quality is high. Tracking is solid — you can see who opened the invitation, who clicked, and who responded. The RSVP management tools work well. Guest communication is cleaner than a standard email chain.
The average couple spends $510 on wedding invitations and stationery, according to The Knot 2026 Real Weddings Study. Traditional paper invitations run $500+ before postage, and postage alone for 150 invitations with RSVP cards can run $234 or more, per Greenvelope’s cost breakdown. Against that benchmark, even a $150 Paperless Post send looks like a bargain.
The frustration isn’t the price — it’s the opacity. Most couples don’t know what they’re going to spend until they’ve already invested time designing. That’s a choice on Paperless Post’s part, and it’s worth going in with open eyes.
How it compares to alternatives
Here’s how Paperless Post stacks up against the main alternatives for a typical 150-guest wedding send:
Paperless Post
Single premium send (150 guests × 6 coins): ~$120–$145. Three sends (save-the-date + invite + thank-you): $300–$400+. Good design quality, solid tracking.
Greenvelope
Charges approximately $0.99–$1.18 per guest per mailing. A single 150-guest send runs $149–$177. Annual unlimited plan at $225/year covers up to 150 guests with unlimited sends. If you’re doing three or more mailings, the annual plan is the better deal. Design quality is comparable to Paperless Post.
Withjoy (Joy)
Fully free for digital invitations. Limited template selection, one wedding website per event, and some users report deliverability issues with emails landing in spam. Works well for couples who want free and don’t need premium aesthetics.
Zola
Does not offer true digital invitations for the formal invitation send — only digital save-the-dates. Full invitations are print only. Worth noting before you build your Zola wedding website expecting to send digital invites there.
Evite
Free tier exists but displays ads to your guests. Premium plan at $99.99 covers up to 750 guests for a single event. Simpler design options than Paperless Post or Greenvelope.
Mixily
Mixily’s Pro plan runs $29/month with no per-guest coin fees — 250 invites and 250 RSVPs per event. For a 150-person wedding doing three sends, you’d pay one month of Pro ($29) and cancel after. That’s significantly less than Paperless Post’s per-send cost for the same volume. The free tier (50 invites/event) works for very small weddings. Design options are cleaner and more minimal than Paperless Post’s library, which some couples prefer and others don’t.
The right choice depends on your guest count, how many sends you’re planning, and how much design customization you need.
FAQ
How many coins do I need for a 100-guest wedding invitation on Paperless Post?
For a fully dressed invitation (card + liner + backdrop + stamp), plan on 6 coins per guest — so 600 coins for 100 guests. At the 600-coin package price ($96), that’s roughly $96 for one send. If you strip it to just the base card, 200 coins covers 100 guests at around $46.
Is Paperless Post really free for weddings?
Only if your wedding has fewer than 50 guests and you haven’t used any of your annual free allotment on other events. Paperless Post’s free tier covers 50 recipients per year across all events — not 50 per event. Most couples will need to purchase coins for their wedding send.
Does Paperless Post charge per guest or per event?
Per guest, per send. Every mailing costs coins based on the number of recipients and the design features you’ve added. Sending to 150 guests costs roughly 3x what sending to 50 guests costs.
What’s cheaper — Paperless Post or Greenvelope for a wedding?
For a single send, they’re comparable: both run $100–$180 for 150 guests at a premium design level. For multiple sends (save-the-date + invitation + thank-you), Greenvelope’s annual plan ($225/year) often beats Paperless Post’s per-send coin cost, which can total $300–$400 for three mailings.
Can I use Paperless Post for both a save-the-date and a wedding invitation?
Yes, but each is a separate send with a separate coin cost. Budget for two full sends when you plan. If your save-the-date goes out to 150 guests at 4 coins/guest and your invitation goes out to 150 guests at 6 coins/guest, you need 1,500 coins total — roughly $200–$210 at the 1,000-coin rate plus a top-up.
Is the Paperless Post Pro subscription worth it for a wedding?
Usually not. The Pro subscription is priced for businesses sending events frequently throughout the year. For a couple doing one wedding cycle, buying coin packages a la carte typically costs less — especially if your total guest count across all sends stays under 500 or so.
What’s the most affordable digital wedding invitation option?
Withjoy (Joy) is fully free but has limited templates. Mixily’s Pro plan at $29/month with no per-guest fees is a strong option for couples doing multiple sends. Paperless Post is a good choice when design quality is the top priority and you budget for the coin cost upfront.
