How Much Does It Cost to Renew Your Passport?

Passport renewal costs $130 for a passport book or $30 for a passport card, with $160 covering both on the same application. Those base fees from the U.S. Department of State are identical whether you renew online or by mail. What changes your total is whether you add expedited processing, faster delivery, a passport photo, and postage, or whether your situation forces you to apply in person instead of renewing.¹

Base Renewal Fees

For an adult renewal filed on Form DS-82, the State Department charges:¹

Passport book — $130. Valid for air, sea, and land travel worldwide.
Passport card — $30. Usable only for land and sea crossings to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.
Book and card together — $160 when requested on the same application.

All passport fees are non-refundable, even if your application is denied or you cancel it. The price is the same online or by mail; the delivery method doesn’t change what the government charges.

Expedited Processing and Fast Delivery

Two add-ons can shorten the wait, and both stack on top of the base fee:¹

Expedited processing — $60. Moves your application ahead of the routine queue. A passport book with expedite runs $190.
1-3 day delivery — $22.05. Sends the finished passport book by express mail rather than standard post. This applies to books only; cards ship by first-class mail regardless.

A passport book renewed with both add-ons comes to $212.05 before photo or mailing costs. That’s the practical ceiling for most renewals through regular channels. One important limit: expedited service is not available through online renewal. If you need it, you have to renew by mail.

When You Can’t Renew and Have to Apply in Person

Not every passport holder qualifies to renew. If your passport was issued more than 15 years ago, issued when you were under 16, or has been lost, stolen, or significantly damaged, you have to apply in person on Form DS-11 at a passport acceptance facility.²

The application fee stays the same, but in-person applicants also pay a $35 execution (acceptance) fee that renewal-eligible applicants avoid.¹ So a passport book applied for in person starts at $165 before add-ons. The $35 is paid separately, usually by check or money order to the facility rather than to the Department of State. Plenty of people budget for the renewal fee and get caught off guard by the extra $35 at the counter.

Name Changes and Corrections

What a name change or correction costs depends on how long you’ve had the passport:

Within one year of issue, correcting a name or a data error costs nothing, though the $60 expedite fee still applies if you want faster service.³
Printing or data errors on a valid passport are corrected at no charge regardless of when the passport was issued.³
A name change requested more than one year after issue is treated as a standard renewal, so the usual $130 book fee applies.

If you spot a State Department error on a newly issued passport, don’t sit on it. Fixing it while the passport is still valid costs nothing; waiting until it expires means paying full renewal fees.

Photo, Postage, and Other Out-of-Pocket Costs

Every renewal needs a recent color photo meeting federal specifications. Retail pharmacies and post offices typically charge $10 to $20. The State Department offers a free online cropping tool if you take your own photo, but it doesn’t check image quality, and you can’t use it for online renewal applications, where you upload a digital photo directly.⁴

If you’re renewing by mail, budget $5 to $10 for postage to the processing center. A padded envelope with trackable shipping is worth the few extra dollars, because your current passport is inside that package.

Total Cost by Scenario

Adding up the pieces, here’s what a passport book renewal realistically costs:

Routine renewal, online or by mail — $130 plus photo ($10–$20), so roughly $140 to $150.
Expedited renewal by mail — $130 + $60 expedite + photo + postage, roughly $205 to $215. Adding 1-3 day delivery brings it to $227 to $237.¹
In-person application when you can’t renew — $130 + $35 execution fee + photo, roughly $175 to $185. With expedited processing and fast delivery, it can pass $275.

The card is cheaper across the board, but its limited usability at land and sea crossings means most travelers end up paying for the book anyway. Over its 10-year validity, the $130 book works out to about $13 a year.

1
U.S. Department of State. Passport Fees
2
U.S. Department of State. Renew Your Passport by Mail
3
U.S. Department of State. Name Change for U.S. Passport or Correct a Printing or Data Error
4
U.S. Department of State. Photo Composition Template