Shoppers Drug Mart Passport Photo: $13–$20 CAD
Shoppers Drug Mart passport photos run roughly $16.99–$19.99 CAD across most franchises in 2026. Here's what's actually behind the price spread you see online, what you get for it, and what happens if Service Canada rejects the photo.
If you searched “Shoppers Drug Mart passport photo cost” and bounced between three different pages quoting $13, $17, and $20 — you’re not losing your mind. The price genuinely varies. Here’s what’s behind it.
What it costs in 2026
$16.99–$19.99 CAD for two printed Canadian passport photos at most franchises. That range comes from cross-referencing four independent guides on 2026-05-13 — Smartphone-id (May 2026, “around $19.99”), PixID (March 2026, ”~$16.99”), PhotoAid (Nov 2024, “$19.99”), and 5minpassportphotos (“around $20”). Some franchises quote lower ($13–$15), some higher ($20+), but the middle of the distribution is solidly in the $17–$20 band.
Why the spread: every Shoppers Drug Mart is an independently owned and operated franchise, so pricing on photo services is set locally, not by Loblaw corporate. There’s no single national price page. The store-finder at shoppersdrugmart.ca lists locations but doesn’t publish per-store passport photo prices. If the difference between $13 and $20 matters to you, call your nearest store before you go — twenty seconds on the phone beats showing up and being surprised at the till.
What Shoppers Drug Mart Passport Photo Gets You
Two printed photos at the Canadian passport specification (50×70mm, white background, the 31–36mm face-height-from-chin-to-crown requirement that Service Canada actually checks). You walk in, an associate takes the photo using their in-store equipment, and you walk out with the prints in 5–10 minutes. No appointment.
The same photo product also covers most Canadian visa applications, citizenship documents (PR card renewals, citizenship certificates), and OCI/PR-related photos that accept passport-style photos. So one $17–$20 trip generally does multiple purposes for the same household member, if you can use the second print.
What you don’t get: a digital file. Shoppers’ in-store passport photo service prints only. If you need the digital copy for an online passport renewal portal or a visa upload form, you’ll need to either pay extra (some stores charge for a USB delivery), scan the print at home (which often fails the digital compliance check), or go a different route entirely.
What happens if Service Canada rejects it?
This is the question I think gets buried on most competitor pages. Shoppers’ rejection policy is: free retake, no refund. If your photo gets sent back as non-compliant, you bring the rejection notice back to the same store and they take new photos at no charge — but the original $17–$20 stays with the store.
That sounds fine in the abstract. In practice it means a second 30-to-60-minute trip back to the same store, which is most of what you were paying the convenience premium for in the first place. If you live ten minutes from a Shoppers and have a flexible schedule, fine. If you went there because it was the only photo place open on a Saturday morning before your application deadline, the retake-only policy is a much bigger deal.
For comparison: London Drugs (BC, AB, SK, MB, ON only) gives you a $50 gift card if your photo is rejected. That’s the strongest rejection guarantee in the Canadian retailer cluster, and it’s quietly the right answer if you’re rejection-anxious and live somewhere they operate.
How Shoppers Compares to Other Canadian Retailers
Quick price-and-policy snapshot across the major Canadian options as of May 2026:
| Retailer | Price (2 photos) | Refund / guarantee | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shoppers Drug Mart | $16.99–$19.99 CAD | Free retake, no refund | 1,300+ |
| Walmart Canada | ~$12.97–$16.97 CAD | Limited, varies by store | ~400 |
| London Drugs | $16.99–$19.99 CAD | $50 gift card if rejected | 80 (BC, AB, SK, MB, ON) |
| Costco (members only) | ~$4.99 CAD where available | None | Limited; many Photo Centres closed |
| Jean Coutu | ~$13.80 CAD | None | 420 (Quebec-heavy) |
| Staples Canada | ~$21.99 CAD | None | National |
Read this as: Costco is cheapest if you can use it (membership + a location with a working Photo Centre), but coverage has shrunk. Walmart is the next cheapest at the rack rate, but Photo Centres have closed at many locations. London Drugs matches Shoppers on price but has the best guarantee in a much smaller geographic footprint. Shoppers’ selling point isn’t price or guarantee — it’s that there’s almost certainly one near you, open today.
Where Shoppers wins
The thing Shoppers is genuinely best at is reach. 1,300+ locations across Canada — about three times Walmart Canada’s photo-equipped footprint, sixteen times London Drugs’ regional footprint. If you live somewhere most retailers don’t, Shoppers is probably your nearest option, full stop.
It’s also the retailer most likely to be open when you need it: pharmacy hours run later than most photo studios, and most Shoppers locations are open weekends. If your application deadline is Monday and it’s Saturday afternoon, Shoppers is usually the answer for “I need the photo today.”
The other quiet win: it pairs with errands you were already going to do. If you’re picking up a prescription anyway, the marginal time cost of getting passport photos at the same trip is essentially zero. That’s a real $17–$20 of value for some households even if a cheaper option exists in theory.
Skipping the $17 service: print your own photo at Shoppers for $0.19
Shoppers’ Photo Centre will print 4×6 photos for about $0.19 CAD at the self-service kiosk, completely separate from the passport photo service. If you arrive with your own compliant Canadian passport photo on your phone — already cropped to 50×70mm, against a white background, head-size correct — you can lay two of them on a 4×6 template and print as a regular photo for the cost of one print. No $17 service fee.
The catch is the “if you arrive with a compliant photo on your phone” part. A phone selfie won’t pass Service Canada — head size, background, and crop all need to be exact, and a regular photo app doesn’t enforce any of that.
That’s where 1 Dollar Passport Photo fits in this workflow:
- Take a photo on your phone against any background
- Upload to our $1 tool — it removes the background, crops to the Canadian 50×70mm spec, validates head size and position against Service Canada’s published requirements, and gives you a 4×6 sheet with two photos arranged for printing
- Print the 4×6 at any Shoppers Photo Centre for $0.19
Total: about $1.54 CAD for two compliant photos at the same Shoppers store, instead of $17–$20 for the in-store service. You also keep the digital file (which the in-store service doesn’t give you), so the same photo works for online passport renewal or a visa upload form.
This isn’t right for everyone. If you don’t trust your phone camera, don’t want to think about cropping, or value having a Shoppers associate visually check the photo before printing, the in-store $17–$20 service is the cleaner choice. But for the chunk of users who land on this page after deciding $20 feels like a lot for two prints, the same store has a $1.54 path.
(Pricing verified 2026-05-13 across Smartphone-id, PixID, PhotoAid, and 5minpassportphotos. Full source compilation: evidence/shoppers-drug-mart-passport-photo/pricing-research-2026-05-13.md.)
Frequently Asked Questions
Why am I seeing such different prices for Shoppers Drug Mart passport photos online?
Shoppers locations are independently owned franchises, so each store sets its own price. Independent guides quote anywhere from ~$13 to ~$20 CAD for the same product depending on which store the writer checked. As of May 2026, the typical range across four cross-referenced sources lands at $16.99–$19.99 CAD for two photos. Calling your local store before you go is the only way to know what you'll actually pay.
Will Shoppers refund me if Service Canada rejects the photo?
No. Shoppers offers a free retake if your photo is rejected, but they don't refund the original payment — and you have to physically return to the same store with the rejection notice. If rejection refunds matter to you, London Drugs offers a $50 gift card if their photo gets rejected, which is the strongest guarantee in the Canadian retailer cluster.
Is Shoppers' photo accepted by Service Canada?
Generally yes — Shoppers prints to the Canadian passport spec (50×70mm, white background, head-size requirements). The same photo also works for most Canadian visa applications and citizenship documents that accept passport-style photos. Rejection rates vary by store and by who's behind the counter, since staff are retail workers operating photo equipment, not trained photographers.
Already have a digital photo?
If you've got a compliant Canadian passport photo on your phone, Shoppers Photo Centre will print 6 copies on a 4×6 sheet for ~$0.19 — same paper, same store, no Photo Centre service fee.
Make the digital photo for $1.35 CADIf you'd rather have someone else handle it end-to-end, the in-store service is fine — just call ahead to confirm the price.