CVS Photo Review (2024)

Like Walgreens, CVS drugstores are ubiquitous, making them ideal pickup locations for photo prints. Just upload your pictures to CVS Photo's website, select the size and number of photos you want, and then pick them up the same day at a local store. Another similarity between CVS and Walgreens is that both charge more per print than most online photo printing services that deliver your pictures by mail. In fact, CVS Photo's minimum prices are the highest we've seen. Despite this premium, the quality of our CVS test prints is less consistent than what we got from Walgreens, which is our Editors' Choice winner for local-pickup one-hour photo printing. If you don't need same-day printing, our top pick for photo printing quality is Nations Photo Lab. And for good results at the lowest price, look to Walmart Photo.

How Much Do Photos Cost at CVS?

Prints from CVS Photo cost more than prints from its competitors, at 42 cents per 4-by-6-inch photo. Snapfish charges just 9 cents, and Amazon Prints cost 17 cents for that size. Other in-store pickup options also cost less. Walgreens Photo charges 39 cents, and Walmart Photo charges only 14 cents whether you have your photos mailed or pick them up in the store in an hour. As with most of these services, prices are frequently discounted, there are volume discounts, and you can often get online coupons. Like Walgreens, CVS no longer mails standard-size photo prints—it's in-store pickup only.

Larger sizes are also quite a bit pricier than competitors, with CVS's 5-by-7s ringing up at $2.99 each. That's more than Nations Photo Lab ($1.75) and Shutterfly (69 cents). At the 8-by-10 size, even the pro photo finisher Printique charges less ($2.65) than CVS ($4.49). That's quite a premium to pay for local pickup, but do keep in mind that you don't have to pay for shipping as you do with most services that mail your pictures. CVS Photo can make prints for you up to 24-by-36 inches in size.

What Else Can You Print On With CVS Photo?

As is the case with most online photo printing services, you can order more than just paper prints at CVS Photo. It offers standard options such as greeting cards, calendars, photo books, mugs, T-shirts, and wall canvases. You can also get images printed on blankets, potholders, mouse pads, and other items. For $40, you can get an apron festooned with multiple copies of your photo. CVS doesn't offer quite as massive a selection as Shutterfly does (personalized flowerpots, anyone?), though it's more than most people will ever need or want.

Ordering Prints at CVS Photo

It's easy to start ordering prints on CVS’s website. All you need is a name, email address, and password. The password requirements are stringent, with special characters required.

CVS's photo-ordering site sports a modern and clear interface that bears a strong resemblance to Snapfish. You can upload image files from your computer, but CVS doesn’t let you import photos from Facebook or Instagram. You can, however, connect your Google account to transfer photos from Google Photos.

(Credit: CVS/PCMag)

Before you upload photos, you must create an album for them. By default, CVS Photo uses the current date as the album name. When uploading from your computer, you can select multiple files at once, and you can drag and drop files onto an album. JPGs and PNG files are allowed, but not TIFF, GIF, or HEIC/HEIF files. Because of its 100-megapixel limit, CVS rejected a 108-megapixel shot from my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, as did several other services, though Mpix, Snapfish, and Walgreens accepted it. Pharmacy competitor Walgreens also accepts HEIC/HEIF files, which I appreciate, as the newer format takes up half the storage on my phone without reducing image quality.

(Credit: CVS/PCMag)

Once you've uploaded your pictures, CVS Photo has basic editing options similar to what you get in Walgreens Photo and identical to what you get in Snapfish. You can turn on auto color correction, contrast, and fill flash, and you can use sliders to adjust brightness and contrast. You can also apply a limited number of effect filters, including black and white, sepia, and color tints. Finally, you can crop and rotate the images.

You can share the albums you create via email or with a web link, and the resulting presentation is reasonably attractive. If you share it via email, the recipients have to have CVS online accounts to view your pictures, but sharing via a link doesn't come with that requirement.

(Credit: CVS/PCMag)

I approve of CVS Photo's ordering page, which lets you enter a quantity for each size print you want all at once. Some services make you choose the prints and then choose the size for each separately. You can choose a matte finish, but not for in-store pickup, which is restricted to glossy. Before checking out, the site offers to get you to add a collage print of your photos to your order. You can pay either at online checkout or when you pick the prints up at the store.

CVS's estimated ready-for-pickup time was one hour after I placed my order. I received an email a little more than two hours later saying the photos were ready. When I got to the store, the staff hadn't actually printed my order yet, but they did it while I waited, which took only a few minutes.

Using the CVS Pharmacy Mobile App

The CVS Pharmacy Android and iOS apps let you order prints from photos stored on your phone or from images you've already uploaded to your CVS account. You don't get any cropping, editing, or special options with the mobile apps, but you can order printed gift objects like mugs and magnets. The app has a simple interface that makes it easy to get prints quickly in various sizes. You can't take screenshots because the app's security policy blocks it, likely because the CVS app contains personal health information, such as medications prescribed to you.

Testing CVS Photo's Print Quality

When I picked up my photos, they were loose in a manila envelope. I hand-carried them home, so this isn't such a big deal. Still, High-end photo processors usually ship photos in cardboard boxes or thick cardboard sleeves and give further protection to the photos with additional envelopes inside. I'm more disappointed that there is no text on the back of my test photos to indicate the filename or a title, something many other services add. That's not a deal-breaker, but it is an organization helper that I miss when it's not there.

CVS Photo produces impressive large prints on Kodak Moments paper, which is optimized for the printer used. My test photos are sharp and pleasing in general, but the smaller 4-by-6 prints have mechanical streaking and are a tad oversaturated. The 5-by-7 and 8-by-10 prints, however, are among the sharpest test prints of any service I tested, though the colors are inaccurate. Walgreens Photo yields less saturated colors but without any streaking.

(Credit: PCMag/Justin Pietropaoli)

In the portrait detail above, you can see the streaking in the CVS print. I placed the same order a second time to see if the problems would repeat; the new print doesn't have this much streaking, and the larger prints don't have it either.

In the larger 8-by-10 print from CVS, the detail is sharp, but the image is oversaturated.

(Credit: PCMag)

Here's a crop of the original image file for comparison:

(Credit: PCMag)

The second time I ordered a 4-by-6 (below), CVS returned a respectable image, one without the streaking I saw on the first try. However, the colors are still not as naturalistic as they are in the photos from other photo printing services, and there's less detail than the Walgreens print.

(Credit: PCMag/Justin Pietropaoli)

Here's the original image file:

(Credit: PCMag/Justin Pietropaoli)

Acceptable One-Hour Photos

Our test order at CVS cost more than competing photo printing services charge and significantly more than Amazon Prints, Snapfish, and Walmart Photo. Despite the high prices, the final results from CVS are acceptable, though inconsistent, and they fall short of what you get from the one-hour competition from Walgreens and Walmart. Our Editors' Choice winner for photo printing services offering one-hour local pickup is Walgreens Photo. If you don't need your photos in a hurry, Nations Photo Lab is our top choice, while Walmart Photo is our budget pick.