Reviewed by the Penny Time editorial team

Part of our Allowance hub.

Is Greenlight Free? No, and Here Is the Monthly Fee for Every Plan

Short answer: no, Greenlight is not free. There is no permanent free tier. Fees run from $5.99 a month for Core up to $19.98 a month for Family Shield, charged as one flat fee for your whole family after a one-month trial. Below is the fee for every plan, what it adds up to over a year, the extra costs that sit outside the subscription, and where you can get the same teaching value without a recurring charge.

What Greenlight actually costs in 2026

Greenlight uses one monthly fee per family, not per child. That part is genuinely fair, since families with three or four kids pay the same as a family with one. Here are the four plans:

Billed annually, the Core plan works out a little cheaper, but the company defaults you to monthly billing when you sign up. Over a year, the entry plan costs roughly $72, Max around $132, Infinity close to $192, and Family Shield about $240.

Greenlight cost per month vs per year

Greenlight bills monthly by default, so the yearly total is the number most parents underestimate. Here is what each plan adds up to over twelve months:

Does Greenlight have fees beyond the monthly subscription?

Mostly no. The plan price you pick is the fee. The debit cards are included in the subscription, and because Greenlight bills one flat fee per family rather than per child, putting a second or third kid on the same plan does not raise it. Two things can still cost you extra, and neither is charged by Greenlight:

• Out-of-network ATM withdrawals. The ATM operator can add its own surcharge. That is the machine's fee, not a line item on your Greenlight bill.
• Instant transfers. Standard transfers are part of the plan, while instant options carry limits, so check the terms in the app before you count on one.

So the honest answer is that your real Greenlight cost is the monthly plan price, somewhere between $5.99 and $19.98, and the card itself does not add a separate charge on top.

The free trial: what to watch for

The free trial runs for one month. You enter a payment method up front, and the card on file is charged automatically when the trial ends unless you cancel first. Set a calendar reminder for day 28. This is the single most common surprise charge parents report: they forget the trial converts to a paid plan on its own.

What is free vs what is paid

People often assume the app itself is free and only the card costs money. That is not how it works. The teaching features, the chore tracking, the allowance scheduler, and the investing tools all sit behind the subscription. Here is the honest split:

• Free: Downloading the app, opening an account, and the one-month trial.
• Paid (subscription required): Chore and allowance automation, savings goals, parent spending controls, the debit cards, and kid investing.
• Extra cost outside the fee: Out-of-network ATM withdrawals can carry a charge from the ATM operator, and there are limits on instant transfers.

Is Greenlight worth paying for?

For a family that wants a real debit card with parent oversight and is comfortable with a recurring fee, the Core plan is reasonable. The value is in the card and the controls, not the lessons. The actual money concepts, like saving a portion of every dollar or separating wants from needs, do not require an app at all. If your goal is to teach the habits rather than hand a child a card, a free approach gets you most of the way.

Free alternatives that teach the same skills

You can replicate almost every teaching feature Greenlight charges for using free tools and a regular envelope or jar system. Here is how the paid features map to no-cost options:

None of these carry a monthly fee. They cover the same lessons a paid app builds in, and you keep full visibility because you are sitting next to your child while they decide what to do with the money.

How to decide

Run the math against what you would actually use. If you only want the card and basic chore tracking, you are paying for Max and Infinity features you will not touch, so stick with Core or skip the card entirely. If safety features like location sharing matter to you independent of money, that changes the calculation, since Infinity bundles things you might otherwise buy separately.

A simple test: write down the three features you would use weekly. If two of those three are teaching habits rather than the physical card, you can probably do it for free and put the $72 a year toward your child's actual savings.

Give your child their own Penny Time

Penny Time turns allowance into playful Quests your child plays on their own phone or tablet. They make real money decisions and see how each one turns out, while you set it up and stay in charge of every cash-out.

Set the allowance and growth budget, invite your child, and they play on their own device. No device for them yet? Penny Time still works as your allowance tracker.

No credit card. No ads. No strings.

Put this into practice this week

Penny Time turns allowance into a real balance your child tracks on their own device, with your approval on every cash-out. Free for the whole family.