Reviewed by the Penny Time editorial team
Part of our Allowance hub.
Is Greenlight Free? The Honest Pricing Breakdown for Parents
Short answer: no, Greenlight is not free. There is no permanent free tier. You get a one-month free trial, and after that every plan carries a monthly subscription fee that covers your whole family. Below is the real cost, what each tier actually unlocks, 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:
| Plan | Monthly price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Core | $5.99/mo | Debit cards for up to 5 kids, chore and allowance automation, savings goals, parent controls, spend notifications. |
| Max | $10.98/mo | Everything in Core plus higher cashback, an investing account for kids, identity theft protection, and purchase protection. |
| Infinity | $15.98/mo | Everything in Max plus family location sharing, SOS alerts, and crash detection. |
| Family Shield | $19.98/mo | Everything in Infinity plus whole-family safety: three-bureau credit monitoring, dark web monitoring, credit lock, up to $1M identity theft coverage, and up to $100K deceptive transfer fraud coverage for parents too. |
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.
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:
| Greenlight feature | Free alternative |
|---|---|
| Automated allowance | Allowance calculator to set a fair age-based amount |
| Chore tracking | Printable chore chart linked to earnings |
| Savings goals | Budget planner with a save, spend, and give split |
| Spend vs save lessons | Wants vs needs guide for everyday decisions |
| Windfall handling | Birthday money calculator for gift cash |
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. Greenlight offers a one-month free trial but no permanent free tier. After the trial, you must choose a paid plan starting at $5.99 per month for Core. The trial converts to a paid subscription automatically unless you cancel before it ends.
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Greenlight charges one flat fee per family, not per child. The Core plan at $5.99 per month covers debit cards for up to five kids. This makes it relatively cost-efficient for larger families compared with apps that bill per account.
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Yes. Greenlight requires a payment method when you sign up, and the card on file is charged when the one-month trial ends. To avoid the charge, cancel before day 30. Setting a reminder around day 28 is the safest way to stay ahead of it.
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You can teach the same skills with free tools and a cash envelope system. Use Penny Time's allowance calculator and chore chart for earnings, a budget planner for save-spend-give splits, and a wants vs needs guide for daily choices. None of these carry a monthly fee.
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It depends on what you use. The value sits in the debit card and parent controls, not the lessons themselves. If you mainly want to teach money habits rather than hand your child a card, a free approach covers most of the same ground without the recurring cost.
Turn allowance into real money lessons
Penny Time turns allowance into playful Quests where kids make real money decisions and see how each one turns out. Parents stay in charge of every cash-out. Free for the whole family.
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