Wedding gift calculator
Not sure what to put in the card? Answer a few questions and get a realistic range, plus a plain explanation of why. No account, nothing saved, and nothing leaves your browser.
How much should you give?
Suggested gift
$100 to $150
The usual gift for this relationship is $100 to $150. How close you are to the couple is what moves the number most, not the venue, the cost of the meal, or what anyone else at your table is giving.
Want the full reasoning? Read how much to give as a wedding gift.
These are norms, not obligations, based on usual United States ranges. A wedding in a major city skews higher, and a small town or a group of friends in their early twenties skews lower.
What the calculator is based on
The single biggest factor is how close you are to the couple. A coworker or a friend of a friend usually gives $50 to $100, a friend $100 to $150, a close friend or a cousin, aunt or uncle $150 to $250, and a sibling or parent $250 and up, often well up.
From there the calculator applies only the adjustments that genuinely change the number. Attending as a couple adds roughly half again, not double. Paying your own way to a destination wedding lowers it to a typical $75 to $100, because your presence is a substantial part of the gift. Being in the wedding party puts you at $75 to $200, because the party has usually already spent a year of costs on dresses, suits, travel and parties. Not attending moves you to $50 to $100, or a card alone.
Three things deliberately do not move the number: the formality of the venue, what you suspect the couple earns, and what the person next to you is giving. These are national middles, so use your own sense of where you live and who is invited. The full reasoning is in our guide, how much to give as a wedding gift.
Both are correct
Give cash, or give into a cash fund, when the couple has set one up, when they already live together and have the kitchen sorted, or when the wedding is far away and you would rather not ship anything. Cash is the most useful gift at most modern weddings.
Give from the registry when there is one with things still on it. The couple chose those items, which removes the guesswork. Give something off the registry only if you are confident, and see our guide to gifts for an engaged couple for a filter on which ideas are worth it. If you are going to a wedding in a tradition you do not know well, ask someone who does. That question is always welcome.
Timing is relaxed. Registry purchases are easiest shipped to the couple before the wedding, and cash or a check goes in a card handed over at the reception or posted afterwards. Write your name clearly inside the card, because cards get separated from envelopes.
Declining does not mean skipping
Being invited does not obligate you to give, though most people want to mark it somehow. If you are close to the couple and declining with regret, a gift of $50 to $100 or something small from the registry, plus a real note, is the usual move. The note matters more than the amount.
If you were invited through a wider connection, a warm, specific card is enough and always has been. If you are declining for financial reasons, send a card and nothing else. You do not owe a gift to an event you could not afford to attend.
Heading to a faraway wedding instead? Our destination wedding guest checklist covers what to arrange and when. If you are in the wedding party, read wedding party group gift ideas and what it costs to be a bridesmaid.
Wedding gift questions
- How much should you give for a wedding gift in 2026?
- Usually $50 to $300, decided mainly by how close you are to the couple. A coworker commonly gives $50 to $100, a friend $100 to $150, a close friend or wider family member $150 to $250, and a sibling or parent more than that. Attending as a couple usually means adding around half again rather than doubling.
- Is cash a better wedding gift than a registry item?
- Neither is better. Cash and cash funds are the most useful gift at most modern weddings and no longer read as impersonal, while a registry item removes the guesswork because the couple chose it themselves. Avoid off-registry objects unless you are confident about the choice.
- Do you have to cover the cost of your plate?
- No. You cannot know what the couple paid per guest, the figure varies enormously by venue, and the logic implies a couple is owed more for having spent more on their own party. Give based on your relationship and what you can afford.
- How much should a bridesmaid or groomsman give?
- Commonly $75 to $200, which is often less than a close friend attending as a guest would give. Members of the wedding party have usually spent well over a thousand dollars on the role already, and most go in on a group gift.
- What if you cannot attend the wedding?
- Being invited does not obligate you to give. If you are close to the couple, $50 to $100 or something small from the registry plus a real note is the usual way to mark it. If you were invited through a wider connection, or you are declining for financial reasons, a card alone is enough.
Let Nozari do this for you, automatically
In the wedding party and splitting the bachelorette, the shower or a group gift? Nozari splits a shared cost across the group and lets each person mark their own share paid, so nobody is chasing a transfer in March.