E-Gift Card Etiquette: How Much to Give
Twenty-three occasions, with US dollar and UK pound amounts side by side. Plus whether emailing a card is rude, what to write on it, and the six delivery rules that matter more than the number.
Two things are true at once. The amount matters less than people think - and getting it obviously wrong is one of the few ways a gift can actively land badly. So here are the conventions, in both currencies, with the caveat that should sit above every table like this one:
What you can comfortably afford comes first
These are conventions, not obligations, and they describe what people typically do rather than what anyone is owed. Relationship closeness moves the number far more than the occasion does. A $20 card to somewhere specific, with a line about why, is a complete gift - and beats a $60 one sent as a forwarded receipt.
How much to give, by occasion
UK figures are lower in absolute terms than US ones for most occasions, which is a genuine cultural difference rather than an exchange-rate artefact - the exception being weddings, where UK amounts are typically quoted per person and can run higher.
| Occasion | Relationship | US | UK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birthday | Casual acquaintance | $20-$50 | £20-£40 |
| Birthday | Friend | $30-$60 | £25-£50 |
| Birthday | Close friend or family | $50-$100 | £40-£80 |
| Birthday | Partner or spouse | $75-$200 | £60-£150 |
| Birthday | Child (not yours) | $20-$40 | £15-£30 |
| Wedding | Evening guest or acquaintance | $75-$100 | ~£50 |
| Wedding | Colleague, or as a plus-one | $75-$125 | £50 per person |
| Wedding | Friend | $100-$150 | £50-£100 per person |
| Wedding | Close friend or immediate family | $150-$300 | £75-£200 per person |
| Graduation | Coworker or acquaintance | $20-$50 | £20-£40 |
| Graduation | Family friend | $50-$150 | £40-£100 |
| Graduation | Close relative | $100-$500 | £75-£300 |
| Graduation | Parent or grandparent | $200+ | £150+ |
| New baby | Colleague or friend | $25-$75 | £20-£60 |
| New baby | Close family | $100-$250 | £75-£200 |
| Housewarming | Friend | $30-$75 | £25-£60 |
| Thank you | Someone who helped you out | $15-$40 | £15-£30 |
| Teacher, end of year | One family giving | $20-$50 | £15-£30 |
| Teacher, end of year | Class collection | $10-$20 per family | £5-£15 per family |
| Coworker, casual | A thank-you or a birthday | $10-$25 | £10-£20 |
| Coworker, leaving | Group collection | $15-$25 per person | £10-£20 per person |
| Retirement | Group collection | $20-$50 per person | £20-£40 per person |
| Condolence | Any | Give to a cause instead | Give to a cause instead |
For a condolence, the convention in both countries is to give to a cause or a family fund rather than send a retail card. A gift card asks a grieving person to go shopping.
A note on Europe
Card culture is weaker across much of continental Europe than in the US or UK, and the conventions differ enough to be worth checking locally. In Germany and the Netherlands, cash in a card is common and carries no awkwardness. In France and Italy, a specific object or a good bottle is generally preferred to credit. Across the EU, expiry rules vary by member state rather than being harmonised - Germany effectively gives you three years, France typically a minimum of one - so a card bought abroad may have a shorter life than the recipient expects. Our guide to e-gift card expiry has the country-by-country detail.
The six delivery rules
Every one of these moves the perceived value of a card more than adding $25 to it does.
1. Never send it from a work account, or to one
A gift arriving in a work inbox is opened between two meetings and felt for four seconds. Use whatever channel the two of you actually talk in.
2. Don't forward the retailer's confirmation
That email exists to confirm a transaction. Send your own message first, in your own words, and let the retailer's email follow as the practical part.
3. Non-round amounts read as considered
$50 signals a bracket you filed them into. $47 signals you looked up what the thing costs. Same money, different information.
4. Name what it's for
One line - for the coat, not the groceries - does more work than an extra $25. Without it, the recipient has to guess whether you thought about them at all.
5. Match the storefront to their country
Most e-gift cards are locked to one country's site, so a US card can be unusable in the UK or Germany. Buy from their local storefront and confirm redeemability before paying.
6. Schedule it for the morning
7am on the day, not 11:47pm the night before. It costs you a dropdown and changes the entire reading of the gift.
Six awkward questions, answered
Is it rude to email a gift card instead of giving one in person?
No. Digital delivery is now the majority of the gift card market and nobody reads it as a slight in itself. What does read as careless is a forwarded receipt with no message, the wrong country's storefront, or a work-inbox delivery.
Should I tell them how much is on it?
You don't need to - the balance is visible when they redeem it. Don't announce the figure in your message; it turns the gift into a number and invites arithmetic.
Is it acceptable to give a gift card at a wedding?
In the US, cash and cards are conventional and widely welcomed. In the UK, most couples expect money towards something specific and often say so - many now list a bank transfer or a contribution page, which is preferable to a card because it carries no retailer restriction and no expiry.
What if I can't afford the range in the table?
Then the range is wrong for you, not the other way round. What you can comfortably afford comes first in every etiquette guide worth reading. A $20 card to somewhere specific, with a reason written on it, is a complete gift.
Do I need to give more because it's digital?
No. Nothing about the delivery method changes the amount. If you feel the need to compensate, spend the compensation on presentation rather than value - it moves perceived thoughtfulness much further.
Is a gift card acceptable for a close family member?
It's acceptable, but it's the one situation where it underperforms most. The closer the relationship, the more a card reads as a shrug, precisely because they'd expect you to know something specific about them. Pair it with something made rather than bought.
The one case where the table stops applying
The closer the relationship, the worse a card performs at any amount - because closeness is exactly what creates the expectation that you'd know something specific. This is the only situation where the number genuinely cannot fix the gift. A $200 card to a spouse is not a better gift than a $30 one; it's the same gift, more expensively.
For those recipients, the useful move is to stop treating the card as the gift and let it become the postscript - put it inside something made rather than bought.
Where to put the card
Vellum is a private archive of a relationship, built as chapters they walk through - a letter, your photographs, a star map, and messages that stay sealed until dates you choose. Let the last chapter hold the practical part: the code, the booking, the brief. They get a moment worth having, and full freedom over what they actually buy. Walk the demo - $12 a chapter, $29 the archive, paid once.
Frequently asked questions
How much should you put on a gift card?
By convention in the US: $20-$50 for an acquaintance or casual coworker, $30-$60 for a friend, $50-$100 for close friends and family, $75-$200 for a partner, and $100-$150 for a wedding as a friend. In the UK the figures are lower in absolute terms - roughly £20-£40 for an acquaintance, £40-£80 for close friends and family, and £50-£100 per person for a wedding. What you can comfortably afford always takes precedence over any range.
Is $25 too little for a gift card?
Not for an acquaintance, a casual coworker, a thank-you or a child - $25 sits comfortably inside convention for all four. It reads as low for a close friend's milestone birthday or a wedding. If $25 is your budget for someone close, put it towards a specific small thing and write why, rather than sending a bare $25 of general credit.
How much do you give for a wedding gift card in the UK?
Most UK guests give around £50-£100 per person, with close friends and immediate family often landing between £75 and £200 per person. Evening-only guests and acquaintances typically give around £50, and £50 is perfectly respectable as a plus-one at a colleague's wedding. Many couples now request a bank transfer or contribution page instead, which avoids both retailer restrictions and expiry dates.
Is it rude to give an e-gift card?
No. Digital is now the majority of gift card sales and carries no stigma of its own. The three things that genuinely register as careless are forwarding the retailer's confirmation email with nothing added, sending a card locked to the wrong country's storefront, and delivering it to a work address.
What do you write in an e-gift card message?
One sentence saying why this, for them - not a description of the gift. 'For the coat you've been walking past since October, get the one with the belt' outperforms three lines of generic good wishes. If you're stuck, complete the sentence 'I got you this because you said...'
How much should coworkers contribute to a group gift card?
Common per-person amounts are $10-$15 for a birthday, $15-$25 for someone leaving or a new baby, and $20-$50 for a retirement, with UK equivalents roughly £10-£20 and £20-£40. Group gifts should always be genuinely optional and the amount never announced publicly - the point is a collective gesture, not a visible ranking of who gave what.
Related reading
How to make an e-gift feel personal expands the six rules above into nine, with message templates. E-gift card vs digital gift covers when to send a card at all, and the full 42 e-gift ideas list is what to send instead.
Sources
- UK wedding amounts: Always Personal UK wedding gift etiquette, Pocketwell 2026 guide
- US graduation and group-gift amounts: Tribute 2026 graduation guide, group gift etiquette
- Digital share of gift card sales: Capital One Shopping gift card research
- German and French validity periods: European Consumer Centre
When the amount isn't the problem
For the people closest to you, no figure fixes a bare card. Give an archive of the two of you instead - letters, photographs, and chapters sealed until the dates that matter.
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