The Hidden Costs of "Free" Color by Number Apps

You've probably seen it a hundred times: a color by number app sitting at the top of the App Store with a big "Free" label. So it's fair to wonder how much money does color by number cost once you actually start tapping. The honest answer is that the download is free, but the coloring rarely stays that way.

The most widely documented example is the Color by Number app itself. As reporting on the coloring app boom put it, these apps are free to download but "aren't exactly free to use." You get a three-day trial, then the subscription kicks in at $7.99 per week, with options at $19.99 per month or $99.99 per year. That weekly rate quietly works out to more than $400 a year if you let it renew.

Here's the trap in plain terms. A three-day trial is short enough that most people forget they signed up, and $7.99 feels small enough that the first charge slips past a lot of parents and teachers. Then it recurs. Every week.

A few comparisons help put that in perspective:

• $7.99 per week is roughly the price of an entire kids' coloring book, which typically sells for $5.99 to $7.99 and never bills you again.
• $99.99 per year buys a decade's worth of printed activity pages if you're paying $5 to $10 per book.
• A single week of the app costs more than a full credit pack on Printoodle, which starts at $5 and generates personalized, print-ready pages you keep in your library with free reprints forever.

The scale explains why the model persists. Top US color-by-number apps were pulling in up to roughly $98,000 per week at their peak, and four coloring apps once held four of the top 25 free App Store spots with 3.2 million combined downloads in a single month. Free downloads, recurring revenue. The math works brilliantly for the developers and painfully for anyone who forgot to cancel.

This surprise-bill experience is exactly why so many people now search for the real cost before downloading anything. If you're planning number-based activities for a classroom or a rainy afternoon, printables give you the cost certainty apps don't. You can pair a color by number page with a number line for early counting practice, or a number chart for recognizing numerals up to 100, and print as many copies as you need without a subscription quietly running in the background.

Know the price before you color. A free download with a weekly charge is rarely free in any sense that matters, and a flat, one-time cost beats a recurring one almost every time.

What Color by Number Actually Costs on Printoodle

So you want to know how much money color by number costs? The short answer: on Printoodle, it can cost you nothing at all, and if you do pay, it starts at $5 with no subscription quietly draining your card each week.

Here's the breakdown. You get 10 free credits just for verifying your email. No trial period that converts to a recurring charge, no "free to download but not free to use" trap. That's enough to generate a batch of pixel color-by-number mystery pictures before you spend a cent. If you want more, credit packs start at $5, and every page you make lives in your library where reprints are free forever. Print the same birthday mystery picture for a classroom of twenty kids and you pay for it once.

That one-time model matters, because the color-by-number world outside Printoodle mostly runs on subscriptions. The popular Color by Number app is free to download, but after a three-day trial it costs $7.99 per week, with monthly plans at $19.99 and yearly plans at $99.99. Do the math and a $5 Printoodle credit pack costs less than a single week of that subscription. A year of the app would buy a lot of custom pages.

Print books aren't cheaper either. Kids' coloring books typically sell for $5.99 to $7.99, and adult books run $9.99 to $12.99, with $7.99 emerging as a dominant price point among Amazon's top sellers. A physical book gives you one set of fixed images. The same money on Printoodle gets pages you personalized yourself: your kid's name in a birthday mystery picture, or the family dog turned into a color-by-number grid.

Here's how the costs stack up side by side:

• Printoodle free tier: 10 credits on email verification, $0
• Printoodle credit packs: from $5, one-time, no renewal
• Color by Number app: $7.99/week, $19.99/month, or $99.99/year
• Print coloring books: $5.99 to $12.99 per book, fixed images

One thing worth noting: those app prices come from 2017 reporting, and app monetization has only grown more aggressive since. Top color-by-number apps were already pulling in serious money years ago, so the subscription model clearly works for the companies selling it.

If your kids are into number activities generally, color-by-number pages pair nicely with a printable number line or a number chart, both of which live in the same library with the same free-reprint rule. Print it. Doodle it. Done.

Printoodle vs. Coloring Books: The Price Comparison

When you're weighing how much money does color by number cost, the shelf at your local bookstore is the first place to look. A typical kids' coloring book runs $5.99 to $7.99, while adult titles climb to $9.99 to $12.99, according to pricing analysis of the print market. That's the baseline every digital option has to beat.

Printoodle's credit packs start at $5, which already undercuts nearly every physical book on the shelf. And that $5 gets you something a $7.99 book can't: pages built around your kid, your photo, or your lesson plan. A generic dinosaur book has the same twenty pages for everyone. A generated page can feature your child's name in the mystery picture or turn the family dog into line art.

The book market has its own economics worth knowing. Market research on Amazon's top 50 adult coloring best sellers found that $7.99 became the dominant price point after Amazon's June 2025 royalty change, so that's roughly what you'll pay for a mass-market title today.

Here's where the comparison tilts hard toward printables:

• One $5 credit pack covers multiple kids, since reprints from your library are free forever. A book is one book.
• A classroom teacher can print thirty copies of the same page. Thirty physical books at $5.99 each would cost about $180.
• A torn or crayon-ruined page costs nothing to replace. A ruined book page is gone.
• Personalization (names, photos, custom themes) costs the same as a generic page. Books charge premium prices for niche titles, with some specialty books reaching $18.

Free reprints are the quiet advantage here. Once a page lives in your Printoodle library, printing it again tomorrow or next school year costs nothing beyond paper and ink. Compare that to the app side of the market, where the Color by Number app charges $7.99 per week after a three-day trial, or $99.99 per year, as reporting on coloring app subscriptions noted. One week of that subscription costs more than an entire entry-level credit pack.

The personalization angle also matters for learning value. Color by number pages pair naturally with other number activities, so if you're building a math-focused afternoon, you can round things out with a printable number line or a number chart without buying anything extra.

A physical book still wins on zero setup: buy it, hand it over, done. But on pure cost per page, cost per kid, and customization, a $5 print-ready page beats a $7.99 generic book almost every time. Print it. Doodle it. Done.

Getting the Most From Your Credits

If you've ever wondered how much money does color by number cost elsewhere, you know the answer can sting. The popular Color by Number app is free to download but charges $7.99 per week after a three-day trial, which adds up to $99.99 a year. Printoodle flips that model: you start free, pay once for credits, and never pay to print again.

Here's the practical way to spend wisely. When you verify your email, you get 10 free credits. Use them to test pixel color by number mystery pictures before you buy anything. Generate a dinosaur mystery grid for a rainy afternoon or a custom pixel picture for your classroom, download the PDF, and see how your kids or students take to it. That's a real trial with no card attached and no subscription waiting to kick in.

When you do spend, spend on generation only. Downloads are always free, and so are reprints. Everything you make lives in your library, so if the dog chews the printout or you need five more copies for a class set, you reprint at no cost. A physical coloring book runs $5.99 to $7.99 for kids' titles and $9.99 to $12.99 for adult versions, and once it's used up, it's used up. A Printoodle credit pack starts at $5, and one credit purchase can yield unlimited future prints from your library.

A few habits that stretch your credits further:

• Test first with the free 10 credits before buying a pack, so you know which activity types your kids actually finish.
• Spend credits only when you generate a new page; treat downloads and reprints as always-free.
• Batch your generating: one sitting of themed pages for a birthday kit or a week of worksheets costs the same credits whether you plan ahead or scramble.
• Pair color by number pages with the free number line and number chart tools for extra math practice at zero added cost.

That last point matters more than it sounds. Color by number already builds number recognition and fine-motor control, and the number line and number chart tools extend that practice without touching your credit balance. Teachers can hand out a mystery picture on Monday and a number chart warm-up on Tuesday for the price of one generation.

The comparison with mobile apps is worth keeping in mind. Top US color-by-number apps pulled in as much as $98,000 per week in Q2 2021, which tells you how aggressively the subscription model works on families. A one-time credit purchase with free reprints is a different economics entirely, and it's the reason the free tier is genuinely usable rather than a teaser.

Verify your email, grab your free credits, and print it, doodle it, done.