Editorial: This article reflects the personal experience and opinions of Photo Booth Magazine founder Art Armani and his company, Armani Entertainment. Features and pricing come from GuestGrin's website as of November 2026.

How one repeat corporate client turned a new AI caricature booth into the easiest upsell of my season, you may want to look at this.

"Bring us something new this year"

If you've been in this industry long enough, you have at least one of these clients: the company that books you every year for its holiday party and expects you to top last year. At Armani Entertainment, I'm lucky to have a few repeat corporate clients, and one of them always asks me for something new and different.

This year we settled on photo stickers. It's a perfect fit for a party where employees bring their families, because kids love walking away with stickers of themselves. But the stickers were mostly for the children, and I wanted the adults to have something of their own.

Then I came across GuestGrin by Touchpix . I pitched it to the client, and they didn't need convincing. They said they absolutely had to have it, and that it would add an extra element of fun for the adults. Stickers for the kids, live caricatures for the grown-ups. Needless to say, this was an easy upsell.

That's what made me want to take a closer look at what GuestGrin is and how other booth owners could use it.

What GuestGrin is

GuestGrin is an AI caricature booth built for photo booth companies, and it's part of Touchpix, so many of you already know the company behind it. The idea is simple: a guest sends a selfie (or gets photographed), then watches their caricature get drawn stroke by stroke on a big screen, and takes the print home.

That "drawn live" part is what sells it. Guests don't just get a filtered photo. They gather around the screen and watch each other get drawn, which is the same crowd-pleasing moment you get with a live caricature artist.

How it runs at an event

GuestGrin gives you several ways to capture guests, so you can start with equipment you already own:

• Your existing booth software. Your booth keeps taking photos as usual, and each one is also drawn as a caricature on the big screen.
• Guests' own phones. A large QR code and a short two-digit code appear on screen. Guests scan, take a selfie, add their name and a message, and the screen draws everyone in order. The code keeps it limited to people actually in the room.
• A host walks the room. One attendant with a phone and a clip-on light goes table to table, photographs guests and types their message for them. This works well for seated dinners and shy guests.
• On-screen photo booth. Add a webcam and the screen becomes a touchscreen booth: tap, see yourself live, countdown, flash, review and keep or retake.
• iPad or Booth Kit. A single iPad can now run as a full caricature booth, and there's a Booth Kit (a gold frame on an easel) that combines camera, screen and booth in one.

For our holiday party, we decided on the guests' own phones. The company already has TVs set up in the main area of their corporate office where the party will be held, so the caricatures will show up on screens that are already in the room. Guests just scan the QR code, send a selfie and watch themselves get drawn.

GuestGrin is so new that we're still testing things out in the office before we officially add it to our line of offerings. For this event, we're keeping things simple, but that may change as we keep testing and get closer to the party.

The basic hardware is any TV or projector plus a Windows or Mac computer running the free GuestGrin Wall app. You'll need an internet connection, and a photo printer if you're printing.

Printing

If you already run a dye-sub printer, you're set. GuestGrin works with the event printers most of us use (DNP, HiTi, Citizen, Mitsubishi), printing 4x6 in roughly 8 to 15 seconds, with 6x8 also supported. The Wall app prints each finished drawing automatically. You can also run it with no prints at all; every guest keeps their caricature on their phone either way.

The poster wall: a built-in second product

One feature I really like for corporate and wedding clients is the wall. During a wall event, every caricature joins one growing wall on the screen. After the event, the whole wall exports as a poster with every guest on it. Framed, it becomes a guestbook for the office lobby or the couple's home.

Guests can also order a poster or framed print of the wall from the online gallery, shipped from a lab near them. The gallery stays up for three months, or longer with the option to keep galleries online. You also get the full set of images afterward.

Extras you can charge more for

GuestGrin offers paid add-ons that map nicely to premium packages:

• Video keepsakes: every guest can download a video of their caricature being drawn.
• Living caricatures: the finished caricature waves, laughs or raises a glass at the end of the video (requires Video keepsakes).
• White label: your logo, colors, font, your own web address and emails from your own domain. Guests never see the GuestGrin name.
• Your own prompt: add your own touch to every drawing, such as party hats, company colors or an event theme. For corporate clients, this is a strong selling point.
• Keep galleries online beyond the standard three months.

With branding turned on, your logo appears on every print, the gallery and the poster, which is exactly what corporate event planners want to see.

What it costs

Every new account starts with 15 free pictures to try at a real event, no card needed. Every route includes the live drawing on screen, a guest gallery online for three months, printing at the venue, moderation of every photo and message, a print-ready poster of the whole wall with your logo, and unlimited events on one account. After that, you pick one of three ways to pay (prices in USD, with sales tax added at checkout where it applies):

• Route 1, Pay as you go: picture packs that never expire, with no subscription. 50 pictures for $29, 200 for $89, 1,000 for $329, or 10,000 for $2,600 (as low as $0.26 per picture). Optional extras are added per month: Video keepsakes $50, Living caricatures $43, Keep galleries online $20, White label $55, and Your own prompt $15.
• Route 2, Studio plan:$72 per month (or $720 a year) with every extra included. You still buy pictures in packs as you need them.
• Route 3, All-in plan:$165 per month (or $1,650 a year) with 300 pictures every month (unused ones roll over) and every extra included.

GuestGrin's pricing page also has a calculator that shows your cost and profit based on events per month, guests per event and what you charge per hour. It's worth running your own numbers there before you build your packages.

Why this is a revenue opportunity

Here's the math that makes GuestGrin interesting. A live caricature artist isn't cheap. One caricature company, for example, charges $150 per artist per hour with a two-hour minimum and suggests one artist for every 15 guests per hour. For a 200-guest party, that means multiple artists.

GuestGrin flips that model. As they put it, you charge per hour and they charge per picture, and the per-guest cost is cents. GuestGrin also claims it pays for itself in about two bookings.

A few ways to sell it:

1. As an upsell to an existing booth package. This is what I did. If your software already integrates, your booth keeps working and the caricatures are a second layer of entertainment.
2. As a standalone service. Market it as a "live AI caricature artist" for clients who already have a booth vendor or want something different. A screen, a computer and a host walking the room is a light setup for a seated dinner.
3. As the "something new" for repeat clients. Every booth owner with returning corporate accounts needs a fresh idea each year. This is one.
4. Bundled with stickers or prints for families. At family-friendly events, pairing a kids' activity with something the adults enjoy covers the whole room.
5. With the poster as a premium deliverable. Upsell a framed wall poster for the office or the couple's home.

GuestGrin also includes a free marketing pack with every account: event photos, short videos, caricature examples, a print-ready flyer and roll-up banner, and editable design files. That means you can start selling it before you've run your first event.

Final thoughts

What stood out to me was how fast the yes came. I didn't have to sell features. I described guests watching themselves get drawn live, and the client was in. When an add-on sells itself that easily, it's worth a look.

If you have repeat clients asking for something new, or you want a lower-overhead alternative to booking a caricature artist, GuestGrin is worth testing with the free 15 pictures. I'll share how it goes at our holiday party, and I'd love to hear from anyone else who adds it to their lineup.

Join the conversation in the Photo Booth Magazine Facebook group.

Sources

• GuestGrin: features, ways to run it and the poster wall
• GuestGrin Pricing: picture packs, plans and extras (USD)
• GuestGrin Setup Guide: screens, printers and room setup
• The Caricature Company: Pricing: live caricature artist rates

Editorial: this article is the opinion and experience of the author. GuestGrin is a brand of Touchpix B.V. Product details, features and pricing change often; confirm with the vendor before you buy.