Flyer, Brochure and Business Card Printing Cost in Dubai (2026): Real AED Prices
100 business cards cost AED 50-80 and 1,000 A5 flyers from AED 130 in Dubai. Real 2026 AED print prices, turnarounds, and the Decree 6/2020 permit rule.
- PUBLISHED
- 28 SEPT 2026
- READ TIME
- 10 MIN
- AUTHOR
- AQUARIUS · DUBAI
- UNIT
- REV 2026.09
Short answer: in Dubai in 2026, 100 business cards cost AED 50-80 on standard 350gsm, 1,000 A5 flyers start from about AED 130, and 1,000 A4 tri-fold brochures run about AED 510 including VAT. The print itself is the cheap part. Distributing that print without a permit is a violation under Decree No. (6) of 2020, punishable by AED 1,000-15,000 and up to AED 30,000 on repeat.
Key takeaways
- Business cards: AED 50-80 per 100 standard; gold foil pushes the same 100 to AED 220-350. Per-card cost falls from about AED 0.95 at 100 to AED 0.34 at 1,000.
- Flyers: from AED 130 per 1,000 A5; 5,000 A5 lands around AED 640-833 including VAT.
- The permit: leaflets are an "Advertising Medium" under Dubai's advertising decree. Article 5 puts leaflets and stickers under DED/DET. Article 11(7) requires Arabic as the primary language, at no less than 50% of the medium.
- The real cost of getting it wrong: a AED 833 flyer run you cannot legally hand out, plus a fine that can be 18x what the print cost.
Print is not dead in Dubai - the numbers say the opposite
Dubai businesses assume print is a legacy line item. The market disagrees. The UAE advertising market was worth USD 3.38 billion in 2024 and is forecast to reach USD 5.74 billion by 2033 at a 5.42% CAGR. Digital takes the headlines - UAE digital ad spend is forecast at USD 2.64 billion in 2026, up 15.2% year on year - but that still leaves well over a billion dollars a year moving through non-digital channels.
The production side is bigger than most founders expect. The UAE printer market is valued at roughly USD 1.7 billion, and the UAE digital printing segment alone went from USD 655.5 million in 2023 to a forecast USD 917.0 million by 2030. Dubai and Abu Dhabi dominate that demand, because that is where the licences, the exhibitions and the retail footfall are.
The performance case is uncomfortable for digital-only marketers too. The ANA/DMA 2025 benchmarks put average direct mail response at 4.4% against 0.12% for email - roughly 37x. House lists run 5-9%, cold prospect lists 2-4.4%. Brand recall studies put printed pieces at 75% versus 44% for digital. Those are US benchmarks, not UAE ones - but the direction is consistent, and in a city where exhibitions, mall activations and door-to-door trade still convert, a printed piece is a channel, not nostalgia.
What kills print ROI in Dubai is not the medium. It is paying for 5,000 flyers you are not allowed to distribute.
Business card printing cost in Dubai (2026)
The UAE standard card is 90 x 54 mm (international is 89 x 51 mm). Supply artwork at 300 dpi, CMYK, with 3 mm bleed and a 3-5 mm safe margin, and most Dubai presses will take an order from 100 cards. Published 2026 Dubai pricing:
| Finish | 100 cards (AED) | 250 cards (AED) | 500 cards (AED) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard 350gsm | 50-80 | 90-130 | 150-200 |
| Matte laminated | 90-120 | 140-180 | 220-280 |
| Spot UV | 150-200 | 230-290 | 350-420 |
| Textured (cotton / linen) | 170-220 | 260-320 | 380-460 |
| Gold foil | 220-350 | 340-450 | 480-600 |
Two things move this number. First, setup is a fixed cost, so per-card price collapses with volume: about AED 0.95 per card at 100, down to roughly AED 0.34 at 1,000. Ordering 100 cards five times a year is the most expensive way to buy them. Second, finishes add production steps: Spot UV adds roughly 20% and hot foil 35-50% over the base price.
Turnaround: same-day is realistic for standard 350gsm and matte-laminated runs up to 250-500 cards if you order before midday with print-ready files. Spot UV, foil and textured stock need 2-3 working days.
Flyer, leaflet and brochure printing cost in Dubai (2026)
Flyers are where Dubai print gets genuinely cheap. Published Dubai prices:
| Item | Quantity | Published price (AED) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A5 flyer, full colour | 1,000 | from 130 | Entry-level stock, both sides |
| A5 flyer, 170gsm gloss | 1,000 | 195 | Heavier stock, better hand-feel |
| A5 flyer | 5,000 | 640-833 (incl. VAT) | Best per-unit economics |
| Express flyer, same-day | Short run | from 65-85 | Rush premium, limited stock choice |
| A4 tri-fold brochure | 300 | 410 | Folding included |
| A4 tri-fold brochure | 1,000 | 510 (incl. VAT) | About AED 0.51 per piece |
| Roll-up banner 85 x 200 cm | 1 (with stand) | 110-190 | Lower end is bulk pricing |
| Stickers / labels | Varies | from 230 | Die-cut and PVC cost more |
Brochures across Dubai presses generally land between AED 0.50 and AED 5.00 per piece depending on stock, size, fold and finishing. Stock is the single biggest lever: standard gloss or matte is cheap, premium textured or heavyweight paper is not. Runs of 500-1,000 hit the efficiency curve; 2,000+ gets the best per-unit price.
Note the arithmetic that catches people out: 5,000 A5 flyers at AED 833 is AED 0.17 each. The print is almost free. Your real spend is design, distribution labour and the permit - and only one of those three is optional.
The permit most Dubai businesses forget
This is the part almost no Dubai printing price guide tells you, because printers sell print, not compliance.
Decree No. (6) of 2020 Regulating Advertisements in the Emirate of Dubai defines an "Advertisement" as any announcement promoting commodities, services, events or products - and its definition of "Advertising Medium" explicitly includes leaflets. Your flyer is not marketing collateral in the eyes of the law. It is a regulated advertising medium.
Article 5 splits jurisdiction by where the advertising happens:
| Where you are advertising | Permit authority |
|---|---|
| Commercial outlet facades, leaflets and stickers | DED / Department of Economy and Tourism |
| Special development zones and free zones | The relevant zone authority (e.g. DDA) |
| Rights of way, public transport, vehicles | RTA |
| Vacant land, buildings, coastal areas | Dubai Municipality |
| Aerial advertisements | Dubai Civil Aviation Authority |
| Maritime vessels | Dubai Maritime City Authority |
Article 11(7) is the design constraint that ruins finished artwork: Arabic must be the primary language and must occupy at least 50% of the size of the advertising medium. If you designed an English-first A5 with a small Arabic strapline, you have a reprint, not a revision.
Article 17(a) is the price of ignoring both: a fine of not less than AED 1,000 and not more than AED 15,000, doubled for a repeat of the same violation in the same advertising space within one year, capped at AED 30,000. You can appeal in writing to the Director General of the relevant entity within 30 days of notification.
Enforcement is not theoretical. DED field inspection campaigns in Dubai have fined dozens of trade establishments in a single two-month sweep for exactly this - flyers left on vehicles and pasted on residential walls and doors. Permit conditions restrict distribution to designated places, and some categories are banned outright.
For a sense of what the permitted, fixed side of Dubai advertising costs: in free zone areas the DDA publishes annual advertising permit fees of AED 5,000 for standard signage, AED 2,500 for parapet signs, AED 1,500 for flags and free-standing units, AED 1,000 for window stickers and AED 500 for ground-floor shop signage, plus AED 10 Knowledge Dirham and AED 10 Innovation Dirham, with a four-working-day turnaround.
What actually drives your print bill
- Quantity, not size. Setup dominates short runs. If you will need 1,000 cards this year, buy 1,000 now and pay a third per card.
- Stock weight. 130gsm to 350gsm is the usual span. Heavier stock on a flyer signals premium and roughly doubles paper cost.
- Finishing. Spot UV about +20%, hot foil +35-50%, plus lamination, die-cutting and folding as separate line items.
- Rush. Same-day is available on standard stock; it narrows your options and carries a premium.
- Artwork readiness. Files at 300 dpi, CMYK, 3 mm bleed, outlined fonts. Presses charge to fix RGB artwork at 72 dpi, and colour shifts are on you if you skip a proof.
- The Arabic 50% rule. Design bilingual from the first draft. Retrofitting Arabic into a locked English layout is a redesign fee plus a reprint.
- 5% VAT. Quoted prices are frequently ex-VAT. AED 640 becomes AED 672. Always ask which one you are reading.
Budget templates for a Dubai SME
Three realistic 2026 bundles, before distribution labour and permit fees:
| Scenario | What is in it | Print cost (AED) |
|---|---|---|
| New trade licence starter | 500 standard cards + 1,000 A5 flyers + 1 roll-up banner | 440-520 |
| Retail launch / mall activation | 5,000 A5 flyers + 1,000 tri-fold brochures + 2 roll-up banners | 1,400-1,700 |
| Exhibition stand kit | 500 foil cards + 1,000 brochures + 4 banners + stickers | 1,900-2,400 |
Add 5% VAT, add design if you do not have artwork, and add the permit.
Print without a digital destination is money set on fire
Here is the conversion problem. A flyer at AED 0.17 is only worth printing if the reader can act on it in under ten seconds. In Dubai that means a QR code that opens a fast, bilingual landing page or a WhatsApp thread - not a homepage.
The gap is measurable: campaigns that pair print with digital show a 118% lift in response over print alone. That lift is the whole argument for treating your flyer and your landing page as one asset. A dedicated page with the same offer, the same Arabic-first copy, and a form that actually posts somebody into your CRM turns a printed handout into tracked pipeline.
Most Dubai print runs point at a homepage with no offer and no tracking, and then nobody can say whether the AED 833 worked. Build the page first, print second.
How Aquarius does it
We handle both halves - the printed piece and the thing it points at. Design and artwork prepared correctly for Dubai presses (bilingual from draft one, Arabic weighted to satisfy the 50% rule, 300 dpi CMYK with bleed), plus the landing page, QR tracking and WhatsApp handoff that makes the print measurable. Our Starter Site begins at AED 500 and the Business Site at AED 2,500, before VAT - which means a full campaign landing page can cost less than the flyers pointing at it. Related reading: printing press and print MIS software.
Fixed AED quotes, VAT handled correctly, artwork files handed over as source, and you own everything. See our pricing and what each service includes.
The cost of inaction, in one line: an unpermitted 5,000-flyer run is AED 833 of paper you cannot legally distribute, plus a fine of up to AED 15,000 - and AED 30,000 if you do it twice. Getting the permit right costs a phone call.
FAQ
How much do 100 business cards cost in Dubai?
About AED 50-80 on standard 350gsm, AED 90-120 matte laminated, and AED 220-350 for gold foil. Per-card cost drops from roughly AED 0.95 at 100 cards to AED 0.34 at 1,000, because setup is a fixed cost.
How much does it cost to print 1,000 flyers in Dubai?
From about AED 130 for full-colour A5 on entry stock, around AED 195 on 170gsm gloss. Stepping to 5,000 copies costs roughly AED 640-833 including VAT - about AED 0.17 per flyer.
Do I need a permit to distribute flyers in Dubai?
Yes. Leaflets are an "Advertising Medium" under Decree No. (6) of 2020, and Article 5 places leaflets and stickers under DED/DET jurisdiction. Distributing without a permit, or outside designated places, is a violation.
What is the fine for unauthorised flyers in Dubai?
Article 17(a) of Decree No. (6) of 2020 sets a fine of AED 1,000 to AED 15,000. Repeating the same violation in the same advertising space within one year doubles it, up to a maximum of AED 30,000. You have 30 days to appeal in writing.
Does my flyer have to be in Arabic?
Arabic must be the primary language and occupy at least 50% of the advertising medium under Article 11(7). Design bilingual from the start - retrofitting Arabic into a finished English layout means a redesign and a reprint.
How fast can I get printing done in Dubai?
Same-day is realistic for standard 350gsm cards and express flyers ordered before midday with print-ready files. Spot UV, foil, textured stock and folded brochures typically need 2-3 working days.
Bottom line: Dubai print is cheap - AED 50-80 per 100 cards, AED 0.17 per flyer at volume. The expensive mistakes are an English-first layout that breaks the Arabic 50% rule, and distribution without a permit at up to AED 30,000. Get the artwork and the landing page right, then print. Talk to Aquarius for a fixed AED quote.