Do smart pet tags need a subscription? UK costs (2026)

• Printed QR or NFC tags: the one-off tags we’ve compared cost £10 to £29.99, and some tags are free with a monthly plan. The profile behind a tag may be free for life, free for a year, or a few pounds a month.
• Bluetooth trackers like AirTag: £29 for one from Apple (£99 for four), a battery Apple says lasts more than a year, no monthly fee, but they only update where other phones pass by. See our AirTag guide.
• GPS trackers: Tractive’s, for example, is £59 for the tracker plus a subscription for its SIM card, from £5 a month if you pay for five years up front to £10 a month paying yearly. Its dog tracker’s battery lasts up to 2 weeks between charges, and its cat tracker’s up to 7 days.

Prices checked on each company’s own website on 6 October 2026. They move around, so treat them as a guide.

From each company’s own website. All checked on 6 October 2026.

• No subscription: CollarCode (£4.99 plus delivery), PetTag (£10), Pet-Tags (£19.99, engraved on the back), Tagged Pets (£19.99 plus delivery) and Paw ID (£29.99) are one-off purchases. Paw ID also has an optional Premium plan, £3.99 a month or £29.99 a year, for extras such as text alerts, family sharing and free replacements (checked 5 November 2026).
• WagTag: the tag is free and you pay the delivery, then £2.99 a month or £14.99 a year (PetTag vs WagTag). The plan includes a lifetime guarantee and sends you a location when the tag is scanned.
• ReturnTag: £1.98 a month with unlimited scans, or a £7.50 bundle with no monthly fee that includes the first scan, then £5.50 for each scan after that. Its page says the codes stop opening your contact details once you cancel (checked 5 November 2026).
• Crumb: the tag and a basic plan are free (PetTag vs Crumb). Its Premium plan, £6.95 a month or £5.80 a month paid yearly, adds things like vet and rescue centre alerts, location texts and phone number privacy.

A plan can be worth it for what it adds, so compare what you’d actually use. Over a ten-year life, £2.99 a month comes to about £359, and £5.80 a month (Crumb’s Premium, paid yearly) to about £696. Our side-by-side of the QR tags sold in the UK has the detail on each.

With a GPS tracker you’re paying for a mobile SIM and the servers behind the map, which genuinely cost money every month.

With a printed QR or NFC tag, you’re paying for a web page. That’s cheap to run, which is why several of the tags we compared, ours included, don’t charge for it. If a tag does charge monthly, check what you get for it that a free profile doesn’t.

1. Is the profile free for life, or free for a year?
2. What happens to the tag if you stop paying? Does it show a “renew” page to the person holding your lost pet?
3. Can you move the profile to a replacement tag, or do you start again?
4. Can you hide your phone number, or is it shown to everyone who scans?
5. Does the company sell or share your data?
6. How many taps does a finder need before they can reach you?

It’s the honest risk with any tag that points at a website, ours included: if the site goes, the code stops opening anything.

Two things make that survivable. Keep your microchip details up to date, because the microchip is the official record a vet or warden scans. And keep your name and address on the collar, which UK law already asks for on dogs. The tag is the fast route home; the chip and the engraving are the backstop.

If a tag comes free from an insurer, a food brand or a vet, check what happens to the profile behind it: whether it shows adverts, needs an upgrade, or charges to change your number later, and what happens after the first year. Read that before you rely on one.

£10 for one tag, £18 for two, £26 for three and £32 for four, with free UK delivery. The profile is free for life and there’s no subscription. Your phone number is hidden unless you choose to show it, and finders can still message you: that’s part of the tag, not a paid extra. If you want the detail, it’s all on the shop page, and how PetTag compares with other smart pet tags has a page of its own, as does a side-by-side of the QR tags sold in the UK.