# How Much to Spend on Client Gifts: Survey Medians, What Each Budget Buys Delivered, and a Budget Worksheet

Two surveys put the median client gift at $24 (ASI, 2017) and $30 (business.com, 2022), and research finds recipients' appreciation isn't linked to price. Budget per client and per tier, count shipping inside each figure, and know that the IRS caps the deduction at $25 per person.

*We sell a $35 logo mug gift box, printed, packed and shipped to each person's address. This guide covers the other options too.*

**Key facts**
- **$24 median per client gift in 2017:** "Those companies are spending a median of $24" ([ASI](https://members.asicentral.com/news/newsletters/promogram/october-2017/corporate-holiday-gift-giving-could-slow-this-year-asi-study-shows/), a promotional-products trade-group survey).
- **$30 median in 2022:** "The median amount companies spend on each gift is just $30", while "clients expect to receive gifts valued at $100" ([business.com](https://www.business.com/customers/corporate-gift-study), an online poll of 1,547 professionals).
- **$48 average in 2018:** in ASI's survey of 552 companies, those giving to customers or prospects "will spend $48 on each" ([ASI](https://asicentral.com/press-releases/nationwide-asi-survey-says-more-companies-giving-corporate-gifts-this-season/)).
- **Price doesn't buy appreciation:** givers expect pricier gifts to be appreciated more; recipients' appreciation isn't linked to price ([Flynn & Adams, 2009](https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/money-cant-buy-love-asymmetric-beliefs-about-link-between-gift-price)).
- **$25 per person per tax year** is the most a business can deduct for business gifts ([IRS Publication 463](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463)).

Part of our [client holiday gifts playbook](https://personalizedgiftsdelivered.com/client-gifts).

## How Much Do Businesses Spend Per Client Gift?

Every survey here comes from an organization with an interest in gifting, none is a controlled study, and we found no neutral 2025–2026 survey of small-business client-gift spending.

| Survey | Who ran it | When | What it found |
|---|---|---|---|
| [ASI corporate gift survey](https://members.asicentral.com/news/newsletters/promogram/october-2017/corporate-holiday-gift-giving-could-slow-this-year-asi-study-shows/) | Advertising Specialty Institute, the promotional-products trade group | Oct 2017 | 32% of companies planned customer gifts; median **$24** |
| [ASI Corporate Gift Spending Survey](https://asicentral.com/press-releases/nationwide-asi-survey-says-more-companies-giving-corporate-gifts-this-season/) | ASI, 552 companies | Oct 2018 | Average **$48** per customer or prospect |
| [business.com Corporate Gift Study](https://www.business.com/customers/corporate-gift-study) | business.com, a publisher; online poll of 1,547 professionals | Oct 2022 | Median **$30** per gift; clients expect gifts "valued at $100" |

Two cautions. A median and an average aren't the same measure, so $24 and $48 don't show a trend. And the 2022 gap between what's spent ($30) and what clients say they expect ($100) is a survey answer, not proof that $100 gifts work better (next section).

What owners say on Reddit shows how real budgets are built. A common pattern is tiers:

| Who | What they said | Thread |
|---|---|---|
| An r/CFP commenter | "$150 gift baskets for top households, $50ish gift baskets (brownies) to my top 60 households." | [r/CFP, 2025](https://www.reddit.com/r/CFP/comments/1p1gvwf/) |
| Another r/CFP commenter, gifting the whole book | "typically spend 10ish gift, card & postage all in close to 20" | [r/CFP, 2025](https://www.reddit.com/r/CFP/comments/1p1gvwf/) |
| An outside industrial sales rep | "I usually have a $500ish limit and I tend to give to my top 8-10 customers." | [r/sales, 2024](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1ga9rg9/) |
| A commenter, on who qualifies | "My cut point is $25K a year. If you spend at least 25K I get the client a gift." | [r/smallbusiness, 2023](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/12l1jz1/) |

## Does Spending More Make Clients More Grateful?

Not in the research. In Flynn and Adams's studies, givers expected more expensive gifts to be more appreciated, but recipients' appreciation wasn't linked to the price ([Stanford GSB, 2009](https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/money-cant-buy-love-asymmetric-beliefs-about-link-between-gift-price)). Recipients also weight how practical a gift is more than givers do ([Baskin et al., 2014](https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/study-explains-pitfalls-in-gift-giving)).

Waste is a bigger risk than a small budget: in business.com's 2022 poll, "54 percent of those who receive corporate gifts said they have thrown away at least one gift". A rep on r/sales: "A $40 personal gift will go a lot further than a $500 "impressive" gift 100% of the time" ([r/sales](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/snixs7/)).

So the budget question is less "how much" than "for whom, and on what": a modest gift people use, sent to the clients who matter most, with a note that sounds like you.

## What Each Budget Buys Once Shipping Is In

Plan every figure as a **delivered** cost: the gift, its packing and the postage to that client's door. In a Reddit thread on client and employee gifts, one commenter asked: "that $25 budget gets so difficult when you have to factor in shipping - is that included in the budget?" Another reply in the same thread: "At that budget tho dont try to make a set of things bc each item ends up feeling cheap. Better to pick ONE solid thing" ([r/GiftIdeas, 2025](https://www.reddit.com/r/GiftIdeas/comments/1pgwfgj/)).

| Delivered budget per client (our bands) | What owners describe at this level | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Under $25 | "typically spend 10ish gift, card & postage all in close to 20"; "Better to pick ONE solid thing" | Postage takes a big share of a small budget; a set of small things can feel cheap |
| $25–$40 | "A $40 personal gift will go a lot further than a $500 "impressive" gift" (a sales rep) | The IRS $25 deduction line and recipients' gift limits (both quoted below) |
| About $50 | "$50ish gift baskets (brownies) to my top 60 households" | Some company policies cap staff gifts at $25, $50 or $100 |
| $75–$150 | "$150 gift baskets for top households" | Recipient caps; and price doesn't buy extra appreciation |

At $35 delivered, Personalized Gifts Delivered makes [a logo mug gift box with Ghirardelli cocoa, Lindt truffles and a personal card](https://personalizedgiftsdelivered.com/custom-logo-mug-gift-box): an 11 oz white ceramic mug with your logo printed small, a 1.5 oz packet of Ghirardelli premium hot cocoa, 4 Lindt LINDOR milk chocolate truffles and your printed message in a sealed envelope, in a matte-black gift box with a magnetic lid. The price is $35 per box, delivered, whether you send 1 or 50, and each box ships to its own address.

## A Client Gift Budget Worksheet

The calculation is one line per tier: **clients in the tier × delivered price per client = tier budget.** Add the tiers. Start from these ranges, which are our suggestion, not survey figures:

| Tier | Who (our suggestion) | Delivered price per client (our suggestion) |
|---|---|---|
| A: top accounts | Your top tenth or so by revenue, referrals or years together | $25–$100 |
| B: steady clients | Repeat clients you want to keep | Up to $25 |
| C: everyone else | One-time clients, small accounts, prospects | Under $5 (a card), or tier A's gift for everyone (below) |

**A worked example** (the numbers are illustrations, not recommendations): a firm with 120 clients.

| Tier | Clients | Price per client | Tier budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 12 | $50 | $600 |
| B | 30 | $20 | $600 |
| C | 78 | $3 | $234 |
| **Total** | **120** | | **$1,434** |

Or include everyone. With no minimum, a gift for every client costs the list size × the delivered price: with Personalized Gifts Delivered at $35 delivered, all 120 clients come to $4,200, and a list of 40 to $1,400.

Three checks before you lock it in:
1. **Shipping:** is every price delivered, or does postage come on top?
2. **Gift rules:** flag federal employees, companies with gift policies and regulated trades; their rules are quoted in the next sections.
3. **Next year:** keep the list. Who replied, renewed or referred someone is how tier A changes. Our guide to [which clients get a gift](https://personalizedgiftsdelivered.com/client-gifts/which-clients-get-a-gift) has the full sorting method.

## Can You Make Tier A's Gift Boxes Yourself?

Yes: you can make them yourself, and per box the money comes out about even. Priced from retail supply packs, 25 logo mug gift boxes come to about $38 a box with USPS counter postage and about $34 with commercial postage, against our $35 delivered. You pay $1,192.84 up front for the mugs, the supply packs and 25 postage labels, with leftovers ([DIY vs ordering](https://personalizedgiftsdelivered.com/compare/diy-mug-gift-box-vs-ordering), as of Oct 29, 2026). Your time comes on top. By our estimate, 25 boxes take about 9 hours of hands-on work, plus a week or more waiting for supplies:

| Step | Our estimate, 25 boxes |
|---|---|
| Find a mug printer, compare minimums, upload the logo, approve a proof | about 1 hour |
| Order gift boxes, tissue, seal stickers, cards and envelopes, foam, cartons, crinkle, cocoa and truffles (about 8 orders) | about 1 hour |
| Clean up the address list and buy 25 shipping labels | about 1½ hours |
| Write or print 25 cards | about 45 minutes |
| Pack 25 boxes, about 8 minutes each | about 3½ hours |
| Drop off the cartons, then follow 25 tracking numbers | about 1 hour |

One slip costs a second round: a mug packed without a collar can break at the handle and must be bought, packed and shipped again; a stale address sends a box away and back; a typo on 25 printed cards means printing 25 again. For the budget, tier A's line comes out about the same either way. The difference is the work in the table above: with Personalized Gifts Delivered, the printing, packing, labels and tracking are ours.

## Where the IRS $25 Line Sits

The $25 figure is a cap on the deduction, not on the gift:

> "You can deduct no more than $25 for business gifts you give directly or indirectly to each person during your tax year."
>
> "Incidental costs, such as engraving on jewelry, or packaging, insuring, and mailing, are generally not included in determining the cost of a gift for purposes of the $25 limit. A cost is incidental only if it doesn't add substantial value to the gift. For example, the cost of gift wrapping is an incidental cost. However, the purchase of an ornamental basket for packaging fruit isn't an incidental cost if the value of the basket is substantial compared to the value of the fruit."
>
> [IRS Publication 463](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463), ch. 3 "Gifts", for use in preparing 2025 returns. Read October 29, 2026.

Full walk-through of the rule: [are client gifts tax deductible?](https://personalizedgiftsdelivered.com/gift-rules/are-client-gifts-tax-deductible)

This is information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rule (or ask your tax professional) before you send.

## Can Your Client Accept a Gift at That Price?

Some recipients can accept only a small gift, or none. A federal employee may accept "unsolicited gifts having an aggregate market value of $20 or less per source per occasion" ([5 CFR 2635.204(a)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/section-2635.204)). In a 2013 survey by SAI Global, a compliance-software company, reported by [Ogletree (2014)](https://ogletree.com/insights/2014-12-11/yule-time-tips-part-iii-holiday-gifts-under-increasing-scrutiny), 35 percent of companies required gifts to be modest, "defined as under $25". Insurance, mortgage and securities have rules of their own: see [client gift limits by industry](https://personalizedgiftsdelivered.com/gift-rules/client-gift-limits-by-industry).

This is information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rule (or check with the recipient's agency ethics official or your compliance officer) before you send.

## What to know before you order

- **One price, all in.** $35 per box, delivered, whether you send 1 or 50: no minimum, no setup fee and no sales tax added at checkout.
- **Gift limits.** Federal employees, staff at companies with a gift policy and clients in some regulated trades have limits of their own, quoted above and in [client gift limits by industry](https://personalizedgiftsdelivered.com/gift-rules/client-gift-limits-by-industry). Our price is $35 per box, delivered.
- **Where we ship.** The lower 48 states and Washington, DC, except Texas for now. We don't ship to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, APO/FPO addresses or other countries. The order page flags any row we can't ship to, so you can fix it or take it out.
- **The treats.** LINDOR truffles contain milk, soy and barley malt (gluten); read the labels. The [allergy and diet checklist](https://personalizedgiftsdelivered.com/client-gifts/food-allergy-gift-checklist) covers what to ask a client first.

## Where Personalized Gifts Delivered Fits in a Client Gift Budget

A budget holds when every line is a delivered cost, and Personalized Gifts Delivered's line is one number. $35 per box covers the 11 oz mug with your logo printed small, the Ghirardelli cocoa and 4 Lindt LINDOR milk chocolate truffles packed inside it, black tissue closed with a gold seal, your printed card in a sealed envelope, a matte-black gift box with a magnetic lid, the foam, the carton and shipping to each client's own address. With Personalized Gifts Delivered in tier A, that tier's line is the number of clients × $35, with nothing added at checkout.

The order takes the printing, packing, labels and tracking off your plate. Add your logo (or type your website and we'll find it), or a photo or a few words for a personal gift; check the preview of your mug and card; add your address list; and pay $35 per box. We print, pack and ship each box to its own address. You see every client's card before you pay, each greeting its client by first name, and when the boxes ship you get one email with a spreadsheet of recipient, ship date, carrier, tracking number and $35 per box: an itemized record for your expense file and the starting point for next year's tier A.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much should a small business spend per client on holiday gifts?

The median client holiday gift is $24 in a 2017 survey by ASI, the promotional-products trade group, and $30 in business.com's 2022 online poll; ASI's 2018 survey found an average of $48 per customer or prospect. A common pattern is to spend more on a small top tier.

### Do more expensive gifts make clients more grateful?

More expensive gifts don't make clients much more grateful: givers expect pricier gifts to be appreciated more, but recipients' appreciation is not linked to price (Flynn & Adams, 2009). Recipients also weight how practical a gift is more than givers do (Baskin et al., 2014).

### Should the gift budget include shipping?

Yes, plan in delivered cost. A commenter in a Reddit thread on client and employee gifts put it this way: "that $25 budget gets so difficult when you have to factor in shipping". Ask every vendor whether its price includes delivery.

### Is the IRS $25 limit a cap on what I can spend?

IRS Publication 463 says "You can deduct no more than $25 for business gifts you give directly or indirectly to each person during your tax year," so the limit caps the deduction, not the gift. Ask your tax professional how it applies to you.

### How many clients should get a gift?

A common pattern is a gift for a small top tier. One commenter in r/Accounting: "We send all clients a holiday card and about 10% get a treat as well." Including everyone is arithmetic: with Personalized Gifts Delivered's no minimum and $35 delivered per box, 40 clients come to $1,400.

### Is it cheaper to make client gift boxes yourself?

Per box, it comes out about even: 25 DIY logo mug gift boxes come to about $38 each with USPS counter postage and about $34 with commercial postage, against Personalized Gifts Delivered's $35 delivered (as of Oct 29, 2026). DIY comes with $1,192.84 paid up front for the mugs, supply packs and postage labels, and by our estimate about 9 hours of hands-on work.

## Sources

1. ASI, ["Corporate holiday gift-giving could slow this year, ASI study shows"](https://members.asicentral.com/news/newsletters/promogram/october-2017/corporate-holiday-gift-giving-could-slow-this-year-asi-study-shows/), October 26, 2017.
2. ASI, ["Nationwide ASI survey says more companies giving corporate gifts this season"](https://asicentral.com/press-releases/nationwide-asi-survey-says-more-companies-giving-corporate-gifts-this-season/), November 27, 2018.
3. business.com, [Corporate Gift Study](https://www.business.com/customers/corporate-gift-study) (online poll, October 2022).
4. Flynn & Adams (2009), ["Money can't buy love"](https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/money-cant-buy-love-asymmetric-beliefs-about-link-between-gift-price), *Journal of Experimental Social Psychology* (Stanford GSB).
5. Baskin, Wakslak, Trope & Novemsky (2014), via [Yale Insights](https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/study-explains-pitfalls-in-gift-giving).
6. IRS, [Publication 463](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463), for use in preparing 2025 returns. Read October 29, 2026.
7. eCFR, [5 CFR 2635.204](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/section-2635.204). Read October 29, 2026.
8. Ogletree, [holiday gifts under increasing scrutiny](https://ogletree.com/insights/2014-12-11/yule-time-tips-part-iii-holiday-gifts-under-increasing-scrutiny) (2014, reporting a 2013 survey by SAI Global, a compliance-software company).
9. Reddit threads quoted: [r/CFP 1p1gvwf](https://www.reddit.com/r/CFP/comments/1p1gvwf/), [r/sales 1ga9rg9](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1ga9rg9/), [r/smallbusiness 12l1jz1](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/12l1jz1/), [r/sales snixs7](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/snixs7/), [r/GiftIdeas 1pgwfgj](https://www.reddit.com/r/GiftIdeas/comments/1pgwfgj/), [r/Accounting 1m1giwr](https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/1m1giwr/). Each quote checked word for word against the Arctic Shift archive, October 29, 2026.
10. Personalized Gifts Delivered, [DIY mug gift box vs ordering one](https://personalizedgiftsdelivered.com/compare/diy-mug-gift-box-vs-ordering): retail prices for the supplies and postage, as of Oct 29, 2026.