Standard vs Car vs Business Card Magnets Compared
Three magnet products, two stocks, and one line that decides which you order. Here are the sizes, the prices, the surfaces each one grips, and the limit that sends people back to reprint.
Print car magnets when the magnet goes on a vehicle, business card magnets when it goes on a fridge at wallet size, and standard magnets for everything in between up to 5 by 7 inches. The dividing line is the stock: car magnets use 30mil outdoor magnet under a Hi-Gloss UV coating and start at $47.50 a pair, while standard and business card magnets share 17pt or 35pt indoor magnet and start at $19.68. Thickness is not the test, because 35pt indoor is thicker than 30mil outdoor and still comes off a moving door.
Quick answer
Two indoor stocks, one outdoor stock, and the size list
Standard magnets and business card magnets are the same material in different size ranges, and car magnets are a different material entirely. Both indoor products run 17pt or 35pt magnet with a UV coating, five sizes from 2 by 3.5 inches to 5 by 7 inches, from $19.68. Car magnets run 30mil outdoor magnet with a Hi-Gloss UV coating, 18 sizes from 9 by 9 inches to 24 by 36 inches, from $47.50 a pair. Every one of them prints on the front only, because the back is the magnet.
What Actually Separates the Three Magnets
Three product names, two stocks, one decision. Standard magnets and business card magnets share the same 17pt and 35pt indoor magnet and the same $19.68 entry price. Car magnets sit on their own, on 30mil outdoor magnet under a Hi-Gloss UV coating, starting at $47.50 for a pair.
| Magnet | Stock | Sizes | Starts at | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard magnets | 17pt or 35pt indoor magnet, UV coating | 5 sizes, 2 x 3.5 in up to 5 x 7 in | $19.68 | Fridges, filing cabinets, lockers, tool chests. Anything indoors and steel. |
| Business card magnets | 17pt or 35pt indoor magnet, UV coating | 5 sizes built around the 2 x 3.5 in wallet shape | $19.68 per set of 25 | Handed over after a service call, straight onto the customer's fridge. |
| Car magnets | 30mil outdoor magnet, Hi-Gloss UV coating | 18 sizes, 9 x 9 in up to 24 x 36 in | $47.50 per pair | Steel doors, truck sides and tailgates, on and off in seconds. |
Read the stock column first and the rest falls into place. Everything else, the turnaround options, the full color printing, the UV coating, is common to all three. The two indoor products are close enough that the honest way to choose between them is by size, which the next section covers, and the car magnet is a different animal that only looks similar because it is also flat and also magnetic.
If you want to see the whole family on one page before you commit to a format, the magnet printing collection lists every size and stock we run.
Car Magnets Are the Only One Rated for a Vehicle
People try the indoor magnet on a car roughly once. It holds in the driveway, it holds through the first few blocks, and then it lifts at a corner and goes under someone else's wheels. The failure is not thickness. A 35pt indoor magnet measures 0.035 inches, thicker than the 0.030 inch car stock, and it still comes off.
What the 30mil outdoor magnet has is a stronger magnetic pull per square inch and a coating built for weather. That is also why the smallest car magnet is 9 by 9 inches rather than something card sized: below a certain area there is simply not enough grip holding the sheet against the air trying to peel it. From there the sizes climb through 18 options to a 24 by 36 inch panel that covers most of a van's side door.
Three things decide whether a car magnet works on your vehicle. The panel has to be steel, so test it with a fridge magnet first, because aluminum doors and plastic bumpers hold nothing. The panel has to be reasonably flat, since a magnet bridges a body crease instead of following it and the gap becomes the lifting point. And the panel has to be clean and dry underneath, or trapped grit works at the paint every time the car moves.
Car magnets ship in pairs, print full color on both sheets, run a 4 business day standard turnaround with rush down to same day, and take optional rounded 1 inch corners plus a free online proof. Rounded corners are worth the click: a square corner is the first part to catch air and the first part a car wash grabs. For layout and legibility at road distance, our guide on designing car magnets that read from a lane away covers type size and contrast, and car decals versus magnets versus bumper stickers is the page to read if your panel failed the magnet test.
Standard Magnets and Business Card Magnets Overlap on Purpose
These two are close enough that a printer will tell you plainly: order whichever one the size list makes easiest. Both run 17pt or 35pt indoor magnet, both finish with a UV coating, both print 4/0 full color or 1/0 black, both start at $19.68, and both offer the same five sizes from 2 by 3.5 inches up to 5 by 7 inches, with a made-to-order custom size available inside that range.
The difference is intent, and it shows up in what the configurator puts in front of you. Business card magnets are built around the wallet shape and priced in sets of 25, which is the batch a service business hands out over a few weeks. Standard magnets lead with the larger formats, because a 4 by 6 inch or 5 by 7 inch magnet is what you reach for when the piece carries a calendar, a coupon block or an emergency number list.
Pick the stock by size, not by budget. At 2 by 3.5 inches the 17pt sits flat and behaves. At 5 by 7 inches the thin stock starts to bow away from the middle once it has been stacked in a box or run through the mail, and the 35pt is the one that lands looking like a finished product. The step up costs little and it is the single upgrade that changes how the piece feels in a hand.
One limit applies to both, and it decides more layouts than anything else: the back is the magnet, so there is no second side. Everything lives on one face. Name, number, logo, one instruction. If your list of services will not fit, hand over standard business cards alongside the magnet rather than shrinking the type until nobody reads it. Setting the file up is straightforward, and there are correctly sized layouts waiting in the blank template library along with the step by step in how to make custom magnets.
The Verdict, by Job
Once the stock question is settled, the rest follows.
- Your name needs to ride on a vehicle. Car magnets, no alternative. Test the panel with a fridge magnet, order a pair at 9 by 9 inches or larger, take the rounded corners.
- You hand cards to customers in their homes. Business card magnets at 2 by 3.5 inches on 35pt. Plumbers, locksmiths, HVAC techs and vets get more callbacks from a fridge than from a drawer.
- The piece carries a calendar, a coupon or a schedule. Standard magnets at 4 by 6 inches or 5 by 7 inches. You need the room, and the larger sizes are what the standard product is built around.
- It goes in the mail with a date on it. Save the date magnets, priced by the square inch with a custom size up to 11 by 17 inches for anything oversized.
- It has to be permanent, or it has to be cheap in the thousands. Not a magnet at all. Read magnets versus stickers before you spend, because a sticker wins outright on cost per piece and loses outright on reuse.
The one genuine mistake to avoid is treating thickness as the safety rating. A 35pt indoor magnet feels substantial in the hand and is still an indoor product. If the piece is going outdoors on something that moves, the 30mil outdoor stock is not a preference, it is the requirement.
Wally sorts the magnets
One question: is it going on a vehicle?
Wally checks the panel with a fridge magnet first, because aluminum doors and plastic bumpers hold nothing at all. If it passes and the piece is going on the road, he reaches for 30mil outdoor stock with the Hi-Gloss UV seal and orders a pair. If it is staying indoors, he picks 17pt for a wallet-size card magnet and 35pt for anything up to 5 by 7 inches, because thin stock bows in the middle once the sheet gets big. And he never plans a second side. The back is the magnet.
Order car magnets →Specs and pricing
All three magnets, sizes and starting prices
Standard, car and business card magnets side by side, with the live stock, size and turnaround choices straight from the 4OVER4.COM configurator.
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Car magnets, fridge magnets and card magnets
Common Questions
Your magnet questions, answered
Can I put an indoor magnet on my car?
It will hold in a parking space and it will not hold on the road. The 17pt and 35pt indoor stocks used for standard and business card magnets are made to sit on a fridge or a filing cabinet, where nothing pulls at the edge. On a moving panel, air gets under the leading edge and lifts it, and the indoor UV coating is not built for months of sun and rain. Car magnets print on 30mil outdoor magnet with a Hi-Gloss UV coating for exactly that reason, and the size range starts at 9 by 9 inches because a small sheet has too little grip area to fight the wind.
Will a car magnet stick to an aluminum or plastic panel?
No. A magnet only grips ferrous steel, so aluminum doors, plastic bumpers, fiberglass panels and composite tailgates hold nothing at all. Check the panel with a fridge magnet before you order, because plenty of current trucks and vans use aluminum or plastic on the exact door you were planning to use. If the panel fails the test, a printed vinyl decal or a set of bumper stickers is the route, and our comparison of car decals, car magnets and bumper stickers walks through which one suits which vehicle.
What is the real difference between 17pt and 35pt magnet stock?
Thickness and stiffness, which together change the hold. The 35pt magnet is roughly twice as thick as the 17pt, so it lies flatter, resists curling at the corners, and pulls harder against a steel surface. On a small 2 by 3.5 inch magnet the 17pt is perfectly stable. On a 5 by 7 inch magnet, or on anything that gets handled and stacked in a mailer, the 35pt is worth the step up because the bigger the sheet, the more a thin magnet wants to bow away from the middle.
Can you print on both sides of a magnet?
No, and this catches people who are used to business cards. Printing is 4/0 full color or 1/0 black on the front only, because the back of the sheet is the magnetized face. That is why a magnet works well for a name, a number, a logo, a date and one clear call to action, and badly for a service list plus a map plus hours. Put the second side on a paper card and hand both over together.
How many do I have to order?
Indoor magnets sell in sets, with 25 as the entry batch at $19.68 and tiers running up to 25,000 where the per-magnet cost drops hard. Car magnets work differently: they sell in pairs, one for each side of the vehicle, and a pair of the smallest 9 by 9 inch size starts at $47.50. The price on a car magnet tracks the square inches, so a jump from a door-sized sheet to a full tailgate panel costs noticeably more even though the count has not changed.
Do car magnets damage paint?
The magnet itself does not, but leaving it on for months can mark the panel. Grit and water get trapped under the sheet and act like a fine abrasive whenever the car moves, and the paint under a permanently fixed magnet keeps its color while the paint around it fades in the sun. The fix takes two minutes: pull the magnets off regularly, wipe the panel and the back of the magnet dry, and put them back on clean. Removable is the whole point of the format, so use it.
Which magnet suits a save the date?
The save the date magnet, which is the same indoor stock in a mailing-friendly set of four sizes from 2 by 3.5 inches up to 5 by 7 inches, plus a custom size that goes as large as 11 by 17 inches. It starts at $19.68 for a batch of 25 and is priced by the square inch, so a large guest list costs far less per magnet than a test batch. Standard magnets cover the same ground, but the save the date product carries the sizes couples actually order.
Get Started
Choose 17pt or 35pt magnet stock in the configurator
Pick indoor 17pt or 35pt for the fridge, 30mil outdoor for the truck door, set your size, and we print it full color with a protective UV coating.
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