Tools / Craft pricing calculator
Craft pricing calculator
Work out what to charge for something you make by hand: candles, crochet, jewellery, quilts, prints or anything else. It counts your materials, your time and your overheads, then adds selling fees and profit. Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere.
Everything that goes into one, including packaging.
Making, finishing and packing one.
What your time is worth to you.
Tools, software, studio space, insurance.
How many you make and sell.
Marketplace and payment fees, as a share of the price.
What the business keeps, as a share of the price.
Charge at least
$37.14 each
Each one costs you $26 to make, counting your time. Round it up to $38 for the price tag.
At this price your time earns $29.90 an hour: your $20 rate plus the profit.
Selling to shops: many double the wholesale price, so they would buy at $18.57, below your $26 cost. To keep the same profit share wholesale, you would need $32.50, and a shop price of $65.
The handmade pricing formula
Cost per item = materials + (hours × hourly rate) + (monthly overheads ÷ items a month)
Price = cost per item ÷ (1 − fees % − profit %)
Take a pair of beaded earrings. The beads, hooks and card cost $6, and each pair takes 45 minutes to make and pack. You value your time at $20 an hour, spend $200 a month on tools and your shop, and sell about 40 pairs a month.
- Your time: 0.75 hours × $20 = $15.
- Overheads: $200 ÷ 40 = $5 a pair.
- Cost per pair: $6 + $15 + $5 = $26.
- With 10% selling fees and 20% profit: $26 ÷ (1 − 0.10 − 0.20) = $37.14, so $38 on the price tag.
Dividing by what is left after fees and profit makes both percentages come out right at the till. Adding 30% to the cost instead would give $33.80, and after 10% fees that leaves less profit than you planned.
Counting your time
Time is the easiest cost to leave out of a price, and for slow work it can be most of it. Time yourself making a real piece from start to finish, including finishing, photographing and packing, and use that number.
The calculator also works backwards: it shows what your time earns at the price. In the earrings example that is $29.90 an hour, the $20 rate plus the profit spread over 45 minutes.
Selling fees and Etsy
Marketplaces and payment providers take a percentage of each sale. Add those percentages together, such as a marketplace transaction fee and a payment processing fee, and put the total in the selling fees box. Fees change, so check the platform’s current fee page. Flat fees, such as a charge per listing, belong in your monthly overheads.
Wholesale and keystone pricing
Many shops use keystone pricing: they buy from you at a wholesale price and sell at double it. If you set your price for selling direct, a shop would expect to buy at half of it.
In the earrings example, half of $37.14 is $18.57, which is below the $26 cost. To keep a 20% profit share when selling wholesale, the earrings need a wholesale price of $32.50, and a shop would sell them for $65. The calculator runs this check for your numbers.
Whether people will pay your price
The calculator gives the lowest price that covers your costs. Whether people will pay it, and how many a month, decides whether making these can become a business.
Draper helps you find out. It starts with whether people want what you make and who they are, then works through the plan, the brand, the product and the website with you, and later helps you put it in front of real people. Copy your pricing with the button above and paste it in, and Draper builds it into its analysis of your idea.
Once you have a price, the profit calculator shows what a month of sales leaves you, and the break-even calculator shows how many you need to sell to cover your costs.
Pricing handmade items: questions
Add up what one item costs you: materials, your time at an hourly rate and a share of monthly overheads. Then divide by what is left after fees and profit: price = cost ÷ (1 − fees % − profit %). With a $26 cost, 10% selling fees and 20% profit, that is $26 ÷ 0.7 = $37.14.
Yes. A price that only covers materials means the business depends on you working for nothing, and it cannot grow past the hours you are willing to give away. Putting an hourly rate into the cost means the price pays for the work as well as the materials.
Use the amount you would want to be paid for the work if someone else were doing it for you. A useful floor is what you could earn for the same hours elsewhere. On top of that rate, the profit share is what the business keeps.
Add up the percentage fees taken on each sale, such as Etsy’s transaction fee and payment processing fee, and include the total as the selling fees share of the price. Platforms change their fees, so check the current figures on their fee page. Flat fees, such as a charge per listing, go into your monthly overheads.
Keystone pricing is when a shop sells an item for double what it paid the maker. A shop buying at $20 wholesale would price it at $40. For makers, it means the wholesale price has to cover your cost and profit, and your own retail price should be about double that so you are not undercutting the shops that stock you.
Price art the same way as other handmade work: materials, time at an hourly rate and a share of overheads, plus fees and profit. Many artists also use a consistent rate by size, such as a price per square inch, so similar pieces sell at similar prices. Keep prices the same wherever you sell, and raise them as demand grows.
Use the same formula as any handmade item. For slow work like crochet and quilting, time is often most of the cost, so time yourself making a real piece. For jewellery, materials can vary a lot between pieces, so price each design on its own materials.
On marketplaces such as Etsy and Amazon Handmade, on your own website, at craft fairs and markets, through local shops on wholesale or consignment, and on social media. Marketplaces bring buyers and take a fee on each sale; your own website keeps more of each sale, but you have to bring the visitors.
Etsy does not ask for a business licence when you open a shop, but where you live might require one. Rules depend on your city, state or country, and can also cover working from home, collecting sales tax and selling regulated items such as food or cosmetics. Check with your local council or your city and state business office before you sell regularly.
Put it in front of people who don’t know you and see whether they pay. Friends and family are kind, so their interest proves little. Draper, a start-a-business app, works through this with you in order: whether people want the product and who they are, then the plan, brand, product and website, and later putting it in front of real people.
Once you’ve landed on an idea, Draper works with you to turn it into a real thing.
It checks the idea holds up, designs the brand, builds the website and gets it in front of real people.