Craft Price Calculator

This craft price calculator will help you determine how to price your handmade items.

Getting your prices right is essential to the success of your craft business. Too low and too high prices can cause you to lose sales and miss out on potential profits.

There are several pricing strategies you can use including cost-plus pricing, value-based pricing and competitive pricing. This calculator uses a formula that's based on cost-plus pricing.

The formula can help you understand your business-related expenses, how much you need to charge to just break even, and how much you need to charge to build a profitable business.

How to Use the Craft Price Calculator

Craft Pricing Formula

What to Input in the Calculator

You'll need to enter 4 numbers into the calculator:

Materials Cost

Materials cost is the total cost of all materials used to make the item.

Example: If you use $5 worth of materials to make your product, enter 5 into the materials cost box.

Labor Cost

Labor cost is the cost of labor needed to make the item.

Example: If your hourly labor rate is $20 per hour, and it takes 30 minutes to make your product, enter 10 into the labor cost box.

Overhead (%)

Overhead covers expenses that aren't accounted for in materials and labor costs. Use a percentage of material + labor costs to determine overhead. 10-15% will work in many situations, but you might go as high as 25%.

Example: If you'd like to add 10% for overhead, enter the number 10.

Check the detailed description of the craft pricing formula (link above) if you need help determining the percentage to use for overhead.

Profit (%)

Profit is calculated as a percentage of material + labor + overhead. There's no one right amount of profit to add. You'll need to experiment with this number to determine what works in your situation.

Example: If you'd like to add 20% for profit, enter the number 20.

Check the detailed description of the craft pricing formula (link above) if you need help determining the percentage to use for profit.

Understanding the Craft Price Calculator Results

Once you input materials cost, labor cost, overhead, and profit, click the "Calculate" button, and you'll see the following results:

Materials Cost: The amount you entered in the Materials Cost box.

Labor Cost: The amount you entered in the Labor Cost box.

Overhead Cost: The dollar value of overhead you added. For example, if your materials cost plus labor cost was $15, and you added 10% overhead, the result here would show $1.50.

Total Costs (Break Even Point): Materials cost plus labor cost plus overhead cost. This number is your break even point. For example, if material cost was $5, labor cost was $10, and overhead was $1.50, the total cost result would show $16.50.

Profit: The dollar value of the profit you added. For example, if your total costs were $16.50, and you added 20% overhead, the result here would show $3.30.

Wholesale Price: This is the price you would sell your item on a wholesale basis. It is calculated as total cost plus profit. For example, if total cost is $16.50, and profit is $3.30, the wholesale price will be $19.80.

Retail Price: This is the price you would sell your item to retail shoppers. It is calculated as wholesale price times 2. For example, if wholesale price is $19.80, the retail price will be $39.60.

Assess Your Results

The formula this calculator uses accounts for your costs, profit, and wholesale vs. retail prices. It does not account for the amount people will be willing to spend to buy your product.

That's where your judgment and market research come into play.

Determine whether the retail price you've calculated is within the market price for the crafts you make. if it isn't you'll need to make some adjustments. The detailed formula description page (link above) has some tips for doing that.

Craft Price Calculator

Try the craft pricing calculator yourself. Remember to refer back to the detailed description of the craft pricing formula if you need some help.