About the Craft Pricing Calculator
This craft pricing calculator turns what a handmade item costs you into a wholesale and a retail price. Enter your materials, the time it takes to make and your hourly wage, and a share of overhead such as tools, packaging and booth fees, and it applies the widely used handmade pricing formula: cost × 2 = wholesale, wholesale × 2 = retail.
It is for makers selling on Etsy, at craft fairs or to shops who keep underpricing their work. Paying yourself for your time is part of the cost, not the profit — the formula treats labor as a cost and then adds margin on top, so there is money left to grow the business, cover slow months and offer wholesale prices to stockists.
You can change both multipliers to suit your market and add a selling-fee percentage (marketplace, payment processing and listing fees) to see what you really keep from each retail sale. The results are a starting point; check them against comparable handmade items in your niche.
With the default inputs, the retail price is $54.00. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the craft pricing calculator
- 1Add up the materials that go into one item, including findings and packaging inserts.
- 2Time how long one item takes and set the hourly wage you want to earn.
- 3Estimate overhead per item: monthly business costs divided by items made per month.
- 4Keep the 2 × 2 multipliers or adjust them for your market.
- 5Enter your selling fees to see profit per sale and effective hourly earnings.
Formula and method
Your cost per item is the materials it uses, the time it takes priced at the hourly wage you want to earn, and a per-item share of overhead such as packaging, tools, equipment wear, studio rent and market fees. Labor is a cost because you would have to pay someone else to make the item if you did not.
The classic handmade pricing formula doubles cost to reach wholesale — the price a shop pays — and doubles wholesale to reach retail, because a shop needs that margin to cover its own costs. Selling fees are taken as a percentage of the retail price, and profit is what remains after fees and your full cost, including your wage.
- Materials
- Cost of supplies used in one item
- Wage
- Hourly rate you want to pay yourself
- Overhead
- Per-item share of indirect business costs
- Fees
- Selling fees as a share of the retail price
Worked examples
Default: $5 materials, 30 minutes at $15/hour
Labor is 0.5 h × $15 = $7.50, so cost is $5 + $7.50 + $1 = $13.50. Doubling gives a $27 wholesale price and doubling again a $54 retail price. Fees of 8% take $4.32, leaving $36.18 profit — 67% of the price — on top of your wage.
Knitted hat with a gentler retail multiplier
Three hours at $18 is $54 of labor, so cost is $12 + $54 + $2 = $68. A 1.5× wholesale multiplier gives $102, and keystone retail gives $204. After 10% fees ($20.40) you keep $115.60 above cost.
Low-margin check: selling direct at 1.5 × cost
Cost is $8 + 0.75 h × $16 + $1.50 = $21.50. Pricing at 1.5 × cost gives $32.25; 12% fees take $3.87, leaving only $6.88 profit — about 21% of the price, with no room to sell wholesale.
Frequently asked questions
What is the formula for pricing handmade items?+
The most common formula is (materials + labor + overhead) × 2 = wholesale price, and wholesale × 2 = retail price. Labor is your time multiplied by an hourly wage, so you are paid for your work before any profit is counted.
How much should I pay myself per hour for crafts?+
Choose a wage you would accept for skilled work — at least your local minimum wage, and more for specialised skills. Underpaying yourself makes the business impossible to grow or hand off, and makes wholesale pricing unworkable.
What counts as overhead for a craft business?+
Overhead is anything you spend that is not in the item itself: tools and equipment, packaging, photography, website and listing costs, studio rent, market booth fees, insurance and shipping supplies. Divide a month’s overhead by items made that month.
Why should the retail price be double the wholesale price?+
Shops typically double the wholesale price (keystone pricing) to cover rent, staff and their own profit. If your retail price is lower than twice wholesale, you undercut the stores that stock you and they may stop ordering.
Should I include Etsy or marketplace fees in my price?+
Yes. Listing, transaction and payment-processing fees are a percentage of each sale and can total roughly 6–15% depending on the platform and payment method. Enter them as selling fees to see the profit you actually keep.
Results are estimates for educational purposes and are not financial advice. Rates, fees and terms vary — confirm with your lender or a licensed advisor before making decisions.