About the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Calculator
This Van Westendorp calculator analyses a Price Sensitivity Meter (PSM) survey. Each respondent answers four questions about a product: at what price is it so cheap you would doubt its quality (too cheap), a bargain (cheap), getting expensive but still worth considering (expensive), and so expensive you would not consider it (too expensive). Paste each set of answers and the calculator builds the four cumulative curves and finds where they cross.
The result is the point of marginal cheapness (PMC) and point of marginal expensiveness (PME), which bound the acceptable price range, plus the optimal price point (OPP) where equal shares find the product too cheap and too expensive, and the indifference price point (IPP) where equal shares call it cheap and expensive. It is used by product managers, founders and researchers pricing a new product, a SaaS plan or a premium tier.
When answers are pasted in the same respondent order, inconsistent respondents (for example, a “too cheap” price above their “too expensive” price) can be removed automatically. Van Westendorp measures perceived value, not purchase intent, so treat the range as a starting point to test, ideally with 100 or more respondents.
With the default inputs, the optimal price point (opp) is $16.00. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the van westendorp price sensitivity calculator
- 1Survey your audience with the four Van Westendorp price questions.
- 2Paste each question’s answers into its box, one price per respondent.
- 3Keep the lists in the same respondent order to remove illogical answers.
- 4Read the optimal and indifference price points and the acceptable range.
- 5Use the curves and table to see how acceptance changes across prices.
Formula and method
For every price that appears in the answers, the calculator works out the share of respondents who would call that price too cheap or cheap (they named that price or higher), and the share who would call it expensive or too expensive (they named that price or lower). The “too cheap” and “cheap” curves fall as price rises, while the “expensive” curves rise.
Each price point is where two curves cross, found by linear interpolation between neighbouring prices. PMC and PME use the “not cheap” (1 − cheap) and “not expensive” (1 − expensive) curves, following the common formulation of Van Westendorp’s 1976 method; some practitioners use cheap and expensive directly, which gives a slightly different range.
- OPP
- Optimal price point — fewest people reject the price
- IPP
- Indifference price point — as many call it cheap as expensive
- PMC
- Point of marginal cheapness — lower bound of acceptable prices
- PME
- Point of marginal expensiveness — upper bound of acceptable prices
Worked examples
15 respondents pricing a software add-on
The too-cheap and too-expensive curves meet at $16, the optimal price point. Cheap and expensive cross at $23.50, the indifference price. The acceptable range runs from the point of marginal cheapness at $12.80 to the point of marginal expensiveness at about $38.67, so a price in the high teens to low twenties meets the least resistance.
Small survey with one illogical respondent
The fifth respondent’s answers fall in the wrong order ($40 too cheap but $20 too expensive), so they are removed, leaving four. The remaining curves give an optimal price of $22, an indifference price of $35 and an acceptable range of $21 to $50.
Frequently asked questions
What are the four Van Westendorp questions?+
At what price would this be so expensive you would not consider it? At what price would you consider it expensive but still consider buying? At what price would it be a bargain? At what price would it be so cheap you would doubt its quality?
What is the optimal price point in Van Westendorp?+
The optimal price point is where the share of people who think the product is too cheap equals the share who think it is too expensive, so the fewest respondents reject the price outright. It often sits near the bottom of the acceptable range.
How many respondents do I need?+
A few dozen respondents give a rough picture, but many researchers recommend at least 100 to 200 from your target market for stable curves, and more if you want to compare segments such as new versus existing customers.
What are the limitations of Van Westendorp?+
It measures stated perceptions rather than actual purchase behaviour, ignores competitors unless respondents are shown them, and does not estimate demand or revenue. Combine it with purchase-intent questions, conjoint analysis or live price tests.
Why do different tools give slightly different results?+
Implementations differ in whether the cumulative shares include the named price, how curves are interpolated, and whether PMC and PME use “not cheap” and “not expensive” or the cheap and expensive curves directly. Differences are usually small.