How to Price Custom T-Shirts
T-shirt pricing splits into two very different situations: print-on-demand, where a high base cost eats your margin, and self-printing, where equipment and time do. This guide covers both, with the real numbers you need to price a shirt that actually profits after fees.
Two cost models: POD vs. self-printing
With print-on-demand (Printful, Printify, and similar), a supplier prints and ships each shirt when it sells. Your base cost is usually $8–13 per shirt plus their shipping. You carry no inventory and almost no per-order labor, but the high base cost leaves a thin margin that marketplace fees can erode fast.
With self-printing (screen print, DTG, or heat transfer vinyl), your per-unit cost is a blank shirt ($3–6) plus ink or vinyl ($1–3), so the material cost is lower. But you invest in equipment, hold inventory, and spend real time on each shirt — printing, curing, folding, and packing. That time is a per-shirt labor cost you must include.
Worked example: a print-on-demand shirt
Say your Printify base cost is $12 and you list the shirt at $24 on Etsy. That looks like a 50% margin — but Etsy takes roughly $3 in listing, transaction, and payment fees, so you actually keep about $9, or 37%. Add even $1 of amortized design time and you are near a third. Comfortable, but not the half it appeared to be.
Now imagine that sale came from an offsite ad: Etsy adds 12–15% of the order, another $3–4, and your $9 profit can fall below $6. At print-on-demand margins, the difference between a profitable shirt and a barely-profitable one is often just the fees — which is why pricing to a target profit, rather than a round number, matters so much.
Price your own shirt
Enter your base or blank cost, any per-shirt labor, and your target profit below. Switch the channel to Print-on-Demand or Etsy to load the right default fees, and see the price that protects your margin.
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Your numbers stay in your browser. Handmade Price Calculator does not upload or store your product costs.
✦ Price Estimate ✦
Custom t-shirt
Etsy · Jul 1, 2026
Recommended price
$27.99
You keep $8.70 profit
31.1%
Margin
$59.81/hr
You earn/hr
Where your money goes
Recommended
$27.99
+$8.70
profit/sale
This calculator provides estimates only. Fees, taxes, and marketplace rules may change. Always verify current platform fees and consult a qualified professional for business, tax, or accounting advice.
T-shirt pricing mistakes
- Treating base cost as your only cost. Fees, design time, and shipping all come out after the base price.
- Confusing markup with margin. A $24 shirt on a $12 base is a 100% markup but only a 50% margin before fees, and less after.
- Racing to the bottom on price. The print-on-demand market is crowded; compete on design and niche, not on being the cheapest.
- Ignoring offsite ads. A 12–15% ad fee can halve a thin shirt margin. Check the real impact in the Etsy fee calculator.
Design and niche do the heavy lifting
Because the shirt itself is a commodity, your price is really supported by the design and the audience it speaks to. A generic slogan competes with thousands of near-identical listings and gets pushed toward the lowest price. A design that nails a specific niche — a hobby, a profession, an in-joke — can hold a premium because nobody else offers exactly it.
Price from real costs first, then let design and niche justify the position above your floor. Compare margins across shirts and channels with the product margin calculator, and build the underlying number with the complete handmade pricing guide.
Frequently asked questions
Custom and print-on-demand t-shirts commonly sell for $22–32 on Etsy. With print-on-demand your base cost from Printful or Printify is often $8–13 per shirt, so a $25 price leaves room for the base cost, marketplace fees, and profit. If you print yourself, price against your blank plus ink or vinyl, plus the real time each shirt takes.
Because the base cost is high relative to the retail price and the marketplace still takes its percentage on top. A $12 base shirt sold for $24 looks like a 50% margin, but after roughly $3 in Etsy fees you keep about $9 — closer to 37%. Small price changes matter a lot at these margins, which is why exact fee math is essential.
Yes, but treat it as a one-time cost spread across sales, not a per-shirt labor charge. If a design took two hours to create and you expect to sell 50 shirts, that is roughly $1 of design cost per shirt at a $25/hour rate. Ongoing per-order labor (packing, or printing yourself) is separate and should be counted per shirt.
Self-printing usually has a lower per-unit cost but requires equipment, inventory, and your labor per shirt. Print-on-demand has a higher base cost but no upfront inventory and almost no per-order labor. The right choice depends on volume: at low volume, print-on-demand protects you from unsold stock; at high volume, self-printing can widen margins.