How to Price Screen Printing Jobs: A Cost-First Method
Stop copying competitor price lists. Here's the cost-first formula for pricing screen printing jobs — with the three hidden costs most small shops forget, and a worked example.
Here is the most common way small shops set their prices: they call three competitors, ask what a 100-piece one-color job costs, and pick a number slightly below the middle quote. It feels like market research. It is actually a coin flip — you have no idea whether those shops are profitable, and a shop going out of business has prices too.
The alternative is boring and works: know your own cost per piece, then add a deliberate margin. This guide walks through that method. No software subscription required — a spreadsheet and an hour of honesty are enough.
The formula in one line:
Price per piece = (Fixed costs ÷ Quantity) + Per-piece cost, then multiply by (1 + markup)
Everything below is about filling in those three terms without lying to yourself.
Why “What Do Others Charge?” Is the Wrong Starting Point
Screen printing prices are not a market price like gasoline. A 1-color print at 100 pieces ranges from under $4 to over $12 across US shops — a 3× spread — because every shop’s cost structure is different: rent, labor rates, equipment payments, local competition. When you copy a competitor’s number, you import their cost structure, not yours. If their rent is lower than yours, you just signed up to lose money at their price.
The national average tables you find online have the same problem. They are useful for answering your customer’s question (“what should I expect to pay?”), but they cannot answer your question (“what must I charge to survive this order?”). Only your own numbers can.
The Three Costs Small Shops Forget
Most underpriced quotes are not missing big line items — they are missing three small ones that show up on every single job.
1. Screen making is labor, not just mesh
A screen costs more than the frame and mesh. Coating, exposing, washing out, taping, and registering each screen takes real time — typically 30–60 minutes of someone’s work per screen once you include reclaiming it afterward. Shops that count only the physical screen ($20–$30 of materials) and forget the labor routinely undercharge $15–$25 per screen without noticing. Count it as a fixed cost per color: materials plus the labor minutes at your actual hourly rate.
2. Setup time is billable even when you don’t bill it
Loading screens, registering colors, running test prints, and cleaning the press afterward takes 30 minutes to over an hour per job before shirt #1 prints. If you don’t put a number on that time, every small order quietly eats it. A 24-piece job and a 240-piece job take the same setup time — which is exactly why small orders feel unprofitable. They are, unless setup is in the price.
3. Spoilage is a cost, not bad luck
Misprints happen on every run: a shirt with a pinhole ghost, a smeared first print, a misregistered sleeve. Experienced shops plan for 1–3% spoilage on simple jobs and more on multi-color work. If you quote exactly 100 shirts and ruin 2, you either eat the blanks or reprint at your cost. Add a spoilage percentage to your per-piece cost and the problem disappears into the math where it belongs.
The Formula, Filled In
Split every job into two buckets:
Fixed costs (same whether you print 24 or 240 pieces):
- Screen making: materials + labor, per color × number of colors
- Press setup and registration time × your hourly rate
- Artwork prep, if you charge for it
- Reclaiming and cleaning afterward
Per-piece costs (scale with quantity):
- Blank garment (your wholesale cost, not retail)
- Ink per shirt — roughly $0.10–$0.25 per color for plastisol on a standard print; water-based and discharge run higher
- Print labor: your hourly rate ÷ shirts per hour. An experienced printer on a manual press runs roughly 60–80 one-color shirts per hour; each extra color slows that down
- Spoilage allowance: 1–3% of garment + ink cost
- Overhead: rent, utilities, insurance, equipment payments ÷ your monthly piece count
Then:
Cost per piece = (Fixed ÷ Quantity) + Per-piece cost Your price = Cost per piece × (1 + markup)
Worked example: 72 shirts, 2 colors, front only
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Screens: 2 × $30 (materials + labor) | $60 |
| Setup + registration, 45 min at $30/hr | $22.50 |
| Fixed total | $82.50 |
| Fixed ÷ 72 | $1.15 |
| Blank tee (wholesale) | $3.25 |
| Ink, 2 colors (9 g per color at $38/kg) | $0.68 |
| Print labor (70/hr base, 2nd color slows to 52.5/hr) | $0.57 |
| Spoilage 2% of garment + ink | $0.08 |
| Overhead per piece | $0.50 |
| Cost per piece | $6.23 |
| Price at 40% markup | $8.72 → quote $8.75 |
Two things to notice. First, the fixed costs add $1.15 per piece at 72 shirts — at 24 shirts they would add $3.44. That is the entire reason quantity pricing exists. Second, none of these inputs came from a competitor. Every number is yours.
Why Your Price Must Drop With Quantity — and by How Much
The fixed-cost bucket is the same $82.50 at any quantity, so cost per piece falls as the run grows. Using the worked example above:
| Quantity | Fixed per piece | Cost per piece | Price at 40% markup |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | $3.44 | $8.52 | $11.95 |
| 48 | $1.72 | $6.80 | $9.55 |
| 72 | $1.15 | $6.23 | $8.75 |
| 144 | $0.57 | $5.66 | $7.95 |
| 288 | $0.29 | $5.37 | $7.55 |
| 500 | $0.17 | $5.25 | $7.35 |
Publish this shape as your quantity break table — quote at least three tiers for every job (say 48 / 144 / 288). Customers routinely order more than planned when they see the next tier is 60 cents away. You are not discounting; you are showing them your actual cost curve.
Markup vs Margin: The 40% That Isn’t 40%
The most expensive vocabulary mistake in a small shop: a 40% markup is a 28.6% margin.
- Markup is calculated on cost: $6.23 × 1.40 = $8.72
- Margin is calculated on price: ($8.72 − $6.23) ÷ $8.72 = 28.6%
If your accountant or your gut says “I need a 40% margin to make this shop work,” pricing at 40% markup undercharges by 16%. To hit a 40% margin you divide cost by (1 − 0.40): $6.23 ÷ 0.60 = $10.38. Pick one vocabulary, write it at the top of your spreadsheet, and never mix them.
How much is right? Enough to cover the months when the press sits still. Most healthy small shops land somewhere between 35% and 50% markup on garment work — but that number is an output of your overhead and your local market, not an industry commandment. If you are booked solid and turning away work, your markup is too low.
Line Items Worth Quoting Separately
Some costs don’t fit the per-piece curve cleanly. Quote them as visible lines:
- Underbase on dark garments. A white underbase is an extra screen and an extra print pass. It belongs in the color count, and experienced shops make sure the customer understands why a black shirt costs more than a white one.
- Extra print locations. Front + back is nearly two jobs: second setup, second run through the press. Price it as such.
- Artwork time. If you spend 45 minutes fixing a customer’s low-res logo, that is billable labor. Many shops waive it above a quantity threshold — a deliberate, visible freebie instead of an invisible one.
- Rush fees. A job that jumps the queue costs you schedule disruption. 20–50% rush premiums are common and customers who genuinely need speed pay them without blinking.
The Minimum Order Question
Below about 24 pieces, screen printing’s math stops working for simple designs — the fixed costs dominate and the customer flinches. You have three honest options: set a hard minimum, price small runs high enough to be worth your time (some will pay), or steer small multi-color orders to DTG/DTF and keep screen printing for runs where it wins. What you cannot do is print 12 shirts at 144-shirt pricing and call it customer service. That is a donation.
Run Your Own Numbers in 60 Seconds
Reading a formula is one thing; running your own job through it is where it clicks. Our free Pricing Calculator does exactly the math in this article: enter your garment cost, screen cost, hourly rate, setup time and markup, and it shows your cost per piece, a suggested price, and a quantity break table — then generates a printable quote for your customer. No sign-up, and your numbers never leave your browser.
If you also need a visual for the quote, the Mockup + Quote Generator puts the customer’s artwork on a blank garment and builds the quote sheet around it.
And if you want the spreadsheet version of this method — the same formula, pre-built, with the quantity table auto-calculated and a markup/margin cheat sheet — download the free Pricing Template (Excel & Google Sheets). No sign-up needed. If you’d like a heads-up when we release new shop tools and templates, The Foundry Letter below is one email when something genuinely new ships.
Prefer video? Printavo’s walkthrough of building a pricing matrix covers the same cost-first logic with a spreadsheet on screen:
FAQ
What is a good profit margin for screen printing? Most healthy small shops run 35–50% markup over true cost (a 26–33% margin). The right number covers your slow months, not just your busy ones. If you’re fully booked and turning work away, raise it.
Should I charge a separate setup fee or build it into the price? Both work; hiding it doesn’t. A visible screen fee ($20–40 per screen) is easy for customers to compare, while setup-included pricing looks cleaner and pushes customers toward bigger runs. Pick the structure that matches how your customers shop — but never skip charging it at all.
How do I price a job I’ve never done before? Same formula, plus a risk buffer: add 10–15% for unfamiliar substrates, new ink systems, or tight registration. Test prints before quoting multi-color work on anything you haven’t printed.
Is it worth matching a cheaper competitor’s quote? Only if your cost math says you can. If their price is below your cost, the job loses money no matter how you justify it — let them have it. Competing on cost-plus pricing means you win the jobs that are actually worth winning.
How often should I update my price list? Review quarterly. Blank garment prices, ink costs, and your own efficiency all drift — a price list built on last year’s blank prices quietly shrinks your margin every month.