How to price custom t-shirt printing

Price a custom t-shirt from what one printed shirt really costs you, split into the blank shirt and a print price for each printed side; a price of double your cost is a common starting point for a small print shop.

Underpriced custom shirts are the most common way print shops lose money online. The price has to cover far more than the blank and the ink, and customers decide in seconds whether it’s fair. This guide builds a price from your own costs, splits it into the shirt and each printed side, and shows it so customers understand it while they design.

The numbers below are an example to show the method. Use your own: blank and ink prices vary widely by country, supplier and print method.

1. Add up what one printed shirt costs you

List every cost of producing one shirt, printed on one side:

• The blank shirt, including what you pay to have it delivered to you.
• Ink or transfer. DTG ink per print, a DTF transfer, or screen-printing inks and screens split over the run. Price a typical print area, not the largest.
• Pre-treatment and consumables. Pre-treat for DTG on dark shirts, powder and film for DTF, and the heat press’s teflon sheets.
• Your time. Preparing the file, loading and pressing, quality-checking and folding. Time it on real orders and multiply by what an hour of your work costs.
• Waste. Misprints, a shirt that comes out of the press with a mark. A few percent of every order is normal; build it in.
• Packing, and the part of shipping you don’t charge for separately.
• Payment fees. A percentage of the total, so they grow with the price.

Then do the same for a second side: a back print usually costs you ink and press time again, but not a second blank, packing or shipping.

Example: a blank at 5.00, a front print at 2.50 of ink and transfer, 5 minutes of work at 30.00 an hour (2.50), 0.50 for packing and waste. That’s 10.50 for a shirt printed on the front. A back print adds 2.50 + 2.50 = 5.00.

To do these sums with your own figures, use the t-shirt printing cost calculator: it prices DTF, DTG and screen printing, with screen printing’s set-up shared over the run. For transfers cut from DTF gang sheets, the DTF pricing calculator works out each transfer’s share of the sheet.

2. Price the shirt and each side separately

Customers understand “the shirt, plus the print on each side”. It’s honest, since a back print really does cost you more, and it lets a front-only order stay affordable.

1. The blank price covers the shirt, packing, payment fees and your margin on them.
2. A print price per side covers that side’s ink, consumables, time and margin.

A price that’s double your cost is a common starting point for small print shops, because unpaid time, reprints and quiet months come out of that margin. In the example: a shirt at 12.00 and 9.00 per printed side gives 21.00 front only, 30.00 front and back.

In WooCommerce, the blank price is the product’s own price (per variation, if sizes cost different amounts). PrintBlob adds the print price: you set a price for each printed side, and it’s added when that side has a design. The free plugin prints the front; back and sleeve printing, each with its own print price, are PrintBlob Pro. The designer shows the total changing as customers add a side, so nobody is surprised at checkout.

3. Sizes, colours and materials

• Large sizes often cost more to buy. Charge for XXL and up through the variations’ prices, not the print price.
• Dark shirts can cost more to print: white underbase on DTG, more ink. If the difference matters, raise the dark colours’ variation prices.
• Better blanks (heavier cotton, organic) are separate products or variations with their own price, so the print price stays the same.

4. Minimums and quantity

One-off shirts carry the most set-up cost per piece. Shops usually choose one of:

• No minimum, with a price that covers one-off work. This suits gifts, the main market for online designers.
• Quantity discounts for teams and events: a lower price from 10 or 25 shirts of the same design. WooCommerce handles this with a dynamic pricing or quantity discount plugin, or by quoting larger orders directly. With PrintBlob Pro, set Quantity breaks on the product: from how many items of one design each printed side costs less. The designer shows the prices by quantity, and the cart charges the price the quantity reaches, counted across every size.
• A minimum order only for methods with real set-up cost, like screen printing, where every colour needs its own screen.

5. Check the price from the customer’s side

Look up three or four shops that print in your area or ship to your customers, and price the same shirt with a front print and with front and back. You don’t have to be the cheapest. Customers pay more for a better shirt, a fast turnaround or a designer that shows exactly what they’ll get. But if you’re far above them, the page has to show why.

Then test the whole flow yourself: design a shirt, watch the price as you add a print (with PrintBlob Pro, add the back too), and check the cart and the order email show the same total.

Questions shop owners ask

Next steps

• Sell more per order once the prices are set: how to sell more per order in a custom t-shirt shop.
• Set the prices up: how to sell custom t-shirts with WooCommerce walks through variations and per-side print prices.
• Make sure what you sell can be printed: print-ready t-shirt files.
• Group orders, where every named shirt is its own print: team and group orders with names and numbers and a team kit or club shop.
• How a print shop takes priced orders online: a print shop taking custom orders online.
• Try the designer and watch its price change as you add a side.