Fees verified 2026-08-22 Source-cited fees Open methodology →

Print on Demand Profit Calculator

Base cost, shipping, and your sales channel's fees — the three numbers that decide a print-on-demand margin.

Quick answer

A $28 shirt with $5 shipping, a $12 base cost, and $5 of provider shipping leaves $12.41 per order on Etsy (37.6% margin) after $3.58 in channel fees. Print on demand has no fee schedule of its own — the platform fees are whichever channel you list on, which is why this calculator uses those verified rates directly.

Quick-start scenarios

Your saved scenarios

Stored in this browser only — nothing is uploaded, and there is no account to create.

Revenue per order

What the buyer pays you for one order.

Print on Demand charges its percentage fees on this too.
Taken off the sale price before fees are calculated.

Costs per order

Costs you pay every time an order ships.

Monthly

Charged monthly, whatever your order volume — kept out of per-order margin.

Assumes one item per order.
Optional plan that buys lower base costs.

Print on Demand settings

How Print on Demand treats your account, and how often orders come back.

Platform fees come from the channel you list on.
Rate is set automatically: 15% under $10,000 a year, 12% at or above it.
Fees the platform credits back are netted off automatically.

Per order

Order revenue
$33.00
Print on Demand fees
$3.59
Net profit
$10.42
Margin
31.6%
Strong margin

After Print on Demand fees, product and shipping costs, and $2.00 of ad spend per order. Monthly plan and storage costs are handled below.

Where your money goes

Per month at 30 orders
Profit
$312.45 · 31.6%
Platform fees
$107.55 · 10.9%
Cost of goods
$360.00 · 36.4%
Shipping
$150.00 · 15.2%
Ad spend
$60.00 · 6.1%

Monthly totals

Revenue$990.00
Print on Demand fees−$107.55
Product and shipping costs−$510.00
Ad spend−$60.00
Net profit$312.45 · 31.6%

Fee detail

Per order

Listing Fee$0.20
Transaction Fee$2.15
Payment Processing$1.24
Total per order$3.59
Break-even price
$16.49

The sale price where one order nets exactly zero — covering percentage fees, per-unit and flat fees, your costs, and this order's share of ad spend.

Orders to cover monthly costs
5

Needed to cover $60.00 of monthly ad spend and fixed costs. You're planning 30.

Ad economics

An order can pay at most its contribution — revenue after fees and variable costs — to win a customer. Spend more than that and the order is bought at a loss.

Max cost per order
$12.42
Break-even ROAS
2.66x
Your cost per order
$2.00
Headroom
$10.42

You can pay up to $12.42 per order in ads and still break even — currently $2.00.

How print-on-demand margins work

Print on demand is the one model here where the platform is barely the problem. Your print provider charges a base cost per item and ships it, and both are costs of goods — not commissions. What determines the margin is the gap between that base cost and a retail price buyers accept, minus whatever your sales channel takes.

That is why this calculator asks which channel you sell through and then applies that channel's real fee structure: Etsy's $0.20 listing fee, 6.5% transaction fee and 3% + $0.25 processing, or Shopify's plan rate. Those figures come from the same verified fee data the Etsy and Shopify calculators use, so the three can never drift apart.

The practical levers are retail price, whether you charge for shipping, and provider subscriptions that buy down base cost. All three are here, along with a break-even view that tells you how many orders a month a subscription needs before it pays for itself.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do print-on-demand fees work?+
They mostly are not fees. Your print provider charges a base cost per item and its own shipping, both of which are costs of goods rather than platform commissions. The platform fees come from wherever you sell — Etsy listing, transaction and processing fees, or Shopify card rates and plan. This calculator applies the real rates for the channel you pick.
What margin should I expect on print on demand?+
Base costs typically consume 40-60% of a retail price buyers will accept, so 15-30% net margin is a realistic band once channel fees and ads are counted. The lever that moves it most is not the provider — it is retail price and whether you charge for shipping, since your channel charges its percentage on shipping revenue too.
Should I charge for shipping or build it into the price?+
Financially they are close, because Etsy and Shopify both charge percentage fees on shipping revenue as well as item price. Charging separately makes the item look cheaper in search; building it in makes the order look simpler. Model both here — change the shipping charged field and watch the fee line, not just the total.
Is a print provider subscription worth it?+
Only at volume. A subscription buys lower base costs, so it pays back once the per-item saving times your monthly orders exceeds the subscription. Enter the plan cost in the monthly section and the break-even panel tells you how many orders that takes.

Related reading

Etsy fees explained

The fee stack most print-on-demand sellers list against.

Shopify plans compared

If you sell prints from your own store instead.

The other 7 calculators

Etsy

Listing, transaction, and payment fees on the full order — plus Offsite Ads and refunds.

Shopify

Every plan at its own card rate, third-party gateway fees, apps, and chargebacks.

Amazon FBA

Referral fees by category, FBA or merchant fulfilment, the fuel surcharge, and storage.

eBay

Final value fees by category, the per-order fee, and insertion costs past the free allowance.

Walmart

Referral fees across all 32 contract categories, including price-band rates, plus WFS.

TikTok Shop

Referral commission and creator affiliate cuts, netted against ad spend.

Dropshipping

Gateway fees, supplier costs, disputes, duties, and the ad economics that decide it.

Compare across platforms

Same product, different platforms — and very different take-home. See how this scenario stacks up on the other marketplaces, or read the side-by-side fee table.

Etsy → Shopify → Amazon FBA → eBay → Side-by-side table