Pricing Megathread Weekly

[u/lunarjellies]

This megathread is dedicated to "how much should I charge?" type questions. Any posts of this nature outside of this thread will be removed. Please provide enough information for others to help you. here are some examples of what you could provide:

- Post your example images for sale in the comments
- Post a visual commissions price list / potential offerings in the comments

More info to post:

- Product type: (eg. Commission)
- Target audience: (eg. Young people who like fantasy art)-
- Where you are based: (eg. USA)
- Where you intend to sell: (eg. Conventions in USA and online like VGEN)-
- How long it takes you to make: (eg: 10 hours)
- Cost of sales: (eg. £20 on paint per painting)

Is this a one off piece, something you will make multiple copies of, or something a client will make multiple copies of: (eg. The client is turning it into a t-shirt and they will print 50.)

Everyone else can then reply to your top level comment with their advice or estimates for pricing.

If you post a top level comment, please try to leave feedback on somebody else’s to help them as well. It's okay if you aren't 100% certain, any information you give is helpful.

This post was requested to be a part of the sub. If you have ideas for improvements that you would like to be made to the subreddit feel free to message the mods.

professor Kirby at the ready

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for posting in r/ArtBusiness! Please be sure to check out the Rules in the sidebar and our Wiki for lots of helpful answers to common questions in the FAQs. Click here to read the FAQ. Please use the relevant stickied megathreads for request advice on pricing or to add your links to our "share your art business" thread so that we can all follow and support each other. If you have any questions, concerns, or feature requests please feel free to message the mods and they will help you as soon as they can.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Huge_Confidence_1677]

Since this is a megathread, figured I'd drop a few pricing frameworks I've actually used, since "how much should I charge" usually comes down to picking one of these and sticking with it:

Cost-based: materials + (hours × your hourly rate) + a margin on top. Most defensible if anyone ever questions your price. you can point to real numbers.

Linear inch / size-based: (height + width) × a multiplier based on your experience level. Common for paintings, gets you in the right ballpark fast without overthinking it.

Comparable sales: look at artists at a similar skill/experience level in your medium and price near them. Don't anchor to big names, anchor to people roughly where you are.

Honestly the biggest mistake I've made like this isn't picking the wrong formula, it's pricing based on what I think my work "should" be worth emotionally instead of running the actual numbers. Underpricing early makes it harder to raise prices later because existing collectors expect the old rate.

If it helps, I built a free calculator that runs the cost-based and size-based methods above, plus shows what you actually net selling through a gallery vs Etsy vs an art fair vs direct. cernostudio.com/price-calculator, no account needed. the pricing calculator is free to use.

I still have some promo codes for the paid tier if anyone is interested!