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Printify & Printful Profit Calculator

Pick Printify or Printful, enter your selling price and base cost, and the calculator returns your real profit per item and margin — after platform fees, shipping you cover, and ads. Useful for comparing the same product across both suppliers before you commit.

Last Updated: June 2026

Reviewed for current platform fees and pricing rules.

Supplier

What the supplier charges you (product + printing).

Where you sell — Etsy, Shopify, your own store.

Leave 0 if the buyer pays shipping.

Average ad spend per sale, if any.

Fees

$2.00

Profit per item

$8.00

Profit margin

42.1%

Estimates only. Printify base costs vary by product, print provider, and region. Verify your current pricing in your Printify dashboard before listing.

Formula

Profit per item = Selling price − Base cost − Platform & payment fees − Shipping you cover − Ads · Margin = Profit ÷ Selling price × 100

Worked example

A $19 mug with a $9 Printify base cost, about $2 of platform and payment fees, no shipping you cover, and no ads.

  1. Profit = $19 − $9 − $2 − $0 − $0 = $8
  2. Margin = $8 ÷ $19 ≈ 42.1%
  3. Add $4 of ads per sale and profit drops to $4 (≈21% margin)

Answer: About $8 profit per item (≈42% margin) — $4 if you spend $4 on ads to make the sale.

How it works

Printify and Printful both charge you a base cost (product + printing) for each order. You set the selling price, and your real profit is what's left after the base cost, the fees of wherever you sell (Etsy, Shopify, your own store), any shipping you absorb, and any advertising you spend to make the sale.

The two suppliers price differently. Printify often has lower base costs and a marketplace of print providers to pick from, which lets you shop for the cheapest fulfillment for a given product. Printful usually costs a bit more but is known for tight, consistent quality control. The same $19 mug can give you noticeably different profit on each, so it's worth running both through the calculator before you commit.

Platform fees can be entered as a percentage (good for Etsy or eBay, which take a cut of the sale) or as a flat dollar amount (good when you want to model a specific fee total). Either way, the calculator subtracts them from the selling price before reporting profit and margin.

Common mistakes

  • Forgetting platform and payment fees on the selling channel — the supplier base cost is only one of two cuts on every sale.
  • Comparing Printify and Printful by base cost alone, ignoring shipping rates and product quality differences that change the real per-sale economics.
  • Pricing without leaving room for ads — paid traffic can wipe out a thin margin fast on print-on-demand items.
  • Treating the supplier sample price as the price you'll pay — premium print providers, larger sizes, and extra print areas push the base cost up.
  • Absorbing buyer shipping on a low-margin item without rechecking whether the sale is still profitable.

FAQ

How much profit do you make on Printify or Printful?
After the supplier base cost and your platform's fees, most sellers see $3–$8 of profit per item, depending on the product, price, and channel. A $19 mug with a $9 base cost and $2 of fees lands around $8 profit; a $25 t-shirt with a $13 base cost and $3 of fees lands around $9.
Is Printify or Printful cheaper?
Printify usually has lower base costs because it's a marketplace of competing print providers. Printful often charges more per item but is known for consistent quality and faster handling. For a given product, run both through this calculator to see which gives you better profit at the same selling price.
What fees should I include?
Whatever the channel you sell on takes — for Etsy that's the listing fee, transaction fee, and payment processing; for Shopify it's payment processing and any app subscriptions; for your own checkout it's just the payment processor's fee. Add ads if you run them.
How do I price a Printify or Printful product?
Start with the base cost, add your channel's fees as a percentage of the price, add a margin you actually want to keep, and round to a clean number. Then test it in the calculator — if profit per sale is under $3–$4, the product probably needs a higher price, a cheaper supplier, or a different print provider.
Does this calculator work for other POD platforms?
Yes — the math is the same. For Redbubble (where you set a markup over a base price), use the Redbubble Profit Calculator instead. For the broader print-on-demand workflow, the Print-on-Demand Profit Calculator handles a wider mix of fees and shipping models.

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