Your price is your materials plus your labour, with overhead and a profit markup added on top. Enter your own numbers above and the calculator shows each step, then the amount you keep after a platform fee. Every figure is yours to supply, so the tool makes no claim about what crochet items sell for. Nothing here promises a sale.
How do you use the pricing calculator?
Fill in six boxes. Every number is your own, so the tool never supplies a rate.
- Materials cost, meaning the yarn and notions that went into the item.
- Hours worked, from the first chain to the last woven end.
- Hourly rate, which is what an hour of your work is worth and which only you decide.
- Overhead percent, a share added for costs outside the materials, such as tools, packaging or workspace.
- Profit markup percent, the share added on top after overhead.
- Platform fee percent, the share the selling platform takes from the price. Use your platform’s own figure, and check it before you rely on the result.
The currency box is only for display and changes nothing, while the example button fills in sample numbers to show how the steps work, and those sample numbers are not market prices.
How does the price formula work?
The calculator works in a fixed order. Each step builds on the one before it, so the result is easy to check by hand with a pencil and a calculator if you want to see where every figure comes from.
- Labour = hours x hourly rate.
- Materials plus labour = materials + labour.
- With overhead = (materials + labour) x (1 + overhead / 100).
- Price = with overhead x (1 + markup / 100).
- You keep = price x (1 - fee / 100).
The order matters because both percentages apply to materials plus labour together, not to materials alone, and the platform fee comes off the final price, not off the cost.
What does a worked example look like?
Take sample numbers chosen only to show the sums: materials 10, hours 4, hourly rate 10, overhead 10 percent, markup 20 percent and fee 10 percent. These are not prices or rates to copy.
Labour is 4 x 10 = 40, so materials plus labour is 50. Overhead brings that to 55, and the 20 percent markup brings it to 66, which is the price. After a 10 percent fee, 59.40 is left. That is the number to watch.
How do you cover the platform fee?
The fee comes out of the price, so the amount kept is lower than the price. To keep the full price after a fee, list at price / (1 - fee / 100), which is the figure the calculator labels as the price to list so you keep your price, and it is higher than the price whenever the fee is above 0. In the example, 66 divided by 0.9 gives 73.33 to list, and the calculator shows this line for you.
The fee is a share of the listed price, so adding the same percent to the price is not enough. Adding 10 percent to 66 gives 72.60, and a 10 percent fee on that leaves 65.34, which is short of 66.
What pricing mistakes should you avoid?
- Leaving out your time. This makes labour zero, so the price covers the yarn and nothing else, whatever the hours.
- Counting only the crocheting. This misses finishing, such as weaving in ends, joining pieces and attaching tags, which can all be hours you spend.
- Mixing up markup and margin. This changes the result, because a 20 percent markup is added on top of the cost, so it is not 20 percent of the final price.
- Entering the fee as a money amount. This gives a wrong answer, since the box wants a percent and not a currency figure.
- Ignoring the line for what is kept. This means missing the figure that matters, so read “you keep” before setting a price.
A number from this tool is a starting point for a decision that stays with the maker, and that decision covers the rate, the overhead and the markup alike. To work out the yarn cost first, use the yarn calculator. To count rows as you work, use the row counter. When choosing what to make, browse crochet gift ideas.
Questions makers ask
What should I enter if I sell without a platform?
Enter 0 as the fee. The line for what you keep then equals the price, and the price to list matches your price. The other five boxes work the same way, and the result is still your price, not a market price.
What if I am not sure which numbers to enter?
Press the example button to see the steps with sample numbers, then replace each box with your own figure. Change one box at a time and watch the price and the line for what you keep. The tool has no built-in rate, so every figure stays your decision.
Does overhead apply to labour as well as materials?
Yes. Overhead applies to materials plus labour together, not to materials alone. With materials 10 and labour 40, a 10 percent overhead adds 5. Set it to 0 if you have already counted those costs in another box.
How can I check the fee line by hand?
Take your price and multiply it by one minus the fee as a decimal, then compare with the line for what you keep. With a price of 66 and a 10 percent fee, 66 x 0.9 gives 59.40. Those figures are an example, and your platform's own fee replaces the 10.
