Print-on-Demand Profit Calculator
Calculate POD profit margins after production costs, fees, and shipping for T-shirts, mugs, and posters on Printful, Redbubble, and Merch by Amazon.
How Print-on-Demand Profit Works
In a print-on-demand (POD) business, you design products and a third-party supplier (Printful, Printify, etc.) prints and ships them only when a customer orders. You never touch inventory — but every sale has multiple cost layers.
Fee Structure Platform/marketplace fee: charged by Etsy, Shopify, or Redbubble as a percentage of sale price. Etsy charges 6.5% transaction fee + 3% + $0.25 payment processing. Redbubble and similar platforms have a built-in margin — you set a percentage above their base price.
Payment processing: usually 2.9–3% + $0.25–$0.30, charged by Stripe, PayPal, or the marketplace.
Production cost: what you pay the POD supplier per item. This varies widely — a basic t-shirt might cost $12–$15; a mug $8–$12; art prints $4–$10.
Advertising cost: if you run paid ads (Facebook, Pinterest, Etsy Ads), divide your total ad spend by the number of sales to get a per-sale ad cost.
Profit Formula Platform cut = sale price × platform fee % Payment cut = sale price × payment fee % + fixed fee Net revenue = sale price − platform cut − payment cut Profit = net revenue − production cost − advertising cost per sale Margin = (profit / sale price) × 100
Target Margins Healthy POD margin: 25–40% Competitive on marketplaces: at least 20% Below 15%: consider raising price or cutting ad spend
How we build and check this calculator
This calculator runs entirely in your browser, so the numbers you enter stay on your device. The math behind it is written by hand and tested against worked examples and standard references before the page goes live.
SuperGlobalCalculator is independently built and maintained. See how we build and verify our calculators.