How much should I charge for my pottery? Free cost-per-piece calculator

What does one mug really cost you, and what should it sell for?

Enter your clay, glaze, kiln loads, breakage, hours and studio rent. The calculator works out the true cost of a sellable piece, the retail and wholesale price that hits your target margin, your hourly return, and how breakage, half-empty kilns and electricity prices move it.

Planning arithmetic on your own numbers and stated assumptions.

1. Materials

Clay per piece (lb, wet)

Clay price per lb ($)

Glaze and underglaze per piece ($)

Pieces lost to cracks, glaze defects, kiln accidents (%)

2. Kiln

kWh per bisque firing

kWh per glaze firing

Electricity ($ per kWh)

Elements, shelves, cones per firing ($)

Pieces in a typical bisque load

Pieces in a typical glaze load

Gas, shared-studio firing fees or a per-shelf rate? Put the firing’s total dollar cost into “elements, shelves, cones” and set kWh to 0.

3. Your time and studio

Minutes to throw or build

Minutes trimming, handles, finishing

Minutes glazing

Minutes loading, unloading, photos, packing

What your hour is worth ($)

Studio rent, wheel, insurance ($/month)

Pieces you make per month

4. Selling

Retail price you charge ($)

Fees on retail sales: marketplace, card, booth (%)

Wholesale price as % of retail

Profit margin you want (%)

Questions people ask

How do I price handmade pottery?

Start from cost: clay, glaze, your share of the bisque and glaze firings, your time and studio rent, all divided by the pieces that survive. Then divide by one minus your target margin and any selling fees. The calculator does that and shows the wholesale price too.

How much does a kiln firing cost per piece?

Kilowatt-hours times your electricity rate, plus wear on elements and furniture, divided by the pieces in the load. A half-empty kiln roughly doubles the firing cost of every piece in it, which the load table shows.

Should I include breakage in my prices?

Yes. A cracked or crawled piece has already used clay, two firings and your hours. The calculator charges that loss to the pieces that survive.

Is this accounting or tax advice?

No. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type in. Sales tax, business structure, insurance and income tax are out of scope.

Not decided

What buyers in your market will pay, sales tax and business licensing, whether a gallery or wholesale account is worth its terms, studio safety and insurance, equipment replacement beyond the per-firing wear you enter, and tax treatment of craft income. Kiln, clay and electricity costs vary widely; the defaults are placeholders, not forecasts.

Making other things to sell? See the candle batch cost calculator, the farmers market booth calculator and the Etsy profit calculator.