T-Shirt Profit Margin Calculator

Profit margin is your profit divided by your selling price, expressed as a percentage. The key is including every cost — not just production. That means blank garment, print cost, packaging, shipping, platform fees, payment gateway fees, your marketing spend per unit, and a share of your monthly overhead. Leave any of these out and your margin is overstated. The calculator above handles all eight cost categories automatically.

40% or above is healthy and gives you room to absorb returns, discounts, and cost increases. Between 20% and 40% is workable but fragile. Below 20% is a warning sign — one slow month or one platform fee increase can push you into loss. Print-on-demand sellers on Etsy typically operate at 15% to 30% after all fees. Direct-to-consumer brands with strong organic traffic and repeat customers can reach 45% to 60%.

They measure the same profit differently and produce very different numbers. Markup is profit as a percentage of your cost. Margin is profit as a percentage of your selling price. A 100% markup gives you a 50% margin — not 100%. Many sellers target a 50% markup thinking they are achieving a 50% margin and then cannot understand why the business feels tight. Always use margin when setting pricing targets.

Yes. Select DTF — Direct to Film from the print method dropdown and enter your transfer cost per unit. The calculator incorporates it into the full cost stack including blank garment, packaging, shipping, platform fees, payment gateway, marketing, and overhead. If you use gang sheet printing, enter the per-unit transfer cost after dividing the sheet cost by the number of designs nested on it.

Break-even units equals your total monthly fixed costs divided by your contribution margin per unit. Contribution margin is your selling price minus all variable costs per sale (blank, print, packaging, shipping, platform fees, gateway fees). Fixed costs are your recurring monthly costs that exist regardless of sales volume — subscriptions, software, workspace, and any fixed ad budget. The calculator shows your break-even unit target automatically in the results section.

Yes. The VAT and Sales Tax section covers EU countries (Cyprus, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and others), Canada (GST and HST), Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and US sales tax. For VAT and GST countries the calculator strips the tax from your selling price before calculating margin, because VAT reduces the revenue you keep. For US platform sellers (Shopify, Etsy, Amazon) sales tax is treated as a pass-through with no margin impact, with an optional field to model a blended state rate.

Etsy, Shopify, Amazon Merch, direct sales (own website), and a custom percentage option for any other channel. Selecting a channel pre-fills the correct platform fee automatically — Etsy at 6.5%, Shopify at 2.9% (Shopify Payments), Amazon Merch at 15%. All rates can be overridden manually if your specific plan or region differs.

Completely free, no account required, no sign-up, and no usage limits. Everything runs in your browser — no numbers you enter are stored or transmitted anywhere. The site is supported by advertising.