How much should I charge for a sublimation tumbler?

For a 20oz sublimated stainless tumbler with a full wrap, most sellers price between $22 and $32. The number depends on your blank cost, how fast you can press, and your target margin. Run your blank, ink, paper, and time through the calculator above. If the result feels high, check that you are not paying yourself less than $20 per hour. Underpricing is almost always an unpaid-labor problem.

What should I count as labor time?

Every minute the unit is in your hands. That means prep (cut, tape, align), active press time, and pack-out (cool, clean, box, label). If you run a batch of 12, divide the total active time across the 12 to get a fair per-unit minute count. Do not count passive cure or oven time since you are not holding the piece, but do count the minutes you spend swapping units in and out.

How do I figure out ink cost per print?

Take the cartridge or ink bottle cost and divide by the number of prints that cartridge delivers. For a Sawgrass SG500 with SubliJet UHD, a full cartridge set runs about $220 and delivers around 300 full-page prints, which puts ink cost near $0.73 per print for a full sheet. Partial sheets cost proportionally less. Epson ecotank conversions land closer to $0.20 to $0.30 per full sheet.

Why does the recommended price feel higher than Etsy averages?

Because Etsy averages include sellers who are not paying themselves. When a calculator shows you a $28 tumbler and you see $15 tumblers on Etsy, the $15 seller is either buying blanks at 2x the volume you do, or they are losing money per unit. A third possibility is that they forgot to factor in fees, shipping labels, and the hour they spent packaging. Your recommended price should cover costs and leave margin after Etsy takes its cut.

Does this calculator account for Etsy fees?

Not directly. Keep this one focused on cost + margin. Once you have a recommended price, plug it into the Etsy Fee Calculator to see what you actually keep after Etsy takes its cut. Short version: Etsy takes roughly 10% to 14% of the sale including shipping once you add transaction + payment processing + regulatory fees. Offsite Ads, when triggered, add another 12% to 15%.

Can I share my calculator inputs with a friend?

Yes. Every input you change is written to the URL, so copy the address bar or use the "Copy link" button next to the result. When your friend opens the link, their calculator loads with your exact numbers. This is useful for pricing custom orders where a buyer is asking for a quote, or for comparing notes with another seller in the same pillar.

Will it remember my last inputs?

Yes, in your browser only. We save your values in localStorage under a key scoped to this calculator. Nothing is sent to our servers and the data expires after 180 days. A banner shows when saved inputs load and there is a reset button if you want to go back to the preset.

What if my shop has wildly different overhead?

Change the numbers. The defaults assume a home studio with residential electricity and a single-printer setup. If you rent a studio, convert your monthly rent + utilities to a per-unit figure using your average monthly output, then drop that into the equipment wear field. The calculator does not care where the cost comes from. It adds anything you put in the overhead line.

Flagship calculator

Sublimation Pricing Calculator

Written by Maya Reeves. Reviewed 2026-04-21. Next check 2026-07-21.

Sublimation pricing is one of those things that looks easy and isn’t. You count the blank. You count the ink. You forget the hour you spent cutting masks, packing boxes, and chasing a Cricut error for the third time today. The calculator below does the counting for you, so you can stop underpaying yourself.

Pick a preset, tweak the inputs for your specific setup, and your recommended price updates live. It covers materials, labor, overhead, and your target margin. It does not include Etsy fees by design. Price the product first, fees second.

Step 1 of 4: Product

Presets

Product and materials

Start with what the item costs you before you touch it. Blank, paper, ink, and anything else you squeeze into the box.

Blank type

Pick the closest blank to auto-fill average costs. You can override each one below.

Blank cost

What you pay your supplier per unit.

Paper cost per sheet

A-Sub, TruePix, or whatever brand you use.

Ink cost per print

Cartridge or ink bottle cost divided by prints per fill.

Other materials

Tape, shrink wrap, butcher paper, lint roller. Per unit.

Step 1 of 4

Quick answer

For a 20oz sublimated tumbler priced at a 55% margin, expect a recommended retail between $22 and $32, depending on your blank cost and how fast you press. For an 11oz mug, expect $14 to $19. For an adult sublimation tee, expect $22 to $32.

How to use this calculator

Pick a preset that matches your item. The preset chips above the first input auto-fill blank cost, paper, ink, and typical press time for that item. You will still override a few numbers to match your actual setup.
Correct your materials. Put in your actual blank cost, paper cost per sheet, and ink cost per print. If you have never tracked ink per print, divide a cartridge cost by the number of full-page prints it delivers before it refuses. That is your number.
Enter your real time. Count prep, press, and pack in minutes per unit. If you batch, divide total active time by unit count.
Pick a margin you can defend. 50% is the common floor for sublimation. 55% to 70% is where most sellers who stay in business sit.

Three real scenarios

Three pricing scenarios I walked through with sellers in the past ninety days. Each one is a real conversation, with numbers changed only enough to keep the seller anonymous.

20oz tumbler priced for Etsy

Seller buys 20oz stainless blanks at $4.50 each from a bulk supplier. A full-wrap print uses about $0.80 of ink on an SG500 and one sheet of A-Sub at $0.20. She preps and tapes in 3 minutes, presses for 8 minutes in a shrink-wrap oven, and packs in 2 minutes. She pays herself $25 per hour and figures her home studio adds $0.22 per hour of press time plus $0.40 of equipment wear per tumbler.

Total cost lands at $11.57 per tumbler. At a 55% margin, the recommended retail is $17.92, with a premium price near $22.40 for custom or rush orders. Etsy takes roughly $2.80 out of a $17.92 sale including shipping, which still leaves a margin over $3.50 per tumbler before ad spend. The quoteable: a tumbler that looks like a $15 listing on Etsy is actually priced at a loss for anyone who accounts for their hour.

11oz mug priced for a craft fair

Seller runs a booth at a fall craft fair and wants round-dollar pricing for quick cash sales. Blanks are $2.25 each in a case of 36, paper is $0.15 per sheet, ink is $0.55 per print on a converted Epson ecotank. She preps in 2, presses in 4, and packs in 2. Same $25 per hour. Overhead is light at this booth since she is not running the printer on-site.

Total cost is about $6.49. At 50% margin, the recommended price is $9.74. Round up to $10 for booth math. At $12 she clears a comfortable $5.50 per unit and still has room to discount for a three-for-$30 bundle, which is a common craft-fair hook. The quoteable: if your booth mugs are priced under $10, you are giving away the labor.

Bulk adult tees for a sports team

Order of 24 polyester adult tees for a local youth-league coach. Polyester blanks are $5.00 each, paper is $0.25 a sheet, ink lands at $1.10 per tee for a large chest print. On a batch of 24 she estimates 3 minutes prep, 3 press, and 1 pack per tee since she lines up the whole run. Same $25 hourly rate. Overhead $0.35 per tee.

Total cost is $9.61 per tee. The coach wants a round number and the seller wants to quote fairly, so she runs two scenarios: a 50% margin at $14.42 and a 45% margin at $13.93. She quotes $14 per tee flat, which clears about $4.40 per tee after costs, and packages the whole order with a free gift tag for the coach. On 24 tees she nets around $105 after materials, which is a full day of batched work and a clean margin for a bulk order.

What goes into the price

The formula is plain arithmetic, no fancy math. It adds three buckets of cost, applies your margin, and hands back a retail price.

Cost buckets and how the recommended price is built from them.
Bucket	What it covers	Typical share
Materials	Blank, paper, ink, shrink wrap, tape.	55% to 70%
Labor	Prep + press + pack, priced at your hourly rate.	20% to 35%
Overhead	Electricity during press, equipment wear, consumables.	5% to 10%

Add the three, then multiply by (1 + your target margin). That is your recommended price. The premium tier multiplies the recommended price by your uplift percentage, so you always have a higher anchor for custom orders or tight-deadline jobs.

Reference: typical costs and retails

Rough benchmarks from a quarterly survey of 40 active sellers, plus my own invoices. Use these to sanity-check your inputs. If your blank cost is way off the range, you either found a great deal or you are paying retail at Hobby Lobby.

Typical supplier cost and honest retail price ranges, reviewed 2026-04-21.
Blank	Your cost	Recommended retail
11oz white mug	$2.00 to $2.75	$14 to $19
15oz white mug	$2.75 to $3.50	$17 to $22
20oz stainless tumbler	$4.25 to $5.50	$24 to $32
30oz stainless tumbler	$6.00 to $7.50	$32 to $42
Adult polyester tee	$4.50 to $6.00	$22 to $32
Kids polyester tee	$3.50 to $4.50	$18 to $26
2-sided mouse pad	$1.75 to $2.50	$12 to $18
Aluminum keychain	$0.35 to $0.60	$6 to $10
Sublimation onesie	$3.00 to $4.25	$16 to $24
Ceramic ornament	$1.00 to $1.75	$10 to $15

What to do if your number looks off

Result feels too high. Check your labor minutes. A 20oz tumbler that takes 20 active minutes will always price high. Batching three tumblers cuts the per-unit time and usually drops the price by a buck or two.
Margin warning under 30%. Either the blank is too expensive, your press time is too long, or your margin slider is set too low. Open the “Show the math” panel and see which bucket is eating the price.
Labor is under $1 per unit. You almost certainly undercounted. The minimum honest labor line for a single sublimation piece is about $2, even on a well-batched run.
The premium price is lower than competitors. Raise your target margin. 55% is a floor for sublimation, not a ceiling.
You sell on Etsy and the price still feels competitive. Good. Now run that price through the Etsy fee calculator to see what you keep after Etsy takes its cut.

FAQs

Sources

Sawgrass SG500 ink yield and cartridge pricing, manufacturer-stated per-print cost, sawgrassink.com, reviewed 2026-04-21.
A-Sub sublimation paper pricing, per-sheet cost at case quantity, amazon.com listing history, reviewed 2026-04-21.
Etsy Fees & Payments Policy, transaction and payment processing rates, etsy.com/legal/fees, reviewed 2026-04-21.
US Energy Information Administration average residential kWh price by state, eia.gov/electricity, reviewed 2026-04-21.
Crafter Margin quarterly seller survey of 40 active sublimation sellers, methodology available at /methodology.

Is this right for you?

Selling on Etsy?

Once you have a price, see what Etsy actually leaves you after fees, payment processing, and optional offsite ads.

Open the Etsy fee calculator

Mostly tumblers?

Use the tumbler-specific calculator with presets for 20oz and 30oz, plus optional glitter and epoxy cost layers.

Open the tumbler calculator

Want to price your hour honestly?

Most sellers set their hourly rate by gut. The hourly rate calculator backs into a defensible number.

Find your hourly rate

Three real scenarios

See the same calculator pre-filled with seller inputs we actually use.

20oz full-wrap tumbler

Bulk blanks, full sublimation wrap, 55% margin.

Blank: $4.50
Ink + paper: $1.00
Total minutes: 13
Hourly rate: $25
Margin: 55%

Recommended$17.92

Covers costs, leaves over $6 in margin, and still sits in the Etsy midband.

11oz craft-fair mug

Round-dollar booth pricing for a fall fair.

Blank: $2.25
Ink + paper: $0.70
Total minutes: 8
Hourly rate: $25
Margin: 50%

Recommended$9.74

Price at $10 or bundle three for $30 to hit cash-sale conversion.

Adult tee bulk order

24 polyester tees for a youth-league coach.

Blank: $5.00
Ink + paper: $1.35
Total minutes: 7 (batched)
Hourly rate: $25
Margin: 45%

Recommended$13.93

Quote $14 flat, net about $105 after materials on the whole run.

Sublimation Pricing Calculator

Product and materials

Quick answer

How to use this calculator

Three real scenarios

20oz tumbler priced for Etsy

11oz mug priced for a craft fair

Bulk adult tees for a sports team

What goes into the price

Reference: typical costs and retails

What to do if your number looks off

FAQs

Sources

Selling on Etsy?

Mostly tumblers?

Want to price your hour honestly?

Three real scenarios

20oz full-wrap tumbler

11oz craft-fair mug

Adult tee bulk order

Read next

Tumbler Pricing Calculator

Etsy Fee Calculator

How to price sublimation shirts

Blank cost database