POD Profit Calculator - Provider Quotes, Fees & Margin
Estimate print-on-demand profit using actual product and shipping costs, channel fees, subscriptions, ads and full-refund assumptions.
By Marginory teamContent reviewed
POD Provider
Approximate costs (US domestic, June 2025). Verify on provider site.
Selling Platform
US seller using Etsy Payments. Listing fee ($0.20) treated separately. Offsite Ads fee not included — add 12% or 15% if applicable.
Costs & Pricing
For Shopify include your plan cost divided by expected orders. Product quotes are illustrative; replace with your current provider quote.
0, 15 or 12 percent; $100 USD cap modeled.
Full refunds assumed; product, shipping, fees and ads remain paid.
Profit Breakdown
Pricing targets
Compare two scenarios
Save A, change your inputs, then save B. Snapshots remain here until this page reloads.
Scenario A
No snapshot saved.
Scenario B
No snapshot saved.
Worked example: the same shirt on three platforms
A $29.99 t-shirt with free shipping and a $16.30 reference Printify cost. Shopify assumes 100 orders a month on Basic; TikTok Shop assumes a 10% creator commission.
| Etsy | Shopify | TikTok Shop | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform fees | −$3.30 | −$1.56 | −$4.80 |
| Profit before ads | $10.39 | $12.13 | $8.89 |
Shopify keeps the most per order but brings no traffic of its own; subtract your ad cost per sale from its column before comparing.
Cost inputs are illustrative; fees are calculated with the same rates as the calculator above.
Use a provider quote, not a product average
Select a sample preset only as a starting point. Match SKU, variant, print placements, destination, shipping method and applicable tax to your provider quote. Sample catalog amounts are not current price evidence. Subscription discounts are not automatically applied to every product; enter the eligible quoted amount after discount.
Selling channel fees remain separate
The Etsy preset models basic US transaction, processing and listing charges, plus your entered attributed Offsite Ads rate with a $100 cap. Shopify Basic uses the US online-card reference; plan and provider subscription allocation are separate costs. Other / Custom lets you enter actual flat percentage and fixed charges.
Worked order
Hypothetical $30 item with free shipping, $12 quoted product, $5 paid postage and basic US Etsy fees of $3.30 produces $9.70 contribution before ads, subscription allocation and refunds. At an assumed 15% attributed Offsite Ads rate, the extra $4.50 charge lowers it to $5.20. At $3 ads per order without Offsite Ads, contribution is $6.70.
Subscriptions and zero volume
Enter subscription cost allocated per fulfilled order using your chosen volume. A $39 monthly plan allocated over 30 orders is $1.30 per order; at 10 orders it is $3.90. This unit model does not deduct a fixed monthly invoice when there are no orders, so evaluate zero-volume risk and annual commitments in a separate budget or the provider comparison.
Full refunds retain real costs
The generic refund assumption removes refunded seller revenue while keeping original product, postage, ads and fees. No recovery or automatic credit is assumed in this POD profile. Provider defect replacements and buyer-remorse refunds are different situations; use the actual refund policy and cost instead of a universal return percentage.
Interpret the result
Break-even and target-margin prices use the same costs and fee assumptions. Save A and B before changing a cost to compare the dollar effect. Buyer-tax processing, country-specific regulatory fees, external Shopify gateways and other fee schedules require dedicated tools or actual custom inputs. No provider is ranked by these sample defaults. If the contribution here is under a few dollars an order, read is Printify worth it? before scaling the product.
Sources and model scope
Printify pricing. Printful pricing. Etsy fee policy. Use current account rates and actual quotes. Source reference dates and hypothetical costs are separate from content review. Our methodology.
Review the market, fee bases and exclusions shown with this tool. Published rates and illustrative cost inputs have different certainty. Compare your breakdown with an actual order statement. Sources and methodology.