How to Price Paintings: Square Inch, Cost and Galleries

The common way to price original paintings is by size: a rate per square inch, width times height times the rate, so bigger work costs more and prices stay consistent across a body of work. It's simple and buyers understand it, but it ignores two things: the frame and hours under each piece, and the gallery's commission if a gallery sells it. A small painting priced by the square inch can be worth selling yourself and lose money through a gallery. In the example below, a 16-by-20 framed acrylic priced at $1.50 a square inch is $480, costs $345 in materials, frame and hours, leaves $120.60 sold directly and loses $105 through a gallery at 50%; covering its cost there takes $690. Below is the square-inch method, the cost underneath, galleries, small and large work, and a free calculator.

The short version

• Square-inch price = width × height × your rate; pick the rate from what your work sells for.
• Underneath, cost each piece: canvas, paint, varnish, frame, hardware and your hours.
• A gallery's commission comes off the price, not your profit; check what's left.
• Floor price = cost ÷ (1 − commission); use whichever is higher.
• Small pieces need a minimum price; framed pieces need the frame added.
• Keep the same price everywhere you sell, so galleries and buyers can trust it.
• TaroStack keeps prints, cards and supplies counted once your work becomes stock. More below.

The square-inch method

Cape Henlopen Studio, a made-up painter's studio in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, I use in these examples, prices originals at $1.50 a square inch:

Each price is rounded up to $10. The rate is the artist's choice, set by what similar work by the artist has sold for, and it rises as the work sells. Some painters use a linear-inch rate, width plus height, which grows more slowly with size and suits very large canvases.

The cost underneath

Selling directly, every piece leaves money after a 3% card fee. Through a gallery that keeps half the price, only the very large one does: the small study's hours are too many for its size, and the frames eat the medium and large pieces. How to put your own time into a price is in how to price handmade items.

Galleries and the floor price

A gallery's commission is a share of the retail price, so the floor is the cost divided by what's left after it: at 50%, the medium framed piece needs $345 ÷ 0.5 = $690. Rounded up to $10:

A gallery that holds work on consignment pays the artist when it sells, so the paintings on its walls are still yours, and still your stock to keep track of; how consignment works is in consignment inventory example. This plan sells the same piece at the same price in the studio and the gallery, so a buyer never finds it cheaper by going around the gallery.

Small and large work

The square-inch method is kindest to large paintings and hardest on small ones, because a small study can take as many hours as a medium piece. A minimum price for anything under a set size, $150 here, fixes that, as does a slightly higher rate for small work. Framed pieces carry their frame on top: either price the frame at its cost plus a margin, or sell unframed and let buyers frame. For prints and cards made from originals, the cost of each print is a different calculation, closer to cost plus pricing example.

Get the calculator

Download the painting pricing calculator. Type the size, your rate a square inch, materials, frame, hours, your hourly rate, the gallery's commission and your card fees. It works out the square-inch price, the cost, what's left selling it yourself and through a gallery, the floor price that covers the cost after commission, and the higher of the two. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Originals are one of a kind and a list of them is enough. It's when the work becomes stock, prints in three sizes, cards, calendars, originals at two galleries on consignment and a booth at art fairs, that a list falls behind: which prints are left, what's at which gallery, and what each line earns.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps prints, cards and supplies counted once your work becomes stock. Plainly: for a painter selling only originals, a list or the calculator is enough.

Prints and supplies as items. Each print size, card and frame is an item, counted on a phone, at the studio or the fair, and kept at what you paid.

Galleries as sites. Work at a gallery on consignment can sit at the gallery as its own site, moved there by transfer, so the studio, the fair booth and the galleries each show what they hold.

And what each line earns. Margins are reported by product and by customer, so prints, cards and originals, and each gallery, can be compared.

Counting, sites and margins by product and customer are on every plan, from $49 a month; up to three sites, the studio and two galleries for instance, are on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How do you price paintings by the square inch?

Multiply width by height for the square inches, then by your rate. In the example, a 16-by-20 painting at $1.50 a square inch is 320 × $1.50 = $480.

How should a beginner price paintings?

Start from the cost: materials, any frame and your hours at a fair rate, then check that a square-inch rate covers it, with a minimum price for small pieces. Raise the rate as work sells.

How do galleries affect painting prices?

A gallery's commission comes off the retail price. At 50%, a painting must be priced at twice its cost just to break even through the gallery; in the example, a framed 16-by-20 costing $345 needs $690.

Should I charge the same price online and in galleries?

Keeping one price everywhere protects the galleries that show your work and tells buyers the price is real. Price for the gallery's commission and sell at that price directly too.