Invoice Generator / T-shirt dropshipping calculator
T-shirt dropshipping calculator
In short: add the blank, the print, both shipping legs and every percentage fee, and see the profit you actually keep per shirt — plus the break-even price and the price a target margin needs.
A $4 shirt is not a $4 cost. Printing, freight, commission, payment fees and returns decide whether a t-shirt listing makes money. This page adds them up and shows both the landed cost and the price your margin needs.
Reference values only — blank costs, freight and platform fees move with the supplier, the product and the month. Confirm each figure with your own quote; the result uses only the numbers you type.
- Landed cost per unit
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- Fees per unit
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- Net profit per unit
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- Profit margin
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- Break-even price
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- Price for target margin
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A t-shirt sold through print on demand and a t-shirt printed from blanks bought on 1688 end in the same arithmetic: one printed unit, one customer, and a set of costs that arrive from different directions. The fields follow the order the money leaves your account — blank, print, the domestic leg, the international leg — then the percentages the marketplace and the ad account take from the price.
How the maths works
Reference values you can replace
Start from these rounded planning ranges, then overwrite every one of them with your supplier quote and your marketplace fee schedule. The calculator has no built-in fees: it only uses the numbers on the left.
| Item | Typical range | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Blank t-shirt (midweight cotton) | $3.00–$6.00 (or ¥12–¥30 at 1688) | Heavier cotton costs more to buy and to ship |
| One print placement (DTG / DTF) | $2.00–$5.00 | Number of colours and size of the print area |
| Domestic shipping to the printer | $0.50–$2.00 | Single parcels cost more than a consolidated batch |
| International shipping, per shirt | $4.00–$9.00 | Route and speed; usually the biggest single lever |
| Platform commission | 0%–15% | Your own store is near zero; marketplaces take 5%–15% |
| Payment processing | 2.5%–4% | Card processors add a small fixed fee per order too |
| Ad spend, % of price | 10%–25% | Cold traffic costs more than retargeting |
| Returns and refunds | 2%–10% | Apparel runs high; sizing is the usual reason |
Rounded industry ranges for planning, reviewed in 2026 — not quotes. Freight in particular changes month to month, which is why the field is editable.
What the result leaves out
Sales tax, VAT and import duty are not in the figures: taxes are collected from the buyer and remitted, they are not a cost of the shirt. The estimate also excludes chargeback fees, the cost of the return leg when a shirt comes back, damaged or lost parcels, print-on-demand subscription fees, and any spread your bank adds on top of the exchange rate you typed. Each is small per unit; together they are usually one to three percentage points of margin.
Reading the two prices
Break-even is the floor: at that price the order pays for itself and nothing more. The suggested price is the landed cost divided by the share of the price left after every percentage fee, the return allowance and the target margin — so a 30% target is not a 30% markup on cost, it is 30% of the sale price. When the target is too ambitious for your fee stack, the page says so instead of printing a negative price.
Questions
How do I calculate t-shirt dropshipping profit?
Add the blank, the print and both shipping legs to get the landed cost per unit, convert it at the rate you actually pay, then subtract the platform commission, the payment fee and the ad spend from the price, and allow for refunded orders. What is left is the profit per unit; this page does that arithmetic in your browser.
Which costs do most sellers forget?
The two that decide the margin are the international shipping leg and the ad allowance: a shirt that looks profitable at $28.99 stops being profitable at $8 freight plus 20% ad spend. Payment processing and returns are the next two, and both scale with the price rather than with your cost.
Is the calculator free and private?
Yes. It runs in your browser and makes no request that carries your numbers anywhere. There is no account, no email gate and no watermark on the result.
Does it work for Printful, Printify or a 1688 supplier?
For a print-on-demand supplier, put its base cost in blank cost and set print cost to zero when the base price already includes one print placement, then add the shipping it charges. For blanks bought on 1688, type the yuan figures and your exchange rate and the landed cost converts to your store currency. This page is independent and not affiliated with any supplier.
Why is the suggested price higher than the break-even price?
Break-even is the price where profit is exactly zero. The suggested price adds the margin you picked on top: price = landed cost / (1 − return rate − commission − payment − ads − target margin). A higher target raises the price you need; it does not raise what customers will pay.