Pottery Pricing Calculator Spreadsheet, Kiln Firing and Glaze Cost, Ceramics Business, Excel and Google Sheets

Know what to charge for every mug, plate, bowl and vase, and what you keep after Etsy fees. Type your clay and glaze at the price you paid, your kiln's watts and your minutes, and the sheet shows your retail price, wholesale price, profit after fees and profit per hour at the top, in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

The filled-in example: a 12 oz stoneware mug fired 24 to a load costs $19.34, including 33 paid minutes at $20 an hour, its share of the kiln's electricity and one in ten cracking. It sells for $42.00 retail or $21.00 wholesale (half the retail price, about what shops pay) and keeps $17.23 after Etsy fees and postage. Change any number and the price updates as you type.

Made for potters in the US who sell on Etsy, at craft fairs, from a home studio or wholesale to shops. Instant download for Excel and Google Sheets on a computer.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Price from your real supply costs: type the pack price, how much is in the pack and the unit. A 25 lb bag of stoneware clay for $32 becomes $1.28 a lb, a pint of brush-on glaze for $22 becomes $1.38 a fl oz, dry glaze mix bought by the lb can go into a recipe in oz.
- Price by the kiln load: type how many pieces of a design go in one load, then the minutes, the kiln hours and the clay and glaze for the whole load. Every cost comes out per piece.
- Count the kiln's electricity: type the watts on your kiln's label, the hours it draws full power for the bisque and glaze firings, and your price per kWh. It is shared over the pieces in the load.
- Count kiln wear: elements and shelves bought for about 150 firings become a cost per firing, and each load uses its firings.
- Fire at a community studio: a studio fee by the cubic inch ($0.06 per cu in) goes into the recipe like any other supply - leave the kiln watts at 0.
- Price in the pieces that crack: type the share you lose (10% = one in ten). The clay, glaze, your time and the kiln power of the cracked pieces are carried by the good ones - cost / (1 - failure rate).
- Time in three steps: make (wedge, throw or build, trim, add handles), glaze (wax, dip or brush, wipe) and finish (load and unload the kiln, sand the feet, inspect), in minutes.
- Decide whether the drying wait is paid: greenware dries for days while you do other things. Pay yourself 0% of that wait, 100% or anything between - the price shows the difference straight away.
- Pay yourself: your time x your hourly wage is part of the cost, so any profit is on top of your pay.
- Count every cost: packaging, shipping supplies, equipment wear per piece, and a share of your monthly costs (shop fees, studio share, insurance) spread over the pieces you make in a month.
- Price three ways: for a target profit (the share of the price you want to keep, 40% to start), with cost x multipliers (cost x 1.5 = wholesale, wholesale x 2 = retail to start, both yours to change), or check the price you charge now with "My price". With a target profit or My price, the wholesale price is half the retail price - about what shops pay - and a note shows when selling to shops at that price would lose money.
- See your Etsy fees line by line: transaction fee 6.5% of the item and the shipping you charge, payment processing 3% of what the buyer pays (including sales tax) + $0.25, and the $0.20 listing fee. Every rate is yours to change.
- Know your profit and your hourly earnings: profit after fees, profit as a % of the price, profit per hour, what you earn per hour with your wage, and your profit per piece when you sell wholesale.
- See every design on one Price List: cost, wholesale, retail, Etsy fees, postage, profit and profit per hour, side by side.
- Catch typing slips before you price: a missing number, text in a number cell, a zero pack size or amount, a number far too large, an hourly wage under $1 or kiln watts typed in kW (11.5 instead of 11500) turns red, and the price stays hidden until it is fixed. A fraction typed as 1/2 or a time typed as 4:30 turns red and asks for a decimal (0.5, 4.5). These turn orange so you can double-check: over 40 hours of work for one piece, a drying wait over 400 hours, a failure rate over 30%, kiln watts over 16,000, one piece using more than a whole pack, an item price over $1,500 (a unit or a price typed wrong), and a piece that loses money after fees.
- See what each material costs in one piece: the Pricing Calculator lists the biggest material lines of the design, biggest cost first, with the amount in one piece, its cost and its share, next to the recipe line and the pack as you typed them - so a wrong unit or a batch amount typed for one piece stands out. A short note above the Materials and Recipes tables and a tip on the pack price, pack size and amount cells say what to type: the whole pack, and the whole kiln load.

WHAT'S INCLUDED
- One spreadsheet file (.xlsx) for Excel, plus a PDF with your link to make your own copy in Google Sheets. Tabs: Start Here, Materials, Products, Recipes, Pricing Calculator, Price List, Units, Notes.
- Finished examples already filled in: a 12 oz stoneware mug fired 24 to a load ($42.00 retail, $21.00 wholesale, $17.23 profit after Etsy fees), a porcelain dinner plate ($74.00 retail, $29.66 profit), a gold luster trinket dish with a third firing ($29.00 retail, $12.00 profit) and a bud vase fired at a community studio ($55.00 retail, $22.02 profit). Replace the example prices with your own.
- Room for 50 materials, 25 designs and 200 recipe lines, with 12 units to pick from (lb, oz, g, kg, fl oz, ml, l, gal, cu in, piece, dozen, firing).
- Yellow cells are the only cells you fill in. In Excel, formula cells are locked to keep them safe from accidental edits; in your Google Sheets copy, typing over a formula shows a warning first.

HOW TO USE IT
1. Materials: type each supply once - the pack price, how much is in the pack and the unit.
2. Products and Recipes: on Products, one row per design with the pieces per kiln load, the minutes of each step, the drying wait, the kiln watts and hours, the share that cracks, packaging and postage. On Recipes, the clay, glaze and other supplies for the whole load.
3. Pricing Calculator: pick a design and set your hourly wage, how much of the drying wait you are paid for, monthly costs, electricity price, pricing method and Etsy fees. The retail price, wholesale price, profit after fees and profit per hour show at the top.

FAQ
How much should I charge for a handmade mug?
Add up the clay and glaze, your time at an hourly wage, the kiln firing, the pieces that crack, packaging, a share of your monthly costs and the Etsy fees, then set the price for the profit you want. In the example, a 12 oz stoneware mug fired 24 to a load costs $19.34 (33 paid minutes at $20 an hour and one in ten cracking included) and sells for $42.00 retail, priced for a 40% profit after Etsy fees and rounded up to the next dollar: $17.23 per mug.

How do I work out the kiln firing cost per piece?
Multiply the kiln's watts by the hours it draws full power and your price per kWh, then share it over the pieces in the load. In the example, an 11,500 W kiln for 9 hours (bisque and glaze firing together) at $0.18 per kWh costs $18.63 a load, $0.78 for each of 24 mugs - $0.86 once the cracked ones are carried. Kiln element and shelf wear ($2.00 a firing in the example) is added on the recipe.

How do I price in pieces that crack in the kiln?
Type the share you lose on the Products sheet. A cracked mug took the same clay, glaze, time and kiln space, so the good pieces carry it: cost / (1 - failure rate). In the example, the mug is $39.00 when nothing cracks and $42.00 when one in ten cracks.

Should I charge for drying time?
That is your choice, and the calculator shows both. With the drying wait at 0%, only your hands-on time is paid: the example mug is $42.00. Paying yourself 10% of its 120-hour drying wait, shared over the 24 mugs in the load, gives $64.00.

How do I price pottery fired at a community studio?
Type the studio's firing fee as a supply by the cubic inch ($60 for 1,000 cu in = $0.06 per cu in) and add the space your pieces take to the recipe. In the example, six bud vases take 360 cu in - $21.60, or $3.60 a vase - and sell for $55.00 retail with $22.02 profit after Etsy fees. The kiln watts stay at 0.

What should I charge shops wholesale for pottery?
Shops usually pay about half the retail price, so with a target profit or My price the wholesale price is half the retail price. For the example mug, $21.00 wholesale leaves $1.66 over all your costs and your wage when a shop buys it - thin for a big order. If you sell a lot to shops, pick "Cost x multipliers": cost x 1.5 = $30.00 wholesale and wholesale x 2 = $60.00 retail, which leaves $10.66 a mug sold wholesale and $33.48 after Etsy fees sold on Etsy. Both multipliers are yours to change.

How much profit do I make after Etsy fees?
The calculator works out each fee on what it is charged on. For the example mug at $42.00 with $9.50 shipping and 7% sales tax, Etsy fees come to $5.43 and the profit after fees, postage and all costs is $17.23 - $31.01 for each hour of work on top of your $20 wage.

Is the price I charge now high enough?
Type it in the My price column on the Products sheet and pick "My price". You see the profit after fees, the margin and what you earn per hour at that price, and the status line at the top turns orange if the price is below your cost or loses money after fees.

Can I offer free shipping?
Yes. Type $0 for the shipping you charge. The postage you pay stays a cost, and the transaction fee is then only on the item price.

Does it work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Your download includes a PDF with a link: click it and Google Sheets makes your own copy, no upload needed. In my checks, with the same numbers typed in, every price and check gave the same result in Google Sheets as in Excel, and the dropdown lists and the red and orange checks carry over. In Google Sheets, fill only the yellow cells and type decimals such as 0.5, not fractions such as 1/2.

HOW TO DOWNLOAD
After you buy, open etsy.com in a web browser (computer recommended), go to Purchases and reviews, and click Download Files. Digital files cannot be downloaded in the Etsy app.
- Microsoft Excel: open the .xlsx file in Excel on a computer.
- Google Sheets: open the PDF in your download, click Make my copy in Google Sheets, then click Make a copy. The copy is saved in your Google Drive. A free Google account is enough. (You can also upload the .xlsx at drive.google.com: New > File upload, then right-click it > Open with > Google Sheets.)

LIMITATIONS
- Instant digital download. Nothing is shipped. No pottery patterns, glaze recipes or designs are included - this is a pricing spreadsheet.
- Needs Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets on a computer.
- Made in Microsoft Excel and checked in Google Sheets.
- Not tested in Excel on the web, Excel for Mac, Numbers or the Google Sheets phone app.
- In Google Sheets, formula cells are not locked as they are in Excel. The copy from your link warns you before you type over a formula; an uploaded .xlsx does not, so fill only the yellow cells.
- US dollars. Units convert within the same kind (weight, volume, count, firings); a weight can't be turned into a volume.
- Kiln power is worked out for an electric kiln (watts x hours). For a gas kiln, add the fuel as a supply per firing.
- Prices assume one piece per order; with several pieces in one order, the shipping, the $0.25 fixed fee and the postage are shared, so each piece keeps a little more.
- Room for 50 materials, 25 designs and 200 recipe lines.
- It is a pricing tool, not an inventory, firing log or bookkeeping file.
- Etsy fees and the sales tax rate in the file are examples (Etsy US fees as published in Oct 2026; Offsite Ads, Etsy Ads, currency conversion, shipping labels and fees in other countries not included). Check your own shop and your local sales tax rate.
- Example supply prices, times, kiln watts and hours, failure rates and costs are examples. Replace them with your own.
- For use in your own business. Please do not resell or share the file.
- Because this is a digital download, returns and exchanges are not accepted.

Something not working, or a question? Send me a message on Etsy anytime - I'm happy to help.

This spreadsheet was designed by CraftCostSheets and built with the help of AI tools, then checked in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets.