How to Price Your Tufted Work

October 03, 2026

Pricing your work is one of the hardest things about selling handmade goods — and it's consistently the most-discussed topic in the tufting community. Here's how to think about it.

Why Tufted Rugs Are Hard to Price

The challenge is that tufting is both materials-intensive and time-intensive. A large rug might take 10+ hours and $80 in materials — and then there's the time you spent designing, finishing, and handling. Getting to a number that covers your costs and values your labor fairly is genuinely difficult.

The Two Main Approaches

Cost-Plus Pricing

Add up your total costs — materials (yarn, cloth, adhesive, backing), a proportional share of your equipment costs, and packaging — then multiply by a margin that covers your overhead and provides profit. A common craft seller multiplier is 2–3× your materials cost, but for labor-intensive work like tufting, you often need to go higher.

Time-Based Pricing

Determine an hourly rate you want to earn, track your hours on a piece, then add that to your materials cost. This is more accurate but requires honest time-tracking.

TTW's Rug Pricing Calculator

TTW built an online pricing calculator, priceyourcraft.com, after years of selling rugs. It's free to test, then $0.99/month. You can enter your rug's dimensions and it will estimate yarn requirements, calculate material costs, and help you arrive at a price. It also has an image-upload feature that estimates yarn needs based on your design. This is the fastest way to get a baseline number.

Community-Tested Advice

The TTW community has shared a lot of wisdom on pricing over the years:

• Don't underprice yourself — underpriced handmade goods devalue the craft for everyone
• Floor rugs command higher prices than wall art because buyers understand they'll last for years
• Custom work should cost more — add a premium for the design time and the one-of-a-kind nature
• Know your market — prices that work at a craft fair differ from prices in an online shop

Custom Rugs Made by Tuft the World

Want us to make a rug for you? We tuft custom rugs with our CNC machine. As an example, a detailed design in low pile (12–18mm) has been quoted at about $35 per square foot, including custom-dyed colors and all finishing. Email us your design for a quote.

• Detail limits: areas smaller than 4 × 4mm, and lines narrower than 4mm, won't be tufted by the CNC. Usually this isn't noticeable, because the surrounding areas fill in.
• Preview: we can run your design through our CAD software to show you the output.
• Samples: we can tuft an 18" × 18" sample for $60.

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