How Much Does It Cost to Start Print on Demand? 3 Budgets

Starting print on demand costs $0 to design and set up a free supplier account, and about $17 to go live on Etsy, because you never buy inventory. A realistic budget for the first months is about $100 if you want samples and a design tool, and about $500 if you also want to pay for test ads. The only costs you can’t skip are marketplace fees, and supplier plans, design tools and ads are all optional.

For what each product costs and what to charge, see print on demand pricing. This post is about the startup budget itself.

The three budgets at a glance

The Etsy and supplier numbers below are sourced fees. The splits for samples, tools and ads are my suggested allowances, not fees, so treat them as caps you set for yourself.

	Bare minimum	About $100	About $500
Etsy set-up fee (if it applies)	$15	$15	$15
Listing fees ($0.20 each)	$2 (10 listings)	$10 (50 listings)	$20 (100 listings)
Supplier plan	Free plan	Free plan	Free plan
Samples	None	About $30 allowance	About $100 allowance
Design tools and ad creative	Free tools	About $25 allowance	About $115 allowance
Test ads	None	About $20 allowance	About $250 allowance
Total	about $17	about $100	about $500

Nothing in that table is inventory, a warehouse or a subscription you’re forced to take. Here’s the reasoning behind each line.

Inventory costs $0

The supplier prints each item after a customer orders it and ships it for you. The product cost comes out of each sale, not your savings. So a design that doesn’t sell costs you the minutes you spent making it and twenty cents to list it. That tiny cost per test is why POD is a reasonable thing to start with little money. It’s also why most of the real cost is your time, not your cash.

Marketplace costs: what Etsy charges

If you sell on Etsy, these are the fees to plan for:

One-time set-up fee. Etsy charges some new shops a one-time $15 set-up fee before they can open, and tells you during set-up whether it applies to you. Some third-party guides say it runs higher in other regions, so check what your own set-up screen shows. New shops also verify identity with a photo ID and a selfie, checked by a company called Persona. That’s a step, not a fee, but do it before you plan to launch.
$0.20 per listing. Etsy’s fees page lists it as $0.20 per item listed. According to eRank’s fee guide, each $0.20 keeps a listing active for 4 months, and you pay whether or not it sells.
6.5% transaction fee on the item price plus shipping and gift wrap, per eRank’s fee guide.
Payment processing. In the US it’s 3% plus $0.25 per order, and it varies by country, per eRank.
Offsite Ads fee. On orders that come from an Etsy Offsite Ad, Etsy takes 12% or 15% of the order total. Per Craftybase’s breakdown, shops under $10K in sales over the last 12 months pay 15% and can opt out. Above $10K it’s 12% and you can’t opt out.
Etsy Plus (optional). $10 a month. Skip it at the start.

Opening a shop and publishing ten designs is about $15 plus $2, so $17. The percentage fees only apply when you make a sale.

You don’t have to start on Etsy. Shopify is the other common route, but it has a monthly plan fee and sources disagree on the exact numbers, so check Shopify’s pricing page before you count it. For a first test of whether designs sell, a marketplace with no monthly plan is the cheaper way to find out.

Supplier costs: free plans, samples and when to upgrade

Both big suppliers let you start for $0. You pay the product cost per order after a customer buys.

Printful has a Free plan at $0 a month that includes its Design Maker and Mockup Generator. The Growth plan is $24.99 a month, becomes free once you reach $12K a year in sales, and gives up to 33% off product prices and 25% off sample orders.
Printify has a free plan, so you can start with no upfront cost. Premium went from $29 to $39 a month on February 17, 2026, and the annual plan stays at $299 a year, according to Printify’s announcement. It gives up to 20% off products.

When an upgrade pays off. It’s simple division. The discounts are “up to”, so these are best-case numbers. At 20% off, Printify Premium’s $39 only breaks even once you spend about $195 a month on product costs ($39 divided by 0.20). At 33% off, Printful Growth’s $24.99 breaks even at about $76 a month. A new shop with a handful of orders is nowhere near either number. Stay on the free plan until your monthly product spend clearly beats the fee. Many competing guides still quote the old $29 Premium price, so check before you budget from them.

Samples: the rules most guides leave out

Ordering a sample of your own product is the one supplier cost I’d always pay for. You want to see the print quality and the real product before you advertise it. The rules differ:

Printful gives 20% off sample orders. Eligible accounts start with 1 sample order a month, up to 3 items per order. You only get sample orders if a store is connected, and they become available the month after you connect it. Samples can’t be resold, and they may not be available on every account. So connect your store early, even before you’re ready to launch.
Printify doesn’t offer free samples. Samples are charged at regular prices, and Premium members get their discounted base prices but no extra sample discount. You order one from My Products or Orders, then Create order, then Sample.

I haven’t put a dollar figure on a sample because it depends on the product and the supplier’s base price. Look up the base price of the exact product in the supplier’s catalog, then add shipping at checkout. For the $100 budget, I’d cap samples at two or three items. For $500, five or six.

Design tool costs

You need print-ready designs, and the range runs from free to a modest monthly subscription. I’m not quoting tool prices here because they change often, so check each tool’s pricing page before you commit.

The principle that keeps costs down: one image generator plus a way to get a clean transparent file covers most sellers. You don’t need five subscriptions. The step-by-step stack is in AI tools for print on demand.

If you’d rather pay for one thing, LzyPOD turns a prompt into a transparent design up to 4K, and turns a supplier product photo into a set of lifestyle mockups for 3 credits. A free account gets 15 credits, enough for a few mockup sets, but not a video ad. The credit prices are on the pricing page.

One flow note: LzyPOD doesn’t place your design onto a blank product. You create the product at Printful or Printify first, then bring the product photo back for the lifestyle scenes.

Test ads and ad creative

This is the one line that can really grow, and it’s optional. Etsy Ads are pay-per-click with a daily budget you set, per Craftybase. I couldn’t verify current minimum daily budgets for Etsy, Meta or TikTok, so set a small daily budget and use the minimum shown in each Ads Manager.

Two things I’d budget separately:

Ad spend. The money that buys clicks. Decide the total cap before you start, such as the $20 or $250 in the table, and stop when it’s gone.
Ad creative. The images or video the ad actually shows. Most budget guides forget this. Lifestyle mockups help both your listing and your ads. If you want a finished 15 to 20 second video ad, LzyPOD’s Video Ads cost 25, 45 or 60 credits depending on motion. A free account’s 15 credits won’t cover one, so that’s a paid line item.

Don’t start ad spend until a sample looks good and the listing is live.

What I’d spend first

Order of spending, cheapest and most informative first:

Open free supplier accounts and make one finished design end to end.
Pay the Etsy set-up fee (if it applies) and open the shop.
Connect the shop to your supplier so samples unlock (Printful makes them available the month after you connect).
List your first ten designs.
Order a sample of the product you’d advertise, the following month if you’re on Printful.
Only then add a design tool subscription or ad money.

Fixed costs stay near zero until something is clearly selling.

Common questions

Can you start print on demand with no money?

You can design and set up a free supplier account for $0, since both Printful and Printify have free plans. To sell on Etsy you may pay the $15 set-up fee and will pay $0.20 per listing, so about $17 to go live with ten listings if the fee applies.

Is print on demand expensive to start?

No. There’s no inventory, so the required spend is Etsy’s fees. The cost that adds up is optional: samples, design tools and test ads, and that’s why a $100 or $500 budget is plenty.

Do I need Shopify to start print on demand?

No. You can start on Etsy with no monthly plan fee. Shopify charges a monthly plan, so check its pricing page and only add it once you have a reason to run your own store.

Should I pay for Printify Premium or Printful Growth at the start?

Not at the start. The discounts are “up to” 20% (Premium, $39 a month) and up to 33% (Growth, $24.99 a month). They only pay off once your monthly product spend is roughly $195 or $76 respectively, and a new shop is far below that.

How much should I budget for samples and test ads?

I’d cap samples at two or three items for a $100 budget and five or six for $500, then add ad money only after a sample looks good. Samples are charged at the supplier’s product price (Printful gives 20% off, Printify none), and ad minimums vary, so check each Ads Manager.