Garment Cost Calculator
The most comprehensive free garment cost calculator for fashion — covering fabric yield, CMT, freight, duty, and full pricing output in one tool.
This garment cost calculator is built for fashion designers, buyers, founders, and merchandisers who need accurate landed cost per unit before setting prices. To get started, enter your order quantity, fabric details, and production costs below. The calculator accounts for fabric wastage, duty on FOB, and split freight. Furthermore, it gives you pricing outputs across wholesale, RRP, and DTC channels simultaneously. Press Calculate to see your full cost breakdown and suggested prices instantly.
Enter your garment cost details
Order details
Fabric cost
Production costs (per unit)
Freight (total order cost — divided by units automatically)
Duty & agent costs
Pricing method and sales channel
Pricing method
Sales channel
Cost breakdown
Suggested pricing
Garment Cost Calculator — Key Formulas
The garment cost calculator above uses these formulas to build your landed cost. Understanding each one helps you identify where costs can be reduced and where margins are at risk.
Garment Cost Calculator — Worked Examples
Four real-world garment costing scenarios showing how landed cost is built from fabric through to RRP. Furthermore, use these to sense-check your own numbers against industry norms.
Garment Costing Benchmarks by Fashion Category
Typical cost structures vary significantly across categories. Therefore, use these benchmarks alongside the garment cost calculator to sense-check your own breakdown before finalising prices.
| Category | Fabric % of cost | CMT % of cost | Typical wastage | Typical duty | Landed vs FOB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Womenswear (woven) | 45–55% | 25–35% | 12–18% | 8–12% | +20–30% |
| Knitwear | 50–60% | 20–30% | 8–12% | 10–15% | +25–35% |
| Activewear | 40–50% | 25–35% | 8–12% | 5–10% | +18–25% |
| Outerwear | 55–65% | 20–28% | 15–22% | 10–14% | +20–30% |
| Basics / Jersey | 40–50% | 25–35% | 8–14% | 5–8% | +15–22% |
| Denim | 45–55% | 22–30% | 10–15% | 8–12% | +18–25% |
| Accessories (fabric) | 30–45% | 20–30% | 15–25% | 5–10% | +15–22% |
Apparel Costing in Practice — How to Use Your Results
A garment cost calculator is useful far beyond just setting a price. In fact, here are five situations where accurate costing has the biggest commercial impact.
Garment Cost Calculator — FAQs
Direct answers to the most common questions about garment costing in fashion — written for designers, buyers, founders, and students.
Garment cost calculator fundamentals
A garment cost calculator is used to calculate the true landed cost per unit of a garment — that is, the total cost of producing and delivering a style to your warehouse, ready for sale. It accounts for all cost components including fabric, CMT, trims, freight, duty, and agent fees.
In fashion, the landed cost is the foundation of all pricing decisions. Without an accurate landed cost, you cannot reliably calculate wholesale price, RRP, or gross margin. Furthermore, a garment cost calculator helps identify which cost components are driving your price up, so you can negotiate or redesign more effectively.
FOB stands for Free on Board. In fashion, FOB cost is the price you pay the factory for the finished garment, ready to be loaded onto the ship at the origin port. It includes fabric, CMT, trims, and packaging — but does not include international freight, duty, or any costs incurred after the goods leave the factory.
FOB cost is important because duty and agent commission are typically calculated as a percentage of FOB, not the total landed cost. As a result, your garment cost calculator should always separate FOB from landed cost to ensure accurate duty calculations.
Fabric yield, wastage, and garment costing accuracy
Fabric wastage refers to the percentage of fabric that cannot be used during the cutting process due to pattern placement, selvedges, and end-of-roll offcuts. In apparel manufacturing, typical wastage rates range from 8% for simple jersey styles to 20% or more for complex woven patterns.
Wastage matters because it directly increases the true fabric cost per garment. For example, if you need 1.5 metres of fabric per garment but your yield efficiency is only 85%, your actual fabric consumption is 1.5 divided by 0.85, which equals 1.76 metres. Therefore, ignoring wastage can significantly understate your cost and overstate your margin.
There are several practical approaches to reducing fabric wastage. First, work with your pattern maker to optimise the marker layout — small adjustments to pattern pieces can sometimes reduce wastage by 3–5 percentage points. Second, consider fabric width when sourcing; wider fabrics often yield better efficiency.
In addition, off-cuts can sometimes be used for trims, patches, or secondary styles, effectively recovering cost from waste. Furthermore, digital marker planning software used by CMT factories can provide accurate wastage estimates before you commit to a bulk order, giving you more reliable inputs for your garment cost calculator.
Pricing methods for fashion garment costing
Keystone pricing is a simple method where the wholesale price is set at double the landed cost — a 100% markup, which equals a 50% gross margin. It is a common starting point in fashion wholesale because it is easy to apply consistently across a range and gives the retailer a reasonable margin to work with.
However, keystone pricing does not account for category differences, market positioning, or the retailer's own margin requirements. As a result, many brands use margin-based or markup-based pricing instead, which gives more control over the full price architecture from cost through to RRP.
Order quantity has a significant impact on landed cost per unit, primarily through freight. International and domestic freight costs are largely fixed per shipment regardless of how many units are in the order. Therefore, doubling your order quantity roughly halves your freight cost per unit.
In addition, larger orders often attract lower fabric prices and CMT rates from suppliers, as factories prefer longer production runs. Furthermore, duty is calculated as a percentage of FOB cost and does not change with volume — making freight the primary lever for reducing landed cost through scale.
More Fashion Retail Calculators
Free tools from the Modanomics fashion business toolkit — no sign-up required.
Watch: Garment Cost Calculator Walkthrough
A practical walkthrough of garment costing for fashion designers and founders — covering fabric yield, FOB, duty, and landed cost in plain English.
Free Resource · Modanomics
Get the Garment
Costing Template
A free PDF costing sheet and companion guide to this garment cost calculator — includes a BOM template, duty rate reference table, and fabric yield guide.
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