Event ticket price
calculator

Work out what to charge before you announce. Enter your costs, capacity and the profit you want, and get a ticket price, a break-even point and early bird tiers that add up.

Free to use. No signup required.

Fixed costs$4,500
Tickets
Tickets you expect to sell75% · 210
30% (cautious)100% (sell-out)
Your goal
Taxes

Add VAT, GST or sales tax if you have to charge it on admissions. Leave this empty if you are not registered.

Charge per ticket$30to make $1,500, selling 210 of 280 ticketsBreak-even price: $23 · exact target $29.76
Tickets to break even15756% of what you can sell
Buyer pays$30.98incl. $0.98 in fees
You keep$28.80per ticket, after deductions
$1$90

Profit at $30 if you sell

50% · 140 tickets−$468
75% · 210 tickets (your estimate)$1,548
100% · 280 tickets$3,564

Suggested tiers

Early bird$2442 ticketsFirst 20%, to get momentum
General$30105 ticketsThe price you advertise
Final release$3463 ticketsLast 30%, when demand is proven

Together these bring in the same money as 210 tickets at $30.

Where each ticket goes

Buyer pays$30.98
Booking fee (paid by buyer)−$0.98
Card processing (est.)−$1.20
You keep$28.80
Share of fixed costs−$21.43
Profit per ticket$7.37

The same ticket on Eventbrite

Hi.Events · 1.25% + $0.60$0.98
Eventbrite · 3.7% + $1.79$2.90
Buyers save on Hi.Events$1.92

Across 210 tickets that is $403 your audience does not spend on fees. Platform fees only. Compare in detail →

What these numbers are telling you

  • Every $500 of sponsorship, bar income or grant funding takes about $2.45 off the price each buyer needs to pay. Add it under Other income.
  • Buyers see $30 plus a $0.98 booking fee. If you would rather show one clean price and absorb the fee, charge $31 to make the same money.
  • Your 20 free tickets are $600 of seats you are not selling. The price above already pays for them, so keep the list tight.
Saved in your browser. The link carries your numbers, so a co-promoter sees the same plan.

This is a planning estimate. It prices your costs, not your market. Check what comparable events near you charge before you announce. Competitor fees are as published at the time of writing, and tax figures are a prompt to ask an accountant, not advice.

§ 01 · The method

How to price event tickets, in four steps

The ticket price formula is simple: costs plus profit, divided by the tickets you will actually sell, then adjusted for what is taken off before the money reaches you.

  1. 01

    Add up the costs

    Fixed costs you pay whatever happens, plus per-guest costs for everyone through the door, comps included.

  2. 02

    Be honest about sales

    Divide by the tickets you expect to sell, not by capacity. Seventy to eighty percent is a sane default.

  3. 03

    Add your profit

    A fixed amount, a margin on takings, or nothing at all if breaking even is the goal.

  4. 04

    Price in the deductions

    Your platform's fees if you absorb them, card processing and tax all come out before the money reaches you.

Ticket price = (fixed costs + per-guest costs + profit) ÷ expected tickets sold, grossed up for fees and tax

§ 02 · In Hi.Events

Turn the plan into tickets on sale

Set up early bird, general and final release tiers with their own quantities and sale dates, choose whether buyers or you pay the booking fee, and watch sales against your break-even number as they come in.

Tiered and early bird tickets
Promo codes and hidden tickets
Live sales against your target
Create these tiers →
§ 03 · FAQ

Frequently asked questions about ticket pricing

How do I work out what to charge for event tickets?
Add up every fixed cost (venue, talent, production, marketing, staff, insurance), add the per-guest costs for the number of people you expect, then add the profit you want. Divide that total by the number of tickets you realistically expect to sell, not by your capacity. Finally, account for anything that comes out of the ticket before it reaches you: the fees your ticketing platform charges, if you absorb them, card processing, and VAT or sales tax. This ticket price calculator does each of those steps and rounds the answer up to a price people actually charge.
What is a break-even ticket price?
The break-even ticket price is the lowest price at which your expected sales cover all of your costs, leaving no profit and no loss. The formula is total costs divided by expected tickets sold, adjusted for fees and tax. It is the floor, not the target: charge below it and the event loses money even if sales go to plan. The calculator also shows break-even the other way round, as the number of tickets you must sell at your chosen price.
What sell-through rate should I assume?
Plan on selling 70 to 80 percent of your sellable tickets unless you have a track record that says otherwise. Pricing for a sell-out is the most common way events lose money, because every unsold ticket then comes straight out of your profit. A first event, a new venue, or a weeknight should lean lower. If you regularly sell out in advance, 90 percent is reasonable and your price is probably too low.
Should I pass the booking fee on to the buyer or absorb it?
Most organizers pass it on: the buyer sees the ticket price plus a small booking fee, and you keep the full ticket price. Absorbing the fee gives buyers one clean number, which can help conversion for low-priced tickets, but you need to charge a little more to make the same money. Either way, the size of the fee matters more than who pays it. Hi.Events charges 1.25 percent plus a small fixed fee, so the gap between the two options is small, and the calculator shows both prices.
How do ticketing platform fees change my ticket price?
Every platform takes a fee per ticket, usually a percentage plus a fixed amount, and it lands on either the buyer or you. Choose your platform in the calculator to use its published fee (Hi.Events, Eventbrite, Resident Advisor at its last known rate, and Skiddle and Fatsoma in the UK), or enter your own rate for DICE or any other platform whose fee depends on your deal. At 1.25 percent plus a small fixed fee, Hi.Events is the default. The comparison card shows what the same ticket would cost in fees elsewhere, per ticket and across your expected sales.
How much cheaper should early bird tickets be?
Around 15 to 25 percent below your general price, limited to the first 20 percent or so of tickets. That is enough to reward people who commit early and to give you momentum and cash flow, without training your audience to wait for discounts. The tiers in this calculator are solved so that early bird, general and final release together bring in the same money as selling every ticket at your target price.
How many free or guest list tickets can I afford?
Keep comps under 10 percent of capacity and count them before you set a price. A free ticket is not free to you: it takes a seat you could have sold, and at events with catering it also costs you the per-guest spend. The calculator removes comps from the tickets you can sell and adds their per-guest cost to the total, so the price already pays for them.
Do I need to include VAT or sales tax in my ticket price?
If you are registered for VAT or required to collect sales tax on admissions, the tax is part of what the buyer pays but not part of what you keep. Add it under Taxes and choose how it is charged: included in the advertised price, as with VAT and GST, which means your price has to be higher to leave you the same money, or added at checkout, as with US sales tax, which leaves your price alone and raises what the buyer pays. You can add more than one, for a state and a city tax for example. Rules vary by country, by state and by the type of event, and some cultural and charitable events are exempt, so check with an accountant before relying on any figure.
What if the price the calculator suggests seems too high?
Then the event as budgeted does not work at that size, and it is better to find out now. You have four levers: cut fixed costs, reduce per-guest costs, bring in sponsorship or bar income, or sell more tickets through a bigger venue or a longer sales window. The suggestions under the calculator show how much each change moves the price. Checking what comparable events charge will tell you whether the market will bear your number.

How this ticket price calculator works

This free event ticket price calculator works backwards from your budget. It totals your fixed and per-guest costs, adds the profit you want, and divides by the tickets you expect to sell rather than by capacity. It takes off any sponsorship or other income, then prices in your ticketing platform’s fees, card processing and any taxes you add to give a ticket price, a break-even price, and the number of tickets you need to sell. It also suggests early bird and final release tiers that bring in the same money, and shows your profit or loss if sales come in lower or higher than planned. Figures are estimates for planning, not financial or tax advice.

Priced it? Put it on sale

Create your event, add your tiers and share the link. Buyers pay a small booking fee or you absorb it, and there is no monthly fee either way.

Get started free

Free events cost nothing. Paid tickets are 1.25% + $0.60, with no monthly fee and no contract — see the full pricing.