Channel letter pricing calculator

For shops pricing a set of channel letters by the upright inch. The numbers in the boxes are examples, so put in your own. No sign-up, and nothing you type leaves this page.

How it works

Upright inches are the number of letters times the height of a letter. Ten letters at 18 inches is 180 upright inches, so at $20 an inch the letters come to $3,600. Lighting at $15 a letter adds $150. Two people on site for four hours at $85 an hour is $680, and $150 covers the permit. That's $4,580, or about $25.44 for every upright inch once it's all in.

Finding your rate per inch

Don't take a rate from anywhere, including this page. Shops on the Signs101 forum mention figures around $15 to $25 an upright inch for ordinary letters, but those are one shop's posts from one time, and some of them are what a shop pays, not what it charges. The better way is the one fabricators there suggest: price a few real jobs in full, in the sizes and styles you sell most, then divide by their upright inches. That number already has your materials, your labor and your overhead in it.

What changes a channel letter price

The font. Upright inches only measure height. A wide font or a script takes more material and time than a plain one at the same height. Some shops price wide fonts by their biggest dimension, or count a narrow letter like I as more than one to even out a set.

Lighting. Check whether your rate includes LEDs and power supplies. Plenty of per-inch figures don't. Reverse-lit and two-color faces usually cost more than plain front-lit too.

How it mounts. Remote mounted, on a raceway or on a backer are different jobs with different materials and different time on the wall.

The site. Reported install prices run a long way apart for good reason. A bucket truck, a tall wall, a landlord's rules and a permit can matter more than the letters. Go and look before you commit.

Plenty of shops think per-inch pricing is too crude to send out as a final price. It's a fast way to get a ballpark, and a check on a detailed quote. See also how to price signs and the shop rate calculator.

Want this with your own prices already in it?

SignQuote prices every job from one price book your whole shop shares, makes the customer's PDF and tells you who to chase. It's $49 a month however many people you have, and I'll load your prices for you.