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Painting Price Calculator: Price a Paint Job From Your Costs

Enter the rooms, the coats, your paint and your labor cost. You get the gallons to buy, the labor hours, what the job costs you, the price to charge and your profit, with every step of the sums written out under the result.

Use it as a painting estimate calculator before you quote, or to check a quote you already wrote. Published by Fasite. Questions: support@fasite.org.

The boxes open on the worked example further down. Only the paint coverage comes from a source; every other starting number is sample data. Click a box and type your own numbers. Jump to the price.

1. Measure
Room 1

A 3 ft by 7 ft door is 21 sq ft. Taken off the walls.

A 3 ft by 5 ft window is 15 sq ft. Taken off the walls.

2. Surfaces, coats and your speed

1 or more. Each coat counts as its own pass.

Sample from the worked example. Time yourself on a real room and use your own.

Ceiling area is each room's length times its width.

Sample. Ceilings usually go at a different speed from walls, so time them separately.

3. Paint

Starts at 350, the low end of the 350 to 400 Sherwin-Williams gives for a gallon (see sources). Check the label of your paint.

A sample price. Use what you pay.

4. Labor and extras

What an hour of labor costs you, not what you charge.

Not sure what an hour costs? Work out your labor cost first.

Tape, plastic, caulk, patching, primer, and prep time in dollars. Type 0 if none.

5. Set your price from

0 or more. 100 doubles your cost.

Price to charge

$532.00

  • Profit: $152.00
  • Margin: 28.6%
  • Markup: 40%
  • Total cost: $380.00
  • Gallons to buy: 3
  • Paint cost: $135.00
  • Labor hours: 5.5
  • Labor cost: $220.00
  • Supplies and prep: $25.00
  • Price per sq ft of surface: $1.01
Put this price in your estimates

How this was worked out

Measure

  • Room 1 walls: 2 × (15 + 12) × 8 = 432 sq ft, minus 2 doors × 21 and 3 windows × 15 (87 sq ft), leaves 345 sq ft
  • Ceilings: 15 × 12 = 180 sq ft
  • Walls: 345 sq ft × 2 coats = 690 sq ft of painting
  • Ceilings: 180 sq ft × 1 coat = 180 sq ft of painting
  • Total to paint: 870 sq ft

Paint

  • Gallons = painted area ÷ coverage = 870 ÷ 350 = 2.49, rounded up to 3 gallons
  • Paint cost = 3 × $45.00 = $135.00

Labor

  • Walls: 690 ÷ 150 sq ft per hour = 4.6 hours
  • Ceilings: 180 ÷ 200 sq ft per hour = 0.9 hours
  • Hours in total: 5.5
  • Labor cost = 5.5 × $40.00 = $220.00

Cost and price

  • Total cost = paint + labor + supplies and prep = $135.00 + $220.00 + $25.00 = $380.00
  • Price = cost × (1 + markup) = $380.00 × (1 + 0.4) = $532.00
  • Profit = price minus cost = $532.00 minus $380.00 = $152.00
  • Markup = profit ÷ cost = $152.00 ÷ $380.00 = 40%
  • Margin = profit ÷ price = $152.00 ÷ $532.00 = 28.6%
  • Price per sq ft of surface = $532.00 ÷ 525 sq ft = $1.01

Markup divides profit by your cost. Margin divides it by your price, so for the same job the margin is never larger than the markup. Gallons are rounded up; hours are rounded to the nearest hundredth.

How to price a paint job, step by step

  1. Measure the walls. For each room, walls = 2 × (length + width) × ceiling height. Take off each door and window. Ceilings are length × width. Trim goes in as its own line, in square feet.
  2. Pick the coats. Count each coat as its own pass: two coats on 100 sq ft is 200 sq ft of painting.
  3. Work out the gallons: painted area ÷ the square feet one gallon covers in one coat, rounded up to a whole gallon.
  4. Cost the paint: gallons × the price per gallon.
  5. Work out the hours: painted area ÷ your production rate, the square feet you paint in an hour for one coat. Time yourself on a real room instead of guessing. Walls, ceilings and trim go at different speeds, so each gets its own rate.
  6. Cost the labor: hours × what an hour of labor costs you, with payroll taxes and the unpaid hours in it. The labor rate calculator works that figure out.
  7. Add supplies and prep: tape, plastic, caulk, patching, primer, and the time prep takes.
  8. Add your markup, or work back from the margin you want to keep. The markup calculator explains how the two differ.
  9. Check the price per square foot against jobs you have already done. If it looks far off, one of the numbers above is probably wrong.

Worked example: one living room, walls and ceiling

Hypothetical example, not industry data. Every number below is made up, except the paint coverage, so you can check the arithmetic. The calculator above opens on this job.

  1. Walls: 2 × (15 + 12) × 8 = 432 sq ft. A door is 21 sq ft and a window is 15 sq ft, so 2 doors and 3 windows take off 2 × 21 + 3 × 15 = 87 sq ft. That leaves 345 sq ft.
  2. Ceiling: 15 × 12 = 180 sq ft.
  3. Painting: walls 345 × 2 coats = 690 sq ft. Ceiling 180 × 1 coat = 180 sq ft. Together, 870 sq ft.
  4. Paint: 870 ÷ 350 sq ft per gallon = 2.49 gallons, rounded up to 3. At $45.00 a gallon that is 3 × $45.00 = $135.00.
  5. Hours: walls 690 ÷ 150 sq ft an hour = 4.6 hours. Ceiling 180 ÷ 200 = 0.9 hours. Together, 5.5 hours.
  6. Labor: 5.5 hours × $40.00 an hour = $220.00.
  7. Supplies and prep: $25.00. Cost: $135.00 + $220.00 + $25.00 = $380.00.
  8. With a 40% markup: price = $380.00 × 1.4 = $532.00. Profit = $532.00 minus $380.00 = $152.00. Margin = $152.00 ÷ $532.00 = 28.6%.
  9. Wanting a 40% margin instead: price = $380.00 ÷ (1 minus 0.4) = $633.33. Profit = $253.33.
  10. Cross-check: $532.00 ÷ 525 sq ft of walls and ceiling = $1.01 a square foot.

Common painting pricing mistakes

  • Using a one-coat speed as if it covered every coat. On this job the walls take 2.3 hours for one coat and 4.6 for two. Leave the second coat out and you price 2.3 hours too few, $92.00 of labor.
  • Not rounding up. 870 sq ft needs 2.49 gallons, and you cannot buy part of one: the answer is 3.
  • Leaving the doors and windows in. The walls are 432 sq ft before the openings and 345 after. Two coats on 432 is 864 sq ft of painting, not 690.
  • Forgetting supplies and prep. Without the $25.00 the price comes out at $497.00, not $532.00. The job still costs you $380.00, so the profit falls from $152.00 to $117.00.
  • Pricing from the wage on the paycheck. Payroll taxes, insurance and the hours nobody pays for ride on top of it. The labor rate calculator works out a labor cost with those in.
  • Mixing up markup and margin. A 40% markup on this job keeps 28.6% of the price, not 40%. See the markup calculator.
  • Guessing the production rate. Time a few real rooms and average them.

Where the numbers in the boxes come from

Only the paint coverage starts from a source. Everything else that opens filled in is sample data from the worked example, so replace it with your own numbers, especially the production rates.

  • Sherwin-Williams, Paint Calculator (page read 1 November 2026). Says a gallon of paint typically covers about 350 to 400 square feet, and that product requirements vary with factors such as application method and surface type or condition. This page does not say how many coats the figure is for. The calculator reads it as one coat, so more coats mean more paint, and opens on 350, the low end. It is the only starting number on this page that comes from a source.
  • Estimate Rocket, How to Create Profitable Estimates: Part 2 - Calculating your Rates (page read 1 November 2026). Used for the method only: time yourself painting a real room and divide the square feet by the hours. No production rate is taken from it.

Next step

Turn a cost into a price with the markup calculator, work out what an hour of labor costs you with the labor rate calculator, or see all the free tools.

When the price is right, put it in an estimate. Fasite Pro is $199 a month with 30 days free, and no card is needed to start.

Questions

Questions about painting prices.

  1. Work out what the job costs you, then add a markup or aim for a target margin. The cost is the paint (whole gallons times the price per gallon), plus labor (hours times what an hour of labor costs you), plus supplies and prep. Then price = cost × (1 + markup), or price = cost ÷ (1 minus margin). The calculator on this page does each step and writes the sums out under the result.

  2. Multiply the paintable area by the number of coats, divide by the square feet one gallon covers in one coat, and round up to a whole gallon. Sherwin-Williams says a gallon typically covers about 350 to 400 square feet, and that what you need varies with things like the surface and how you apply the paint. The calculator opens on 350 and lets you change it. Check the label of the paint you are buying.

  3. Add the room's length and width, double the total, and multiply by the ceiling height. That is the wall area before doors and windows. Then subtract each door and window. A 3 ft by 7 ft door is 21 sq ft and a 3 ft by 5 ft window is 15 sq ft, and you can change both sizes in the calculator. A ceiling is the length times the width.

  4. Use your own. A production rate is how many square feet you paint in an hour, for one coat. It moves with the surface, the paint, how much cutting in there is and who is painting, and published figures disagree, so this page does not suggest one. Time yourself on a few real rooms, divide the square feet by the hours, and average them. The number in the box on this page is a sample from the worked example.

  5. It depends on the size, the paint, the prep, how fast you work and what an hour of labor costs you, so this page does not quote an average. Enter your own numbers and the calculator prices the job. The result also shows the price per square foot of surface, which you can set beside what you charged on past jobs.

  6. Anything the job uses up besides the finish paint: tape, drop cloths, plastic, caulk, patching compound, sandpaper, primer, roller covers and brushes. Add prep time too, as dollars: the hours it takes times your labor cost per hour. Type the total in the supplies and prep box.

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