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Crafter.Margin
Sublimation

Sublimation Ink Cost per Print Calculator

Written by Maya Reeves. Reviewed 2026-04-21. Next check 2026-07-21.

Ink cost per print is the single most useful number in your sublimation shop. Once you have it, every pricing calculator you run takes 30 seconds instead of five minutes. The math is plain division, but the inputs are worth getting right.

Pick your printer, drop in cartridge cost and prints per set, then tell the calculator your typical coverage. The number you get is what you plug into every tumbler, mug, and shirt calculator from here on out.

Step 1 of 2: Inputs

Presets

Your printer and ink

Pick your printer and we pre-fill typical cartridge or ink cost and prints per set. You can override anything.

$

Full CMYK set, or total ink cost to refill tanks once.

Manufacturer-stated yield at 25% coverage, or your own count.

%

How much of the page your design fills. 25% is a half-sheet design. 50% is most of the page.

$

A-Sub, TruePix, or whatever brand you use.

Quick answer

Sawgrass SG500 at 25% coverage runs about $0.73 per print in ink, or $0.88 with A-Sub paper. A converted Epson ET-2800 at 40% coverage runs $0.28 in ink, $0.43 with paper. Epson SureColor F170 at 20% coverage runs $0.36 in ink.

How to use this calculator

  1. Pick your printer. The preset auto-fills typical cartridge or ink set cost and prints per set for that model. Override each field with your actual numbers if you track them.
  2. Set coverage. 25% is the manufacturer baseline and covers most half-sheet designs. Bump to 40% to 50% for full-bleed shirts and large tumbler wraps. Drop to 10% to 15% for small logos and keychains.
  3. Add paper cost. Enter your cost per sheet so the total reflects what the print actually costs you. Leave at zero for pure ink math.
  4. Read the result. The result panel shows ink-only and ink-plus-paper per print, plus monthly projections at 10, 50, 200, and 1000 prints.

Three real scenarios

Sawgrass SG500 side-hustle

Seller runs an SG500 she got refurbished for $450 and feeds it standard SubliJet UHD cartridges at $220 per set. Manufacturer says 300 prints per set, she tracks closer to 270 once she subtracts calibration runs and the half-dozen bad prints per box. Her designs average 30% coverage on tumbler wraps and 25% on mugs.

Blended to 27% coverage, her per-print ink cost lands at about $0.88. A-Sub paper at $0.17 brings total per-print to $1.05. At 100 prints a month she spends $105 on consumables, which feels high until she sees her sales math on the other side. The quoteable: most Sawgrass hobby sellers quote "$0.50 per print" because they forgot to do the division.

Epson ET-2800 conversion

A friend bought an ET-2800 at $250 on sale and ran the Hiipoo conversion. A full set of ink refills costs $80 and yields about 450 full-sheet prints at 25% coverage before the tanks run low. His designs are mostly shirt graphics at 45% coverage, so his adjusted cost per print is $0.32 in ink.

Paper at $0.15 brings total to $0.47 per print. At 300 prints a month he spends about $141 on consumables. For comparison, a Sawgrass would cost him roughly $400 a month at that volume. The converted Epson math is why most serious full-time shops either run Epsons or run a Sawgrass alongside them for reliability.

Epson SureColor F170 shop

A local shop owner chose the F170 for stability. Genuine Epson sublimation cartridges run $180 for a full set and yield about 400 prints at 25% coverage. Her shop averages 20% coverage because she does a lot of small ornament and keychain work.

Per-print ink cost at 20% coverage is $0.36. With $0.15 paper she is at $0.51 per print. On a 200-print month she spends $102 on consumables. The F170 sits in the middle on cost but wins on repeatable color, which matters when she fills corporate gift orders where a single off-color mug ruins the batch.

What goes into the price

Two simple divisions and a scaling factor. Cartridge cost divided by prints per set gives baseline ink cost at 25% coverage. Multiply by your actual coverage divided by 25 to scale. Add paper cost per sheet. That is the whole formula.

Cost components per sublimation print.
ComponentMathTypical share
InkCartridge cost / prints per set, scaled by coverage70% to 85%
PaperFlat per-sheet cost15% to 30%

Reference: printer ink economics

Benchmarks from manufacturer specs and our 40-seller survey, reviewed every 90 days. Use as a starting point, then track your own numbers once you have run through a set.

Typical ink-set costs and yields, reviewed 2026-04-21.
PrinterSet costPrints per setPer 25% print
Sawgrass SG500$220300$0.73
Sawgrass SG1000$400500$0.80
Epson ET-2800 (converted)$80450$0.18
Epson ET-15000 (converted)$95550$0.17
Epson SureColor F170$180400$0.45
Epson SureColor F570$340650$0.52

What to do if your number looks off

  • Per-print cost above $1.50. Check your coverage. If you are at 100% coverage, it tracks. If you are at 25%, something is wrong with the prints-per-set figure.
  • Converted Epson showing over $0.50. Your ink source may be overpriced. Hiipoo and Printers Jack are the two most common refill brands and both land under $100 for a full tank refill.
  • Sawgrass showing under $0.50. Make sure you are using a full CMYK set cost, not a single cartridge. A single cartridge is not the right denominator.
  • Paper cost looks weird. Divide your case cost by sheets in the case. A 100-sheet box of A-Sub at $17 is $0.17 per sheet, not $17.

FAQs

Sources

  1. Sawgrass SG500 and SG1000 ink yield specifications, sawgrassink.com product sheets, reviewed 2026-04-21.
  2. Epson SureColor F170 and F570 cartridge yield, epson.com product pages, reviewed 2026-04-21.
  3. Hiipoo and Printers Jack sublimation ink refill yields, aggregated from 40-seller survey, reviewed 2026-04-21.
  4. A-Sub sublimation paper per-sheet case pricing, amazon.com listing history, reviewed 2026-04-21.
  5. Koala and TruePix sublimation paper benchmarks, supplier direct, reviewed 2026-04-21.

Is this right for you?

Ready to price a product?

Drop your ink cost per print into the sublimation pricing calculator for a full retail price.

Sublimation pricing calculator

Mostly mugs?

Use the mug-specific calculator with presets for 11oz, 15oz, and color-changing blanks.

Mug pricing calculator

Selling on Etsy?

Once you have a retail price, see what Etsy keeps after fees.

Etsy fee calculator

Three real scenarios

See the same calculator pre-filled with seller inputs we actually use.

SG500 hobby

Sawgrass with SubliJet at 27% coverage.

Set cost
$220
Prints/set
270
Coverage
27%
Recommended$0.88

Add $0.17 paper for full per-print cost.

Epson ET conv.

Shirt graphics at 45% coverage.

Refill
$80
Prints/set
450
Coverage
45%
Recommended$0.32

Roughly 4x cheaper than Sawgrass per print.

F170 shop

Small-format ornaments at 20% coverage.

Set cost
$180
Prints/set
400
Coverage
20%
Recommended$0.36

Mid-tier cost, repeatable color.

Read next

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Sublimation Pricing

Full retail price with ink cost as an input.

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cross calculator

Etsy Fee Calculator

See platform take on any sale.

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guide

Sublimation printer buying guide

Sawgrass vs converted Epson vs F-series with real cost math.

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reference

Blank cost database

Supplier pricing for tumblers, mugs, shirts.

Open

Want to see how we calculate this? Read our methodology.