Someone slides into your DMs and asks if you'll paint something custom... their dog, their wedding venue, a portrait of their mom. Your stomach does a little flip of excitement, and then the question lands: what do I even charge for this? And almost every artist freezes right here, and a lot of them quietly under-quote because they price the commission like it's another piece off the wall, using the same size-based number they'd charge for an original they made on their own terms, which sounds reasonable until you realize you just agreed to do custom labor on someone else's timeline with revision rounds included and all the extra risk shifted onto you, for the same price as a piece you chose to make on a Tuesday afternoon when the light was good.
Here is how to price a commission, and why it is not the same as pricing an original.
An original is inventory, something you made on your own terms, so you price it from its size and cross-check that against your other methods. A commission is custom labor done on someone else's terms, so you price it by Time + Materials: your hours times your hourly rate, plus materials and overhead, times a small profit factor. Size alone never captures what a commission actually costs you, which is exactly why size-based pricing under-quotes custom work every single time.
If you want the bigger picture on pricing methods, start with how to price your art. This post is the clean version of one distinction that costs artists real money.
Should you price a commission the same as an original?
You should not, and the reason matters because it is the exact thing that makes artists lose money on custom work.
When you price an original, you are pricing something you already chose to make. You set the size, the subject, the timeline. There is no client emailing you three rounds of changes. So size-based pricing works as your anchor, a 24×30 prices like your other 24×30s, and your catalog stays consistent.
A commission breaks all of that. The client picks the size, the subject, sometimes the deadline. They might want revisions. The risk shifts onto you. If you price that 24×30 commission at your normal 24×30 number, you have quietly agreed to do all that extra labor and carry all that extra risk for free. The size is the same. The work is not.
How do you price an original painting?
Quick recap, because originals are the contrast here, not the focus. For your own work, you start from size, square-inch pricing (height × width times a per-inch rate) is the usual anchor, and you cross-check it against the other methods to settle on a number you can defend. (BTW, there is a full breakdown on this in how to price your art... the short version is: run all three formulas and use the range as your working window.)
The one thing to carry into commissions: that size-based number is built for inventory you made on your own terms. The moment the work becomes custom, you need a different starting point.
How do you price an art commission?
Use Time + Materials. The formula is:
(your hours × your hourly rate) + materials + overhead, then × a profit factor.
Here is a worked example. Say a commission will take you about 18 hours. Your hourly rate, built from what it actually costs to live and work where you are, is $30. That is $540 of labor. Materials for this piece run $75. Add a slice of overhead (studio, tools, the cost of being in business) at $50. That is $665. Now multiply by a profit factor of 1.4 so you are not just breaking even but actually earning, and you land at roughly $930.
Notice what just happened. If that piece were a 12×16 priced by size alone, you might have quoted $600 and felt brave doing it. Time + Materials shows you the number is closer to $930, because it counted the hours and the risk that size-based pricing ignored. That gap is the money commissions quietly cost artists who use the wrong formula.
Two honest notes. Estimate your hours from real past pieces, not from the optimistic version of you who thinks this'll be quick (you know that version; she is wrong every time). And set the profit factor on purpose, 1.3 to 1.5 is a reasonable range while you are establishing yourself.
What should a commission quote include?
The number is only half of it. A commission is an agreement, and the quote is where you protect yourself before the work starts. Put these in writing every single time:
- A deposit. Nonrefundable, usually 30 to 50 percent, paid before you begin. It commits the client and covers your materials and early hours if they vanish. (And some of them do vanish. Put the deposit in the quote.)
- A revisions policy. Name how many rounds are included (one or two is plenty) and what extra rounds cost. This single line prevents the endless-tweaks spiral that has eaten at least one artist's entire profit margin on a commission they were excited about at the start.
- A timeline. When you will start, when they will see progress, when it is done. Vague timelines turn into anxious clients texting every few days to ask how it is going.
- Rights. You keep the copyright and the right to show the work in your portfolio unless you have explicitly agreed otherwise. Spell it out. Do not assume.
None of this is being difficult. It is the difference between a professional transaction and a favor that slowly takes over your month.
How do you avoid under-charging for commissions?
Track your real hours on the next few pieces, even the non-commissions. Most artists badly underestimate how long their work actually takes, and you cannot price by Time + Materials if your "time" is a guess. A timer and an honest log fix this fast, and the first time you see the real number you will understand why the formula exists.
And do not drop your number to win the job. A client who only says yes because you discounted is a client who will expect the discount again, push on revisions, and treat the price as negotiable... because you taught them it was. Hold the number you calculated. The right commission client is paying for custom work done well, and that has a real cost.
Quick version
- Originals and commissions are not priced the same way.
- Originals: price from size (square-inch as the anchor) and compare your methods.
- Commissions: price by Time + Materials... (hours × rate) + materials + overhead, × a profit factor of 1.3 to 1.5.
- Size-based pricing under-quotes custom work because it ignores hours and risk.
- Always put a deposit, a revisions policy, a timeline, and rights in the quote.
- Track your real hours, and do not discount to win the job.
The cleanest way to do both without second-guessing is to let the math run side by side. Art Price Lab runs square-inch for your originals and Time + Materials for your commissions so you have a real number ready next time someone asks. artpricelab.com