Event Ticket Price Calculator
Find out how many tickets you have to sell before the event pays for itself, or what the ticket has to cost for the crowd you expect. Type your fixed costs, the cost per attendee, the capacity of the venue and the fee of your ticket platform. You get the break-even attendance, the price needed and the result with the room half full, three quarters full and sold out.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Runs in your browser
Result
Type the fixed costs, the capacity and a ticket price (or an expected attendance) to see the result.
Half full, three quarters full and sold out are levels of your own capacity to read the result against, not a forecast. It is arithmetic on your own numbers, not tax or accounting advice.
By attendance scenario
| Scenario | Attendance | Ticket sales | Platform fees | Costs | Result | Cost per attendee | Ticket price needed |
|---|
Costs are the fixed costs plus the cost per attendee of everyone who comes. Sponsorship, bar sales and taxes on tickets are not included.
How the break-even is worked out
What one ticket leaves
Left per ticket = ticket price - platform fee - cost per attendee. It is the part of each ticket that goes toward the fixed costs. If it is zero or less, selling more tickets never helps.
Break-even attendance
Break-even = fixed costs ÷ what one ticket leaves, rounded up to a whole person. Below that number the event loses money. Every ticket above it is result.
The ticket price for an attendance
Turn the sum around: spread the fixed costs over the people you expect, add the cost per attendee and the fixed fee, and gross it up for the percent fee. Price needed = (fixed costs ÷ attendance + cost per attendee + fixed fee) ÷ (1 - fee percent). Add the profit you want to the fixed costs to get the price that leaves it.
The platform fee
Ticket platforms usually charge a percent of the ticket, a fixed amount per ticket, or both. Type what your platform publishes. If you pass the fee on to the buyer on top of the ticket, it does not touch your result: leave the fields empty.
The scenarios
The table repeats the sum with the room half full, three quarters full and sold out, with your expected attendance and with the break-even itself. Those levels are fixed points of your own capacity to compare against, not a prediction of how many people will come.
What this leaves out
Taxes on ticket sales, several ticket types (use your average price), free guests, no-shows and refunds, and other income such as sponsorship or the bar. Subtract what sponsors cover from the fixed costs before typing them.
Formulas
- Platform fee per ticket
- ticket price × fee percent + fixed fee per ticket
- Left per ticket
- ticket price - platform fee per ticket - cost per attendee
- Break-even attendance
- fixed costs ÷ left per ticket, rounded up
- Result
- attendance × left per ticket - fixed costs
- Ticket price needed
- ((fixed costs + profit you want) ÷ attendance + cost per attendee + fixed fee) ÷ (1 - fee percent)
- Total cost per attendee
- fixed costs ÷ attendance + cost per attendee
The sums work on paper. Now fill the room
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Make an event QR codeTalk to us about enterprise QR for eventsHow to use it
- Choose the question: the attendance you need at a ticket price, or the ticket price you need for an attendance.
- Type the fixed costs of the event, the cost per attendee if there is one, and the capacity of the venue.
- Type the ticket price or the attendance you expect. Add the fee of your ticket platform if you absorb it.
- Read the break-even or the price needed, then compare the scenarios in the table: half full, three quarters full and sold out.
Examples
A 300-place show at $45 a ticket
Made-up numbers to show the maths: $6,000.00 of fixed costs, $12.00 per attendee, room for 300 and tickets at $45.00, with a platform fee of 8% plus $1.00 per ticket. The fee takes $4.60, each ticket leaves $28.40 and the event breaks even at 212 attendees: 70.7% of the room.
What 220 attendees leave
With the same numbers and 220 people, the event leaves $248.00, with 8 tickets to spare. Sold out, it leaves $2,520.00. Half full, with 150 people, it loses $1,740.00.
The price for the attendance you expect
Turn the question around: with 220 attendees and the same costs, the ticket has to cost at least $43.78 to cover everything, and $53.66 to leave $2,000.00. If all 300 places sell, the break-even price drops to $35.87.
Questions
How do you calculate the break-even point of an event?
Divide the fixed costs by what one ticket leaves after the platform fee and the cost per attendee, and round up. With fixed costs of 6,000 and 28.40 left per ticket: 6,000 ÷ 28.40 = 211.3, so 212 attendees.
How do I set the ticket price for an event?
Start from the price that covers the costs at the attendance you honestly expect: the calculator gives it, and the price for the profit you want. Then compare it with what the same audience paid at your own past events. The sum tells you the floor, not what people are willing to pay.
Who pays the ticket platform fee?
It depends on how you set up the sale. If the fee is added on top and the buyer pays it, your result does not change: leave the fee fields empty. If you absorb it, type the percent and the fixed amount from your platform. This page does not know the fee of any platform.
What is a fixed cost and what is a cost per attendee?
A fixed cost is paid whether 10 or 300 people come: the venue, the sound, the band, the promotion. A cost per attendee grows with each person: the meal, the drink included, the wristband, the kit.
What if the break-even is above my capacity?
Then the event cannot pay for itself at that price, even sold out, and the calculator says so. The row "break-even price if sold out" is the lowest ticket price that works with a full house. Below it, the costs have to come down.
How do I count free guests?
They do not buy a ticket but they still cost. Count only paying people in the attendance, and add the guests to the fixed costs: number of guests × cost per attendee.
Does it include sponsorship or bar sales?
No. The calculator looks at ticket money only. Subtract what sponsors pay from the fixed costs before you type them, and treat the bar as a separate sum.
Are my numbers stored?
No. The maths runs in your browser. Your costs, prices and attendance are not uploaded, are not added to the page address and are not saved.