The trade's own numbers, written down
The 2027 Powder Coating Price Book
Every job, priced, plus a calculator that works out what you should charge.
Instant PDF download.30-day money-back guarantee.
- Know what to charge for any powder coating job in 5 minutes.
- See what shops across the country charge for the same job.
Every shop is different. So the calculator starts with yours.
Put in your own rent, power, insurance and wage, and it breaks your overhead down to a price, the same math shop owners tell each other to do in the groups. Then the rate card shows the low, typical and high for every common job, from more than a thousand prices shops posted publicly. Your costs set your price. The rate card shows you if it's too low.
"You charge what you think feels right... Some say my shop is very reasonably priced and some say I'm way too high."
A shop owner, nine years in business.Real footage from a coating shop.
Surprise surprise: nobody in this trade agrees what a job is worth.
A few months ago a shop owner posted four patio chairs and a table in a trade group and asked what he should charge. Over 200 shops answered. The lowest said $650. The highest said $4,000. One admitted his own $700 quote should have been $900. Same chairs, same powder, a $3,350 spread, and every one of those shops was serious.
That thread is not unusual. It happens every time the question gets asked. Ask what furniture is worth anywhere coaters talk and the answers land the same way. "Fully disassembled, $350." "I only do them single color, and generally charge $600 to $650 for that." "Chairs usually about $225 each and the table really about the same," which is $1,125 for the same five pieces. One man has priced himself out of the work on purpose: "I went on a mission to end the lawn furniture curse last summer. I kept raising prices until they weren't bringing them any more, but the ones who did paid dearly and we got PAID."
Not one of those men is a fool. Same five pieces of metal, and every one of them working from a different number, arrived at a different way, with nothing to check it against. A shop owner put it flatly in the middle of one of those threads: "Prices are all over the place."
We watched that thread from an unusual seat. We work inside the powder industry, and for years we've had the view no single shop gets: what thousands of shops charge, what they pay, and where they lose money. And the thing about pricing is, the people with that data are the one group legally unable to discuss it with you. Suppliers can't talk prices. So the trade guesses, out loud, every day.
If you run a shop, the guessing looks like this
- A customer asks for a number at the counter and your stomach tightens, because you're about to make one up. A man with a hitch frame on the bench, cleaned, blasted, baked out for three and a half hours, chrome base then color then clear, wrote it plainly: "I have no idea what to charge."
- You post photos in a group and let strangers set your prices. It is the trade's default move, and it half works, which is the problem. The most honest reply in any of those threads: "Prices vary across the board. Opinions given here only get you close."
- You win the job and quietly suspect you left money on it. One posted a rear axle he had degreased, blasted, outgassed, masked and coated in three stages: "I think I shot myself in the foot at $275. Wasn't a hard job, just thinking I left money on the table." The answers came back at $550, $600, $800 to $1,000, and $1,000. One did the arithmetic for him: "You made absolutely nothing on this job."
- You lose jobs to "the other guy is cheaper" with no idea if he's underwater or you're high. The trade already knows he is usually underwater: "There's a lot of people in the coating world who will do jobs for no profit just to get customers. They generally do poor work, and don't stick around too long." Knowing that does not get you the job back.
- You do the redo for free and never once add up what it cost you. Everybody agrees you stand behind the work: "If it's crap, redo it, even if it takes your last dollar." Nobody writes down what the redo cost. A man explaining how to price a two-tone set got closest to naming it: price it properly and you are never "standing there at the end of the job going, well I did these for free."
And you've tried what everyone tries
- Asking the group. Over 200 answers, $650 to $4,000. Nobody is lying to you. They are quoting their own oven, their own overhead, their own town, and none of that is yours.
- Matching the shop down the road. Now his bad math is your bad math, and it was never yours to copy: "Is this a side job you're doing out of your home? Or are you an actual shop with a building you lease, with insurance, employees, overhead?" Copy his number and you inherit a cost structure you do not have.
- An hourly rate. The advice is right and stops one step short: "You need to know what it cost to run your shop and how much you want to make per hour. Then figure out how many hours it will take." The hours are the part you guess, and the guess runs low every time. "Everything under $200 seems too expensive, but then you spend four hours on it and realize there's a minimum cost."
- Cost of powder times some number. The trade's own version, posted as a favor to the garage guys: "Powder cost times 3. $85 per hour. Shop supplies times 3." Run his own worked example and the raw powder is $70 of a $367 job. You are multiplying the smallest number on the invoice and hoping it lands on the right total.
- Feel. Nine years in: "You charge what you think feels right. Some say my shop is very reasonably priced and some say I'm way too high." Four years in, the method written out loud: "I still under sell myself. I try and add $50 to the first number that comes to mind when quoting."
What we did about it
So we did the thing nobody had done.
We read a year of the trade's own pricing conversations, thousands of posts and comments across the communities where coaters actually talk, and we wrote down every number. More than 2,000 prices, stated by working shops, organized by job.
Then we threw half of them away. A price is worth nothing unless you know what job it was attached to, so a number only counted when the job it named sat right beside it. That left the 1,000-plus where a working shop said what the work was and what they charged for it.
Nobody had done it before because nobody was in a position to. A shop can't: you see your own numbers and whatever scatters through a comment thread. A supplier can't, not legally. So pricing moves through this trade one man at a time, by luck: "When I first started out I had the owner of another local shop go over his price guide with me, and I still try to follow it." That is the good version of how a coater learns what to charge, and it depends on knowing the right man.
What came out of it
Thirteen job types, and one number we did not expect
Thirteen job types came out with enough real prices behind them to publish, each with the middle of the market and the spread. The one that stopped us was wheels, the most-quoted job in the trade, 227 prices behind it. A quarter of shops are at $125 a wheel or less. A quarter are at $300 or more. Same wheel, same powder, same week, and the shop at the bottom of that band is doing identical work for less than half of what the shop at the top gets.
The minimum is worse, because it is the one number a shop sets on its own with nobody's permission. Fifty-seven shops stated theirs. The middle sits at $150 and so does the top quarter, which means the market has already agreed. Shops are still saying it out loud at $50 and $60.
What the data says
The middle of the market is real and knowable. Wheels: $175 a wheel at the median, $500 to $1,200 a set. Shop minimum: $150. It's just never been written down before.
The spread is 3x to 6x on identical work. Not because of regions. Because nobody knows the number.
The cheapest shops aren't winning, they're losing money on every job. "$150 per wheel. Anything less you're not going to retire," as one put it, while the market pays $1,100 a set all day.
The shops that know their numbers use the same few rules: cost plus margin, 25 to 50% more per stage, a real minimum. The trade already invented the system. It's scattered across ten thousand posts. Nobody ever collected it.
And the part that costs the most
Most shops are not underpricing on purpose. They set a ceiling years ago at a number that felt safe, and nothing has ever told them otherwise.
Here is what that looks like in the open. In one conversation about a single set of wheels, a coater laid out his ceiling: "I honestly wouldn't expect to actually charge more than $150 each in most circumstances." In the same conversation, a shop twenty years in: "We charge $1,100 if they are dropping the car off. We get that all day long. Extremely rarely does somebody think the price is high." And a third man, who had rung round the shops himself before he started: "everything minus one shop I called was in the $1,100 to $1,400 range."
Same job. One man has decided $600 a set is the top of the world. The market is paying $1,100 and does not blink. He is not being beaten by a competitor. He is being beaten by a number he made up once and never checked.
A look inside the rate card
What shops actually charge, by job
Three rows unlocked. The rest are in the book.
| Job | Median | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Wheels, per wheel | $175 | $125 to $300 |
| Wheels, per set | $700 | $500 to $1,200 |
| Shop minimum | $150 | $75 to $150 |
| Frames, cages, chassis | •••• | in the book |
| Patio furniture | •••• | in the book |
| Small parts, per piece | •••• | in the book |
| Per linear foot | •••• | in the book |
| Exhaust, headers, mufflers | •••• | in the book |
| Calipers | •••• | in the book |
| Hourly rate | •••• | in the book |
What do you charge to coat a set of four wheels?
Drag the dial to what you charge.
The middle of the market is $100 above you.
227 recorded prices, single stage, bare wheels, one number out. This is what shops said they charge, not what anyone says you should. That is one job. The rate card has thirteen.
We collected it, finished the math, and called it The 2027 Powder Coating Price Book.
The Price Book. 30 pages, numbered steps, five jobs priced start to finish (wheel set, frame, patio set, 70-piece batch, per-foot work).
The Job Pricing Calculator. Your labor, your powder price, real transfer efficiency, prep, oven, rework. Five minutes to a defensible number.
The Market Rate Card. What shops actually charge, by job, median and spread. More than 2,000 prices recorded, kept to the 1,000+ that name the exact job: a price without the job attached is noise, and we don't count noise. This has never existed for this trade.
Plus three bench cards, made to print:
The Wheel Set Card. Price a set in 60 seconds, bare or tires-on.
The Shop Minimum Card. The market says $150; the exact two ways to say it at the counter.
The Redo Ledger. What a strip-and-recoat really costs you, filled in for your shop.
The same PDF, printed and open at the wheel-set pages.
What you are actually getting
One set of wheels priced at the bottom of the market instead of the middle costs you about $500. On one job.
The trade's median shop rate is $125 an hour. This costs less than fifteen minutes of your time.
A PDF. 30-day money-back guarantee.
What changes on Monday
| Quoting now | Quoting with the Price Book |
|---|---|
| The number comes from your gut | The number comes from your costs |
| Strangers on Facebook price your jobs | You answer the "what would you charge?" posts |
| $50 minimum because saying more feels rude | $150 minimum, said two ways, no apology |
| The redo comes out of your pocket, uncounted | Rework is a line on every quote |
| No idea where you sit in the market | Your price, next to the market's, on one card |
What shops did with it
"I been doing this near fifteen years and still caught myself looking at a part thinking, hell, what do I charge for that? This book put actual numbers to it. Not somebody's cousin doing wheels in his garage for beer money, real shop prices. I was too cheap on frames and way too cheap on anything with heavy prep. Fixed that real quick."
Lead powder coater, custom finishing shop, Western Pennsylvania"I'm a one-man deal, so if I price a job wrong, I'm the one sweating for free. Ran my bills through the calculator and found out my shop rate needed to be a whole lot higher than what I'd been using. Now I cost it, check the rate card and say the number. If they don't like it, that's all right. At least I ain't paying to coat their parts."
Independent powder coater, one-person shop, Rural Oklahoma"I used to post a picture in the group and get numbers from $300 to $1,200. Now I cost the job, check the card and give the customer one number. If the guy down the road is cheaper, that's fine. At least I know what it costs me to do it right."
Shop manager, commercial powder coating operation, Southern California"The shop minimum card is staying by the counter. Two little brackets still mean a full setup, gun clean and oven heat, and I was basically giving that away. The redo ledger wasn't fun to fill out either, but I needed to see it. No fluff in this thing."
Co-owner, automotive powder coating shop, Middle Tennessee
Who it's for
- The owner-operator: one man in a garage bay, up to a five-man shop.
- You shoot powder for money, not for fun.
- You want your trade's numbers, finally written down.
Who it isn't for
- Hobbyists doing their own parts. Nothing here is about technique; you already know how to coat.
- The shop that already knows its cost per square foot to the cent. If that's you, you're the one the rate card is quoting.
30-day money-back guarantee.
If it's not worth it to your shop, email us within 30 days of buying and we'll refund the $29.
Questions
Who are you, exactly?
People who work inside the powder industry and got tired of watching good shops undercharge. We don't sell powder, equipment, or anything else on this page, and no supplier's name appears in the book. The book doesn't care whose powder you shoot.
I've been coating for 15 years. What's in this for me?
Not technique, we promise. You know how to coat. This is what the market charges and a system for knowing your number before the customer asks. The man leaving $500 a set on the table has been coating a long time too.
Where do the market prices come from?
More than 2,000 prices stated publicly by working shops across the trade's own communities in the last year. The rate card keeps the 1,000+ that name the exact job, organized by job type. Anonymous, aggregated, and we show the spread, not just an average.
Will this work for my region?
The rate card shows the middle of the market and the range. High cost-of-living areas sit at the top of the band, rural shops nearer the bottom. The calculator prices from YOUR costs either way, which is the part that matters.
Is it printed?
PDF, built for the phone and for print. The three cards are made to be printed and stuck up in the shop.
When do I get it?
The download email lands within about fifteen minutes of purchase.
The next job through your door needs a number.
$29, and you'll have it in five minutes.
The price goes up when the next edition of the rate card ships.
Results depend on your shop and your market. The market rate card reports what shops have publicly stated they charge; it is not a recommendation to charge any particular price, and you set your own prices independently.
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© 2026 Powder Coating Professionals