Free Tool
Photography Cost of Doing Business (CODB) Calculator
Work out the minimum session fee that covers your overhead, gear replacement, your own salary, and your tax set-aside — across the number of shoots you can realistically book in a year.
| Fixed annual costs (overhead + gear fund + education & travel) | $0 |
| Cost of goods across all your sessions | $0 |
| Total annual cost of doing business | $0 |
| Your salary | $0 |
| Tax set-aside on that salary | $0 |
| Revenue you need to bill for the year | $0 |
| Revenue at your current price | $0 |
| Sessions per year required at your current price | 0 |
Assumptions: your salary is grossed up for tax by dividing it by (1 − set-aside %), so the figure you typed is what is left after you reserve for tax — tax rules vary by country and change over time, which is why the percentage is yours to set rather than built in. The tax set-aside is applied to your pay only, not to money that goes straight back out as business costs. Cost of goods is assumed to be the same for every session, and fixed costs are assumed not to change with the number of sessions you shoot. "Sessions required at your current price" divides fixed costs plus your grossed-up pay by the contribution each session makes after its cost of goods, then rounds up to a whole session; if your price is at or below your cost of goods, no number of sessions gets you there. The effective hourly rate uses the total hours you entered, including editing and admin — not just time behind the camera. Figures are shown in dollars, but the arithmetic works in any currency as long as you enter every field in the same one.
How to calculate your photography cost of doing business
Cost of doing business, or CODB, is the number that separates photographers who have a business from photographers who have an expensive hobby. It is everything it costs to keep the doors open for a year — before you pay yourself a cent. Most photographers who feel busy but broke have never written that number down.
Start with your fixed costs, the ones that arrive whether or not you shoot: liability and equipment insurance, editing and gallery software subscriptions, website and domain, studio or storage rent, advertising, your accountant, professional association fees. Add a gear replacement fund. Cameras, lenses, lighting and computers wear out, and a body you bought four years ago is a cost you are already halfway through spending — take what your kit would cost to replace, divide by the years you expect to get out of it, and treat that as a yearly line. Add education and travel: the workshop you attend every year is a real recurring cost.
Then add your cost of goods: the money that only leaves your account because a specific session happened. Albums, prints, packaging and postage, a second shooter, an assistant, mileage to the venue. Multiply that by the sessions you book in a year for the variable half of your CODB.
Now put yourself in the equation. Your salary is not what is left over — it is a cost the business has to cover, the same as insurance. And if you set aside a share of your profit for tax, the business has to earn more than your target salary so that what remains after the set-aside is the number you actually wanted. That is why the calculator divides your salary by one minus your set-aside percentage.
Divide the total — fixed costs, cost of goods, salary and set-aside — by the number of sessions you can realistically book, and you have your minimum session fee. Divide that by the hours a session really takes, counting the enquiry emails, the culling, the editing and the invoicing, and you have your effective hourly rate. That second number is usually the uncomfortable one, because editing hours quietly halve what a session looked like it paid.
Two things to do with the answer. First, compare it against what you charge today: if there is a shortfall, you now know its exact size per session and per year, which is a far better starting point for a price rise than a vague feeling. Second, look at the sessions-required figure. If hitting your goal at your current price means booking a number of shoots you could never physically deliver, the problem is the price, not your marketing. When you are ready to turn the minimum into an actual price list with packages and products, the Photography Package Pricing Calculator takes it from there, and the Tax Set-Aside Calculator helps you reserve for tax as payments land.
Frequently asked questions
What is cost of doing business (CODB) in photography?
CODB is everything it costs to keep your photography business open for a year, whether or not you book a single client: insurance, software, website hosting, studio rent, marketing, accounting, gear replacement, education and travel, plus the cost of goods on each session you deliver. It does not include your own pay — your salary sits on top of CODB, which is why revenue has to cover both.
How do I calculate my minimum session fee?
Add your annual fixed costs to your cost of goods across all the sessions you expect to shoot, add the salary you want grossed up for your tax set-aside, then divide the total by the number of sessions you can realistically book in a year. The calculator on this page does exactly that and also shows the effective hourly rate it implies once editing and admin time are counted.
Should my gear replacement fund be part of CODB?
Yes. Bodies, lenses, lighting, and computers wear out or become obsolete, so treat replacement as an annual cost rather than a surprise. A common approach is to take what your kit would cost to replace, divide by the number of years you expect it to last, and enter that yearly figure — you decide the lifespan that matches how hard you shoot.
Why does the calculator gross up my salary for tax?
Because the salary figure most photographers have in mind is what they want to keep. If you want to keep a given amount and you set aside a percentage of your profit for tax, the business has to generate more than that amount before the set-aside. The calculator divides your target salary by one minus your set-aside percentage. Tax rates and rules vary by country and change over time, so you supply your own percentage — ask a local accountant what is right for you.
Turn the minimum into an actual price list
This page gives you one number for one set of assumptions. The Photography Business Toolkit is a set of plug-and-play spreadsheets — a client & shoot booking tracker, a package & pricing calculator with a profitability sheet, and an income & expense tracker — so you can turn the minimum into real packages, log every inquiry and booking, and see whether your actual numbers are matching the plan, in Excel or Google Sheets.
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