How much to charge for a class or workshop: the full calculation
The floor, the ceiling and capacity: how to set a price without the drama, the logic behind class pass discounts and how to raise prices without losing students.
Equipo Aforo
From the trade ·
In short
Floor, ceiling and capacity: the whole calculation with its figures.
Pricing a class is a calculation with three numbers. The floor is what it costs to run the session, divided by the number of places.
That includes the materials used up, the share of rent and bills for those two hours, and your hour of work.
That hour is costed at what you would pay a teacher on your payroll.
The ceiling is what your area already accepts, judged against comparable experiences (other studios, tastings, Saturday outings) and not against the price of a gym.
Capacity is what your hour generates. Eight places at €35 in a two-hour class come to €280, or €140 per hour of class.
The class pass discount is the price of commitment, and it always comes with a written expiry date.
Price rises are announced a full cycle in advance and honour what has already been bought. And payment is taken at booking.
Pricing a class is uncomfortable because it feels like putting a price on yourself. The way to take the drama out of it is to turn it into a calculation with three numbers.
They are the floor (what it costs you), the ceiling (what your area accepts) and capacity (what your hour can generate). One at a time.
The floor: what it costs to run the class
Add up what each session costs and divide it by the places. That includes the materials used up (clay, glazes, canvases) and the share of rent and bills for those two hours.
It also includes the one everyone forgets, your hour of work, costed at what you would pay a teacher on your payroll. That’s your cost per place. Charging below it means paying to teach.
The ceiling: what your area already accepts
Look at what comparable experiences cost in your city (other studios, tastings, weekend getaways) and where you want to sit.
You don’t need to be the cheapest: a pottery class competes with “Saturday plans”, not with the price of the gym.
What you do need is for the price to say what it includes: materials, firing, the piece you take home.
Capacity: your hour is worth what it generates
Eight places at €35 in a two-hour class come to €280: your hour of class is “worth” €140 of capacity.
That number outranks everything else: every hour you spend answering WhatsApps or chasing payments is an hour that isn’t available to generate it.
You can work out yours (and what manual admin costs you) with the admin hours calculator.
Class passes and memberships: the discount with a logic
The class pass discount is the price of commitment. Someone who pays for ten classes in advance gives you cash and repeat business, and that’s worth a moderate discount, not a gift.
And always with a written expiry date, or today’s discount turns into an endless debt (why, in class passes, memberships and the money from missed classes).
The monthly membership follows the same logic: a slightly better price per place in exchange for the repeat business that pays your rent.
Raising prices without losing students
Prices go up on a schedule and in writing, not with guilt and face to face.
- Give a full cycle’s notice (a month of membership, a course).
- Honour what’s already been bought: existing class passes are used up at the old price.
- If you want to reward your regulars, freeze their membership fee for a season. It’s your decision, in writing, not an exception negotiated in the corridor.
- Don’t justify it with your costs: explain it through what they get (materials, smaller groups, more frequent firings).
Whatever your rate, the final rule is about order: take payment at booking. A perfect price you then have to chase on Bizum is a bad price.
Frequently asked questions
How much should you charge for a 2-hour workshop?
The method is worth more than the figure, because the right price depends on your city and your capacity.
First work out the floor: materials, your hour of work and the share of the rent that falls on that session, all divided by the number of places.
Below that you lose money even if you fill up. Then look at the ceiling, which isn’t set by other studios but by the things you compete with for the same Saturday afternoon: a dinner out, a cinema ticket, a trip away.
And decide within that range. To see the arithmetic with real numbers: in this guide’s example, a two-hour workshop with eight places at €35 brings in €280, or €140 per hour of class.
That’s the number to compare with what each hour of admin costs you.
How much should you charge for painting classes?
The sum is the same as for pottery, with two differences that do change the number.
The first is materials: in painting the student often brings them, or at least some of them, so the cost floor drops and the price can drop with it.
The second is format: painting leans more towards the class that repeats (levels, a regular place, a monthly membership) than towards the one-off Saturday workshop.
A membership is compared with other memberships, not with a leisure activity. That sets a lower ceiling per session but a more predictable income each month.
Work out the floor the same way: the materials you supply, your hour and the share of the rent, divided by the places.
And if you sell memberships, look at what a student who stays for a whole school year brings in, not what one class leaves you.
How much does a pottery class cost in Spain?
There’s no published reference rate, and anyone who gives you a national figure is making it up.
The price of a class depends on the city and on whether it’s a single class or part of a course.
It also depends on whether materials are included and on how many places there are. What you can do, and it takes an afternoon, is your own survey.
Find five or six studios in your area that really teach classes and note what they charge for a single session and for a course of several weeks.
Note too whether clay and firing are included in the price. That table is your real ceiling, and it’s worth a thousand times more than a national average.
Do it before you set your prices and repeat it once a year, because the market moves and yours moves with it.
How much should you charge for a pottery or painting class?
There’s no universal rate, but there is a method that stops you guessing.
First work out the floor: materials, your hour of work and the share of the rent that falls on that session, all divided by the places.
That’s the price below which you lose money even if you fill up.
Then look at the ceiling, which isn’t set by other studios but by the experiences you compete with for the same Saturday: a dinner out, a ticket, a trip away.
And decide within that range by looking at your own capacity, not your neighbour’s.
In the guide’s example, a two-hour class with eight places at €35 brings in €280, or €140 per hour of class.
That number, €140 per hour of class, is the one to compare with what it costs you for every hour you spend on admin instead of teaching.
What discount should a class pass have?
A moderate one, not a gift. Someone who pays for ten classes in advance is giving you cash today and repeat business for months, and that’s worth a discount, but much less than is usually given.
The reference point is the drop-in class, and the discount on it still has to leave you a margin per session.
Too big a discount turns your best students into the ones who pay you least per session, which is exactly backwards.
And there’s one condition you can’t skip: the expiry date, written down from day one and visible at purchase.
Without it the pass stops being a sale and becomes an endless debt of work, with people turning up two years later with four unused sessions at a price that no longer exists.
With a written expiry date and an automatic reminder before it runs out, the problem never arises, and you also win back the student who had lost track.
How do you raise class prices without losing students?
On a schedule and in writing, which is the opposite of how it’s almost always done.
Give a full cycle’s notice: if you charge monthly, a month; if you work in terms, a term.
Honour what has already been bought, so existing class passes are used up at the old price until they expire, and say so explicitly, because it’s the doubt everyone has and almost nobody asks about.
Explain the rise by what they get (more kiln hours, an extra teacher, better materials) and not what it costs you, which does nothing for your student.
And if you’re going to make exceptions for anyone, have them decided and written down beforehand, not negotiated in the corridor the day someone complains, because that ends in different rates for people in the same class.
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