What price for your PDF? How to calculate it
5 min readUpdated
Too cheap gives away value, too expensive prevents sales. There is no perfect price – but there are methods to quickly find a good starting price and then improve it deliberately.
Method 1: start from your effort
For custom work such as expert reports this is the obvious way: hours times hourly rate, plus expenses. The price of the PDF equals the fee.
For knowledge products you sell repeatedly, spread the effort over the expected number of sales. A guide with 20 hours of work at CHF 120 costs you CHF 2,400. If you expect 100 sales in the first year, the lower limit is around CHF 24 – plus margin.
Method 2: start from the value for the buyer
The stronger method: what does your document save or earn the buyer? A market study that saves an investor from a bad decision is worth hundreds of francs – regardless of how long it took you to write.
Ask yourself: what would the buyer do otherwise? Research it themselves (time), hire a consultant (fee) or take the risk (cost of a mistake)? Your price should be clearly below that alternative, but not so low that it looks unprofessional.
Method 3: compare with similar offers
Look at what similar documents cost. As a rough guide from the Swiss market:
- Sewing patterns, knitting instructions, print templates: CHF 5–20
- E-books, checklists, workbooks: CHF 15–80
- Industry reports and market studies: CHF 80–500
- Expert reports and assessments: by effort, often several hundred francs
If your document is more comprehensive, more up to date or more specific to Switzerland, you can aim for the upper end.
Factor in the fees
PayDoc deducts an 8% commission from every sale. On top come Stripe’s payment fees, which vary by payment method and card. For an estimate we assume around 2.9% plus CHF 0.30 per payment:
- Sale at CHF 9: around CHF 7.70 for you
- Sale at CHF 49: around CHF 43.35 for you
- Sale at CHF 149: around CHF 132.45 for you
The fixed part of the payment fee weighs more at low prices. If you have several small documents, a bundle at a higher price can make more sense.
The pricing calculator on our home page instantly shows what is left after fees for any amount.
Psychology and testing
- Round or “odd” prices: CHF 49 feels cheaper than CHF 50 for consumer products. For professional documents aimed at companies, round prices such as CHF 150 often look more professional.
- Make the scope visible: The page count and a good description justify the price. PayDoc shows the page count and a pixelated preview automatically.
- Rather start a little higher: Lowering a price is easier than raising it.
- Test deliberately: Change the price for a few weeks and compare the sales in your dashboard.