How to Price Art Commissions: What to Charge for Custom Work

Pricing a commission is a different job from pricing a painting you already made. A finished canvas has a size, a medium, and a market position, and those three things get you most of the way to a number. A commission has all of that plus a person attached to it, and the person is where the hours go.

That’s the whole reason commission pricing trips people up. Artists quote their normal price, then spend eleven emails, two reference sessions, and a repaint on a client who changed their mind about the background. The painting sold for what it was worth. The job didn’t.

What should you charge for an art commission?

Start from your finished-work price, then add for what the client brings to the job. Most working artists land somewhere between 20 and 50 percent above what the same piece would sell for off their studio wall.

If you don’t have a finished-work price yet, that’s the first thing to build, and it’s a separate piece of math. The square-inch method, market positioning, and how medium affects value are covered in the step-by-step guide to pricing paintings. Get that number solid first. Commission pricing is a layer on top of it, and it doesn’t work without a floor underneath.

Once you have the floor, the commission premium covers four specific things:

1. Communication. Inquiry emails, clarifying questions, scheduling, progress updates, and the follow-up after delivery. On a straightforward commission this is two to four hours. On a complicated one it’s considerably more.
2. Reference and planning. Gathering photos, asking for better photos, thumbnails, and composition decisions made to someone else’s brief rather than your own instinct.
3. Revisions. Every commission carries at least one round. Price for it whether or not the client uses it.
4. Risk. Some percentage of commissions get cancelled, delayed, or turn into work you can’t resell to anyone else. A portrait of a stranger’s grandmother has no secondary market.

How do you actually calculate the number?

Work it in this order, and write the result down before you reply to the client.

1. Price the piece as a finished painting. Use your normal method for that size and medium. Call it your base.
2. Add your commission premium. 20 percent for a subject close to your usual work with a relaxed deadline. 50 percent for something demanding: multiple figures, a subject you rarely paint, or a hard date.
3. Add for genuine extras. A second figure, an unusually detailed background, framing, or shipping each get their own line. Don’t absorb these.
4. Sanity check against your hourly target. Estimate the total hours including all the non-painting work, divide your price by it, and see what you’re actually earning. If it’s below what you’d accept, the price is wrong.
5. Quote one flat number. The client sees a single price for the finished, delivered piece. Your hourly math stays private.

A worked example. Say a 16 by 20 acrylic sells from your studio at $400. It’s a portrait of one person, a subject you paint often, with a two-month deadline. Base $400, premium of 30 percent brings it to $520, and the client wants it framed, so framing gets added at your cost plus handling. The quote goes out at $520 plus framing, with $200 due as a deposit.

Why flat pricing beats hourly for commissions

Hourly pricing has an unpleasant logic to it: the better you get, the less you earn. An artist who can nail a portrait in eight hours makes half what a slower artist makes for identical work, which is the opposite of how skill should be rewarded.

It also invites a conversation you don’t want. The moment a client knows your rate and your hours, both become negotiable, and you end up justifying how long an underpainting took. Flat pricing moves the conversation to the thing that matters, which is the finished piece and whether it’s worth the money.

Keep the hourly number for yourself. It’s the check that tells you whether a flat quote is worth taking, and it’s how you learn which kinds of commissions lose you money without ever looking like it.

How much deposit should you take?

A third to a half, before you start, non-refundable. Every part of that sentence is doing work.

Before you start matters because the deposit’s job is to make the client’s commitment real. Non-refundable matters because your materials are bought and your calendar is blocked. And a third to a half is the range that covers your costs without asking a stranger to hand over the full price for a painting that doesn’t exist.

The balance is due before the piece leaves your hands. Not on delivery, not net thirty. Artists who chase final payments after a client already has the painting learn this rule the expensive way.

Put the deposit, the balance, and the timing in the written agreement. A short art commission contract covers this in a page, and it protects the client as much as it protects you.

How do you price revisions and scope changes?

Name the number of revision rounds in the quote. One or two is standard, and the rounds should sit at useful points: after the sketch or underpainting, when changes still cost minutes instead of days.

Beyond that, price additional rounds as a percentage of the fee, typically 10 to 20 percent each, and say so up front. Clients rarely object to a policy stated before the work begins. They object to a bill that appears after.

The distinction worth explaining to a client is between a revision and a new brief. Warming the palette is a revision. Changing the subject from a landscape to a portrait of the family dog is a new commission at a new price, and treating it as one is fair to both of you.

What if the client says it’s too much?

Change the scope, not the price. Offer a smaller canvas, a simpler composition, a single figure instead of three, or a different medium. All of those genuinely cost you less to make, so a lower price on a smaller job keeps your rate honest.

Discounting the same piece does something different. It tells the client the first number was padded, and it tells you the same thing, which makes the next quote harder to say with a straight face. Artists who hold their prices and flex their scope keep both the sale and the rate.

Some inquiries aren’t worth winning. A client negotiating hard before any work has started rarely becomes an easy client later, and declining politely is a legitimate outcome. The guide to setting up commissions covers how to qualify inquiries early so you spend your quoting time on the ones that convert, and what an art commission involves is worth sending to clients who are new to the whole arrangement.

Your price is a description of what your time is worth. Work it out once, write it down, and let the number do its job when the next inquiry lands.

Frequently asked questions

How much should I charge for an art commission?

Start from what you'd charge for a similar finished painting, then add 20 to 50 percent for the communication, reference work, and revision rounds that custom work brings. If a 16 by 20 canvas sells from your studio at $400, a commissioned one at the same size generally lands between $480 and $600. Adjust up for a difficult subject, a tight deadline, or multiple figures.

Should I charge hourly for art commissions?

Almost never. Hourly pricing punishes you for getting faster and invites clients to question how long something took. Quote one flat price for the finished piece. Use your hourly target privately, as a check that the flat number is worth your time, then quote the flat number and stop talking about hours.

How much deposit should I take for a commission?

A third to half of the total, taken before you start, and non-refundable. The deposit covers your materials and your time if the client walks away, and it filters out people who were never serious. Collect the balance before the piece leaves your studio, not after.

Do I charge more for a commission than a regular painting?

Yes, and it isn't a markup for its own sake. A commission costs you hours that a studio painting doesn't: inquiry emails, reference photos, progress updates, revisions, and the risk of a cancellation halfway through. Charging the same for both means the commission pays you less per hour than the studio painting does.

How do I price a commission when the client wants changes?

Name the number of revision rounds in the quote, usually one or two, and price additional rounds separately. Changes at the sketch stage are cheap and should be encouraged. Changes after the piece is nearly finished mean repainting, so those get charged. Putting this in writing before you start prevents the argument entirely.

What do I do if a client says my commission price is too high?

Offer a smaller size or a simpler composition at a lower price rather than discounting the piece you quoted. Dropping your price on the same work tells the client, and you, that the first number wasn't real. Adjusting the scope keeps your rate intact and often closes the sale anyway.