Paint Cost Calculator

Almost always yes. The price per ml drops significantly as tube size increases. A 120ml tube typically costs 1.5-2x the price of a 37ml tube but contains 3.2x the paint. For colours you use frequently (white, earth tones), buying 200ml or 500ml sizes saves significant money.

Paint pricing is based on pigment cost. Cadmium, cobalt and genuine ultramarine pigments are expensive to produce. Student-grade paints use cheaper synthetic alternatives. Series numbers (1-5 or A-E) on professional paints indicate the pigment cost tier.

As a rough rule of thumb, a medium-sized painting (60×80cm) in acrylics applied thinly to a medium thickness uses on the order of 50-100ml of paint total across all colours. Oil paintings tend to use slightly less. Large-scale or heavily impasto works can use several hundred ml, so always treat this as an order-of-magnitude estimate rather than a fixed figure. White is typically 30-40% of total paint consumption.