How Printing Cost Changes With Quantity
The same design printed in 5 shirts and in 50 shirts never lands on the same per-piece price — but the reason isn’t simply "buy more, pay less". This page explains the actual mechanism: why quantity affects DTG and screen printing differently, and Startee’s real tiered pricing.
Pricing by quantity (VAT included)
Prices below are the Premium (100% cotton) tier for each product, including the blank shirt plus one print (35×40cm) and one logo (10×10cm) — see all 3 fabric tiers on the pricing page.
| Quantity (pcs) | T-shirt | Polo | Hoodie |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | 299,000đ | 349,000đ | 399,000đ |
| 5–10 | 269,000đ | 329,000đ | 379,000đ |
| 11–20 | 249,000đ | 299,000đ | 349,000đ |
| 21–50 | 229,000đ | 289,000đ | 299,000đ |
| 51–100 | 219,000đ | 269,000đ | 279,000đ |
| > 100 | Contact | Contact | Contact |
Why screen printing only gets cheap at volume
Screen printing needs a separate screen made for every color in the design before the first shirt can be printed — that setup cost stays roughly fixed whether you print 1 shirt or 500. On a large order, the cost spreads across many shirts, so the per-piece price drops noticeably; on a small order, that same setup cost per shirt is very high. This is why screen printing is only genuinely cheap once you clear a volume threshold (usually several dozen pieces) with a simple, few-color design.
DTG and heat transfer: no screen, but still tiered
DTG and heat transfer need no screen, so they’re cost-effective from a single piece — which is why the table above still applies to a 1–4 shirt order. The quantity tiers here mostly reflect the operating cost of running small individual orders (machine setup, checking each order separately), not screen cost — so the price gap between tiers is gentler than screen printing, and there’s no "must hit X shirts to be accepted" threshold.
Other factors that affect price
- Fabric — 100% cotton, CVC pique, or a polyester blend (see all 3 tiers on the pricing page).
- Number of print positions on the shirt — chest, back, sleeve cost extra beyond the base print area.
- A different name or text printed on each shirt (class or group orders) — no extra screen cost with DTG.
- Number of colors for screen printing — each color needs its own screen; DTG doesn’t add cost per color.