How Much Do Custom Printed Tote Bags Cost? 5 Factors That Set Your Price
The cost of custom-printed tote bags depends mostly on three things: how many bags you order, how many print colours you choose, and which fabric weight you pick.
On Prints & Bags, a standard 220 g/m² cotton tote with a one-colour logo starts at €8.61 per bag at the 25-piece minimum, and drops to €2.75 per bag once you order 500 or more. Every price already includes printing, a digital proof, and delivery within the EU, so the number on the product page is the number you pay per bag.
No setup fee gets added at checkout.
In this article
- What determines the cost of custom printed tote bags
- Real cost of custom printed tote bags, by type
- How quantity changes your price per bag
- Why print colours change the price
- What's included, and what isn't
- How ordering custom printed tote bags works
- FAQ
What determines the cost of custom printed tote bags?
Five things set the cost of a custom printed tote bag: fabric weight, order quantity, number of print colours, number of print sides, and where the order ships.
Each one moves the price per bag on its own, and they compound.
A small, one-colour order on a light fabric costs the least per bag in absolute terms but the most per bag relative to volume; a large, multi-colour order on a heavier fabric costs more per bag but far less once you divide by quantity.
1. Bag material and fabric weight
Cotton fabric weight is measured in grams per square metre (g/m², sometimes written gsm).
A 140 g/m² cotton tote is a lighter, budget-friendly canvas. A 220 g/m² gusseted tote is the standard mid-weight choice most businesses order for events, retail, and corporate gifting. Heavier 300 to 407 g/m² jute-cotton and canvas styles sit at the premium end, built for repeat, heavy-duty use.
Heavier fabric uses more raw cotton per bag, so it costs more before a single colour of ink is applied. See our full weight-by-weight guide if you're choosing between them.
2. Order quantity
This is the single biggest lever on price per bag.
Printing has a largely fixed cost per design (the screen setup, the production run), so that fixed cost gets divided across more bags as your order grows. A 220 g/m² tote that costs €8.61 per bag at 25 pieces costs €2.75 per bag at 500 pieces, a 68% drop in price per bag for a 20× increase in quantity.
3. Number of print colours
Each colour in a screen-printed design typically needs its own screen and its own pass through production, so a four-colour logo costs more per bag than a one-colour logo at the same quantity.
At 25 pieces on a standard 220 g/m² tote, one colour runs €8.61 per bag; four colours runs €16.61 per bag.
That gap narrows sharply as quantity rises, because the extra screens get spread across more bags too.
4. Print sides
Printing the front only is the standard, lowest-cost option. Adding a second design on the back side is an additional line at checkout, separate from the front print.
5. Delivery destination
Delivery within the EU is included in the price shown on every product page.
Orders shipping to a European address, including for a European office, event, or trade fair booked by a company based outside the EU, are priced and delivered the same way.
If you're ordering from the US or elsewhere outside the EU for a European destination, our guide for non-EU companies ordering with EU delivery covers the details.
Side and bottom gussets, 38×42 cm. The balance point most businesses order for events, retail, and corporate gifting.
Real cost of custom printed tote bags, by type
Here's what the cost of custom printed tote bags actually looks like across our catalogue, at each product's real entry quantity, one colour versus four colours.
| Bag type | Weight | Qty | 1 colour | 4 colours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget gusseted tote | 140 g/m² | 25 | €7.93 | €11.09 |
| Standard gusseted tote | 220 g/m² | 25 | €8.61 | €16.61 |
| Cotton pocket jute shopper | 340 g/m² | 25 | €9.36 | €16.10 |
| Drawstring pouch (XS) | 200 g/m² | 50 | €4.56 | €7.60 |
Prices are per bag, shown excluding VAT, and already include printing and EU delivery. Most bag styles have a 25-piece minimum order; a few specialty items, like the pouch above, start at 50.
How quantity changes your price per bag
Quantity is the fastest way to bring the cost of custom printed tote bags down, and it follows a curve, not a straight line.
The jump from 25 to 100 pieces saves you far more per bag than the jump from 1,000 to 2,000, because the fixed costs of printing get absorbed fastest in the first few tiers.
Here's that curve on our standard 220 g/m² gusseted tote, one-colour print:
| Quantity | Price per bag | Order total |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | €8.61 | €215.25 |
| 50 | €5.28 | €264.00 |
| 100 | €3.62 | €362.00 |
| 200 | €3.15 | €630.00 |
| 300 | €2.92 | €876.00 |
| 400 | €2.84 | €1,136.00 |
| 500 | €2.75 | €1,375.00 |
Notice that price per bag keeps falling well past 100 pieces, just more slowly.
If your order sits between two of these tiers, ordering up to the next one is usually cheaper per bag than staying just under it. Every product page has a live calculator, so you can type any quantity from 25 to 5,000 and see the exact price before you commit.
35×39×13.5 cm. The budget entry point for high-volume giveaways and event bags.
Why print colours change the price
Most custom printed cotton bags in bulk are decorated with screen printing.
Screen printing pushes ink through a mesh stencil, one screen per colour, so a two-colour logo needs two screens and two passes, a four-colour logo needs four. That's why price per bag rises with each added colour, and why simplifying a logo from four colours to two can meaningfully lower your cost, especially on smaller orders where the screen cost is a bigger share of the total.
For very small runs or highly detailed, photographic artwork, digital methods like DTF (direct-to-film) printing can work out cheaper because they carry no per-colour screen cost, at the expense of the lower per-unit savings that screen printing delivers at real bulk volumes. On orders of a few hundred bags or more, screen printing is almost always the lower-cost route.
Dark fabric colours are printed at the same price as light ones on our bags. There's no dark-fabric surcharge to plan around, which is one less variable pushing up the cost of custom printed tote bags with a dark-coloured design.
What's included in the price, and what isn't
The price shown on each product page is the full price per bag.
It includes the blank bag, the print in your chosen number of colours, a free digital proof for you to approve before anything goes into production, and delivery to any address within the EU. There's no separate setup fee, no minimum-order surcharge, and no rush fee built in by default.
Prices are shown excluding VAT, in line with standard B2B practice. A second print side, if you want one, is priced as a clearly labelled add-on rather than folded silently into the base price.
Together, these inclusions are what keep the cost of custom printed tote bags predictable from the price you see to the invoice you get.
How ordering custom printed tote bags works, step by step
Once you understand what shapes the cost of custom printed tote bags, the ordering process itself is short:
- Pick your bag and quantity. Choose the style, then set the quantity (25 to 5,000) and number of print colours on the product page. The price updates live.
- Upload your artwork. Vector files (PDF, AI, EPS) print cleanest; high-resolution PNG or JPG also works.
- Approve your digital proof. We check your artwork against the print area and send a proof before anything goes to production, so there are no surprises.
- Pay in full. Orders are paid 100% upfront once you approve the proof; that's what starts production.
- Production, 10 to 15 working days. Your bags are printed and finished after artwork approval.
- Delivery across the EU. Your order ships to any business address, event venue, or retail location within the European Union.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a custom printed tote bag cost?
The cost of a custom printed tote bag depends on fabric weight, quantity, and print colours, but a standard 220 g/m² cotton tote runs from around €2.75 per bag at 500 pieces up to €8.61 per bag at the 25-piece minimum, one colour. Heavier fabrics and extra colours cost more per bag; larger orders cost less per bag.
What is the minimum order quantity for custom printed tote bags?
Most bag styles have a 25-piece minimum order. A handful of specialty items, such as our drawstring pouches, start at 50 pieces instead.
Does the price include delivery and VAT?
Delivery within the EU is included in the per-bag price you see on the product page. Prices are shown excluding VAT, which is added according to your business location and applicable tax rules.
Do more print colours really cost more?
Yes, because screen printing needs a separate screen per colour. At 25 pieces on a standard tote, a four-colour design costs roughly double a one-colour design; that gap shrinks as quantity increases.
How long does production take?
10 to 15 working days from artwork approval, before delivery.
Do I have to pay the full amount upfront?
Yes. Orders are paid 100% before production starts, once you've approved your digital proof.
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25-piece minimum · free EU delivery included · digital proof before production
About Prints & Bags
Prints & Bags is a European B2B supplier of custom-printed pouches, jute bags and cotton tote bags, sold directly through our online catalogue. Choose a bag, upload your logo, and order online — from 25 pieces, with free EU shipping, a free digital proof, and production in 10–15 working days after approval.
