What to charge to vectorize a logo and what it really costs you.
Most shops charge $25 to $150+ to vectorize a logo, scaled by complexity and what their market bears. But the price you charge is only half the equation — the other half is your cost to produce it. In-house, a 30–60 minute redraw costs $25–$75 in loaded labor pulled off billable work; outsourced to VectorWiz it is a fixed $15–$150 with a remake guarantee. Charge your customer your rate either way; the lower your cost of goods, the more of that charge stays as margin.
A customer hands you a logo that needs rebuilding before you can print it, and you have to put a number on it. Charge too little and you eat the labor; charge blind and you never know if the job made money. Pricing the redraw well starts with one thing most shops skip: knowing what it actually costs you to produce.
Outsource the redraw at a fixed price. Keep the markup.
From $15 by complexity, remake guaranteed, production-correct in 24 hours — so you quote your rate and the margin stays with you.
Need something custom? Email hello@vectorwiz.com
What shops typically charge
There is no fixed rate — logo vectorizing usually runs somewhere between $25 and $150 or more per logo, scaled by complexity. A clean single-color wordmark sits at the low end; a detailed, multi-color, or hand-drawn mark sits at the top. What your market will bear matters as much as the work itself, so treat these as typical ranges, not a rate card.
Your real cost of goods
Every redraw has a cost, even when the designer is already on salary. In-house, that cost is loaded labor: at a typical $45–$75 an hour, a 30–60 minute rebuild is $25–$75 before overhead — and it comes off an hour your designer could have spent on a layout, a separation, or a press check. Outsourced, the cost is a fixed price you can see before you commit. Here is how the two stack up against a typical charge.
| Complexity | Typical charge to customer | In-house cost (loaded labor) | Outsource to VectorWiz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple wordmark | $25–$50 | $25–$50 (0.5–1 hr) | $15 |
| Medium, few colors | $50–$100 | $45–$90 | $45 |
| High detail / multi-color | $100–$150 | $75–$150 | $90 |
| Complex / hand-drawn | $150+ | $150+ and rising | $150 |
Read across any row: your customer charge is your revenue, the outsourced price is your cost of goods, and the gap is margin you keep — without a designer on payroll or an hour pulled off billable work. For the full in-house-vs-outsource breakdown, see the head-to-head.
How to put it on the quote
Two clean ways to bill it. A separate line item — 'logo vectorization' or 'art preparation' — makes the value visible and is easy to defend when a customer asks why the file needs work. Or roll it into the sign, wrap, or shirt price to keep the quote simple. Either way, price it as production work, because a rebuild is production work.
Don't undercharge for a rebuild
The most common pricing mistake is treating a logo redraw as a free courtesy to win the print job. It is not free — it is skilled labor with a real cost, and a bad source file can turn a 30-minute job into two hours. Price it, cap your risk by knowing your cost of goods, and the redraw becomes a small profit center instead of a quiet loss.
Before you quote, it also helps to know how hard the file will be. A screenshot or a tiny JPEG costs more time than a clean original — see the five worst source files for what drives complexity, and how to ask the customer for something better.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge a customer to vectorize a logo?
Most shops charge somewhere between $25 and $150+ per logo, scaled by complexity — a simple wordmark at the low end, a detailed multi-color mark at the high end. It varies by market and what your customers will bear. The number that matters more is your cost to produce it, because charge minus cost is your margin.
Should I charge for vectorizing, or roll it into the job?
Both work. A separate line item ('logo vectorization / art prep') makes the value visible and is easy to justify. Rolling it into the sign, wrap, or shirt price hides it but keeps the quote simple. Either way, price it as production work — not a free favor — because a rebuild takes real time.
What does it cost me to vectorize a logo in-house?
Loaded at a typical $45–$75 an hour, a 30–60 minute redraw runs $25–$75 in labor before overhead — and that hour comes off billable production work. Add revision time and the occasional bad-file surprise. That labor cost is your real cost of goods for the redraw, not zero.
Is it cheaper to outsource logo vectorizing than do it in-house?
Usually, per usable file. Outsourcing to VectorWiz is a fixed $15–$150 by complexity with a remake guarantee, and it does not consume your most expensive production hour. You still charge your customer your rate; the outsourced cost is just your cost of goods, so the markup stays with you.
How do I mark up outsourced vectorizing?
Treat the outsourced price as your wholesale cost and charge your normal customer-facing rate on top. If a rebuild costs you $15–$90 to source and you charge $50–$150, the difference is margin you keep — without putting a designer on payroll or pulling one off billable work.
Tanvir Chowdhury
Runs production operations at VectorWiz. Writes about file briefs, intake, pricing, and the production-side details shops learn the hard way.
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