Cost Per Wear Calculator
Work out the true cost per wear of a clothing item, including alterations, cleaning and resale value, and see how many wears hit your target price.
Cost Per Wear Calculator: with the default inputs, cost per wear is $3.60.
What you actually paid, after any discount.
One-off hemming, resizing or repair costs.
Average across the year, including seasons you don't wear it.
How long before it wears out or leaves your wardrobe.
Dry cleaning or laundering cost each time it needs cleaning. Use 0 to ignore.
How many wears before it needs washing or dry cleaning.
What you think you could sell it for at the end. Use 0 if you'll keep or donate it.
Your personal "worth it" threshold, used for the break-even wear count.
All-in ownership cost divided by total expected wears.
- Total expected wears
- 144
- Number of cleanings
- 29
- Total cleaning cost
- $348.00
- Net cost of ownership
- $518.00Price + alterations + cleaning − resale value.
- Cost per wear (purchase price only)
- $1.25Ignores alterations, cleaning and resale.
- Cost per year of ownership
- $172.67
- Wears needed to hit target
- 00 means the target is unreachable because cleaning alone costs more per wear.
- Months of wear to hit target
- 0
Assumptions
- Wears are spread evenly over the ownership period; seasonality is handled by using an annual average.
- Cleaning is charged in whole cycles, rounded up to the next cleaning.
- No discounting for inflation or time value of money.
- Resale value is received at the end and subtracted from total cost.
How this is worked out
The formula
Total wears = wears per month × 12 × years owned Cleanings = ceil(total wears ÷ wears between cleanings) Net cost = price + alterations + (cleanings × cost per cleaning) − resale value Cost per wear = net cost ÷ total wears Wears needed for target = (price + alterations − resale) ÷ (target CPW − cleaning cost per wear)
Open How it’s calculated above to see this worked through with your own numbers.
What you enter
- Purchase price
- What you actually paid, after any discount.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 180
- Alterations / tailoring
- One-off hemming, resizing or repair costs.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 20
- Times worn per month
- Average across the year, including seasons you don't wear it.from 0 to 31 · defaults to 4
- Years you expect to keep it
- How long before it wears out or leaves your wardrobe.from 0.1 to 40 · defaults to 3
- Cost per cleaning
- Dry cleaning or laundering cost each time it needs cleaning. Use 0 to ignore.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 12
- Wears between cleanings
- How many wears before it needs washing or dry cleaning.from 1 to 100 · defaults to 5
- Expected resale value
- What you think you could sell it for at the end. Use 0 if you'll keep or donate it.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 30
- Target cost per wear
- Your personal "worth it" threshold, used for the break-even wear count.in dollars · 0.01 or more · defaults to 2
What you get back
- Cost per wearmain answer
- All-in ownership cost divided by total expected wears.
- Total expected wears
- Number of cleanings
- Total cleaning cost
- Net cost of ownership
- Price + alterations + cleaning − resale value.
- Cost per wear (purchase price only)
- Ignores alterations, cleaning and resale.
- Cost per year of ownership
- Wears needed to hit target
- 0 means the target is unreachable because cleaning alone costs more per wear.
- Months of wear to hit target
What this assumes
- Wears are spread evenly over the ownership period; seasonality is handled by using an annual average.
- Cleaning is charged in whole cycles, rounded up to the next cleaning.
- No discounting for inflation or time value of money.
- Resale value is received at the end and subtracted from total cost.
About this calculator
What cost per wear tells you
Cost per wear (CPW) turns a sticker price into a usage price. A $400 coat worn 200 times costs $2 a wear; a $40 top worn twice costs $20 a wear. It is the simplest honest test of whether an expensive, durable piece is actually cheaper than a cheap one.
How to use it
Enter what you paid, any tailoring, and how often you realistically wear the item averaged across the whole year — a wool coat worn five times a week for four months is about 7 wears a month, not 20. Add cleaning costs if the piece needs dry cleaning, since care often outweighs the purchase price on suits, coats and silk. If you resell clothes, enter a realistic resale figure; that money comes straight off the net cost.
The calculator returns your all-in cost per wear, the total net cost of ownership, a yearly figure, and how many wears you would need to reach your personal target CPW.
Where it's approximate
Everything hinges on your estimate of future wears, which people habitually overestimate for statement pieces and underestimate for basics. It ignores inflation, the time value of money, and the fact that garments wear out faster with heavy use. Cleaning is billed in whole cycles, so short ownership periods round up. Treat the answer as a comparison tool between two options rather than an exact accounting figure.
Frequently asked questions
▸What counts as a good cost per wear?
There is no universal number, but many people use $1–$5 per wear for everyday clothing and accept $10+ for rarely worn formalwear. The useful comparison is between two items you're choosing between, or between an item's CPW and what you'd happily pay to rent it for a day.
▸Should I include cleaning costs?
Yes, if they're significant. A $300 suit dry-cleaned at $20 a time every five wears adds $4 per wear — more than the purchase price contributes over 100 wears. For machine-washable basics, set the cleaning cost to 0 or a token amount.
▸How do I estimate wears per month for seasonal items?
Count the wears you expect over a full year and divide by 12. A ski jacket worn 15 times each winter is 1.25 wears per month, not 5.
▸Does resale value really matter?
For brands with an active secondhand market it can cut net cost by 20–50%. Be conservative: most items resell for far less than owners expect, and listing takes time you may not spend.
▸Why does the break-even wear count sometimes show zero?
That happens when the per-wear cleaning cost alone already exceeds your target cost per wear. No number of wears can get you below the target, so lower the cleaning cost, stretch wears between cleanings, or raise the target.
How this calculator was made
A visitor asked for: “Cost per wear of a piece of clothing”. An AI model wrote the formulas as a declarative spec, our engine checked that every expression parses and evaluates, and the math above runs deterministically in your browser. It hasn’t been reviewed by a person yet — check the assumptions and the How it’s calculated panel before relying on it.