CSA share price calculator
How much should you charge for a CSA share?
Work it out from what your season costs and what you want to earn. Put in your numbers and get a weekly and season price for every share size. It’s free, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
The numbers below are an example farm. Replace them with yours.
Your shares
Each size next to a full share (a half share is 0.5), and how many members you expect.
What the season costs
Only the CSA’s part of each, if you sell elsewhere too.
Growing
Seed, compost, irrigation
Land, insurance, tools, truck
People
Paid help
With payroll costs
What you want to earn
Every box
Box, bags, labels
Fuel and time; 0 for pickup
On top
Crop losses, next season
Card fees and software
Charge at least
- Half $26.98/week $540 for the season
- Full $51.33/week $1,027 for the season
That brings in $41,594 over 20 weeks: your costs and pay, the buffer and fees.
Where a full share’s $51.33 goes
- Growing supplies $7.50
- Crew $11.25
- Your pay $18.75
- Overhead $5.00
- Packing $1.50
- Delivery $0.80
- Buffer $4.48
- Fees $2.05
Check it against the market
Optional: what a full box’s contents would cost at your farmers market.
How to price a CSA share
Start from what the season costs
A share price has to cover the whole season: seed and supplies, paid help, packing, delivery, and a fair part of the land, insurance and equipment. Add it up for the season, then share it out over every box you’ll pack. Yours comes to $36,300 before the buffer.
Count your own pay as a cost
If your pay is whatever’s left at the end, the price can look fine on paper while you work for nothing. Decide what you want to earn and put it in with everything else. Right now, $18.75 of every full share is you.
pay yourself first
Price smaller shares a little above half
Packing a box and dropping it off costs about the same whatever size it is. A half share has half the vegetables but a whole box’s packing and delivery, so it should cost a little more than half. Your half share comes out at 53% of a full one.
Leave room, and cover your fees
A buffer covers the crop that fails and gets next season started. Card and software fees come out of what members pay, so the price goes up just enough that you keep your full amount. That’s $6.53 on every full share.
Then check it against your market
Your costs tell you the least you can charge. What a full box would cost at the farmers market tells you what members will compare it with. If you’re above market, show them what else a share brings, like knowing the farm that grew it.
Show a weekly and a season price
A weekly price is easy to hold up against the grocery store. A season price is what members pay if they pay upfront. Put both on the signup page. For a full share, that’s $51.33 a week or $1,027 for the season.
Then sell them on your own store
Copia adds CSA memberships to your Shopify store: a signup form with every size, billing, the member portal, and harvest planning that works out every size from a full share.
Plan a full share once in Copia, and every size follows.
The calculator’s starting numbers are an example farm, not what CSAs typically charge. Everything stays in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.