Enter the total area in square inches, and the total cost into the calculator to determine the cost per square inch.

Cost Per Square Inch Formula

The following formula is used to calculate a cost per square inch.

CPSI = TC / TA
  • Where CPSI is the cost per square inch ($/in^2)
  • TC is the total cost ($)
  • TA is the total area (in^2)

To calculate the cost per square inch, divide the total cost in dollars by the total area in inches squared.

The total area can further be broken down into length and width if the area in question is a square or rectangle. This would be calculated as follows:

TA = L * W

  • Where L is the length (inches)
  • W is the width (inches)

What is a cost per square inch?

A cost per square inch is a unit of measure of dollars per unit of area. The dollar amount is considered the cost and the square inches are the units for area.

Cost per square inch is used in the same way that cost per square foot is used, but it’s typically reserved for things with smaller areas where using square inches is easier than some decimal value of square feet.

How to calculate cost per square inch?

The following example shows how to calculate the cost per square inch of a circular pizza.

First, determine the area of the pizza. This is done through the formula pi*D^2/4, where D is the diameter. The diameter, in this case, is 12 inches, so the area is calculated as:

TA = 3.14159*12^2/4

TA = 113.09 in^2.

Next, determine the total cost of the pizza. In this example, the total cost is found to be $20.00.

Finally, calculate the cost per square inch using the formula:

CPSI = TC / TA

CPSI = $20.00 / 113.09

CPSI = .18 $ / in^2