Kickstarter shipping calculator & rate table
Turn your box and your carrier quotes into the real cost of getting a reward to each region, a simple rate table to show backers, and a shipping table image you can drop into your campaign page.
1. Your package
2. Postage quotes per region
Enter what your fulfilment partner quotes to ship one parcel to each region. Leave a region blank to skip it. Backer share is a typical board game mix; edit it to match your audience.
| Region | Postage quote | Backers % |
|---|
3. Everything else per parcel
All-in cost and what to charge
| Region | All-in cost | Charge backers |
|---|
Your rate table
Regions within $2 of each other are grouped and charged the higher price, so the table stays short.
A 1360 px wide PNG. Kickstarter shows story images at 680 px, so it stays sharp on retina screens.
How to work out Kickstarter shipping (the method behind this calculator)
Shipping is the line that sinks the most campaigns, and the one creators put off longest. One creator wrote that looking up international rates "made me stop setting up my last kickstarter". This calculator follows the process Kirk Dennison (PieceKeeper Games, JetBacker) teaches at Board Game Design Lab:
- Pad the specs. Add 10–20% to the product weight, 0.75–1 inch of padding on every side, and about 1 lb for the shipping box and fill.
- Check dimensional weight. Carriers charge for the bigger of real weight and size-based weight (length × width × height ÷ divisor). Big light boxes cost more than you'd think.
- Get quotes from at least two partners per region. Ask about dimensional weight, fuel and delivery surcharges, pick-and-pack, box and fill fees, and their yearly increase.
- Add everything to get an all-in cost per region: postage, pick-and-pack, surcharges, next year's increase, exchange rate, your share of freight, VAT handling and pledge manager fees.
- Apply any subsidy, then group regions whose prices are within about $2 of each other, so backers see a short, clear table.
Where backers usually come from
From around 70 board game projects, Dennison's typical backer mix is: US 54%, UK 7%, Germany 6%, Canada 6%, France 4%, Australia 4%, the other 25 EU countries 12%, eight Asian countries 4%, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland 2%, everyone else 2%. The top six countries cover over 80% of backers; adding the whole EU covers about 92%. The calculator uses this mix (grouped into six regions) to estimate your blended cost per backer. Your audience may differ, so edit the percentages.
Why it matters so much
In the same deck, fulfilment came to about 33% of total project cost at 1,500 backers and 53% at 4,000 backers. Manufacturing was only 13–14%. Shipping, not printing, is usually the biggest number in a board game budget.
Charge shipping now or later?
Kickstarter supports both. Shipping charged during the campaign counts toward your goal (and the platform fees apply to it). Shipping charged later in a pledge manager doesn't count toward the goal, but you can wait until you know real costs. Whichever you pick, say it clearly near the top of your reward section; surprise shipping costs are one of the most common reasons backers walk away.
Shipping questions creators ask
How much should I charge for shipping on Kickstarter?
Charge your all-in cost per region (postage, pick-and-pack, surcharges, next year's increase, exchange rate, freight share and VAT handling) minus any subsidy you choose to cover. Then group regions within about $2 of each other so the table stays short.
Should I subsidise shipping?
Many board game publishers build part of shipping into the reward price. Jamey Stegmaier suggests adding about $8–10 to the core reward price for this. A subsidy makes the shipping line look friendlier, but it has to come from somewhere, so put it in your budget.
Which countries should I ship to?
For a typical board game, the US, UK, Germany, Canada, France and Australia cover over 80% of backers. Adding the rest of the EU takes you to about 92%. Ship where you can get reliable quotes; it's fine to skip a few expensive countries.
What is dimensional weight?
A size-based weight carriers use for big, light parcels: length × width × height divided by the carrier's divisor (commonly 139 for inches and pounds, 5000 for centimetres and kilograms). You pay for whichever is higher, real or dimensional weight.
Where these numbers come from
- Kirk Dennison, Board Game Design Lab, Setting Shipping Rates (2023): padding, buffers, all-in cost method, $2 grouping, backer mix (from about 70 projects), cost shares
- Kickstarter Help Center, shipping during the campaign or later
- Jamey Stegmaier, pricing your core reward: $8–10 shipping subsidy
- Pick & pack example ($2.25 per order) is one creator's published quote, an estimate only. Dimensional weight divisors are common carrier values; confirm with your carrier.
Checked October 2026. Postage changes constantly, so this calculator never guesses carrier rates: always use current quotes.
Turn your numbers into a finished campaign page
The PledgeBird Page Builder lays out your Kickstarter page the way top campaigns in your category do: headers, reward cards, specs, stretch goals and shipping tables. Free to build.
Pick your category