Trade show cost calculator: budget, cost per lead and break-even sales
For exhibitors budgeting a show, this free calculator starts from real fees: the cheapest published booth or table has a median of $2,600 across 311 conferences and shows. Add staff, travel and your profit per sale to get the total cost, cost per lead and the sales needed to break even. No account needed.
Example result: $6,420 in total, $128 a lead, 2 sales to break even.
Total cost: $6,420
An example to start, at the median published booth fee. Change any figure above.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Booth fee (median, all industries) | $2,600 |
| Staff travel (2 people, 3 nights) | $2,122 |
| Services, build and shipping (estimated) | $1,698 |
| Total cost | $6,420 |
| Cost per lead | $128 |
| Gross profit from those leads | $12,500 |
| Return on the show | 95% |
| Sales needed to break even | 2 |
| Share of leads that must buy to break even | 2.6% |
A $2,600 booth fee is inside the middle half of published fees for all industries: $1,500 to $4,338 across 311 events.
What the published fees show
Half of the 311 conferences and shows that publish a booth fee in US dollars ask between $1,500 and $4,338 for their cheapest space.
Software Engineering has the highest median cheapest booth at $6,900 (5 events). Hospitality & Events has the lowest at $1,500 (9 events).
Worked example: at the $2,600 median fee, two people, three hotel nights, a $450 flight each and the GSA hotel and meal rates, the total is $6,420, with $1,698 of it an estimate for services, build and shipping. With 50 leads that is $128 a lead, and at $5,000 of gross profit a sale the show needs 2 sales to pay for itself.
Before you commit, open the show's page for its own fee and read who exhibited last time, then check how many of them came back.
Cite this: ConferenceDB, Trade show cost calculator, conferencedatabase.com/trade-show-cost-calculator, data as of 9 November 2026.
How the calculator works
Staff travel is staff times (flight, plus nights times the hotel rate, plus nights plus one times the meal rate). The total is the booth fee, travel and the services line added together. Gross profit is leads times the share that buy times the gross profit on one sale, and return is that profit minus the total, divided by the total. Enter profit and not the sale price, or the return will read too high. Meals are charged at the full rate every day.
When the services line is blank, it is the booth fee divided by 0.405, minus the fee and travel, and never below zero. That share is an average across all exhibitors, so a small table at a regional show will often spend less on build and freight than the estimate.
The booth fee is the cheapest booth, table or space fee each conference or show publishes in US dollars, one per event, so a larger booth at the same show costs more. These are not only trade shows: Healthcare & Medicine supplies 127 of the 311, many of them tabletop fees, so pick your industry for a closer figure. An industry gets its own figure from 5 events. Staff, nights, flight, leads, buying share and profit per sale are example inputs of ours, not data: replace them with your own.
Booth fees: ConferenceDB, live as of 9 November 2026. Space share: CEIR, How the Exhibit Dollar Is Spent 2026, as reported by Trade Show Executive. Hotel and meals: GSA FTR Bulletin 27-01.
Questions
How much does it cost to exhibit at a trade show?
The cheapest booth, table or space fee has a median of $2,600 across 311 conferences and shows that publish one. Add staff travel, services and shipping on top: CEIR puts exhibit space at 40.5% of what the average exhibitor spends. Booth fees by industry
How do I calculate trade show ROI?
Multiply your leads by the share that buy and by the gross profit on one sale. Subtract the total cost, then divide by the total cost. The calculator also gives the number of sales that pays the show back.
What if I leave the services field blank?
The calculator divides the booth fee by 0.405 to estimate the whole budget, then fills this line with what remains after the fee and travel, never below zero. Type your own figure to replace the estimate.
Are the hotel and meal figures real prices?
They start at the US government's standard travel rates for federal fiscal 2027: $113 a night and $68 a day for meals. Big show cities often cost more, so change them to your quote.
Does the calculator store what I enter?
It saves nothing and asks for no account. Your figures travel in the page address so you can bookmark or share a result.
Find the companies behind these numbers
Free, no account. Companies only, never named people.
Pick an industry and a place, or type your conference, and see the companies that sponsor or exhibit at the most conferences like it.
Find sponsors for my conference
More: Trade show booth cost · Are trade shows worth it? · Trade show calendar · Exhibitor lists · Sponsorship prices
Sources
- Trade Show Executive: CEIR Releases Exhibitor Spending Reportexhibit space at 40.5% of spend, read November 9, 2026
- IAEE: The cost of showing upspace at roughly 40 cents of each exhibitor dollar, read November 9, 2026
- GSA Per Diem Bulletin FTR 27-01standard lodging $113, meals and incidentals $68, read November 9, 2026
- Exhibitor listsevery show with a free exhibitor list, updated 9 November 2026
- Free sponsor and exhibitor listswhich page answers which question, updated 9 November 2026
- ConferenceDB company factshow lists and prices are collected, updated 7 October 2026