Free tools

Paper weight and cost per sheet calculator

Paper is bought by the tonne and quoted by the sheet. Enter the grammage, the sheet size and a price per tonne to get ream weight, sheets per tonne and the cost of one sheet.

Paper

One sheet

318.4g

Ream (500 sheets)

159.2kg

Sheets per tonne

3,140

Cost per sheet

0.318

Cost per 1,000 sheets

318.44

The formulas

  • One sheet (g) = width (m) × height (m) × grammage (g/m²).
  • Ream weight (kg) = one sheet (g) × 500 ÷ 1000.
  • Sheets per tonne = 1,000,000 ÷ one sheet (g).
  • Cost per sheet = price per tonne × one sheet (g) ÷ 1,000,000.

Worked example

A 300 gsm board on an 889×1194 mm sheet weighs 0.889 × 1.194 × 300 ≈ 318 g per sheet, so a ream is about 159 kg and a tonne holds about 3,140 sheets. At 6,200 per tonne one sheet costs about 1.97.

Why it matters in a quote

Sheet-fed quotes price paper per sheet from the tonne price, then multiply by the number of sheets the imposition needs plus make-ready waste. Sheetwise does this automatically for every carton and bag quote, on the sheet size that gives the lowest total cost.

Frequently asked questions

What is a ream?

500 sheets. Board is often sold by weight instead, which is why the tonne price is the useful input.

Does this cover US basis weight (lb)?

No. Basis weight depends on a basic sheet size per paper grade; convert it to gsm first, then use this calculator.

See it with your own products

Open a workspace in a minute. It comes with a full set of default pricing parameters, so you can quote a carton before you configure anything.

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