Free tool
Convention Budget Calculator
Know what your next con will actually cost. Pick a convention, set your group size, and get a full breakdown of badge, hotel, travel, food, and spending money.
Planning a build for this convention?
Costumary tracks your materials, budget, timeline, and build progress all in one workspace. Start your project now and arrive at the con floor with zero last-minute panic.
Start your buildHow to budget for a convention
Convention costs sneak up on you. The badge is the easy part. It is the hotel split, the parking you forgot to check, the $16 chicken tenders at the convention center, and the artist alley prints you could not walk past that blow your budget. Most first-time con-goers underestimate their total spend by 40 to 60%.
The real cost breakdown
For a typical 3-day convention, lodging is your biggest expense (30 to 40% of total), followed by food (20 to 25%), then badge and shopping split the rest. If you are driving, gas and parking add $40 to $100 depending on distance. If flying, budget $200 to $400 for airfare plus $30 to $60 for airport-to-hotel transport each way.
How groups save money
Hotel rooms are the biggest savings lever. A $150/night room split four ways is $37.50 per person per night. Carpooling cuts gas and parking costs. Group dinners at sit-down restaurants are cheaper per person than everyone buying convention center food individually. The calculator above splits shared costs automatically when you set a group size larger than one.
First convention vs. repeat attendee
Your first convention is more expensive because you are buying things you will reuse: a rolling suitcase for cosplay transport, a repair kit, comfortable walking shoes, a portable charger. By your third convention, your base costs drop because you already own the gear. The variable costs (badge, hotel, food, shopping) stay the same.
Related guides
Deep dives and cost breakdowns for this topic.
Convention Trip Budget: Real Costs
10 min read
Real convention cost breakdowns for badges, hotels, food, and spending money. Budget tiers from local day trips to flying cross-country.
Are You Actually Making Money at Cons?
11 min read
Most convention vendors count gross sales, not profit. Here's how to calculate what you really earned after table fees, travel, materials, and time.
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What are you building next?
Start with a template, customize the milestones and materials, and build without losing track.
Frieren
~5wFrieren: Beyond Journey's End's elven mage, built around a white high-collar tunic with gold trim, a flowing blue cape, and a wooden staff with a red gem. This is an intermediate build that combines clean garment construction with prop craftsmanship, finished with styled twin-tail wig and elf ear prosthetics. The gold trim detailing and the staff are the signature details, and this template walks you through both. Includes 7 components, 14 materials with cost estimates, a 12-step build plan, and a realistic 5-week, $100 to $280 budget.
Momo Ayase
~3wMomo Ayase from Dandadan in her signature school uniform: pastel pink sweater, white shirt with red bow tie, and navy pleated skirt. This is a beginner-friendly build that comes together fast, with most pieces thriftable, but three details make it read as Momo: the wig bangs, green earrings, and the exact sweater shade. The wig styling is the hardest part, the earrings are a fun DIY, and the rest is shopping. Includes 8 components, 12 materials, a 10-step plan, and a 3-week, $85 to $225 budget.
Okarun
~4wDandadan's awkward occult nerd has two cosplay paths: the normal school uniform with bowl cut wig and glasses, or the Turbo Granny transformation with white flared hair, jaw mask, and flame-tail coat. This template covers both as an upgrade path, starting with normal form and layering on the turbo pieces. The jaw mask and bowl cut wig are the make-or-break details. 7 components, 14 materials, ~4 weeks, $70-220.
Captain America
~6wThe star-spangled Avenger in his Endgame suit: scaled chest armor over a tactical blue base, a white star emblem, red gauntlets and boot details, a foam cowl helmet with ear wings, and the iconic round shield. This is an intermediate build with repetitive detail work on the scales and some prop-making for the shield. Covers 7 components, 12 materials with cost estimates, a 12-step plan across 5 phases, and a realistic 6-week, $150 to $400 budget.
Used by makers from r/cosplay, The RPF, Cosplay.com, r/Gunpla, and r/minipainting