Cost per use.
What this purchase actually costs.
A $300 jacket worn 3 times costs $100 per use. The same jacket worn 60 times costs $5 per use. The difference is not the price tag. It is whether you actually use the thing. Enter any purchase and your honest expected uses to see what it really costs.
The question it answersWhat does this purchase actually cost per time I use it?
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Will you use this the number of times you're imagining right now? Be honest. Most people overestimate future uses by a wide margin. Look at how often you used the previous version of the thing.
Methodology: cost per use = price ÷ expected uses. Color scale: green < $5, orange < $20, red ≥ $20.
The honest framing
- Cost per use is not the only metric. A book read once that changes your thinking is worth far more than its cost per use suggests. A gym membership used 3 times before being forgotten costs $200+ per use regardless of motivation.
- The hard question: will you use this the number of times you're imagining right now? Look at how often you used the previous version, not how often you intend to use this one.
- "Buy It For Life" makes economic sense when the higher-quality version lasts proportionally longer. A $120 pair of jeans is worth it if it lasts 80 wears vs 8 for the $30 pair. The "Vimes Boots" theory of inequality describes exactly this dynamic.
HOW THIS IS CALCULATED
This tool runs entirely in your browser: no data is sent to any server.
- Cost per use = purchase price ÷ expected uses, shown to the cent. A blank or negative purchase price gets a message asking for $0 or more instead of a result. Expected uses that are blank or below 1 are counted as 1, and a note under the results says so.
- The optional alternative goes through the same formula and appears only when its price is above $0; a negative alternative price is ignored, with a note saying so. Its expected uses follow the same blank-or-below-1 rule. The verdict compares the two at the cent, the precision shown: it names whichever item has the lower cost per use, adds "because it gets more uses" only when the winner also has the higher price, and calls it a tie when both round to the same cent. The note under the alternative's result says whether it is cheaper, pricier or the same price, and gets fewer, more or the same number of uses, compared with your main purchase.
- Color and verdict bands for the main item: under $1 per use "excellent value" and $1 to under $5 "good value" (both green), $5 to under $20 "moderate" (orange), $20 or more "high" (red). A $0 purchase price is labeled "free" (green) instead.
- The preset buttons only fill in example numbers, such as $120 jeans worn 80 times against $30 jeans worn 8 times ($1.50 against $3.75 per use).
The math uses the sticker price only. It does not include resale value, repairs, running costs, financing charges or what the money could earn if kept. Verify the methodology or inspect the source code in your browser's dev tools.
Where to go from here
Calculators are educational estimates, not financial advice. Disclosures · How pages are reviewed