Licensing and Usage Fee Tiers

Excel Formulas › Photography & Creative

All versionsVLOOKUP

Commercial licensing prices by usage — web, regional, or national — usually as a multiplier on a base creative fee. A lookup table turns the selected usage into the license fee.

Quick formula: license fee from base fee and a usage multiplier:
=base_fee * VLOOKUP(usage, tier_table, 2, FALSE)
Look up the usage tier's multiplier and apply it to the base creative fee for the license fee.

Functions used (tap for the full reference guide):

VLOOKUPCHOOSE

The example

$800 base, “National” = 3x.

AB
1ItemValue
2Multiplier3x
3License→ $2,400

The formula

The formula:

=base_fee * VLOOKUP(usage, tier_table, 2, FALSE) // base fee × usage multiplier

How it works

How it works:

  1. Build a tier table: usage type → multiplier (Web 1x, Regional 2x, National 3x…).
  2. VLOOKUP the selected usage for its multiplier (exact match).
  3. Multiply by the base creative fee for the license fee.
  4. Add duration and exclusivity as further multipliers if your license includes them.

Licensing prices the use, not the photo. The same image is worth far more on a national campaign than a local blog, because licensing sells permission to use over a scope and time. A tier table makes that explicit and defensible: pick the usage, the multiplier follows, and the fee scales with the value the client extracts — far better than a flat “per photo” price.

Try it: interactive demo

Live demo

Base fee and usage tier.

License fee:

Variations

With duration

Layer multipliers:

=base_fee * usage_mult * duration_mult

CHOOSE instead

Index-based tiers:

=base_fee * CHOOSE(tier_index, 1, 2, 3, 5)

Exclusivity add-on

Premium:

=license_fee * (1 + exclusivity_pct)

Pitfalls & errors

Exact match. Usage names need FALSE in VLOOKUP.

License vs creative fee. The base fee is separate from the usage license.

Define scope. Spell out duration, territory, and media in the license.

Practice workbook

📊
Download the free Licensing and Usage Fee Tiers practice workbook
A licensing sheet with the duration, CHOOSE, and exclusivity variants, plus 4 challenges with answers. No sign-up required.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate a licensing fee in Excel?
Look up the usage multiplier and apply it to the base fee: =base_fee * VLOOKUP(usage, tier_table, 2, FALSE). $800 at 3x national is $2,400.
Why price licensing by usage?
It sells permission over a scope and time — a national campaign extracts far more value than a local use, so the fee should scale with it.
How do I add duration or exclusivity?
Layer multipliers: =base_fee * usage_mult * duration_mult, and add exclusivity as =license_fee * (1 + exclusivity_pct).

Stop fighting formulas. Learn them in a day.

This recipe is one of hundreds of real-world formulas we teach. Our Excel Formulas & Functions class covers lookups, logic, text, and dynamic arrays hands-on — live in Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, Oklahoma City, Denver, or online.

See the Formulas & Functions Class

Related formulas: Session price with cost · Tax bracket lookup · Metric toggle (CHOOSE)

Function references: VLOOKUPCHOOSE