Where prices come from
- Version
- 3.x
- Updated
Audience: store admins · Scope: the pricing model, before you build anything · Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
What this does — Explains every place a price can be set and how they combine into the total the customer watches while configuring. Knowing this map, you'll put each price in the right place on the first try.
How the pieces assemble, whenever the customer changes anything:
The building blocks, in the order they add up
- Product base price (product form) — the starting amount before any selections, with its tax class.
- Answer prices (answer form) — each selected answer adds its static Price. This is the workhorse: for most products, base price + answer prices is the whole story.
- Question price calculations (question form → Calculations) — a question whose price must be computed (e.g. a text/slider question priced by the entered dimensions) gets a Price Calculation instead of static prices; an optional Price Multiplicator scales the result (e.g. by a quantity).
- Answer price calculations (answer form → Calculations) — a calculation attached to an answer overrides its static price for that question. Use it when one choice's surcharge depends on other selections.
- Delivery and payment — shipping cost (by weight and zone) and any payment-method surcharge are added at checkout; they can be previewed in the live summary if enabled.
On top of the summed raw prices, CBX automatically applies:
- Currency conversion — you author every amount in the base currency; other currencies convert by their multiplier.
- Per-currency / per-group price overrides — explicit amounts you pin for a specific currency or customer group (on products and answers) beat the converted value.
- Customer-group discounts — volume-discount tiers from the customer's group, applied in the cart.
- Tax — per the item's tax class and the customer's place and B2B/B2C mode. Never put tax into a price or formula.
Regular and recurring (subscription) pricing run in parallel: nearly every field above has a "… Recurring" twin, and the storefront shows both totals for products that use both.
Choosing the right mechanism
| You want | Do this |
|---|---|
| "Leather seats cost €200 extra" | static Price on the answer |
| "Price is width × height × rate" | Formula calculation on the question |
| "This coating's surcharge depends on the chosen size" | calculation on the answer |
| "Glass price per size/thickness bracket" | Matrix calculation |
| "10% handling on everything" | Code calculation using the running total |
| "Trade customers pay less for everything" | customer-group discounts or per-group overrides — not formulas |
| "Max quantity depends on the chosen package" | a calculation as the question's calculated maximum |
Seeing what the customer sees
The live selection overview beside the configurator itemizes prices per question and page — its detail level is configurable globally (Settings) and per product. When checking your pricing, configure the product on the storefront and watch the overview react to each change; every number should be explainable by one of the building blocks above.
Good to know
- A calculation does nothing until it's attached to something — a question's or answer's price/weight, a min/max bound, a rule condition, or another calculation.
- Weight works like price: static per answer, or computed by a weight calculation — the cart weight then drives weight-based shipping.
- Was prices, price labels ("from") and custom price text ("call for quote") change how a price is presented, not what is charged.
- Whether a customer group sees prices at all (or can only request a quote) is a customer group permission — see the commerce system.