There is no single answer, but there is a defensible range, and knowing it is the difference between reading a quote and guessing at one.
What follows are the figures commonly quoted across the US exhibit industry. Treat them as a sanity check, not a price list. Your actual number depends on the variables further down, and every one of them is negotiable at the design stage.
Why a single number does not exist
A custom exhibit is a small building with a two-day construction schedule, made once, shipped repeatedly, and installed by people who have never seen it. Two booths of identical square footage can differ by a factor of three depending on how much of the structure is fabricated, how much is lit, and how much of it has to survive being packed and unpacked twenty times.
That is also why comparing three quotes with different inclusions tells you almost nothing. See how to write an exhibit RFP that gets you real quotes.
Ranges by footprint
Industry sources commonly quote custom design and construction in the region of one hundred to two hundred dollars or more per square foot, which works out roughly as follows:
- ✓10x10 customCommonly quoted from around eight thousand dollars, rising past twenty thousand once backlit graphics, monitors, counters, and interactive elements are added.
- ✓10x20 customCommonly quoted in the region of fifteen to forty thousand dollars, depending on how much is fabricated rather than systemized.
- ✓20x20 island and largerCommonly quoted from around fifty thousand dollars and scaling well into six figures with structure, lighting, AV, and a second deck.
These cover design and fabrication only. They are not the cost of exhibiting, which is a larger number.
The variables that actually move it
- ✓Booth type and footprintIslands cost more per square foot than inline, because every elevation is finished. Premium floor locations also carry organizer surcharges.
- ✓Structure height and complexityHeight needs engineering. A second deck needs engineering, permits, and approval.
- ✓Millwork versus extrusionFabricated millwork costs and weighs more than systemized structure. Where you spend it matters more than how much.
- ✓LightingThe highest-return money in most booths, and a real line rather than a rounding error.
- ✓Graphics area and typeBacklit and tension fabric cost more than flat print, and graphics are the element most likely to be reprinted annually.
- ✓AV and interactiveScreens, mounts, media players, and the cabling and structure to hide them.
- ✓Install complexityAsk for the estimate in crew hours. Hours predict the labor bill in any city.
- ✓Crating and weightSets your freight and drayage cost at every future show. See designing for drayage.
What is not in the fabrication number
This is where approved budgets go wrong. The build price does not usually include floor space, freight, drayage, installation and dismantle labor, electrical, rigging, internet, cleaning, storage, or refurbishment.
Several of those are billed by companies you did not hire. Industry research puts median all-in exhibitor spend per show well above what a booth alone costs, which is the gap this list represents. Our guide to the costs that show up after you approve the quote covers each one.
How to read a quote
Require every quote to break out design, fabrication, graphics, crating, freight, drayage estimate, installation labor, dismantle, and storage. Not to negotiate each line, but because you cannot compare three quotes that bundle differently.
A vendor who will not itemize is telling you either that they do not know their own costs or that they would rather you did not see where the margin sits.
What a fair quote looks like
It arrives after they asked you questions. It is itemized. It states the estimated crate weight. It names what will be billed by someone else. And the number at the bottom is the number on the final invoice, because everything that could have appeared later was already on the page.
The price you approve is the price you pay.