Creating Your First Calculator
Overview
This tutorial walks you through creating a calculator from start to finish using the new-calculator wizard. The wizard has four sequential steps, each focused on a different aspect of your calculator. You can skip optional steps or return to them later. By the end, you'll have a working calculator assigned to a product and live on your storefront.
Prerequisites
Steps
The new-calculator wizard at Calculator AI → Calculators walks you through four steps.
Click New on the Calculators page, then select Create from scratch. Give your calculator a name.
Build with AI (optional) — Describe your product and the options you need in plain English. The AI assistant generates a full calculator configuration — options, pricing formulas, and layout — based on your description. You can skip this step and build everything manually.
Options & Pricing (required) — Add the input fields (options) your customers will see — dropdowns, number fields, text inputs, image swatches, and more. Define pricing formulas to calculate the price based on those option values.
Optional Features — Enable extras like a price summary display, multi-step layout, custom SKU, weight calculation, languages, and multi-currency. Everything here is optional — skip anything you don't need.
Placement & Styling (required) — Choose which products the calculator applies to, adjust colors and fonts to match your theme, and preview how it looks.
When you're ready to go live, click Publish v1 in the editor header. Publishing creates a versioned snapshot and makes the calculator visible on your storefront. Saving alone does not publish — your changes remain a draft until you explicitly publish.
Step Summary
| Step |
Required? |
Purpose |
| Build with AI |
No |
Auto-generate a starting configuration from a product description. |
| Options & Pricing |
Yes |
Define what customers see and how prices are calculated. |
| Optional Features |
No |
Add advanced behaviors and display settings. |
| Placement & Styling |
Yes |
Assign to products and customize appearance. |
Examples
- Quick start with AI — You describe your custom blinds product in Step 1. The AI generates width, height, and material options with a pricing formula. You skip Optional Features, assign the calculator to your product in Step 4, and publish — a working calculator in minutes.
- Manual build — You skip Step 1 and go directly to Options & Pricing. You add a Dropdown for size, a Color Swatch for finish, and a Text Box for engraving. You set pricing formulas, assign to your product, and publish.
- Engraved jewelry — You create a calculator with an engraving text (text input) and font choice (dropdown). You use a per-character pricing formula to charge based on text length. You publish and assign it to your engraving product.
What's Next
Your first calculator is live. Explore the Calculator Editor Overview to learn about advanced features like pricing variables, pricing tables, and visibility rules.
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