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Willingness to pay survey: the van Westendorp price sensitivity meter

Four price questions. Buyers type each number and never see your price.

  • 4questions
  • about 2 minto answer
  • 4 numberstyped by the buyer
  • no priceshown
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Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter · answer to move through it
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Question 1 of 4 Too expensive
At what price would you consider this product to be so expensive that you would not consider buying it?
Question 2 of 4 Too cheap
At what price would you consider this product to be priced so low that you would feel the quality could not be very good?
Question 3 of 4 Expensive
At what price would you consider this product starting to get expensive, so that it is not out of the question, but you would have to give some thought to buying it?
Question 4 of 4 A bargain
At what price would you consider this product to be a bargain, a great buy for the money?

The 4 van Westendorp survey questions

A van Westendorp price sensitivity meter is a willingness to pay survey of four questions. Each asks one person for a price, from too cheap to too expensive, and together the answers plot an acceptable price range. All four load into the questionnaire builder as number fields, ready for your product name.

Plain text, one question per line, with the answer scale.

The two prices that rule the product out

The outer pair: too expensive to consider, and too cheap to trust.

  1. At what price would you consider this product to be so expensive that you would not consider buying it?Number, one price, requiredplots as the rising "too expensive" curve.
  2. At what price would you consider this product to be priced so low that you would feel the quality could not be very good?Number, one price, requiredplots as the falling "too cheap" curve.

The two prices inside the range

The inner pair: where the price starts to sting, and where it reads as a deal.

  1. At what price would you consider this product starting to get expensive, so that it is not out of the question, but you would have to give some thought to buying it?Number, one price, requiredthe rising "expensive" curve, which sets the lower bound.
  2. At what price would you consider this product to be a bargain, a great buy for the money?Number, one price, requiredthe falling "bargain" curve, which sets the upper bound.

Who to ask, when to send and how to read four prices

Send it to people who could buy the product, before the price is set: customers for a new plan, a screened panel for a launch. Put one screen above question 1 saying what the product is, what is included and how it is billed, so everybody prices the same thing. When price is one block of a wider study, a market survey template carries it.

Sort each column and plot the share of respondents at every price. The curves cross at four points, and the band from PMC to PME is your range.[1] Price toward its lower half: across 77 studies, stated prices ran 21 percent above what buyers went on to pay.[2] Plot each group from a customer profile survey on its own curves. Once a price is live, price survey questions show how buyers judge it.

Two survey cards side by side: on the left a price tag already printed on the card with arrows bouncing off it, on the right a card with four empty boxes and four arrows flowing into them
Four empty boxes, and every number is the buyer's.
Low price High price PMC OPP IPP PME Acceptable price range
PMC and PME bound the range. OPP and IPP fall inside it, in an order your answers decide.
Crossing pointCurves that meetWhat it marks
Point of marginal cheapness (PMC)too cheap and expensiveThe lowest price in the acceptable range
Point of marginal expensiveness (PME)too expensive and bargainThe highest price in the acceptable range
Indifference price point (IPP)expensive and bargainAs many people call the price expensive as call it a bargain
Optimal price point (OPP)too cheap and too expensiveAs many people call the price too cheap as too expensive

Price sensitivity meter FAQ

What is the difference between Gabor-Granger and van Westendorp?

What the respondent sees. The meter shows no price and collects four, which gives a range. A Gabor-Granger ladder shows candidate prices and asks whether the person would buy at each. Find the range with the meter, then choose inside it with a ladder.

How do you graph a van Westendorp survey in Excel?

List every price from the lowest answer to the highest. Beside each, count the share whose too-cheap and bargain answers are at or above it, and whose expensive and too-expensive answers are at or below it. Chart the four shares as lines.

How do you ask willingness to pay questions?

Ask for a number, never a yes or no. Describe one product, keep your own price off the screen and collect four typed prices. If the product is still an idea, show it first with concept testing questions.

Related pricing and market templates

If the open question is whether anyone will buy at all, start with the purchase intent survey. The rest of the pricing and market research set sits in the marketing survey templates.

MarketingMarket Research SurveyBefore you build it: does the problem exist, who has it, and would they pay for a fix.13 questions, 4 min MarketingPrice Evaluation SurveyAt a renewal or after a price change, when you want to know whether the price still reads as fair.12 questions, 3 min MarketingPurchase Intent SurveyWhen the question is whether somebody will buy at all, before it is a question of price.14 questions, 4 min MarketingConcept Testing SurveyBefore the product exists, when somebody has only read a description of it.14 questions, 4 min MarketingProduct Feedback SurveyWhen people already use the product and the question is what to fix or build next.14 questions, 5 min MarketingShare of Wallet SurveyWhen customers already buy from you and the question is how much of their spend goes elsewhere.12 questions, 3 min

Michael Hodge, survey methodology · Updated 2 October 2026 · How templates are reviewed

Sources (2)
  1. Van Westendorp, P. NSS-Price Sensitivity Meter (PSM): a new approach to study consumer perception of price. Proceedings of the ESOMAR Congress, 1976. Summarized in Van Westendorp's Price Sensitivity Meter, Wikipedia.
  2. Schmidt, J. and Bijmolt, T. H. A. Accurately measuring willingness to pay for consumer goods: a meta-analysis of the hypothetical bias. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 48, 2020, pages 499 to 518. doi 10.1007/s11747-019-00666-6

Four prices from every buyer you ask

Put your product name in the four questions and send the link. The answers come back as four columns of numbers.

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