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Printed vs digital menu savings calculator

Compare what printed menu boards cost you each year with running screens instead, and see the month the screens pay for themselves.

See how it works · 5 steps

Your boards today

How many sites and menu boards you have, and what reprinting them costs.

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Currency

Real UK benchmark, checked 21 September 2026. These starting values use current public prices and named scenario assumptions. Changing the currency symbol does not convert them.

Your menu boards today

Locations

Menu boards per location

Menu or price changes a year

Print and delivery, per board (£)

Staff minutes to swap a board

Staff hourly cost (£)

With screens

Screen and mount, each (£)

Player box, each (0 if built in) (£)

Your castv.ai price per screen a month (£)

ElectricityWatts, hours and your kWh price

What the screens draw

Screen power (watts)

Hours on a day

Electricity per kWh (£)

Counted every year alongside your plan. Screens that sleep overnight cost less here than the hours on a day suggest.

Default estimate sourcesUK benchmark · 21 September 2026

Print £34: an A1 Foamex board quoted at £34 ex VAT with UK mainland delivery included by Inprint Group.
Staff £12.71/hour: the UK National Living Wage for age 21+ from April 2026 on GOV.UK. Replace it with your fully loaded staff cost.
Screen and mount £600: a Samsung QM43C commercial display was £547.67 ex VAT; the remaining £52.33 is an explicit mount allowance. See the quoted screen.
Power 121 W: the same QM43C's published on-mode consumption. Player cost is £0 because this model has a built-in Tizen player.
Electricity £0.26/kWh: Ofgem's 26.32p public benchmark for October–December 2026. It is a household cap, so enter your business tariff.
castv.ai £11/month: a rounded GBP working equivalent of the product's current $14 Starter screen price. Your quote and billing currency take precedence.
Example operation: one location, three boards, 12 changes a year, 20 staff minutes per swap and 14 powered hours a day are scenario assumptions—not market facts.

Defaults are a dated starting estimate, not invented placeholders. Open the sources above, then replace every value with your invoices, wage cost, tariff and castv.ai quote.

Screens save you every year

£702a year

Screens pay for themselves in month 31 · £306 ahead after 3 years

Printed boardsScreensTotal spent over 3 years; the screens line starts at the one-off hardware cost.

The other tools draw the room. This one draws the curve: a room adds nothing to a payback, and where the two lines cross is the whole answer.

What printed boards cost

Printing a year: £1,620
Staff time a year: £216

Every change means 3 boards reprinted and swapped by hand, 12 times a year.

What screens cost

Screens, one-off: £1,800
Plan a year: £720
Electricity a year: £414

The one-off is paid once; the plan and the electricity come round every year, and those are what the saving is measured against.

After 3 years

Net after 3 years: £306
Payback: Month 31

The yearly saving times 3 years, less the one-off hardware. Change any number on the left and both figures move with it.

What the numbers leave out

Speed: a price change reaches every screen in minutes instead of the next print run.
Dayparts: breakfast, lunch and dinner menus switch by themselves, in each site's local time.
Sold out: mark an item sold out from your phone and every board updates, so nobody orders what you don't have.

How it's worked outThe arithmetic behind the curve

Printed: boards × changes a year × (print cost + staff minutes × hourly cost).
Screens: one-off screens and players, then your plan and electricity (watts × hours × 365 × price per kWh) every year.
Payback: the month the one-off cost is covered by the monthly saving.

Photo: Rachel Claire · Pexels License. The window shows the real castv.ai tool, running on sample settings.

Where the answers come from

Printed cost is boards × changes a year × (print cost + staff time). Screens cost the one-off hardware, then the plan and electricity every year. castv.ai prices are not listed here; enter your own quote.