Ask the Editor
"Price" and "cost"
Answer
A reader asks about the different between price and cost. Editor Kory Stamper explains.
'My teacher told me to say "What is the price of this item?" instead of "What is the cost of this item?". I thought "price" and "cost" meant the same thing.'
Price and cost both have the same meaning: "the amount of money you pay for something or that something costs." But the main difference is one of perspective. Price is generally used to refer to the amount of money that a seller is asking for something, and cost generally refers to the amount of money that buyer will spend rather than the price that a seller is asking for. In many Western cultures, the amount of money that a seller wants for something is also the amount of money that a buyer will spend on it, which means that you will see price and cost used the same way in many instances. But there are some instances where those numbers are not the same. Let's look at this sentence:
"The price of the part was too high, but the mechanic gave me a deal, so the repair costs weren't too bad."
Here, price is clearly used for the amount of money that the mechanic wants to sell the part for, and cost is used for the amount of money that the buyer spent on the repair.
Cost can also be used of prices in general, especially in idiomatic phrases like "the cost of living." You will occasionally see price used this way ("The price of housing has gone up this quarter"), but cost is more common ("The cost of housing has gone up this quarter").
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