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How much does a custom trade show booth cost in Canada?
In published budget breakdowns, the booth isn't the biggest line. A breakdown from the Canadian Association of Exposition Managers gives exhibit design, rental and construction 18% of a typical trade show budget, behind floor space at 29% and level with show services. The latest survey prices we found, from 2019 in the U.S., put new custom exhibits at US$145 to US$165 per square foot. In Toronto, a rented 10x10 hardwall package at the Enercare Centre cost $1,795 in 2025, and a basic outlet at the Toronto Congress Centre was $230 for a 2026 show.
In brief. In published budget breakdowns, the booth isn't the biggest line. A breakdown from the Canadian Association of Exposition Managers gives exhibit design, rental and construction 18% of a typical trade show budget, behind floor space at 29% and level with show services. The latest survey prices we found, from 2019 in the U.S., put new custom exhibits at US$145 to US$165 per square foot. In Toronto, a rented 10x10 hardwall package at the Enercare Centre cost $1,795 in 2025, and a basic outlet at the Toronto Congress Centre was $230 for a 2026 show.
At the 2025 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon Expo at the Enercare Centre, an exhibitor could rent a complete 10x10 booth for $1,795: hard walls, carpet, a skirted table, two chairs and a sign, installed and taken down. That was the price before the deadline. After it, the same package was $2,350, and a 10x20 went from $3,200 to $4,200 (OPS Event Rentals manual).
That's roughly the entry price for a Toronto show floor. A custom booth starts where that package stops, and most of what a show costs isn't the build. Brience is a Toronto-based custom fabrication and experiential design studio. Here's what the published numbers say, and where they come from.
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Explore our curated brand essentialsWhere a show budget goes
The Canadian Association of Exposition Managers' breakdown for a typical industrial trade show, published by BDC, splits the money like this:
Exhibit space: 29%
Exhibit design, rental and construction: 18%
Show services (power, phone, furniture): 18%
Travel and entertainment: 13%
Shipping: 12%
Promotion: 9%
BDC's example: $5,000 of floor space points to a total of about $17,250. EXHIBITOR Magazine's 2019 budget guide gives a similar rule of thumb for the U.S.: space is roughly a third of the total, so multiply it by three for a ballpark.
For the booth itself, the latest survey figures we found are American and from 2019. The Experiential Designers & Producers Association put new custom exhibits at US$145 per square foot for an inline booth and US$165.21 for a single-tier island. A single-tier 20x20 averaged US$68,392, and double-deck islands ran US$247 per square foot. Treat that as a shape, not a quote. Our own published starting point for a focused single-element build is the low five figures.
Get a QuoteRequest your personalized projectRental, custom or reusable custom
Rental: a package like the one above, or hard walls rented from the show's contractor. At the One of a Kind Show at the Enercare Centre this Christmas, a 10x20 hardwall booth starts at $1,572. It's fast and predictable, and it looks like the rest of the aisle.
Custom: built for one brand and one footprint, with its own structure and lighting. The islands carmakers put up at the Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto, under their own lighting rigs, sit at the far end of this.
Reusable custom: a custom kit of frames, panels and crates that goes up again at the next show with new graphics. The cost is spread across every show it goes to, which is why EXHIBITOR's cost-per-square-foot method counts amortized exhibit costs. Frame-and-panel systems like the stand 84expo showed at EuroShop 2023 in Düsseldorf work on the same idea. Budget for storage and refurbishment between shows.
The venue lines nobody quotes for you
Show services are almost a fifth of the CAEM breakdown, and in Toronto they're bought from the venue's or the show's own suppliers. Recent prices from published exhibitor kits:
Power: at the Toronto Congress Centre, Skills Ontario's exhibitors in May 2026 paid SHOWTECH $230 for a basic outlet ordered in advance, $330 at the standard rate and $396 on site. The One of a Kind Show lists a 1,500-watt outlet from $209 and a ceiling light fixture from $325.
Material handling: at the Marathon Expo, moving freight between the dock and the booth was $375 an hour on weekdays and $575 on weekends, with a one-hour minimum each way. One of a Kind lists it from $128 per crate.
Labour: in-booth labour at the Marathon Expo was $116 an hour on weekdays before 4 pm, $145 after, and $185 on weekends, at advance rates.
Rigging: none of the kits we checked prints a price. At the One of a Kind Show it's ordered on SHOWTECH's form, and at the MTCC anything hung from the building goes through Showtech.
Timing: The Buildings Show 2026 at the MTCC says ordering before its discount deadlines saves up to 35% on show services.
One of a Kind's rates are based on its 2024 show, with up to a 5% increase expected, and the Marathon Expo prices were before 13% HST. Every show publishes its own kit, so pull the current one before you budget.
Get a QuoteRequest your personalized projectIf you want a custom or reusable booth priced against your show's real numbers, email us the exhibitor kit and your floor plan. Our guide to hiring a fabricator in Toronto covers what venues check before they let a build in.
Sources: BDC, "Trade shows: 6 steps to finding new customers" (August 2023); EXHIBITOR Magazine, "Budget Basics: How to Calculate Your Costs" (November 2019); OPS Event Rentals, TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon Expo exhibitor rental and service manual (October 2025); One of a Kind Show, Christmas 2026 exhibitor manual; Skills Ontario, "Exhibitors" (2026); The Buildings Show 2026 exhibitor manual.
