you get what you pay for

English

Proverb

you get what you pay for

1. In commercial transactions, the quality of goods and services increases as the prices increase, i.e., the more one pays, the better the merchandise.
   • 1991 October 28, Janice Castro, Richard Woodbury, “The Man Who Fired a Dog To Save a Buck”, in Time, retrieved 4 November 2018:

     You get what you pay for. If you want a lower price, you can go to Motel 6..

Usage notes

• Used both to denigrate inexpensive goods as naturally inferior and to praise expensive goods as being of high quality.

Derived terms

• YGWYPF

Translations

quality of goods increases as the prices increases

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 一分錢，一分貨 / 一分钱，一分货 (jat¹ fan¹ cin⁴, jat¹ fan¹ fo³)

  Mandarin: 一分錢，一分貨 / 一分钱，一分货 (yī fēn qián, yī fēn huò)

• Danish: du får, hvad du betaler for
• Finnish: sitä saat, mitä tilaat
• French: en avoir pour son argent (fr)
• German: Qualität hat ihren Preis
• Hungarian: olcsó húsnak híg a leve
• Indonesian: ada rupa, ada harga
• Japanese: 安物買いの銭失い (ja) (やすものがいのぜにうしない, yasumonogai no zeni ushinai)
• Macedonian: колку пари, толку музика (kolku pari, tolku muzika, literally “as much music as there is money”)
• Spanish: nadie da duros a pesetas, el que quiere celeste que le cueste
• Swedish: man får vad man betalar för
• Vietnamese: tiền nào của nấy, tiền nào của đó, tiền nào của đấy, tiền nào của ấy

See also

• if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
• money's worth
• value for money
• who pays the piper calls the tune
• you buy cheap, you get cheap
• you pays your money and you takes your choice