Embroidery pricing calculator
Quote an embroidery order from its stitch count: price per 1,000, minimum per piece, digitizing, quantity breaks and blanks, with the machine hours it takes and what each hour earns. Free, and your rates stay in this browser.
A quote is a price and a number of hours
A stitch-count quote tells the customer what they pay. It does not tell you whether the order is worth doing. Twenty-four hats at 9,000 stitches is a morning on a four-head machine and most of two days on a single head, and the same price per 1,000 pays very differently for those two. This calculator puts the quote and the hours side by side.
Work backwards from the hour
Set what an hour of machine time has to earn, after the blanks and backing. The calculator solves for the price per 1,000 stitches that pays it on this exact order, including your hooping time and the digitizing fee. If your price list is under that number, the order loses you time, even if it covers the thread.
What it counts
- Price per 1,000 stitches, with your minimum per piece.
- Quantity breaks as a percentage off, applied from the quantity you set.
- Digitizing and setup charged once, not per piece.
- Blank garments with your markup, and backing and thread as a cost.
- Runs across several heads, and handling time per piece.
The reasoning, with a worked example, is in how to price machine embroidery by stitch count.
Questions
How do embroiderers price by stitch count?
Most shops quote a price per 1,000 stitches, with a minimum per piece so small designs are still worth hooping, a one-off digitizing fee per design, and lower rates at higher quantities. This calculator does exactly that with your numbers. It does not suggest a market rate, because rates differ by country, machine and customer.
What should my price per 1,000 stitches be?
Enough to pay for the machine time. Enter the speed you actually sew at, your hooping and trimming time, and what a machine hour must earn; the calculator works backwards to the per-1,000 rate that pays that on this order. That number is yours, and it is a better starting point than copying someone else's price list.
Where do I find the stitch count?
In your digitizing or editing software, which shows it for every design, and usually on the listing for bought designs. Add every location together: a left chest and a sleeve is one piece with both counts.
Why does it ask for handling time?
Because the machine is not the only thing the order takes. Hooping, trimming jump threads, changing colours by hand and folding happen on every piece, and on a single-head machine they add up to hours on a large order. Leaving them out is how a job that looked profitable turns out not to be.