Free embroidery pricing calculator. Enter stitch count, machine cost per 1,000 stitches, blank garment cost, hooping labor, one-time digitizing fee, run quantity, and markup; outputs unit cost, suggested price, and total order cost with digitizing amortized across the run.
Built and maintained by Paul Clark, Redmoon Software
Use when quoting a custom embroidery order, especially to see how much a small run is being penalized by the one-time digitizing fee versus a larger run.
Like the 3D Print Cost & Profit Estimator, cost scales with a physical usage measure (stitches vs. grams) rather than time alone, but embroidery adds an amortized one-time setup fee that print jobs don't have.
Digitizing amortizes to $2.08/unit at a run of 12. Run it again and that fee spreads even thinner.
Stitch cost = (stitch count ÷ 1,000) × your cost per 1,000 stitches, which bundles thread, backing, and machine time.
Labor cost comes from hooping/trimming minutes converted to an hourly rate; the one-time digitizing fee is divided by your run quantity to amortize it per unit.
Unit cost = stitch cost + blank garment cost + labor + digitizing share, then suggested price = unit cost × markup. Total order cost keeps the digitizing fee as one flat line across the whole run.
Stitch cost scales directly with stitch count — (stitches ÷ 1,000) × your cost per 1,000 stitches — so a dense fill design costs far more in thread, backing, and machine time than a simple outline logo.
One-time per unique design. The calculator divides your flat digitizing fee by the run quantity, so a reorder of the same design should use a $0 fee since it was already paid for.
The cost-per-1,000-stitches figure is meant to bundle average thread and stabilizer/backing usage. Bump the default up if you run metallic or specialty thread that wastes more per stitch.
Input
5,000 stitches, $4.50/1,000 stitches, $6 blank, 4 min hooping, $15/hr labor, $25 digitizing, run of 12, 2.2× markup.
Output
Unit cost $31.58 → suggested price $69.48; total order cost $379.00.
Stitch cost $22.50 + blank $6.00 + labor $1.00 + digitizing share $2.08 = $31.58 unit cost. At a 2.2× markup that is roughly $69.48 per piece, while the digitizing fee is charged once and folded into the $379 total order cost.
Embroidery prices on stitch count because that is what determines machine time. A design is quoted per thousand stitches, and the relationship to visual size is weak: a densely filled small logo can carry more stitches than a large open design.
That is why a quote needs the digitised file rather than a picture. Stitch count is a property of the digitising, and the same artwork digitised two ways can differ by a wide margin.
Digitising is a one-off setup cost per design and is real work: converting artwork into a stitch file that runs cleanly, with correct underlay and pull compensation. It is charged once and amortised across the run, which is why unit prices fall steeply with quantity in a way that pure machine time does not explain.
Hooping is per-garment labour that does not scale away. Every item is hooped and unhooped by hand, and awkward placements — sleeves, caps, bag panels — take materially longer. On short runs of difficult placements, hooping labour can exceed stitch time.
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