How to Price Embroidery Jobs
Stitch count is a starting point, not a price. It influences how long the machine runs, but embroidery cost also includes the operator's hands-on time, the blank, thread and backing, digitizing, shop overhead and remakes. Pricing each one separately shows what a piece really costs.
Three things that are not the same
- Stitch count
- Influences how long a design takes to sew.
- Machine runtime
- Time the machine is occupied and running — an equipment cost.
- Active operator labor
- Hooping, loading and unloading, trimming, finishing, setup and inspection — a labor cost. An operator isn't necessarily busy for every minute the machine runs.
Why machine heads matter
Suppose a design takes about 10 minutes of machine runtime (a hypothetical figure). On a single-head machine, 6 shirts need roughly six runs. A six-head machine may stitch all six in one run.
That doesn't make production exactly six times faster. Hooping, loading, unloading and trimming still happen per garment, and thread breaks or other interruptions can occur. But it shows why stitch count alone can't tell you cost per piece — the same design costs a different amount on different equipment.
Worked example: 24 polos, left-chest logo
Hypothetical example. These are not suggested market prices. Single-head machine, about 10 minutes of runtime and about 3 minutes of hands-on operator time per piece. The shop runs 25 to allow for one remake.
| Blank polos (25 × $9.00) | $225.00 |
| Thread & backing (25 × $0.40) | $10.00 |
| Digitizing (one-time design cost) | $30.00 |
| Active operator labor (25 × 3 min = 1.25 hr × $18/hr example wage) | $22.50 |
| Machine allocation (25 × 10 min ≈ 4.17 hr × $3/machine hr, hypothetical) | $12.50 |
| Allocated shop overhead for this job (hypothetical) | $30.00 |
| True Job Cost | $330.00 |
| Cost per sellable polo ($330 ÷ 24) | $13.75 |
| Price at 40% margin ($13.75 ÷ 0.60) | $22.92 |
| Price at 50% margin ($13.75 ÷ 0.50) | $27.50 |
Notice the machine ran about 4.17 hours, but only 1.25 hours of operator labor was charged. Treating every machine minute as a paid labor minute would overstate labor in this example.
Digitizing on reorders
Digitizing is typically a job- or design-level cost, not a material used on every piece. If the same usable file is reused, it may not recur: without the $30 here, cost per polo would be $12.50. Edits, resizing or a new garment type can still require new digitizing work.
Enter your stitch count, quantity, blank cost and shop numbers to see your True Job Cost and cost per piece.
Calculate My Embroidery JobOverhead is not part of the wage
The $18/hour above is an example production wage. Rent, insurance and software are shop overhead, and machine cost is equipment. Know Your Shop helps estimate overhead per productive hour; the methodology shows how PriceMyPrint keeps these separate.