Embroidery: Stitch-Count Price With Setup

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Embroidery is priced by stitches, not by ink. Charge a one-time digitizing fee to turn the artwork into a stitch file, then price each piece by its stitch count — usually a rate per thousand stitches.

Quick formula: Setup once, plus a per-piece run by the thousand stitches:

=B2+C2*(D2/1000*E2)

An 8,000-stitch logo on 12 caps at $1.50 per thousand is $144 in run plus a $25 setup — $169.

Functions used (tap for the full reference guide):

SUM PRODUCT

The example

Three orders, each with a digitizing setup, a quantity, the stitch count per piece, and the rate per thousand stitches.

	A	B	C	D	E	F
1	Order	Setup	Qty	Stitches	Rate/k	Total
2	Logo caps	25	12	8000	1.50	169
3	Jacket backs	40	6	20000	1.50	220
4	Polos	25	24	5000	1.50	205

The formula

The setup is a flat fee; the run scales each piece by its stitch count:

=B2+C2*(D2/1000*E2) // setup + qty x (stitches/1000 x rate per thousand)

How it works

Read it inside out:

D2/1000 converts the stitch count to thousands, the unit the rate is quoted in.
*E2 multiplies by the rate per thousand to get the cost to stitch one piece.
C2*(...) multiplies that per-piece cost by the quantity — the run.
B2+ adds the one-time digitizing setup, which you charge once no matter how many pieces run.

Digitizing is a one-time cost per design. On a reorder of the same logo, drop the setup and charge only the run.

Try it: interactive demo

Interactive

Enter the digitizing setup, the quantity, the stitch count per piece, and the rate per thousand.

Setup ($)

Pieces

Stitches each

Rate per 1,000 ($)

Variations

Reorder (no new setup)

Same design again? The stitch file exists — charge only the run.

=C2*(D2/1000*E2)

Per-piece price for the customer

Spread the setup across the run to show a single per-piece figure.

=(B2+C2*(D2/1000*E2))/C2

Pitfalls & errors

Stitch count, not design size, drives the price. A small, dense logo can out-stitch a big, simple one — always read the count from the digitized file, not the artwork's dimensions.

Charge digitizing once and store the stitch file. Re-billing setup on a repeat customer's logo is the fastest way to lose the reorder.

Practice workbook

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Download the free Embroidery: Stitch-Count Price With Setup practice workbook

Edit the yellow setup, quantity, stitch, and rate cells; the order total recalculates.

Frequently asked questions

What is digitizing?

It is converting your artwork into a stitch file the machine can read — a one-time cost per design. Once digitized, the same logo runs on any quantity without redoing the setup.

Why price by stitches and not by size?

Machine time and thread scale with the number of stitches, and a small dense design can have more stitches than a large open one. The stitch count from the digitized file is the true cost driver.

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Function references: SUM PRODUCT