Put in what a job costs you and it gives a price for one piece and for the whole order, with every line of the sum shown. It opens on an example whose numbers are made up: change them to your own.

Free, no account. The sums are done in your browser: nothing you type is sent anywhere.

How to use the calculator

Press the example nearest your job: one engraved tumbler, one cut plywood sign or a batch of 50 keyrings. The numbers in the examples are made up to show the sum. None of them is a going rate.
Under “Your own numbers”, replace each figure with yours: what the material for one piece costs, the minutes the machine runs for one piece and what an hour of running costs you, the minutes you spend on one piece and your hourly rate, and the minutes of design and set-up for the whole order.
Choose markup or margin, type the percentage and set the quantity.
Read the price at the top. The table under it shows every line of the sum, and “Copy the price and working” puts all of it on the clipboard as text.

The sum it does

The cost of one piece is four lines added together: the material; the machine’s minutes × the machine’s hourly rate ÷ 60; your minutes × your hourly rate ÷ 60; and the design and set-up, worked out the same way for the whole order and then divided by the quantity. The price is that cost with your profit added.

In the tumbler example the material is 9.00. Twelve minutes of machine time at 10.00 an hour is 12 × 10 ÷ 60 = 2.00. Nine minutes of your time at 20.00 an hour is 3.00. Fifteen minutes of set-up at the same rate is 5.00, and with one piece in the order none of it is shared. The cost is 9.00 + 2.00 + 3.00 + 5.00 = 19.00, and a 50% markup makes the price 19.00 × 1.5 = 28.50.

Costs are carried without rounding and shown to as many as four decimal places. Only the price of a piece is rounded: to the nearest 0.01 unless you choose a coarser step, with an exact half rounded up. The order total is the rounded price multiplied by the quantity, so the figure you quote for the order is the unit price times the number of pieces.

There is no currency in the sum. Read every figure in your own, and choose the rounding step that suits it: 1 if your prices are whole numbers, 0.05 or 0.10 if they end that way.

Markup and margin are different sums

A markup is a share of the cost, added on top: price = cost × (1 + markup). A margin is the share of the price that is profit: price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). The same percentage gives two different prices. On a cost of 19.00, a 50% markup gives 19.00 × 1.5 = 28.50, and a 50% margin gives 19.00 ÷ 0.5 = 38.00.

Each can be turned into the other. Margin = markup ÷ (1 + markup), so a 50% markup is a 33.3% margin and a 100% markup is a 50% margin. Markup = margin ÷ (1 − margin), so a 40% margin is a 66.7% markup. A markup can be any size. A margin is always under 100%, because the cost has to come out of the price as well.

The line under the table checks the answer both ways. It takes the cost away from the rounded price and gives what is left as a percentage of the cost and as a percentage of the price. After rounding, these can differ a little from the percentage you typed.

What quantity does to the price

Design and set-up are done once, however many pieces are in the order. In the keyring example, 30 minutes at 20.00 an hour is 10.00. Spread over 50 keyrings that is 0.20 each, and the cost of a keyring is 0.35 + 0.50 + 0.50 + 0.20 = 1.55. Press 1 under Quantity and the whole 10.00 lands on a single keyring, whose cost becomes 11.35.

That is the case for a set-up fee or a minimum order. How to charge for laser engraving shows two ways of charging it, with a table of quantities.

Where your own numbers come from

Material: what you paid for the blank, or for the sheet divided by the pieces you get from it, plus anything used up on the piece, such as packaging.
Machine time: the minutes the laser runs for one piece. If your laser software gives an estimated time for a job, start from that, then time a real run.
Machine rate: what an hour of running costs you. One way to reach it is the price of the machine divided by the hours you expect to use it, plus an hour of parts and electricity. The pricing guide works one through.
Your time: loading, cleaning, checking and packing one piece. Count the minutes the machine runs as well, if you are watching it and not doing other paid work.
Your rate: an hourly figure you set for yourself. If you have overheads such as software, insurance or rent, build them into your hourly rates or add them as the guide describes.
Design and set-up: preparing the artwork, a proof, a jig or a test piece, in minutes for the whole order.

What the calculator leaves out

Selling fees and card charges. To make the price cover a fee that is a share of the price, divide by (1 − fee): 28.50 with a 10% fee is 28.50 ÷ 0.9 = 31.67.
Tax. Sales tax, VAT and tax on your profit depend on where you are, and are not in the sum.
Spoiled pieces and test material, unless you add them to the material figure.
The market. The calculator knows your costs, not what buyers will pay, and it quotes no typical prices or going rates. Compare the result with what similar pieces sell for where you sell.

Questions

How do I work out a price for laser engraving?

Add up what one piece costs you: the material, the machine’s minutes at the machine’s hourly rate, your own minutes at your hourly rate, and a share of the design and set-up. Then add profit, as a markup on the cost or as a margin on the price. The calculator does that sum and shows each line.

What is the difference between markup and margin?

Markup is profit as a share of the cost. Margin is profit as a share of the price. A piece that costs 10.00 and sells for 15.00 has a 50% markup and a 33.3% margin: the profit is 5.00 either way.

Does it work for laser cutting as well as engraving?

Yes. The sum is the same whether the laser cuts or engraves: material, machine minutes, your minutes and set-up. Only the numbers change. If a cut piece leaves offcuts you cannot use, count them in the material figure.

Which currency is it in?

None. The figures carry no currency sign, so read them as pounds, dollars, euros or whatever you price in, and use the same one in every box.

What hourly rates should I use?

Your own. The 10.00 and 20.00 an hour in the examples are placeholders that make the arithmetic easy to follow, not advice. How to charge for laser engraving shows how to work out a machine rate from the price of the machine, its parts and its electricity.

Laser engraving price calculator