Laser & CNC pricing guides · free guide

How much to charge for laser engraving (2026)

Short answer: price = direct cost (material with scrap, machine time, labour, setup) + overhead + margin. Work out the margin on the selling price: cost ÷ (1 − margin), not cost + a percentage. As a reality check, maker forums commonly quote about $1 to $2 per minute of laser time, plus a setup or file fee and a minimum order of around $20 to $30. Your own costs set the floor, not the forum rate.

Before cutting, check your DXF/SVG with our free Laser File Checker — it runs in your browser and your file never leaves your computer.

Laser engraving has a quirk: machine time depends mostly on the engraved area and the resolution, and preparing the artwork can take longer than the engraving itself. A good quote makes those lines visible, to you and to the customer.

All amounts below are worked examples. Replace them with your own.

What makers commonly quote (forum benchmarks)

These figures are commonly quoted in maker forums such as r/lasercutting and r/Laserengraving. They are individual comments, not a survey, and many are several years old, so treat them as a sanity check, not a price list:

• About $1 a minute: "$1/minute plus setup and materials" is called the industry standard in an r/lasercutting thread (January 2020); other replies in r/lasercutting give $1 to $3 a minute, and $2 a minute as common in New York (February 2020).
• A setup or file fee: one r/lasercutting reply suggests a $20 setup and file fee plus the engraving time, so one-offs are not done for pennies.
• A minimum order: in a December 2025 r/Laserengraving thread, several engravers mention a $20 minimum on any job and one calls $30 the bare minimum; a Southern California shop quotes $1.25 a minute with a 10-minute minimum.

Check these against your own machine hourly rate (see the laser hourly rate guide): if your cost floor is above the forum rate, the forum rate is too low for you.

The 7 lines of a laser engraving quote

1. Artwork preparation

A clean vector logo engraves straight away. A photo to retouch, text to reset or a sketch to vectorise takes work: charge for it, as a flat fee or by the time spent.

2. Setup and test

New blank or new material: a test on an offcut is often needed. It is a fixed cost per order.

3. Engraving time

Time it on a test or take your software's estimate, then multiply by your machine hourly rate. Large filled areas, high DPI and several passes push the time up fast.

4. The blank

If you supply the item, charge for it with a margin. If the customer supplies it, put in writing who carries the risk if it breaks or the result varies with the material.

5. Positioning and handling

Holding a round or irregular item, making a jig, loading parts one by one: on a batch, this time counts as much as the engraving.

6. Finishing and packing

Cleaning residue, removing masking, packing with care.

7. Minimum order

Set a minimum that covers at least the time to handle the request, prepare the artwork and set up. Without one, small orders cost more than they bring in.

Tumblers and other round items

Tumblers, mugs and bottles need a rotary attachment, careful alignment and often a test on a spare. Treat the rotary setup as a fixed line per order, price the blank you supply with its own margin, and decide in advance what happens if a customer-supplied tumbler is scratched or the coating reacts badly. Wrap-around designs take much longer than a single logo, so time a real piece before quoting a batch.

What to put in writing

• Artwork approved by the customer before engraving (and how many revisions are included)
• Results vary with the material (wood, leather, glass, coated metal…)
• Who is responsible for items supplied by the customer
• Lead time and how long the quote is valid

The final calculation

Price per piece = (artwork prep + setup) ÷ quantity + (engraving time × machine rate + blank + handling + finishing) per piece, then a margin by division (cost ÷ 0.70 for a true 30% margin). Finally, check that the order total is above your minimum order.

Worked example: 10 engraved wooden coasters

For a single coaster the same method gives ($12.50 + $6.70) ÷ 0.70 = $27.43, because one piece carries all the setup. These figures show the method only; they are not market prices. In the UK, work the same way in pounds and add VAT on top if you are VAT-registered.

Free calculators: job cost calculator and price and margin calculator. For the cutting side, read the 7 costs of a laser cutting job.

Worked example: a 10-part job in the Atelier Pilot workbook

This is the built-in example of the Atelier Pilot quote calculator, step by step, so you can check every number. Amounts are in your own currency (shown here with $); the 20% tax rate is only an example.

Overhead sits inside the two hourly rates: the $22 machine rate covers depreciation, power and maintenance, and the $24 labour rate is a loaded rate. The fees and the margin are both taken from the selling price, which is why the cost is divided by 0.56 rather than marked up by 44%.

Free calculators

Want a first estimate without a spreadsheet? Our free calculators run in your browser, with no sign-up, in $, £ or €: laser & CNC cost per part, hourly rate, margin & markup and break-even.

An Excel calculator to save time

Atelier Pilot is an Excel workbook for laser and CNC quotes (no macros; built for Microsoft Excel, checked in LibreOffice, Google Sheets not guaranteed) that covers these lines: material with scrap, setup, machine time, finishing, packaging, selling fees and margin. It is a calculation tool that runs on your numbers: it promises no income and is not accounting software.

Get the Atelier Pilot quote calculator — €27, one-time

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