Shops price embroidery as a hooping fee plus a rate per thousand stitches. Enter your design’s stitch count and your rates; the quote comes back itemized: digitizing, the garment, and quantity discounts included.
The Job
Quote
$14.00per item
8,000-stitch billing (8,000 actual) · 1 item
- Hooping$6.00
- Stitching 8k × $1.00$8.00
- Order total$14.00
- Machine time at 700 spm12 min per item
The Formula
per item = hooping fee + (stitch count ÷ 1,000) × rate + garment × 1.2 · order = per item × qty × discount + digitizingThe hooping fee pays for the 5–10 minutes of stabilizer, alignment, and thread changes each item takes regardless of size. The per-thousand rate pays for machine run time. Garments you supply carry a 20% handling markup; ten or more alike earns the customary 10% discount.
Worked Example
A left-chest logo at 8,000 stitches on a customer’s jackets, $6 hooping, $1 per thousand:
- Per jacket: 6 + 8 = $14.
- Twelve jackets: 12 × 14 = $168, less 10% for quantity → $151.20, plus a one-time $40 digitizing bill if the logo is new.
- At 700 stitches a minute that’s about 11 minutes of sewing per jacket, the fee structure quietly pays about $55 an hour of machine time, which is the point.
Typical Rates
| Charge | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Hooping fee | $5–8 per item, higher for caps and sleeves |
| Per 1,000 stitches | $1 flat, or $1.25 first 10k and $0.75 after |
| Digitizing, simple logo | $20–60, passed through once |
| Monogram, 3–4 in | $9–15 flat |
| Quantity break | about 10% off at 10+ alike |
| Garment you supply | cost + at least 20% |
How to Find Your Inputs
- Stitch count reads from the design file in any embroidery software; digitizers quote it with the file.
- Your hooping fee should cover your minutes honestly: time a hooping, multiply by the wage you want.
- Difficult placements, caps, sleeves, zip-up fronts, sneakers: earn a higher hooping fee, not a higher stitch rate.
Assumptions and Defaults
- Stitch counts round up to the next thousand, as shops quote.
- The 10% quantity discount applies automatically at 10+; adjust to your own break points.
- Thread and stabilizer ride inside the rates: at these prices they cost cents per item.
Embroidery Pricing Questions, Answered
How much should I charge per 1,000 stitches?
The common flat rate for embroidery is about $1 per 1,000 stitches, while tiered shops charge $1.25 per thousand for the first ten thousand and 75¢ beyond that. At the flat rate, an 8,000-stitch logo bills $8 of stitching, plus the hooping fee.
What is an embroidery hooping fee?
An embroidery hooping fee is the per-item setup charge that covers stabilizer, aligning the garment, and thread changes, usually $5 to $8 whether the design is 1,000 stitches or 20,000. That fixed fee is why very small designs never cost next to nothing.
Who pays for embroidery digitizing?
The customer pays for digitizing, once per design, at your digitizer’s rate, typically $20 to $60 for a clean logo. In return they can reorder easily, and you keep the stitch file on hand for those repeat orders.
Should I charge less for my own blanks?
No, you should charge more, not less, when you supply your own blanks: the garment cost plus at least 20% for sourcing, stocking, and the risk of a misstitch on your inventory. A ruined customer-supplied jacket costs an apology, whereas a ruined blank of your own costs you money.
How long does an embroidery design take to sew?
An embroidery design takes its stitch count ÷ the machine speed to sew, so 8,000 stitches at 700 per minute runs about 11½ minutes, plus time for trims and color changes. The stitch count calculator in this category estimates both the time and the thread.
Rate structure: Machine Embroidery Geek, “How to charge for embroidery”.