Laser cutting cost calculator: price per part from the length of the cut
Set the material, thickness, power, cut length and pierces and get a price per part split into sheet, machine, gas, consumables and labour. Speed comes from published tables, the time is calculated from it, and the prices are yours.
Part of Pro, 15 EUR a month.
- 6 materials3 metals on a fibre laser, 3 organic on CO2
- 5 line itemssheet, machine, gas, consumables, labour
- 10 power classes4 for fibre and 6 for CO2
- Engravingtime grows with area, not length
How laser cutting is priced
The laser cutting cost calculator is an online tool from EduFacturing, part of Pro, that works out the price of a cut part in five line items: the sheet with its scrap, machine time for cutting and piercing, gas, nozzle and lens, and labour. Speed comes from published tables; the prices are yours.
The laser follows the contour once, so cutting time depends on the length of the cut, not on the area of the part. Engraving is the opposite: the beam scans the whole area. The calculation runs in your browser, and the amounts are in euros (EUR).
Five line items and batch prices
Prices the part in five line items
Sheet with scrap, machine time, gas, nozzle and lens, labour and the share of material in the price.
Takes the speed from a table
You pick a power and a Fast, Standard or Precision profile. Outside the published thicknesses the speed is flagged as extrapolated.
Checks that the thickness is realistic
For metals it checks the thickness against the EDi Brain rules core: the declared maximum for the power (at 1000, 3000 and 12,000 W) and the ceiling of one European job shop (247TailorSteel).
Shows batch sizes and engraving
The price per part at 1 part, at your batch size and at 5 and 10 times that, plus an estimate of engraving time.
When you need a laser cutting calculator
The quotation helps when you have to explain quickly why a part costs what it does.
A laser cutting shop
Show the customer how much is sheet, how much machine and how much file preparation.
Comparing materials
Swap MDF for acrylic or 3 mm for 5 mm and watch the speed and the price change.
Nesting the sheet
At 80% utilisation instead of 50%, the material for the same part is 37.5% less.
A lesson on laser cutting
Show with numbers why engraving is calculated by area and cutting by length.
How the price of a cut part is worked out
The calculation runs in three steps.
Speed
By material, thickness and power. Fast takes the upper published speed, Precision the lower one, and Standard is the geometric mean. Between two points the speed is interpolated in log-log coordinates.
Time
Cutting: cut length / speed. Piercing, separately: for metal 0.2 s at a thickness of 1 mm and 2 s at 9 mm, interpolated in between; for organic materials 0.15 s.
Line items
The sheet you pay for is the part area / the utilisation; the scrap is the difference. Machine, gas and consumables are the machine time times your hourly rates. Labour is file preparation / batch size, plus sorting per part.
| Applies to | Formula | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Machine time | T = L / v + n·t / 60 | T in min; L in mm, v in mm/min, n pierces of t seconds each |
| Material | A = S / u; material = A · price per m² | S is the part area, u the utilisation, A the area you pay for |
| Labour | (P / q + c) / 60 · rate per hour | P is file preparation in min, q the batch size, c the sorting per part in min |
| Engraving | time = S / (25.4 / dpi) / speed | S in mm², scan speed in mm/min |
Speeds from tables, prices yours
The speeds have a source
They come from published tables by MachineMFG (metals) and GWK Laser (acrylic, wood, MDF); the gas pressure for carbon and stainless steel and the declared maximum thicknesses come from the rules core.
It says when a thickness is unrealistic
12 mm of carbon steel on 1000 W is above the declared maximum of 10 mm, and a warning appears.
The speeds are catalog values, not a measurement of your machine. Metals have 2 or 3 published thicknesses and CO2 only 3 and 5 mm; beyond them the speed is extrapolated, so make a test cut. For metals, Fast and Precision are the ends of a published range, which is the tool's own interpretation.
Piercing time is weakly sourced: for metal there is one published point (9 mm, 2 s), and for organic materials it is a constant estimate. The tool does not nest parts on the sheet.
Questions about cost and thickness
What makes up the price of laser cutting a part?
The price is 0.98 EUR per part with the defaults: material 0.40, machine 0.22, gas 0.01, consumables 0.02, labour 0.33 EUR. The defaults are MDF 3 mm, CO2 100 W, cut length 800 mm, 1 pierce, a batch of 10, sheet 31 EUR per m² and machine 20 EUR an hour.
How thick can a fiber laser cut?
For a 1 to 2 kW fibre laser the declared maximum in the rules core is 10 mm of carbon steel, 6 mm of stainless and 4 mm of aluminium. For 3 to 4 kW: 20, 12 and 8; for 12 kW: 40, 30 and 18. That is an upper limit of capability, not production quality. One European job shop (247TailorSteel) publishes a ceiling of 25, 20 and 10 mm.
Why is engraving time calculated by area?
The beam scans parallel lines across the whole area at an interval of 25.4 / dpi mm (0.085 mm at 300 dpi); their length is area / interval. For 50 cm² at 6000 mm/min that is 59,055 mm and 9.84 min.
Why is nitrogen more expensive than oxygen in laser cutting?
Oxygen reacts with the steel and adds energy to the cut, so 0.5 to 2 bar is enough. Nitrogen only blows the melt out and needs at least 10 bar (in practice 10 to 20+), so more gas for a comparable nozzle and usually a higher price. The tool does not compare prices: the gas is entered in EUR per hour.
Does the price per part fall with a bigger batch?
Only partly: just the file preparation falls with the batch size. With the defaults the price is 2.48 EUR at 1 part, 0.98 at 10, 0.85 at 50 and 0.83 at 100.
How much does the laser cutting calculator cost?
It is part of Pro at 15 EUR a month. Pro also opens the other Pro tools in the catalog.
The laser cutting cost calculator is part of Pro
Pro costs 15 EUR a month and opens all 45 Pro tools.
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Price your cut
Part of Pro, 15 EUR a month.