What the price is made of
Material is charged by weight or by sheet area, usually with an allowance for the skeleton left after nesting. Cutting is charged by the length of every contour, outer and inner, and by the number of pierces, because every contour starts with a pierce. Or the shop converts length and pierces into machine minutes and multiplies them by its hourly rate. Setup and programming are charged once per order, and a minimum order covers small jobs.
That is why a single price per metre misleads. TAUPITZ, a German sheet metal shop, writes that there is no serious flat price per metre or per part, because the price is built from material, machine time with cutting gas, programming time, the quality of the CAD data, the quantity and any finishing.
Machine time depends on three numbers: the cut length (outer plus all inner contours), the number of pierces and the cutting speed that material, thickness and gas allow (TAUPITZ). Thicker sheet cuts slower and every pierce takes longer, so the same drawing costs more in 10 mm than in 3 mm.
The formula
Per metre: price = qty × (cut length in m × rate per metre + pierces × rate per pierce + material) + setup, and at least the minimum order.
Per machine minute: price = qty × ((cut length ÷ cutting speed + pierces × pierce time) × hourly rate + material) + setup, and at least the minimum order.
Cut length = the sum of all contours, outer and inner, without kerf. Pierces = closed contours + open chains. Material = the part's net area or bounding box, divided by the sheet utilisation, × thickness × density × price per kg.
Setup is shared across the quantity: the more parts, the smaller its share of the unit price. A lead-time surcharge, where a shop uses one, applies to processing and setup, not to material.
Worked example: same length, different price
Plate 200 × 100 mm, S235JR 3 mm, 50 pieces. Version A has one hole of 40 mm; version B has 20 holes of 2 mm. Together the holes of B are as long as the hole of A, so both versions cut 725.66 mm per part.
Example rate card (not market prices): €1.20 per metre, €0.10 per pierce, setup €15.00, minimum order €30.00, steel at €1.40 per kg with 80% sheet utilisation. The minute card uses €90.00 per hour, 3,000 mm/min and 1 s per pierce.
Per metre, A costs €107.16 and B €204.62, 1.91 times as much, although the cut length is the same: the pierces alone are €10.00 against €105.00. Per machine minute, A costs €74.26 and B €100.47.
The example line by line
| Line | A, per metre | B, per metre | A, per minute | B, per minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cut length, one part | 725.66 mm | 725.66 mm | 725.66 mm | 725.66 mm |
| Pierces, one part | 2 | 21 | 2 | 21 |
| Cutting, all parts | €43.54 | €43.54 | - | - |
| Pierces, all parts | €10.00 | €105.00 | - | - |
| Machine time, all parts | - | - | 13.8 min | 29.6 min |
| Machine time charge | - | - | €20.64 | €44.39 |
| Material, all parts | €38.62 | €41.08 | €38.62 | €41.08 |
| Setup, once | €15.00 | €15.00 | €15.00 | €15.00 |
| Total | €107.16 | €204.62 | €74.26 | €100.47 |
A quoting software vendor's example
Quotation Factory, a maker of quoting software for sheet metal shops, works through a job with numbers it calls made up to show the logic: 100 brackets in 3 mm mild steel, 900 mm of cut and 6 pierces per part.
Cutting: 90 m at an effective 3 m/min = 30 min, 600 pierces at 1 s = 10 min, positioning about 4 min, so 44 min at EUR 120/h, which is EUR 88 of laser time.
With material, gas, setup, programming, bending, deburring and margin the quote is EUR 448, or EUR 4.48 per part; the same job with only 10 parts is about EUR 169, or EUR 16.90 per part. Their conclusion: there is no single price, calculate from your own rates.
Questions
Is there a fair price per metre of laser cutting?
Not on its own. The same length costs more with more pierces, in thicker sheet or in a dearer material, and setup and the minimum order weigh on small jobs. Compare quotes for the same drawing, not prices per metre.
Why does every hole add to the price?
Every contour starts with a pierce: the beam has to burn through the sheet before it can cut, and that takes longer in thicker sheet. Shops charge it per pierce or include it in machine time, so twenty small holes can cost more than one large hole of the same total length.
What is a minimum order?
The lowest amount a shop invoices for an order, whatever the parts cost; it covers the work every order needs. Shops set it differently: Tolery states EUR 250, the TAUPITZ online shop EUR 60 net (both pages read on 2 November 2026).
Why are small batches dearer per part?
Setup, programming and order handling happen once per order. Spread over 10 parts they weigh ten times as much per part as over 100. In Quotation Factory's example the price per part rises from EUR 4.48 at 100 parts to about EUR 16.90 at 10.
How does thickness change the price?
Thicker sheet means more material per part, a lower cutting speed and longer pierces. On a per-metre card the shop sets a rate per thickness; on a per-minute card the speed and the pierce time change.
Can I price my DXF without asking a shop?
CutMeter measures the cut length and pierces of a DXF and prices them with a rate card. The rates are a shop's own: CutMeter does not invent market prices. A shop sets up its card once and sends quotes from it.
Sources
- TAUPITZ: Was kostet Laserschneiden? Preisfaktoren erklärt (German) taupitz.com
- Quotation Factory: How to Quote a Laser Cutting Job quotationfactory.com
- Tolery: Découpe laser en ligne (French) tolery.io