Machine Hourly Rate Calculator

What does an hour on your laser, plasma, waterjet, or press brake actually cost, and what should you charge for it? Enter the machine payment, consumables, power, labor, and the hours you really bill, and get a cost-per-hour breakdown plus a shop rate at your target margin. Starting values for each machine type get you close; your numbers make it right.

Laser · Plasma · Waterjet · Press Brake Cost & Charge Rate Utilization What-If Save & Compare Machines

The number most shops get wrong isn’t the machine payment. It’s the hours. Dividing annual cost by 2,080 assumes the machine cuts every minute of every shift. A single-shift laser typically bills 1,000–1,500 hours a year once setup, loading, maintenance, and idle time come out. This calculator makes you pick a real number, and the what-if table shows how far the rate moves when that number is wrong. Starting values are typical for each machine type, not quotes; replace them with yours.

Cost to run

$0/hr

$0.00 per minute

Charge at 25% margin

$0/hr

$0.00 per minute · markup 33%

What if the hours are wrong?

Only capital and fixed costs move with hours; consumables, power, and labor are per running hour either way.

My Shop Rates

Saved in this browser only. Build a rate for each machine, then use them in your quoting.

How the math works

Everything is reduced to dollars per billable hour: an hour the machine is running a paying job. The rate has five pieces.

1. Capital

The machine payment, spread over the hours it earns. If financed: standard amortized payment from price, rate, and term, times 12, divided by billable hours. Paid cash: price divided by the years you’ll depreciate it. Once the machine is paid off this line drops to zero, which is why a ten-year-old laser can undercut a new one.

2. Fixed annual costs

(maintenance + insurance + software + floor space) ÷ billable hours. Maintenance is the one to be honest about: 2–5% of purchase price per year is typical for lasers and plasma, more for waterjet pumps.

3. Power

kW draw × $/kWh. Use the whole system: chiller, dust collector, air compressor, pump, not just the nameplate on the source.

4. Consumables and process

Nozzles, electrodes, lenses, protective windows, tooling, plus the thing you burn: assist gas on a laser, abrasive on a waterjet (lb/min × $/lb × 60). Nitrogen and garnet are often the largest single line and the easiest to forget.

5. Labor

wage × (1 + burden) × attention. Burden is payroll tax and benefits, usually 25–35%. Attention is how much of the operator belongs to this machine: 100% if they stand at it, 50% if they run two.

Cost to charge

charge = cost ÷ (1 − margin). A 25% margin is a 33% markup; the calculator shows both so nobody in the office is talking past each other. The optional “what you charge today” field turns it around and tells you the margin you’re actually making.