How do you work out embroidery run time?
Four numbers, in order. This is the formula behind our run time calculator:
- Stitching time = stitch count divided by stitches per minute.
- Mechanical time per piece = stitching time, plus trims times your seconds per trim, plus color changes times your seconds per change. Note that a design with four colors has three color changes, not four.
- Effective time per piece = mechanical time divided by an efficiency allowance, which covers thread breaks, rethreading and the small stops in a real day.
- Cycle time = effective time per piece, plus handling: hooping, loading the frames and unloading them again.
Everything on this page uses one set of example settings so the numbers are comparable: 800 stitches per minute, an 85% efficiency allowance, 0.5 seconds per trim, 2 seconds per color change and 1.5 minutes of handling per cycle. Those are example inputs, not measurements of your shop. Time your own hooping once and your estimates improve immediately, because handling is the figure people guess worst.
What speed does an embroidery machine actually run at?
Start from the manufacturer spec, then use the average you really achieve, which is always lower.
| Machine | Published maximum speed |
|---|---|
| Melco EMT16X, single head | 1,500 stitches per minute (high-speed pantograph) |
| Barudan single head (XL2, PRO3, C01) | Up to 1,300 spm on flats, 1,000 spm on caps |
| Barudan multi-head | Up to 1,100 spm depending on the model |
| Ricoma Marquee, 15 needle | 1,200 spm |
Those are ceilings under good conditions. The machine drops below them on its own whenever the design or the garment demands it: long satin stitches, dense fills, caps in a cap frame, stretchy performance knits and anything sewn on a bulky finished garment. Barudan publishing 1,300 spm for flats and 1,000 for caps is the clearest example: the same file takes about 30% longer on a cap than on a shirt front, before you allow for the extra time a cap frame takes to load.
Use a measured average. Run a known design, time it from first stitch to last, divide the stitch count by the minutes, and use that figure instead of the badge on the machine.
How long does a logo take to embroider?
The table below works through six common logo sizes. The stitch counts are what our stitch count estimator returns for those finished sizes at each complexity level, rounded to the nearest hundred; they are model outputs, not measurements of real files. The times are computed from the example settings above, holding the design at 4 colors and 8 trims so that only the stitch count changes.
| Logo | Stitches | Stitching only | Per piece with allowances | Cycle with handling | Pieces per hour, six head |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 x 1.5 in, simple | 3,800 | 4.8 min | 5.8 min | 7.3 min | 49 |
| 3.5 x 2 in, simple | 5,900 | 7.4 min | 8.9 min | 10.4 min | 35 |
| 3 x 1.5 in, medium | 7,000 | 8.8 min | 10.5 min | 12.0 min | 30 |
| 4 x 3 in, simple | 10,100 | 12.6 min | 15.0 min | 16.5 min | 22 |
| 4 x 3 in, medium | 18,600 | 23.3 min | 27.5 min | 29.0 min | 12 |
| 4 x 3 in, complex | 29,000 | 36.3 min | 42.8 min | 44.3 min | 8 |
Two things stand out. Size matters less than how much of the design is filled: the same 4 by 3 inch box takes 12.6 minutes of stitching as a simple mark and 36.3 minutes as a complex one. And on the small designs the gap between stitching time and cycle time is large, because 1.5 minutes of handling is a quarter of a short cycle and only a twentieth of a long one. That is the argument for minimum charges in stitch count pricing.
How does a multi-head machine change the math?
Every head sews the same design at the same time, so heads do not make a piece faster, they make more pieces at once. The order time depends on cycles:
- Cycles = order quantity divided by total heads, rounded up.
- Order time = cycles times cycle time.
Take the 18,600-stitch logo from the table, 29.0 minutes a cycle, and an order of 48 pieces on one six-head machine. That is 8 cycles, about 3 hours 52 minutes, roughly 12 pieces an hour. The same 48 pieces on a single head is 48 cycles: more than five times as long, because every garment now carries its own handling time as well as its own stitching.
Rounding up is where money leaks. An order of 50 pieces on a six-head machine needs 9 cycles, and the ninth runs two heads loaded and four empty for the full cycle time. You pay for the whole cycle either way. This is why order minimums and quantity breaks are often set around head counts, and why it is worth asking a customer whether 50 could be 54.
If you run mixed machines, count the heads you will actually commit to the job, not the heads you own. A machine tied up on another order is not part of this one. Feed the real head count into the run time calculator and it will give you the cycles, the total and the pieces per hour.
What makes an embroidery run take longer?
- Thread breaks. Every break stops that head until it is rethreaded and backed up. This is what the efficiency allowance is for. Dense areas, old or dry thread, the wrong needle and a file that pulls the fabric all raise the rate. See why embroidery thread keeps breaking.
- Trims and jumps. Half a second each sounds trivial, and the direct cost is: 40 trims is about 20 seconds a piece. The cost is in the stops, the restarts and the breaks they cause. A well sequenced file connects nearby objects with travel stitches instead of cutting. See trims and stitch sequencing.
- Color changes. A few seconds each, and far more when a file returns to the same color repeatedly instead of finishing it.
- Hooping and handling. On short designs this is the largest single item in the cycle. Magnetic hoops, pre-hooping between cycles and a second operator all attack it.
- Caps and awkward garments. Slower machine speed and slower loading, both.
A file that runs badly costs you on every piece and every head for as long as you keep the program, which is why fixing it is usually cheaper than absorbing it. Every design we build is hand digitized, never auto-converted, and checked by a second digitizer before it goes out, with standard turnaround of 4 to 8 hours. See embroidery digitizing for new work, or send an existing file for a free check and a quote at embroidery file repair. Once you know the time, turn it into a price with how to price embroidery jobs and the rest of the embroidery business pricing hub.
Rather have it digitized for you?
Hand-digitized files from $10 per design, back in 4–8 hours, in every machine format.
Get a free quote →Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Melco: EMT16X commercial embroidery machine (1,500 spm pantograph)
- Barudan America: single-head machines (1,300 spm on flats, 1,000 spm on caps)
- Barudan America: multi-head machines (up to 1,100 spm depending on model)
- Ricoma: Marquee 15-needle commercial machine (1,200 spm)
Sources checked 20 September 2026.