Laser Cutting Cost per Meter
Cost per meter (or per inch, if you work in imperial) is the number customers actually compare. This page gives you the formula, the inputs that move it, and reference tables you can sanity-check a quote against.
The formula
Cost per meter is the total cost of a cut divided by the total cut length:
Cost per meter = (machine time + gas + consumables + labor + setup) ÷ total cut length
Machine time is cut length divided by cutting speed, plus piercing time. Gas is charged per cutting hour and depends on the assist gas: oxygen for mild steel is cheap, high-pressure nitrogen for stainless and aluminum is usually the single largest variable cost. For the full derivation of every term, see how the estimate works.
To convert: cost per inch = cost per meter ÷ 39.37, and cost per foot = cost per meter ÷ 3.28. A part with $0.60/m of cut carries about $0.015 per inch.
Reference tables (USD, $45/hr machine rate)
Values below come from the same speed tables the cost calculator uses: typical planning speeds for a 3 kW reference machine, scaled for 6 kW. They assume one pierce per meter-scale cut and a $4 setup allowance spread over the batch. Treat them as planning figures, not quotes.
Mild steel (oxygen assist)
| Thickness | Speed @ 3 kW | Cost per meter @ 3 kW | Speed @ 6 kW | Cost per meter @ 6 kW |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 mm | 8.0 m/min | $0.53 | 11.6 m/min | $0.49 |
| 3 mm | 3.5 m/min | $0.70 | 5.1 m/min | $0.61 |
| 6 mm | 1.9 m/min | $0.95 | 2.8 m/min | $0.78 |
| 10 mm | 0.9 m/min | $1.57 | 1.3 m/min | $1.21 |
Stainless steel (nitrogen assist)
| Thickness | Speed @ 3 kW | Cost per meter @ 3 kW | Speed @ 6 kW | Cost per meter @ 6 kW |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 mm | 12.0 m/min | $0.51 | 17.4 m/min | $0.47 |
| 3 mm | 5.5 m/min | $0.63 | 8.0 m/min | $0.56 |
| 6 mm | 2.2 m/min | $0.98 | 3.2 m/min | $0.80 |
| 10 mm | 1.0 m/min | $1.69 | 1.5 m/min | $1.29 |
Aluminum (nitrogen assist)
| Thickness | Speed @ 3 kW | Cost per meter @ 3 kW | Speed @ 6 kW | Cost per meter @ 6 kW |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 mm | 10.0 m/min | $0.53 | 14.5 m/min | $0.49 |
| 3 mm | 5.0 m/min | $0.66 | 7.3 m/min | $0.58 |
| 6 mm | 2.1 m/min | $1.01 | 3.0 m/min | $0.82 |
| 10 mm | 1.0 m/min | $1.69 | 1.5 m/min | $1.29 |
Run your own material, thickness and local gas price through the calculator — the gas rate field is editable, and switching it to your supplier's price is the fastest way to tighten the estimate.
What moves cost per meter the most
- Assist gas price. High-purity nitrogen can cost 4-5× what oxygen does per cutting hour. Compressed air cuts the gas bill to near zero on materials where edge quality tolerates it.
- Thickness, nonlinearly. Speed drops much faster than thickness rises: 10 mm plate costs roughly 3× more per meter than 1 mm sheet, not 10× — but on poor parameter setups it can be worse.
- Piercing count. Lots of small features mean lots of pierces. On thick plate a single pierce can cost more than a meter of travel.
- Machine utilization. The $45/hr rate assumes the machine is cutting. Quoting jobs that keep the machine idle in setup erodes the real hourly number.
Per meter, per hour, or per part?
Cost per hour describes your machine; cost per meter describes the cut; cost per part is what the customer signs. Healthy shops track all three: the hourly rate as the internal floor, cost per meter for quick sanity checks, and per-part quotes built from real nesting. The cost per hour guide on our main site breaks down what belongs inside the hourly number, and the machine price guide covers how the purchase decision shapes it.