If you have collected 3 embroidery quotes and they came back wildly different, nothing is wrong. Embroidery is one of the few decoration methods where the same logo on the same shirt can legitimately price three ways depending on how each shop counts.
Below are our actual starting rates, followed by what moves them. Most shops will not publish either. We would rather you arrive at the quote already knowing roughly where you will land.
What a Left Chest Logo Costs Per Piece
Rates below are in Canadian dollars for embroidery only, on a standard left-chest or cap-front logo of up to 8,000 stitches. The garment itself is quoted separately, whether we supply it or you do.
- 12 to 23 pieces: from $12.00 each
- 24 to 47 pieces: from $9.50 each
- 48 to 99 pieces: from $8.00 each
- 100 to 249 pieces: from $6.75 each
- 250 pieces and up: from $5.75 each
Above 8,000 stitches, add $1.25 per additional 1,000 stitches per piece. The quantity-based volume pricing shown above still applies. A detailed crest at 14,000 stitches therefore carries about $7.50 per piece in additional stitch charges.
Digitizing for orders of 12 to 23 pieces:
- Simple text or wordmark, under 6,000 stitches: $60
- Standard business logo, 6,000 to 12,000 stitches: $80
- Detailed logo, crest or badge, over 12,000 stitches: from $120
- Reworking an existing file for a new size or placement: free
For orders of 24 pieces or more, digitizing is included at no charge.
Common additions: Each additional placement is priced separately based on its stitch count. 3D puff adds $2.00 per piece. Individual names or numbers add $6.00 per garment.
These are starting rates. The final price depends on the stitch count of your specific file, the order quantity, the garment and the placement. We run the file before confirming the quote.
Send the file and we will come back with the actual stitch count.
Why Stitch Count Sets the Price, Not Size
Printing is priced by area and colour count. Embroidery is priced by machine time, and machine time is driven by how many stitches the design takes.
That is why nobody can answer “how much for my logo” over the phone. Two logos at exactly the same width can differ by a factor of three in stitch count, and the machine does not care which one looks simpler on screen.
A clean wordmark in two colours is mostly outline stitching, often under 6,000 stitches. A crest with a filled background, shading and small text is solid thread across the whole area and can pass 15,000. Same footprint on the chest, roughly triple the machine time.
Three things in your artwork set that number.
Filled areas. Any solid block of colour is covered stitch by stitch. A logo with a filled circle behind it costs considerably more than the same logo without one, and this is usually where the money goes.
Detail level. Fine lines, shading and gradients all add stitches while adding very little that is visible at chest size.
Physical size. Doubling the width of a design roughly quadruples the area, and stitch count follows area rather than width. This catches people out more than anything else on this page.
A useful rough figure for budgeting: solid fill runs at roughly 1,000 stitches per square inch.
One thing that does not affect the price: thread colours. Once a design is digitized, running it in two colours or seven costs the same. Only stitch count matters.
Which Placement Gives You the Most for Your Money
Placement changes both the stitch count and the handling time, because every position has to be hooped and aligned individually.
Left chest is the best value in embroidery and it is not close. At around 3.5 inches wide it typically lands between 5,000 and 9,000 stitches, it hoops flat, it aligns predictably, and it is the placement people read as professional rather than promotional.
Roughly in order from least to most expensive to run:
- Left chest, priced by stitch count and quantity
- Cap front, priced by stitch count and quantity, usually sized around 2 to 2.5 inches tall
- Sleeve, priced by stitch count and quantity
- Centre chest at a larger size, priced from the final stitch count
- Back, often 15,000 to 25,000 stitches, with $1.25 added per 1,000 stitches above the included 8,000
- Pocket area and hood, where seams and layers can limit how the garment is hooped
The largest area we stitch is 12 by 12 inches. Anything bigger is a print job rather than an embroidery job, and we will tell you so rather than quote it.
If you want a large graphic on the back and a stitched logo on the chest, that combination is common and almost always cheaper than embroidering both.
How Quantity Changes the Price Per Piece
Embroidery pricing changes with quantity because larger orders move into lower per-piece tiers. The stitch count still determines any charge above the included 8,000 stitches.
For a first order of 12 pieces with a standard $80 digitizing fee, setup adds about $6.67 per garment on top of the $12 embroidery rate. At 24 pieces, the embroidery rate drops to $9.50 per piece and digitizing is included at no charge.
The practical advice for a business: if you are outfitting a team, ordering the expected quantity in one run usually lowers the unit cost and helps keep garment colours, logo size and placement consistent across the order.
Which Garments Are Harder to Stitch
Straightforward: polos in cotton piqué, heavier cotton t-shirts and structured caps. Stable fabric, predictable results and standard stitch count pricing usually apply.
Manageable with the right setup: hoodies and sweatshirts, performance polyester and moisture-wicking fabrics that need backing selected for the stretch.
More demanding: very thin performance shirts that can pucker, thick knit beanies where stitches can sink into the surface, and workwear with seams, pockets or multiple layers in the embroidery area. These garments may need an adjusted quote because handling and stabilisation differ.
What a Digitizing Fee Actually Pays For
Digitizing converts your logo into a stitch file the machine can run. It is the line customers question most, usually because it sounds like a file conversion.
It is not. Someone decides, by hand, how the design becomes thread:
- Which stitch type each element uses, satin for edges and lettering, fill for solid areas, running stitch for fine lines
- Which direction each area is stitched, since direction changes how light catches the thread
- What underlay goes down first to stop the fabric shifting
- How much pull compensation to build in, because thread tension distorts a shape as it stitches
- The path the needle takes, to minimise trims and thread jumps
Done badly, this is where embroidery goes wrong. Letters close up, circles come out oval, and the fabric puckers. Done properly, it is why the logo still looks right after two years of washing.
For a first order of 12 to 23 pieces, digitizing is charged once per design: $60 for simple artwork, $80 for a standard business logo and from $120 for a detailed logo, crest or badge. Orders of 24 pieces or more include digitizing at no charge.
We keep the approved stitch file, so an unchanged reorder does not carry a new digitizing fee. Reworking an existing file for a different size or placement is free.
When comparing quotes, confirm whether digitizing is included for your quantity, what stitch count the price covers and whether the garment is included.
What Should Be Included in an Embroidery Quote
Shops bundle differently, which is most of why quotes look incomparable. Here is what to check line by line.
Included in our rates
- Thread and machine run time, at any number of colours
- Backing and stabiliser suited to the fabric
- Standard placement, hooped and aligned
- A digital mockup before production, on every order
- File storage for future reorders
Charged separately
- The garment, if we are supplying it
- Digitizing on a first order of 12 to 23 pieces
- Stitches beyond 8,000, at $1.25 per additional 1,000 stitches per piece
- Additional placements, because each placement has its own stitch count and setup
- Individual names or numbers, at $6.00 per garment
- 3D puff, at $2.00 per piece
- Rush production, with the surcharge confirmed before approval
Our standard turnaround is 8 to 14 business days from artwork approval. Rush production is available, with timing and any rush charge confirmed when we review the order.
Embroidery or Printing, Which Costs Less?
There is no general answer, but there is a reliable rule: the two methods scale in opposite directions.
Printing scales gently with area. A large full colour back graphic costs close to what a small one costs, so printing wins as the design grows.
Embroidery scales steeply, because every additional square inch is more thread and more machine time. A small stitched chest logo is competitive with printing. A large stitched back design is not, and usually by a wide margin.
Choose embroidery when the logo is small, the garment is worn repeatedly, and the finish needs to read as professional rather than promotional. Uniforms, polos, caps and workwear. Thread also outlasts the garment, where a print eventually cracks.
Choose printing when the artwork is full colour or photographic, the design is large, or the run is a giveaway rather than a uniform. See DTF printing and screen printing for how those are priced.
The most common setup for Vancouver businesses is a stitched left chest logo with an optional printed back design. It looks considered and keeps the total sensible.
3 Worked Examples
24 polos, left chest logo, first order
A standard business logo at around 8,000 stitches, with the garment quoted separately.
- Embroidery: 24 pieces at $9.50, so $228
- Digitizing: included at no charge
- Total decoration cost: $228, or $9.50 per polo
An unchanged reorder uses the saved stitch file and is priced at the current quantity and stitch count rates.
48 hoodies, left chest logo with a filled background
The filled shape pushes the design to around 12,000 stitches.
- Embroidery: 48 at $8.00, so $384
- Extra stitches: 4,000 over the included 8,000, at $1.25 per 1,000, so $5 per piece and $240 for the order
- Digitizing: included at no charge
- Total decoration cost: $624, or $13.00 per hoodie
Removing the filled background would eliminate the $240 additional stitch charge and bring the decoration total to $384, assuming the revised design stays within 8,000 stitches.
100 caps, front logo
A simple wordmark at around 5,000 stitches on a structured cap, with the cap quoted separately.
- Embroidery: 100 at $6.75, so $675
- Digitizing: included at no charge
- Total decoration cost: $675, or $6.75 per cap
How to Bring the Cost Down Without Losing Quality
Five things make a real difference, roughly in order of impact.
Remove the filled background. If your logo sits inside a solid shape, ask whether it can be stitched without it. As the second example above shows, this is routinely the largest saving available, and it often looks better on fabric.
Keep it at left chest size. Enlarging a logo because there is room to is the most common avoidable cost in embroidery, and area grows faster than width.
Order in one run. Moving from 23 to 24 pieces drops the embroidery rate from $12.00 to $9.50 per piece and makes digitizing free.
Simplify before production. Reworking the file is free, but removing unnecessary shadows, gradients or filled areas can reduce the stitch count and lower the per-piece cost.
Keep one approved version of the logo. Using the same approved artwork helps future orders match the original size, placement and stitch setup.
We flag any of these when we look at your file. Artwork guidance is part of the quote, not an extra service.
Artwork Problems That Push the Price Up
These are the issues that either raise the quote or produce a result you will not be happy with.
- Text under about a quarter inch tall. Thread has physical width. Below a certain size, letters fill in and become unreadable no matter how good the digitizing is.
- Thin lines. A hairline in vector artwork has no equivalent in thread. It either disappears or gets thickened into something that no longer matches the logo.
- Gradients and shading. Embroidery is solid blocks of colour. A gradient has to be reinterpreted, which adds stitches and rarely matches expectations.
- Photographic elements. These do not translate to thread. If the logo contains one, printing is the honest recommendation.
- Stretchy garments with a dense design. The fabric moves under the needle and the finished shape distorts. Solvable with backing and a lighter stitch plan, but it has to be planned.
- Placement over a seam or pocket. The garment cannot hoop flat, so alignment suffers.
We check for all of these before quoting and tell you what we find. A shop that says yes to every file without opening it is not doing you a favour.
What file to send: the best version you have. Vector files such as AI, EPS, PDF or SVG give the cleanest digitizing result, and a high resolution PNG works too. You do not need to supply a DST or any embroidery format. That is what digitizing produces.
Questions to Ask Before You Approve a Quote
Six questions that surface almost every hidden difference between two quotes.
- Is digitizing included, or listed separately?
- What stitch count is this quote based on, and what happens if the file comes out higher?
- Does the price include the garment, or decoration only?
- Will I see a mockup before production starts?
- Does the turnaround start at order or at artwork approval?
- What happens if a piece comes out wrong?
On the second one in particular, a quote based on an estimated stitch count is where surprises come from. Ask whether the file has actually been run.
What We Will and Will Not Take On
Being straight about the limits saves everyone a quote cycle.
We stitch up to 12 by 12 inches, on caps, polos, hoodies, sweatshirts, t-shirts, jackets and workwear. Placements include left chest, centre chest, back, sleeve, pocket area and hood.
We do not work in metallic or specialty threads, and we do not offer applique or chenille.
On colour matching: thread comes in fixed colours from a standard chart, so exact Pantone matching is not possible in embroidery the way it is in screen printing. We select the closest available thread and confirm it on the mockup before production. If an exact brand colour is non negotiable, tell us at quote stage and we will look at whether printing suits the piece better.
On your own garments: we can stitch items you supply using the same stitch-count and quantity pricing. We check the fabric first and ask for a spare or two, because we did not source the blanks and cannot replace an item damaged during production.
A note on high visibility workwear: we decorate hi vis garments, but stitching over reflective tape can affect a garment’s certification. If your site requires certified hi vis, tell us before you order so placement can be planned around the reflective areas.
Embroidery Pricing Questions
How much does logo embroidery cost in Vancouver?
A standard left-chest logo up to 8,000 stitches starts at $12.00 per piece at 12 units and drops to $5.75 at 250 or more, for embroidery only. On a first order of 12 to 23 pieces, digitizing ranges from $60 to $120 or more depending on the artwork. Orders of 24 pieces or more include digitizing at no charge. Garments are quoted separately.
Why do embroidery quotes differ so much between shops?
Usually because they are not quoting the same thing. Some include digitizing and some list it separately, some quote decoration only while others include the garment, and shops set different stitch count thresholds before the surcharge starts. Ask each one whether digitizing is included and what stitch count the price assumes, and the quotes become comparable.
Is embroidery priced by logo size or stitch count?
Stitch count. Size influences it because a larger design covers more area, but two logos at identical width can carry very different stitch counts depending on how much of the design is filled rather than outlined.
Do I pay the digitizing fee again on a reorder?
No, as long as the approved logo, size and placement stay the same. We keep the stitch file for matching reorders. Reworking an existing file for a different size or placement is free. The embroidery itself is priced using the current stitch count and quantity tier.
Does the number of thread colours change the price?
No. Once a design is digitized, running it in two colours or seven costs the same. Only stitch count moves the number.
Which placement is the cheapest to embroider?
Left chest. It uses the smallest area, hoops flat, and aligns predictably, which is why it is both the most common placement and the best value.
Are caps more expensive to embroider than shirts?
Not necessarily. Both are priced by stitch count and quantity. A structured cap needs a different frame and setup, but cap logos are often smaller than left-chest logos, so the final price depends on the actual artwork.
What is the minimum quantity for embroidery?
12 pieces. Below that the fixed setup dominates the cost and the per piece price stops making sense for anyone. You can mix garment types within an order as long as the logo and placement stay the same.
Can you embroider a photo or a gradient logo?
Not accurately. Embroidery is solid thread, so gradients have to be reinterpreted as flat colour and photographic detail is lost. If your logo depends on either, printing is the better method and we will say so rather than take the order.
Does the quote include the garment?
The rates on this page are decoration only. We can quote garments alongside them, or stitch items you supply at the same rates.
Logo file, garment, placement and quantity. That is all we need.
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Getting an Exact Number for Your Order
Send four things and the rates above become a real quote:
- The logo file, in the best version you have
- The garment, or tell us to recommend one
- Placement and roughly what size you want it
- Quantity, and your size breakdown if you have it
We run the file to get the actual stitch count, check it against the issues above, and come back with the price split into decoration and setup so you can see exactly what you are paying for. You get a mockup before production, and on larger orders we can stitch a single sample first.
Already know what you need? Our custom embroidery page covers garment options, placements and how orders run.
If you already know what you need, visit our main embroidery page to see garment options, turnaround details, and custom branding solutions.