Welding Cost Estimator
Estimate what a weld costs per foot, per metre or per part. Enter the weld metal per length, the travel speed or deposition rate, and your rates; it adds up labour and overhead, filler metal, shielding gas and power, and shows where the money goes.
How to Use
- Choose whether the job is set by travel speed (you know how fast the weld goes) or by deposition rate (you know how many pounds or kilograms an hour the process lays down; the Wire Feed Speed & Deposition Calculator gets it from a MIG wire feed speed).
- Enter the weld metal per length. The Weld Metal & Filler Calculator works it out for fillets and plate grooves and the Pipe Weld Calculator for pipe butt welds; the Navy’s figure for a 1/4 in fillet is 0.106 lb/ft.
- Enter the deposition efficiency and filler price, the gas flow and price, and the welding current, voltage and power-source efficiency.
- Enter your labour and overhead rate per hour and the operating factor, the share of paid time the arc is actually lit. All the numbers loaded by a preset are examples: replace them with yours.
- Add the weld length per part and the number of parts for a job total. The donut shows where the money goes; Show Work has every line.
Worked Example
The Navy’s stick example. A 1/4 in fillet needs 0.106 lb of weld metal per foot. With 3/16 in E6011 depositing 4.5 lb an hour, the arc time is 0.106 ÷ 4.5 = 0.02356 h per foot. At $18 an hour and a 35 % operating factor, labour and overhead is 18 × 0.106 ÷ (4.5 × 0.35) = $1.211. The electrode is 0.106 × 0.45 ÷ 0.69 = $0.069, and power at 180 A, 26 V, a 50 % efficient machine and $0.035/kWh is $0.008. Total: $1.288 per foot, the figure in NAVEDTRA 14251A.
A metric MIG fillet. 0.15 kg/m of weld at 300 mm/min is 3.33 minutes of arc per metre. At 45 an hour and a 40 % operating factor, labour is 6.25; wire at 3.20 per kg and 95 % efficiency is 0.51; gas at 14 L/min and 9 per m³ is 0.42; power is 0.09. Total about 7.27 per metre (2.22 per foot), with example prices.
The common mistake: paying for arc time only. Leaving out the operating factor in the Navy example prices labour at 18 × 0.02356 = $0.424 per foot, and the weld at $0.501 per foot instead of $1.288. The welder is paid for the whole hour, not just the 35 % of it with the arc lit, so the labour line must be divided by the operating factor.
Show Work
Formulas
Where the Method Comes From
The equations here are the ones taught in the US Navy’s Steelworker Advanced course, NAVEDTRA 14251A, chapter 5, “Welding Costs”, which works them for stick, TIG, MIG and flux-cored welding. It notes that labour and overhead are roughly 85 % of welding cost, that power is usually under 1 %, and that the rest depends on the process chosen, so the process and its operating factor matter more than the price of wire.
The same chapter gives the typical figures used in the presets and FAQs: operating factors of 10 to 50 % for stick welding (usually 20 to 40 %), 25 to 60 % for semiautomatic MIG and flux-cored, and up to 80 % or more for automatic welding; deposition efficiencies of 69 % for E6011 and 72 % for E7018, about 95 % for solid MIG wire, 100 % assumed for TIG filler, 75 to 80 % for self-shielded flux-cored wire and 80 to 90 % for gas-shielded. Its worked stick example, a 1/4 in fillet with E6011 at $18 an hour, comes to $1.288 per foot, which this calculator reproduces.
The manual’s labour and power prices date from its writing, so they are only there to check the arithmetic; use your own shop rate, overhead, wire, gas and electricity prices. Fixed costs such as fit-up, preheat, cleaning and inspection are outside these lines and need adding separately.
About This Tool
This estimator prices a weld per foot, per metre, per part and per batch from the weld metal per length and either the travel speed or the deposition rate. It splits the cost into labour and overhead, filler metal, shielding gas and electric power, shows each line in the working, and draws the split as a donut. Every default is an example for you to change. Take welding parameters from your procedure (WPS) and the filler manufacturer’s data sheet.
Everything runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
Related tools: Pipe Weld Calculator, Shielding Gas Cylinder Duration Calculator, and Metal Weight Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate welding cost per foot?
Add four lines: labour and overhead = rate × arc time ÷ operating factor; filler = weld metal ÷ deposition efficiency × price; gas = arc time × flow × price; power = amps × volts ÷ machine efficiency × arc time × kWh price. The US Navy’s example, a 1/4 in fillet with 3/16 in E6011 at $18 an hour, comes to 1.211 + 0.069 + 0.008 = $1.288 per foot.
What is the operating factor in welding?
It is the share of the welder’s paid time that the arc is lit; the rest goes on fit-up, chipping slag, changing electrodes and moving. The Navy’s Steelworker course puts it at 10 to 50 % for stick welding, usually 20 to 40 %, 25 to 60 % for semiautomatic MIG and flux-cored, and up to 80 % or more for automatic welding.
What is deposition efficiency?
The share of the filler you buy that ends up in the weld. Stick electrodes lose stubs, slag and spatter, so the Navy manual uses 69 % for E6011 and 72 % for E7018; solid MIG wire is about 95 %, TIG filler about 100 %, and flux-cored 75 to 90 %. A weld needing 0.106 lb/ft of metal uses 0.106 ÷ 0.69 = 0.154 lb/ft of E6011.
Why is labour most of the cost?
Because the arc is only lit part of the time, and filler and gas are cheap by comparison. In the Navy’s E6011 example labour and overhead is $1.211 of $1.288 per foot, 94 %; the manual says labour and overhead are about 85 % of welding cost in general, which is why raising the operating factor or the deposition rate saves the most.
How do I get the arc time per foot?
Divide the length by the travel speed, or the weld metal by the deposition rate. At 4.5 lb/h, 0.106 lb/ft takes 0.106 ÷ 4.5 = 0.02356 h, 1.41 minutes of arc per foot; at a 35 % operating factor that is 4.04 minutes of paid time per foot.
How do I use the Welding Cost Estimator?
Just type your numbers. The answer shows up right away — there is no button to press. Change anything and it updates by itself.
Is it free? Does it work without internet?
Yes to both. It is free with no sign-up, and once the page has loaded it keeps working even with no internet.
Where does my data go?
Nowhere — every calculation runs on your own device. Nothing you enter is uploaded, logged, or stored.
Common Use Cases
Quoting fabrication
A MIG fillet depositing 0.15 kg/m at 300 mm/min with labour at 45 an hour and a 40 % operating factor costs about 7.27 per metre, 6.25 of it labour.
Stick versus MIG
The Navy’s 1/4 in fillet costs $1.288 per foot with E6011 and about $0.69 with semiautomatic MIG at 6.3 lb/h, mostly because the operating factor rises from 35 % to 50 %.
Batch pricing
200 brackets with 600 mm of TIG weld each, at 150 mm/min and a 30 % operating factor, cost about 10.66 each and 2,131 for the batch, with 13.33 hours of arc.
Finding savings
Raising the operating factor from 35 % to 50 % cuts the Navy E6011 labour line from $1.211 to $0.848 per foot, more than the whole electrode cost of $0.069.
Checking a procedure
In travel-speed mode the work shows the deposition rate your numbers imply: 0.15 kg/m at 300 mm/min means 2.7 kg/h, a sanity check against the wire maker’s data.
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