PCB Cost Calculator
Fabrication and assembly cost for a board run, as an honest range: an online fab in Asia at the low end, a US quick-turn shop at the high end. Change the size, layers, quantity or part count and see what actually moves the price. Every input lives in the URL, so the link carries your exact estimate.
Presets are typical starting points. Replace them with your own board.
| Line | Low end | High end |
|---|---|---|
| Bare boards | $24 | $350 |
| per board | $2.43 | $33 |
| Assembly setup and stencils | $100 | $850 |
| Assembly per board | $2.43 | $50 |
| Assembly total | $125 | $1,350 |
| Order total | $150 | $1,700 |
| per board, all in | $15 | $175 |
Low end: an online fab and assembler in Asia, standard build time, before shipping, duties and tariffs. High end: a US quick-turn shop.
Boards in hand: about 10 to 26 days, with express shipping and every part in stock.
Parts are extra. Components are not in these numbers, and at volume they are usually the biggest cost on the board, often more than fabrication and assembly together.
What moves this number
- Quantity. At 50 boards the cost per board drops to $5.38 to $68, from $15 to $175 at 10. Tooling, setup and stencils are paid once per order, so a small run carries them on very few boards.
- Assembly setup. Machine setup and stencils are about 63 to 81% of the assembly bill at 10 boards. They are paid once per build, which is why a prototype run looks expensive per board and a production run does not.
- Layer count. The same board on 2 layers would cost about 32 to 46% less to fabricate. Worth it only if the routing and the return paths still work: a ground plane is cheaper than a failed EMC test.
- Unique parts. Every BOM line is a feeder to load and a reel to buy. Merging resistor and capacitor values so the BOM drops from 45 to 34 unique parts saves $16 to $44 in setup, and more in purchasing.
Need this board designed, or reviewed to cut its cost?
A design-for-manufacture review before you order is the cheapest saving on this page. Bring the files or just the idea; mutual NDA on request.
Free 30-minute call with an engineerThe link reproduces these exact inputs. Paste it in a budget, a review or an email to your fab.
What these numbers assume
- Bare boards: FR-4 at standard Tg, 1.6 mm, 1 oz copper, ENIG, standard 6/6 mil rules, green solder mask, white legend, electrical test, standard build time.
- Low end: an online prototype fab and assembler in Asia at standard build time, before shipping, duties and tariffs. High end: a US quick-turn shop for both fabrication and assembly.
- Panelized with about 3 mm between boards and 85% of the panel used, so each board is charged as 9.5 sq in of panel for a 7.4 sq in outline.
- Assembly: every part surface mount and machine placed, parts on one side, 140 placements per board from 45 unique part numbers. Through-hole parts are hand-soldered and cost extra.
- Components are not priced. Parts are extra and usually the biggest cost at volume.
- Excludes shipping, duties and tariffs, NRE beyond setup and stencils, test fixtures, firmware programming and functional test.
- Lead time: calendar days to boards in hand with express shipping, every part in stock. A long-lead part sets the schedule, not the fab.
Indicative only. These ranges exclude components, shipping, duties and tariffs, NRE and test fixtures. Before you commit to production, get a real quote from a fab and an assembler with your Gerbers and BOM.
What drives PCB cost, and how to cut it
Six things set the price of a board run, and the calculator above moves each one.
Layer count
Every pair of layers adds lamination, drilling and registration steps, so four layers costs roughly twice what two do, and six roughly doubles it again. The saving is real, but so is the trade: a 4-layer board gives you a continuous ground plane, and that plane is often what gets a radio product through FCC and CE testing on the first visit. Drop layers when the routing genuinely fits, not to win a line item.
Board area and panelization
Fabs price the production panel, not your outline. Boards are routed out of a larger sheet with spacing between them and rails around the edge, so a small board pays for more area than it covers. That is why a 20 x 20 mm board costs more per square inch than a 100 x 100 mm one. Squaring off an odd outline, or putting two small boards with the same stackup on one panel, recovers some of it.
Surface finish
Lead-free HASL is the cheapest finish and is fine for most boards. ENIG costs more but gives flat, solderable pads, which BGAs, fine-pitch QFNs and edge contacts need. Pay for it where the parts demand it, not by habit.
Quantity breaks
Most of a prototype order is fixed cost: tooling, engineering review, electrical test setup, assembly machine setup and stencils. At 5 or 10 boards that fixed part dominates; at 500 it is noise. The price per board falls hardest between 5 and about 100 boards and keeps easing toward 1,000. On an assembled board, ten usually cost little more than five.
Design rules and DFM
Standard rules, 6 mil traces and spaces with drilled through-hole vias, are built everywhere at base price. 4/4 mil adds a surcharge at many shops, and HDI with laser-drilled microvias adds lamination cycles and roughly doubles the board price. A design-for-manufacture review before you order catches the rule tightened by accident, the via that did not need to be blind and the outline that wastes a panel.
Assembly sides and part count
Assembly is priced as setup plus placements. Each side with parts needs its own stencil, setup and reflow pass, so moving every part to one side is one of the cheapest savings available. Every unique part number is another feeder to load and another reel to buy, and merging resistor and capacitor values trims both. BGAs add X-ray inspection.
Where the numbers come from
The low end is calibrated to instant-quote and assembly prices that large online prototype services in Asia publish, at standard build time and before shipping and tariffs. The high end is calibrated to published per-square-inch prices from US pooled prototype services, US quick-turn board specials, and a 2026 comparison of US and offshore assembly per placement. The prices were checked in October 2026 and move with laminate and copper costs, so treat the output as a budget, not a quote.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a PCB cost?
It depends most on where you order and how many. Five 2-layer boards the size of a business card cost a few dollars from an online fab in Asia, before shipping, and roughly $15 to $25 each from a US quick-turn shop. At 1,000 pieces, a 4-layer board of about 100 x 100 mm is around a dollar offshore and around $10 from a US fab. Assembly and parts come on top, and at volume the parts usually cost the most.
Why is a US quick-turn shop so much more expensive than an online fab in Asia?
Scale and speed. The large online fabs run thousands of small orders through shared panels every day, so tooling and setup are spread thin. A US shop charges for short lead times, domestic shipping and support, and for work that has to stay in the country. Imported boards also carry shipping, duties and tariffs, which this calculator leaves out, so the real gap is smaller than the board price suggests.
Does the estimate include components?
No. Parts are extra and usually the biggest cost at volume, often more than fabrication and assembly together. Price your bill of materials at a distributor at the quantity you are building. Long-lead parts also set the schedule more often than the fab does.
How can I make my PCB cheaper?
In rough order of effect: order at a sensible quantity break, keep standard 6/6 mil rules and through-hole vias, use the fewest layers the routing and return paths allow, choose lead-free HASL unless BGAs or fine-pitch parts need ENIG, put every part on one side, merge resistor and capacitor values, and use standard build time. A design-for-manufacture review before you order catches most of these at once.
How accurate is this PCB cost calculator?
It gives indicative ranges, calibrated to prices that online prototype fabs and US shops published in 2026. It will not match a specific quote to the dollar, and it excludes components, shipping, duties and tariffs, NRE and test fixtures. Before production, get quotes from two or three fabs and assemblers with your real Gerbers and BOM.
If the board is the product
Fabrication is usually the smallest number on a hardware budget. The design, the bring-up and the second spin are not, and that part is our day job: we design boards in Silicon Valley and have shipped 200+ of them. We work with teams across the United States. PCB design and layout explains how we work, what PCB design costs in 2026 breaks down the engineering side by complexity tier, and the trace width calculator settles the current questions before you order. Design work is priced in engineering hours; you get a written quote with phases before any work starts. If a number on this page is going into a plan, a free 30-minute call with an engineer is the fastest way to check it.