How a CNC machining quote is built, in 10 lines from metal to tax

What goes into a CNC machining quote?

Every estimating method we’ve read builds the price the same way. Boothroyd Dewhurst’s machining cost estimator (updated March 2026) sets a part’s cost as the material, plus the set-up divided by the batch, plus the machine rate times the cycle time, plus tool wear. Paperless Parts’ public P3L examples (September 2020) chain the same steps: material, programming, set-up and run on each machine, outside services, then markups.

The methods agree on the structure. They differ on cycle time, the input that’s hardest to estimate from rules. Jason Ray, chief executive of Paperless Parts, told Modern Machine Shop that instant quoting “creates more risk today than value” (16 June 2025).

The lines, and what moves each:

Line	What it covers	What drives it
Metal	The blank the part is cut from, cut fees, mill certificates	Grade and form, stock size rounded up to the supplier’s size list, quantity, the supplier’s minimum order
Set-up	Fixturing, loading the program, tool changes, the first-piece check	How many times the part is re-clamped, fixtures, and the quantity it’s spread over
Programming	Writing the toolpaths	Feature count and complexity; usually charged once per part number
Cycle time	Machine time per part, at the shop’s hourly rate	Metal removed, machinability, features, tolerances, surface finish, 3-axis or 5-axis
Tooling	Cutters, tool changes and wear	Small internal radii, deep pockets and holes, hard materials
Finishing	Anodizing, passivation, powder coat and other outside processes	A lot charge or a piece price, whichever is greater; part area
Inspection	Measuring the parts, first article inspection, certificates	Critical dimensions, tolerances, the report you ask for
Freight	Every leg the metal and the parts travel	Weight, distance, the number of legs, the delivery date
Margin	What the shop or the platform keeps	Its own pricing model
Tax	GST, HST, QST or PST	The province the parts ship to

The metal line prices the blank

A shop buys a blank big enough to hold the part and to clamp it. Protolabs Network’s design guide asks for stock at least 3 mm larger than the finished part in every dimension (read 26 September 2026). The thickness then rounds up to the next size the supplier stocks, so a part a few millimetres too thick can move up a whole plate size.

The price depends on the grade, the form, the size, the supplier and the region, plus cut fees and minimum orders, and it moves: Paperless Parts pulls live prices from metal suppliers to keep quotes current (Modern Machine Shop, 16 June 2025).

Set-up and programming: the costs quantity spreads

A set-up is each time the part is re-clamped to reach another face. Boothroyd Dewhurst puts one at 0.5 to 4 hours or more, covering programming, fixtures, tool changes and the first-piece check. On small batches, programming can be the biggest cost of all: a cofounder of Plethora, a San Francisco machine shop, said so of its low-volume work (Modern Machine Shop, 1 March 2018).

Both are paid once per batch, which is why the unit price falls so fast with quantity. In QuoteBuddy’s worked example (8 July 2026), a €180 set-up comes to €180 a part for one piece, €18 at 10 and €0.90 at 200. Protolabs Network says going from one part to five can cut the unit price by about half. A repeat order usually drops programming.

Cycle time: machine hours at the shop’s rate

Cycle time is what the machine spends on each part. QuoteBuddy puts non-cutting time, such as tool changes, at often 40% to 70% of the cycle on a part with many features.

The hourly rate depends on the machine. Boothroyd Dewhurst’s typical machine rates are US$50 to US$80 an hour for a 3-axis mill, US$120 to US$200 for a 5-axis mill and US$60 to US$120 for a turning centre. A shop’s rate also pays the machinist: Job Bank’s median wage for a CNC machinist is CA$30.00 an hour in Canada, CA$31.00 in Nova Scotia, CA$30.00 in Ontario and CA$27.50 in Quebec (2023 to 2024 data, page modified 7 August 2026).

Tolerances and finish multiply the time. Boothroyd Dewhurst puts ±0.002 in at 2 to 2.5 times the cost of ±0.005 in, and ±0.001 in at 3 to 5 times; an Ra 0.8 µm finish costs 2 to 2.5 times Ra 3.2 µm. Protolabs Network machines parts to ±0.125 mm or better when a drawing gives no tolerance, and says stainless steel often takes at least twice as long to machine as aluminum. Tighten only the features that need it.

Tooling, finishing and inspection

Tooling follows the geometry: small internal corners force small cutters and slow passes. Protolabs Network recommends internal corner radii of at least a third of the cavity depth, and holes up to four diameters deep.

Finishing is usually an outside process with its own minimum. Paperless Parts’ P3L examples price it as the greater of a lot charge and the quantity times a piece price, so on a small order the lot charge can set the whole line.

Inspection grows with the critical dimensions and the report you ask for, and P3L treats a first article inspection as a one-time charge. We haven’t found a published time standard for inspection (search of 25 September 2026), so each shop prices it from experience.

Freight, margin and provincial tax

Freight covers every leg: metal to the shop, parts to a finisher and back, parts to you. Margin is what the shop or the platform keeps; P3L’s examples default to a 15% markup on a shop’s own work and none on material or outside services (September 2020).

Sales tax follows the province the parts are delivered to, wherever the shop is (CRA, GST/HST Memorandum 3-3-3, April 2026). The rates, from the CRA’s table (modified 1 April 2025):

• Ontario: HST 13%.
• Nova Scotia: HST 14%, since 1 April 2025.
• New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island: HST 15%.
• Quebec: GST 5% plus QST 9.975%.
• Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon: GST 5%.
• British Columbia and Manitoba: GST 5% plus PST 7%. Saskatchewan: GST 5% plus PST 6%.

Why do instant quotes from US platforms read differently?

An instant quote is a model’s price, set before a shop has seen your drawing. Three things change what it means for a Canadian buyer.

• The currency. Xometry’s Customer Service Agreement (updated 28 July 2026) calculates prices and takes payment in US dollars.
• The delivery terms. The same agreement sells Ex Works, at the partner’s factory (Incoterms 2020). The price includes standard shipping that Xometry picks, and the buyer is liable for other duties, tariffs and taxes. Protolabs Network’s home page says it covers import duties on orders to the EU, UK and US; Canada isn’t named (read 26 September 2026).
• The pricing model. Xometry’s patent US10338565B1 (granted 2 July 2019) describes models that predict whether the buyer will accept a price and whether suppliers will take the job, then search for a price that meets a gross-margin condition. Protolabs Network’s FAQ says it matches a request to a manufacturer through a competitive auction model. At Xometry, the shop buys the metal: its partner terms (updated 15 April 2026) make the partner responsible for all costs of a job.

To compare quotes, turn each into a landed cost in Canadian dollars: the exchange rate, any duties or tariffs, freight to your door and tax.

What does a CanadaFab quote look like?

• One quote in Canadian dollars, under one contract. Metal, machining and freight on separate lines, finishing on its own line where a part needs it, and GST, HST and QST, as they apply, worked out for each line from the ship-to province.
• The metal priced from a dated table. Price lists from our network of Canadian metal suppliers go into our own table, each price with the dates it’s valid. Small orders go to cut-to-size suppliers and large projects to national service centres, for example Russel Metals and Samuel. The metal line takes the cheapest stock that holds your part, and its price is never valid longer than the supplier’s own.
• A buy request for the metal. The supplier cuts the blanks to size and ships them to the shop with their mill certificates. The country of melt on your Canadian content record comes from each certificate, never from the supplier’s address.
• A machining-only request to the shop. The shop quotes set-up, programming, run time, tooling and inspection with the metal supplied, so it has no metal to buy or chase. A job that needs two shops can be split by operation, each shop quoting its own operations, on the same quote.
• A named estimator checks the replies against a cost sheet built on the methods above before the quote goes out.
• Freight rated for every leg: supplier to shop, shop to shop, and shop to you.