JLCPCB prices vs. order volume graphed - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: pastaclub
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 14, 2025, 04:48:13 pm
content: Hi, I did an analysis on what JLCPCB charges for PCBs depending on how much you order.- I only looked at double-sided (2 layer) PCBs with standard options (1.6mm, leaded HASL etc.)- Only PCBs, no PCBA- I was assuming panels ("panel by customer") of 25x20mm size per individual board- I tried 4 different panel sizes: 10x10cm, 20x10cm, 20x20cm, 30x20cm- I had them priced for quantities 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3500- I recorded the total price from the online pricing tool, including all displayed fees- Fees that might be added by JLC after reviewing the order are not included- Shipping is not includedRaw data and graphed results are attached. Note the X axis is logarithmic.My findings:- Obviously, the more you order, the cheaper it gets.- The 10x10cm panel is always cheapest.- But the panel size and shape only matters for prototype orders.-> For small orders, you may pay as much as double (per sqm) for larger panels.-> As soon as you order a few sqm, panel size makes almost no difference in price.- Price per sqm starts at above 100$. Most of the price drop happens before reaching 2 sqm.- At 2 sqm order volume, you reach ~50$/sqm. From there on, price only drops very subtly.- You have to order 20x more for another 20% price drop (40 sqm to get to 40$/sqm).- To get to 35$/sqm, you have to order almost 200 sqm.My personal takeaway:Prototype orders are always going to cost more, but if you are looking for the smallest possible order size that gets you half-way decent prices, then that's 2 sqm. Which is surprisingly low, because we're talking about ~100$ order volume. And at that volume, the panel size already becomes irrelevant, so you can go for whatever fits your assembly line best, knowing that it doesn't affect the price of the PCBs. And lastly, volume discounts are not drastic. Since PCB cost is rarely the major cost driver, beyond 2 sqm of area, any volume savings are not substantial enough to be part of the consideration.What's eye-opening here is not the numbers, but the shape of the curves. Would be interesting to see a similar analysis for different kinds of PCBs (ENIG, 4-layer, 8-layer etc.).

author: b177
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 05:33:53 pm
content: In the various jlcpcb factory-peek videos, the PCB panels appear to be around 0.6 m x 0.6 m. It does makes sense that the smaller 'customer panel' size is cheaper, it can reduce wasted space on the production panel.Even $100 sqm seems "cheap" to me. For your example pcb, 25x20mm, that is only $0.05 per board, or $0.025 at the "cheap" $50sqm. What market segments are this sensitive to the pcb cost? seems like component, assembly, marketing, etc completely overshadows the pcb cost, which at this price point, is basically free, you are paying for shipping.

author: pastaclub
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 07:01:47 am
content: The point here is using a data-driven approach and getting a feeling for how order volume affects price. This allows for making better choices. If you come to the conclusion that PCBs are "cheap", then with the above knowledge, you could opt to order PCBs for multiple production runs and leave them lying around for later, knowing that this gets you an x% lower price.I use microcontrollers for 2.5 cents, so if the PCB costs twice as much, that's not "free". If you're paying US salaries, there's probably little point in bothering (and a 50 cent MCU might end up cheaper since you spend less time on development) - but you won't be making those gadgets that sell online for 3$. I'm based in Asia myself and the market I want to target is quite price sensitive.