Embroidery pricing confuses people because it's not priced like printing. A shirt print is roughly a flat per-unit cost. Embroidery is priced by how much thread the machine has to lay down, which means two logos that look similarly "sized" on the shirt can cost noticeably different amounts depending on how detailed they are.
The three things that actually set the price
Stitch count. This is the real driver. A simple text logo in one or two colors might run 4,000-8,000 stitches. A detailed, multi-color emblem can run 15,000-25,000+. Most Indianapolis shops price embroidery per thousand stitches, so a denser design costs more even at the exact same physical size on the garment.
Digitizing. Before a machine can stitch your logo, it needs to be converted into a stitch file — this is a one-time fee, typically $25-75 in the Indianapolis market, and it's separate from the per-piece embroidery cost. Many shops waive it on qualifying order sizes, so it's worth asking rather than assuming it's added automatically.
The garment itself. A basic embroidered t-shirt and a heavyweight embroidered jacket obviously don't cost the same — the blank garment price stacks on top of the embroidery cost, and this is often the biggest line item on a corporate order.
A realistic example
A left-chest logo (around 6,000 stitches) on a basic polo shirt in the Indianapolis market commonly lands somewhere in the $22-32 total range per piece for a small order (under a dozen), factoring in the blank polo, the embroidery, and a share of the digitizing fee. That same order at 50+ pieces often drops into the $16-24 range per piece, mostly because the one-time digitizing fee stops mattering once it's spread across more units.
What actually moves the needle on cost
Reducing stitch count (simplifying a design) usually saves more than shopping around for a cheaper shop. If a logo has fine detail, gradients, or small text, ask whether a simplified version for embroidery specifically would look just as clean at a lower stitch count — several Indianapolis embroiderers will suggest this proactively, but not all will, so it's worth asking outright.