💲 Drilling Cost Per Foot Calculator
Enter bit cost, rig day rate, rotating and trip hours, and footage to get the cost per foot in dollars — the classic yardstick for comparing bit runs and bit economics.
🧮 Work Out the Bit-Run Economics
What is a Drilling Cost Per Foot Calculator?
It reduces a bit run to a single dollars-per-foot number. Add the bit's cost to the rig's time cost — the day rate prorated over the rotating and tripping hours — and divide by the footage the bit drilled. The lower the number, the more economical the run.
Use it to compare bits over the same interval, justify a premium bit that drills faster or lasts longer, or feed a drilling cost estimate. It's a bit-economics metric, not a total-well-cost model, so pair it with a full AFE for budgeting.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How is drilling cost per foot calculated?
The standard formula is cost/ft = (bit cost + rig day rate × (rotating hours + trip hours) / 24) / footage. The rig day rate is prorated to the hours the bit was on the job — both drilling and the trip to change it — added to the bit's purchase cost, then divided by the footage that bit drilled.
Why include trip hours in the cost?
Because the rig is on the clock during a trip too. Attributing the round-trip time needed to run and pull the bit gives a fair comparison: a bit that drills fast but wears out quickly incurs more trips, and cost per foot captures that penalty that raw ROP does not.
How do I use cost per foot to pick a bit?
Run the numbers for each candidate bit over comparable intervals and choose the one with the lowest cost per foot. A pricier bit that drills more footage or with fewer trips can easily beat a cheaper bit that dulls fast. It's the industry's standard way to compare bit economics.
What's not included in this figure?
This is a bit-run cost-per-foot metric focused on bit cost and rig time. It does not include mud, cement, casing, services, or flat-time overheads. Use it to compare bit performance, and a full authorization-for-expenditure model for total well cost.