Work out stepper motor steps per revolution instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.
A 1.8 degree stepper has 200 full steps per revolution. Microstepping and gearing multiply that, and dividing by the lead screw pitch gives steps per millimetre — the number a firmware configuration actually needs. A 200-step motor at 16x microstepping on an 8 mm lead gives 400 steps/mm.
Steps per mm
steps/rev = 360/step angle x microstepping x gear ratio; steps/mm = steps/rev / lead pitch
It improves smoothness and resolution but not accuracy. Positional error is dominated by the motor's inherent step accuracy of typically 5% and by load torque deflection.
Incremental torque per microstep falls as the sine of the microstep angle, so at 1/16 step the holding torque between microsteps is only about 10% of full step torque.