The objective of this work is to present a methodology for cable optimization in prestressed concrete beams, considering the variation of the friction loss of prestress along the cables. The proposed formulation considers the effect of the friction loss of prestress on the stresses and establishes the lower cost of the prestress as the aim of the optimization. Other losses of prestress are considered to be constant along the cables, although the formulation allows us to include the correct evaluation in future works. The formulation allows to project more than one cable, so as to reproduce better the real project situation. It was implemented a computational system to the cables optimizations, using the LINGO optimizer. The examples tested prove the validity of the proposed formulation. The formulation proposed in this work aim to be an auxiliary tool to the structural designer in the preliminary project phase because the process is not completely automated and it is not considered the entire project situation. It s important to notice that even if the future woks enlarge the problem restriction set, enlarging the set of the project considerations; the interference of the structural designer will be always important and decisive to obtain an efficient design.