In the paper, we have proposed a new technique to determine the initial billet for the forged products using a function approximation in neural network. A three-layer neural network is used and a back propagation algorithm is employed to train the network. An optimal billet which satisfied the forming limitation, minimum of incomplete filling in the die cavity, load and energy as well as more uniform distribution of effective strain, is determined by applying the ability of function approximation of the neural network. The amount of incomplete filling in the die, load and forming energy as well as effective strain are measured by the rigid-plastic finite element method. This new technique is applied to find the optimal billet size for the axisymmetric rib-web product in hot forging. This would reduce the number of finite element simulation for determining the optimal billet of forging products, further it is usefully adopted to physical modeling for the forging design