How is the price calculated?

Cost & lead-time is calculated from the cutting time, material and logistics. Working from the current live market environment, our system picks the most suitable manufacturing partner depending on your requirements (order complexity, size, material, location, etc.).

Related capabilities

In practice, we produce parts of this type with High-volume production.There is no single per-piece price for custom metal parts, and any supplier who quotes one before seeing your drawing is guessing. What we can do is show you exactly which variables move the number — and what each one is worth — so you can read a quotation properly instead of comparing a total against a total.

The six variables that set your price

For example, every metal fabrication quotation is built from the same six inputs. Change one and the price moves; change several and it moves a lot.

Variable	What it does to cost
1. Material and grade	Stainless steel 304 or 316 costs several times more per kilogram than cold rolled steel. Aluminium 5052 and 6061 sit in between and machine far faster than stainless, which shows up twice — once in the material line and again in the machining or stamping line.
2. Process route	The same part can usually be made two or three ways. Laser cutting carries no tooling cost and a higher unit price; stamping carries tooling and a much lower unit price. The crossover point is volume.
3. Volume	Fixed costs — programming, tooling, first-article inspection, setup — are divided across the batch. A 100-piece run and a 100,000-piece run of the same part have very different unit prices built from the same fixed base.
4. Tolerance and complexity	A ±0.1 mm formed bracket and a ±0.005 mm machined component are not the same product. Tight tolerance means slower cutting, extra setups, more inspection and a higher reject rate — all of which are real costs, not markup.
5. Surface finish	Bare, deburred, zinc plated, powder coated, anodised and passivated are separate operations with separate costs. Finishing is frequently the line item that pushes a quote above the buyer’s expectation.
6. Order structure	One shipment of five part numbers costs less to administer than five part numbers in five shipments. Mixed orders are fine — we quote them together — but the logistics line changes.

What our Alibaba.com listings show

As a result, our storefront listings publish indicative unit price bands at their stated order volumes. They are useful as a shape, not as a quote:

• US$0.02–0.05 — a precision machined, engraved metal money clip reviewed by an Australian buyer
• US$0.07–0.09 — fabricated and laser cut aluminium and stainless parts reviewed by a buyer in Chile
• US$0.11–0.22 — custom CNC machined stainless and aluminium components reviewed by a buyer in India
• US$0.19–0.39 — stamped and bent stainless fabrication parts reviewed by a buyer in France
• US$0.39–0.59 — customised stainless steel 304 and aluminium bent sheet metal parts reviewed by a buyer in the United States

In addition, every one of those reviews is published verbatim, with the buyer’s masked name and country, in our case studies section.

Where the crossover between laser cutting and stamping sits

That said, this is the decision that changes unit price most, and it is the one buyers get wrong most often.Meanwhile, laser cutting has no tool cost. You pay for machine time and material, and the price per piece is roughly flat however many you order. Stamping has a tool cost — often several thousand US dollars for a progressive die — and then a very low unit price because the press produces parts in seconds.So the total cost curve looks like this: at low volume the laser is cheaper, because the tool cost has not been spread across enough parts. As volume rises, the tool cost per part falls and stamping overtakes it. Exactly where the crossover sits depends on the part’s size and complexity, which is why we quote both routes on request — send one drawing and ask, and you can compare the two numbers directly rather than taking our word for where the line is.

What does not affect your price

• Order size. We have no minimum order quantity. A single prototype part is quoted on the same basis as a production run; each is priced for what it is.
• Whether you are a new customer. Pricing is by drawing and volume, not by relationship. There is no introductory markup and no loyalty discount to negotiate for.
• Your location. We quote the parts, and freight separately, so you can see both lines. Buyers in seven countries have reviewed us; the factory price does not change by destination.

How to get an accurate quote quickly

1. Send the drawing — DXF, DWG, STEP, IGES or a dimensioned PDF. If you only have a sample photograph, send it and we will tell you whether it is enough.
2. State the material and grade if you have a preference. If you do not, say so — recommending a material is part of the DFM review and costs nothing.
3. State the quantity, and if it is a first order, state the likely annual volume too. That is what decides whether we quote you the laser route or the stamping route.
4. State the finish — or say “as machined” if appearance is not critical.

You will get back a DFM review, a price and a lead time within 24 hours. Where a design detail is going to make the part unnecessarily expensive, we will say so before quoting rather than pricing the difficulty silently.

Related pages

• Sheet metal fabrication — the full cut, form and finish route
• Metal stamping — where tooling is amortised across volume
• High-volume production — the volume stage of a project
• Materials we work with — grades, thicknesses and availability
• Standard sheet metal thicknesses chart — gauge to millimetre conversion
• Verified customer reviews — ten five-star reviews from seven countries

Start a quotation

Send the drawing and the quantity. If you want both the laser route and the stamping route priced so you can see the crossover for your own part, ask for both.Request a quote →

Frequently asked questions

Why is there no fixed per-piece price for custom metal parts?

There is no single per-piece price for custom metal parts, and any supplier who quotes one before seeing your drawing is guessing. Every quotation is built from six inputs — material and grade, process route, volume, tolerance and complexity, surface finish, and order structure — so the number only becomes firm once we know your drawing and quantity.

What information do I need to send for an accurate quote?

Send the drawing — DXF, DWG, STEP, IGES or a dimensioned PDF. State the material and grade if you have a preference, or say so if you do not, as recommending a material is part of the free DFM review. Then state the quantity, the likely annual volume for a first order, and the finish, or state that appearance is not critical.

Does order size or where I am located change my price?

No. There is no minimum order quantity — a single prototype part is quoted on the same basis as a production run. Pricing is by drawing and volume, not by relationship, so there is no introductory markup or loyalty discount. We quote the parts and freight separately, so you can see both lines, and the factory price does not change by destination.