How much does laser cutting of steel cost — what determines the price
No workshop will answer the question about the price of laser cutting with a single number — and it’s not an evasion. Two parts with identical outer dimensions can differ in cost several times over, because price is determined not by sheet area but by how much work the machine has to do. Below is a breakdown of the factors that really matter in the quote.
Material and grade
Stainless steel costs significantly more than mild steel — and this is usually the single largest item in the quote. Within stainless steel itself the price also varies: V4A is more expensive than V2A because it contains molybdenum and more nickel — and these are precisely the additions that determine the monthly alloy surcharge that distributors add to the price. For the same reason, a quote from six months ago may already be out of date.
The second question is who supplies the material. We work both with our own material and with material provided by the client — when the material is supplied by the client, the entire purchasing line disappears from the quote and only the processing remains.
Thickness
The thicker the material, the slower the cutting and the more technical gas the process consumes. The cost increase is not linear — moving from thin sheet to 10-plus millimetres changes the price more than the thickness difference alone would suggest. We cut stainless steel up to 50 mm.
Length of the cutting path, not the area of the part
This is the most common misunderstanding in quoting. The machine does not count how much of the sheet the part occupies, only how many centimetres of edge it has to travel. A 200×200 mm square has an 80 cm perimeter. The same square with an openwork pattern can have several metres of path — and therefore several times longer machining time.
That is why perforations, technical cut-outs and decorative patterns raise the price far more than their size would suggest.
Number of holes
Each hole is a separate piercing of the material — the moment when the beam must stop, pierce the sheet and then follow the contour. A part with fifty mounting holes is more expensive than the same part without them, even if the material removed is negligible.
Batch size
Preparing the program and nesting parts on the sheet is a fixed cost, independent of the number of pieces. For one piece it is spread over one unit, for two hundred — over two hundred. Hence the unit price for a series is often many times lower than for a prototype.
This has a practical implication: if you know the part will be repeated, it is worth mentioning it at the first enquiry — the quote may look completely different. We handle repeat orders through serial production.
Post-cutting processing
A part straight from the laser has burrs on the edges. Deburring and edge rounding is a separate operation — sometimes unnecessary when the part goes on to further processing, and sometimes essential when it goes directly to assembly or contact with operators’ hands.
Likewise the subsequent stages: bending and welding are separate items. It is worth ordering them together with cutting — one supplier instead of three means a shorter chain and fewer places where dimensions can drift.
Required accuracy and documentation
For most industrial applications we work to ±0.1 mm accuracy, which is usually sufficient for the part to go straight to bending or welding. If acceptance requires a 3.1 mill certificate according to EN 10204, this must be stated at the enquiry stage — the document refers to a specific batch of material.
What to send to receive a binding quote
- a file in DWG, DXF or STEP format; at an early stage a dimensioned sketch is enough
- material and thickness — or a description of the environment in which the part will operate
- quantity and whether the order will be repeated
- scope of post-cutting processing
- whether a 3.1 certificate is required
A clean file speeds up quoting: double lines, open contours and overlapping elements must be corrected before programming, and that takes time.
Machine parameters and materials are described on the laser cutting of steel and sheets page. A broader overview of processing can be found in the services section.