How much does an injection mold cost?
And why two quotes for the same part can be thousands apart. The short answer, what actually sets the price, a live calculator for your part's size, and how to ask for quotes you can compare.
The short answer
A simple single-cavity mold for a small plastic part often costs somewhere around $1,000 to $5,000 from an overseas toolmaker, and more from a US or European shop. Production molds in hardened steel, for larger parts, several cavities or cosmetic finishes, commonly run from about $10,000 to well over $50,000.
Those are broad, typical ranges, not a quote. Your part's size and features decide where it lands, and the calculator below shows how.
What sets the price
A mold is two blocks of metal machined into the negative of your part, plus the system that fills it, cools it and pushes the part out. Almost everything that makes that machining harder or longer shows up in the price.
- Size. A bigger part needs a bigger mold base and more machining, and a bigger press to run it.
- Undercuts. Anything that stops the part sliding straight out (side holes, clips, threads) needs a side action or lifter. Each one typically adds hundreds to a few thousand dollars.
- Cavities. Two or four copies per shot make each part cheaper, but the tool costs more. It's worth it at higher volumes.
- Tool material and life. Aluminum is cheaper and faster to make but wears out sooner. Hardened steel costs more and lasts for hundreds of thousands of shots or more.
- Finish. High polish, textures and cosmetic surfaces take extra work on the mold.
- Tolerances. Tight tolerances everywhere mean more machining, more measuring and more trial shots.
- Where it's made. Toolmaking in China often costs well under half of a US or European shop. Shipping, communication and changes cost time instead.
Try it with your part's size
Pick the closest shape and size. The summary shows the cheapest way to make it at your quantity and the tooling that needs; the list shows every process, including both mold types.
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Why two quotes can be thousands apart
When quotes for the same part differ by several times, it's usually because each supplier quoted a different mold, not because one is cheating. The common differences:
- steel grade and guaranteed shot life (a 50,000-shot tool versus a 500,000-shot tool)
- number of cavities, and whether the runner is hot or cold
- how they handle undercuts: sliding actions, lifters, or a suggestion to change the design
- finish and texture, and whether cosmetic surfaces are polished
- what's included: trial shots, samples, design changes, shipping the tool, and who owns it
A very low quote deserves the same questions as a very high one: what tool life it's for and what it leaves out.
Aluminum or steel?
| Aluminum | Steel | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool cost | Lower | Higher |
| Time to first parts | Faster | Slower |
| Tool life | Thousands to tens of thousands of shots | Hundreds of thousands and up |
| Best for | First runs, bridge production, designs that may still change | Steady volume, cosmetic parts, abrasive materials |
For small, simple parts the saving can be large. Aluminum machines several times faster than steel, and quick-turn shops price these tools to win first runs. In quotes we collected in October 2026, a US aluminum tool for a small clip was $1,630, against about $3,500 for a steel tool for the same clip from a China molder. The trade-off is life: aluminum wears out sooner, especially with glass-filled plastics, so it suits a first run while demand is still uncertain.
How to get quotes you can compare
Send every supplier the same request. At minimum:
- a 3D file (STEP is the most widely accepted)
- a simple drawing that marks only the dimensions that matter, with their tolerances
- material and color, and any requirements (outdoor use, food contact, impact)
- finish or texture on each visible surface
- your first order and expected yearly volume, so they can propose cavities and tool life
- a request to price the tool separately, at two or three quantities, and to state what's excluded
- a request for a design-for-manufacturing (DFM) report: good molders send one
Pilotrun writes this request for you from your parts list, one per supplier type, and lets you record the replies on each part to see how they compare.
When not to buy a mold yet
If you need a few hundred parts, or the design is still changing, a mold may be the most expensive way to get them. Industrial 3D printing, urethane casting and CNC machining have little or no tooling, so they often win at low quantities. See where printing stops being cheaper.