Engineering · Material pricing
What materials actually cost — and what you get for the money.
Q1 2026 typical mid-quantity bar/plate pricing for the 24 common engineering alloys. Stock cost is only one input — what you pay per finished part also depends on density, machinability, and how much stock you remove. Three views below: $/lb, cost per strength, cost per machined volume.
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01 · By stock cost
Sorted $/lb, low to high.
Mid-quantity (1,000+ lb) bar or plate stock from a US distributor, Q1 2026. Color-coded by family. Foundry/mill direct can drop these 10–20% on big orders; specialty geometries (round bar, thin plate, tubing) can add 15–40%.
The 130×+ spread from chromoly to PEEK is real — but stock cost rarely drives total part cost. Machining time, tooling, and scrap usually swamp it.
Q1 2026 typical mid-quantity bar/plate. Range shown as sublabel. Specialty forms (foil, tubing, round) and small quantities run higher.
02 · By cost per strength
Most strength per dollar.
$/lb divided by ultimate tensile strength (per 100 MPa). Lower is better — more strength per dollar of stock. This is the right view for “cheapest material that meets the load.”
4140, 4130 chromoly, and the tool steels dominate this metric — the reason they win on most structural-load parts where weight isn’t critical. Titanium and the nickel superalloys land near the bottom here: you’re paying for corrosion, temperature, or strength-to-weight, not raw strength per dollar. This chart ignores weight — for strength-per-pound-of-part, titanium’s low density changes the story entirely.
Calculated as (mid-price $/lb) ÷ (UTS/100). Tool steels and chromoly rank best. Plastics rank worst (low strength, but they’re used for non-load-bearing reasons).
03 · By cost per volume
What it costs to fill a fixed envelope.
$/lb × density (g/cc) gives a rough “dollars per cubic centimeter of finished part.” This is what matters when geometry is fixed — the part has to fill X cc of envelope, regardless of what alloy you choose.
Aluminum and magnesium dominate here — low density and low $/lb together. Titanium’s low density (4.43) helps, but its high $/lb still lands it near the top of the chart, above both stainless grades. PEEK/Ultem look more competitive than their $/lb suggests because their density is only ~1.3 — but PEEK’s sheer $/lb still keeps it expensive per volume.
Calculated as (mid-price $/lb) × (density g/cc). Useful for “same geometry, which alloy is cheaper to buy stock for?”
04 · How to read this
Three rules of thumb when picking by cost.
Rule 1
Stock cost ≠ part cost.
On a small precision part, you might pay $4 in 6061 stock vs $50 in titanium — but the machined part comes out at $80 vs $260 because labor + tooling matter more. Always price the finished part, not just the metal.
Rule 2
Machinability moves total cost as much as $/lb.
Inconel costs ~10× aluminum on $/lb but takes ~15× the cycle time. The cycle-time multiplier is the dominant cost factor. Use our cycle calculator for a real estimate.
Rule 3
Don’t over-spec.
6061-T6 handles ~95% of light-load fixtures and brackets. Save 7075, titanium, or Inconel for parts that actually see those loads or environments — otherwise you’re paying 5–15× for a property the part never uses.
Pricing volatility
What moves these numbers.
- Nickel and titanium track London Metal Exchange.
Inconel, Hastelloy, Monel, and titanium prices move with LME nickel and Ti sponge benchmarks. Expect ±15% swings quarter to quarter; firm pricing on long programs requires hedging or LTAs with fixed escalation.
- Aluminum is more stable but tariff-sensitive.
6061 and 7075 typically swing ±10% over a year. Section 232 tariffs on imported aluminum can move base pricing 5–15% in a single quarter. Domestic mill capacity is the floor; specialty plate (MIC-6, ATP-5) is supply-constrained.
- Engineering plastics depend on petrochemical inputs.
PEEK, Ultem, and PPS pricing tracks crude oil + specialty intermediates. PEEK in particular has had multi-year supply tightness; lead times of 8–16 weeks for plate stock are common. Order early.
- Free-machining alloys carry a premium.
Brass C360, leaded steels (12L14), and free-machining stainless (303, 416) run 10–25% more than non-leaded equivalents — but cycle time savings often net positive on high volume. Some customers (medical, food-contact) prohibit lead, locking out the cheaper option.
- Geometry premium is real.
Round bar costs more than plate; thin plate (<0.250″) costs more than thick; tubing more than bar. Specialty geometries (square bar in titanium, hex in PEEK) can add 25–60% over standard plate. Always price actual stock form, not generic $/lb.
Where to go from here.
Browse
Material catalog
All 24 materials with full property pages — UTS, density, machinability, applications, when to choose vs swap.
Estimate
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Volume, material, finish — get a cycle-time estimate that reflects how machining cost scales with material choice.
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Drawing + qty + material — we come back with firm pricing after reviewing your requirements. Ask for material-substitution analysis if budget’s tight.
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Related tools & references
Full property pages for all 24 alloys in this reference.
Filter alloys by strength, weight, temperature, and cost.
See how material, labor, and tooling combine into part price.
Turn stock dimensions and density into pounds and dollars.
Machinability often drives cost more than $/lb.
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