It is the first question we get, and the hardest to answer in one sentence: how much does an injection mould cost? The honest answer is that two moulds for comparable parts can differ up to fivefold. Not because the market is opaque, but because seven technical factors drive the quote.
1. The number of cavities
A single-cavity mould produces one part per cycle. A 4, 8 or 16 cavity mould produces that many per shot. More cavities means a larger, more complex tool that costs more to build, but also a per-part cost that drops sharply in production. The right cavity count follows from your annual volume, not the other way round.
2. Mould material: aluminium or steel
An aluminium pilot mould is quick to build and suits product validation or a few thousand parts. A series mould in hardened steel (P20, H13) handles hundreds of thousands to millions of cycles. Steel costs more to buy and machine, but per part it wins on high volumes.
3. Geometric complexity of the part
Undercuts, threads, thin walls, clips: each feature may require sliders, moving cores or special ejection in the mould. Every mechanism adds machining, fitting and fine-tuning. This is where DfM analysis (Design for Manufacturing) pays off most: removing an undercut on the drawing costs a fraction of machining it into steel.
4. The material that will be injected
A standard polypropylene barely wears the mould. A glass-filled polyamide is abrasive and requires treated steel to last. Technical materials such as PEEK or liquid silicone rubber (LSR) demand specific moulds and thermal regulation. Your part material directly influences your mould material, and its cost.
5. The planned production volume
This is the central trade-off. For a few hundred parts, a series mould makes no economic sense: vacuum casting or a pilot mould will do. For tens of thousands of parts a year, the opposite is true. A serious mould maker always starts from your target volume before talking tooling.
6. Tolerances and surface finish
An invisible technical part tolerates deviations a cosmetic part will not forgive. Mirror polishing, texturing, tight tolerances: every finishing requirement adds hours of machining and polishing on the mould. State from the start which faces really matter.
7. Country of manufacture and the support included
The same mould does not cost the same depending on where it is built and above all on what is included: DfM analysis, trials, adjustments, lifespan guarantee, responsiveness if something breaks. A very low quote that includes neither trials nor fine-tuning often ends up more expensive than the complete one. At Moulding Injection, moulds are adjusted and fine-tuned in our Belgian workshop, with a single point of contact.
How to get a reliable figure for your project
Send us your 3D file (an NDA can be signed before any exchange). Our partner LGR Design analyses the part within 48 hours and comes back with a DfM analysis, a material recommendation and a precise quote. And if the tooling budget blocks your launch, our co-investment model finances part of the mould against a volume commitment.
