Metal Casting Cost Guide
Metal casting cost: sand, investment, and die casting.
Casting trades a one-time tool for cheap pours — and the tool spans $500 to $50,000. This guide prices every rung of that ladder and the quantities where each one beats CNC machining.
A tooling ladder, not a single price
Every casting quote is the same equation — one-time tooling plus a per-pour price — but the tooling rung you choose spans two orders of magnitude. Pick the rung your quantity can amortize, and the rest of the quote follows.
$500–50,000
One-time: the tool
Casting tooling spans two orders of magnitude — a wooden sand pattern for hundreds, a hardened-steel die casting tool for tens of thousands. Which rung you buy decides everything downstream.
$0.50–50
Per part: the pour
Metal, melt energy, and minutes of labor per pour — plus the machining allowance: most castings still need CNC on critical faces before they bolt to anything.
~110 units
The first crossover
Total cost = tooling + quantity × pour price. Below the first crossover there is no pattern to amortize, so CNC machining from billet — no tool, no design freeze — usually wins.
Five routes to metal parts
Four casting processes plus the no-tooling baseline. Each pairs a tooling bill with a pour price, a lead time, and an as-cast tolerance — and CNC machining is on the list because below a couple hundred units it beats every casting route on total cost.
| Route | Tooling | Per part | First parts | Tolerance | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNC machining | No tooling | ~$15–90 | from 7 days | ±0.025–0.125 mm | Functional metal parts from 1 to a few hundred units, full billet strength, and every revision costs nothing but the parts. The default until a pattern or tool pays for itself. |
| Sand casting | ~$500–3,000 pattern | ~$8–50 | 2–4 weeks | ±0.8–1.5 mm as-cast | Big, heavy, or hollow parts — housings, frames, iron anything — at hundreds to low thousands. Cheapest tooling in casting; roughest surface, so budget machining on every mating face. |
| Investment casting | ~$2,000–10,000 wax die | ~$10–100 | 3–6 weeks | ±0.1–0.3 mm as-cast | Complex near-net shapes in steel, stainless, and superalloys — the metals die casting cannot touch. Thin walls, internal passages, and cast-in detail that would be hours of machining. |
| Permanent mold (gravity) | ~$3,000–15,000 | ~$5–20 | 4–6 weeks | ±0.4–0.8 mm as-cast | Aluminum at middle volumes — better surface and strength than sand, a fraction of die casting tooling. The bridge rung on the ladder. |
| Die casting (HPDC) | ~$8,000–50,000 | ~$0.50–5 | 6–10 weeks | ±0.1–0.4 mm as-cast | Aluminum, zinc, and magnesium at 10,000+ units. Thin walls, tight as-cast detail, and the lowest piece price of any metal process — once the design is frozen. |
As-cast tolerance is before machining — critical faces on any casting get CNC finishing to ±0.025–0.125 mm. Lead times are first-article, typical US/Asia programs.
Where the total-cost lines cross
Every route is a straight line: tooling up front, then a fixed price per pour. Plot them and the decision reads itself off the chart. Reference part: a fist-size A356 aluminum bracket (~300 g) with machining on critical faces included.
First 600 units — machining vs sand casting
The lines cross at ≈110 units: below it CNC machining is cheaper (no pattern to pay off), above it the $1,200 sand pattern starts earning its keep. Investment casting’s $4,000 wax die keeps it above both until the mid-hundreds — it wins on geometry and alloys (see the alloy map below), not on price for a simple bracket.
To 5,000 units — casting patterns vs the die casting tool
Second crossover at ≈1,500 units: the die casting tool’s $2.50 shot price overtakes sand casting’s $18 pour. CNC exits this chart before 2,000 units, and by 5,000 the $25,000 steel tool is the cheapest total program by a wide margin.
The same story as per-part numbers, tooling amortized in — green marks the cheapest practical route at each quantity:
| Quantity | CNC machining | Sand casting | Investment casting | Die casting | Cheapest route |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | ~$36/part | ~$138/part | — | — | CNC — nothing to amortize |
| 100 | ~$29/part | ~$30/part | ~$55/part | — | CNC — sand casting pulls level at the ~110-unit crossover |
| 500 | ~$28/part | ~$20/part | ~$23/part | — | Sand pattern paid off; investment close behind |
| 2,000 | ~$28/part | ~$18.60/part | ~$17/part | ~$15/part | Die casting tool starts winning from ≈1,500 units |
| 10,000 | — | ~$18/part | ~$15.40/part | ~$5/part | Die casting — piece price crushes everything |
Read the green column top to bottom and the strategy writes itself: machine the first hundred units while the design is still moving, cut a sand pattern when a stable design needs hundreds, and commit to a die casting tool only at real volume. The same staging logic as plastics — see the injection molding cost guide for that side of the story.
Assumptions behind the table: CNC machined 6061 at ~$80 setup + ~$28 per part; sand casting at ~$1,200 pattern + ~$18 per pour; investment casting at ~$4,000 wax die + ~$15 per part (min. practical lot ~25); die casting at ~$25,000 tool + ~$2.50 per shot. All cast routes include the machining allowance on critical faces. Typical program pricing for the reference geometry, rounded — not a quote. “—” means the route is impractical at that quantity. Your part is priced on its own geometry and confirmed by engineering review.
The alloy map: who can pour what
Price only settles the argument when more than one route can make your metal at all. Die casting is locked out of ferrous alloys, investment casting owns steel and superalloy near-net shapes, sand casting owns iron — and CNC machines almost everything below tooling volume.
| Metal | CNC machining | Sand casting | Investment casting | Die casting | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aluminum (A356 / ADC12) | 6061/7075 billet | Native | Native | Native — ADC12/A380 | The universal casting metal — every route pours it, so quantity picks the process. |
| Zinc (Zamak) | — | Rare | — | Native — best-in-class | The die casting specialty: thin walls, sharp detail, plateable surface, tooling outlasts aluminum 3–5×. |
| Magnesium (AZ91) | Billet (care) | — | — | Native | The lightest structural metal — electronics housings and brackets, effectively die-cast-only at volume. |
| Carbon / alloy steel | Billet | Native | Native | — | Die casting cannot touch ferrous metals — steel melts hotter than the die itself survives. |
| Stainless (17-4, 316) | Billet | Possible | Native — its home turf | — | Investment casting’s core market: pumps, valves, surgical and aerospace hardware, near-net in one pour. |
| Gray / ductile iron | — | Native — by the ton | Possible | — | Machine bases, engine blocks, damping-critical frames — sand casting territory since forever. |
| Copper / bronze / brass | Billet | Native | Native | Brass only, rare | Bushings, impellers, marine hardware — sand and investment split this market by size. |
| Superalloys / titanium | Billet — slow, doable | — | Native (vacuum) | — | Turbine blades and medical implants: vacuum investment casting or machining from billet, nothing else. |
Two lock-outs decide most casting programs: ferrous metals never die cast (the melt would destroy the die), and zinc or magnesium at volume effectively always do. When your alloy appears in only one green column, that column is your process — quantity math only matters where the row shows two. Full datasheets live in the materials library.
What drives casting tooling price
Two brackets the same size can quote $10,000 apart in tooling. These six factors are almost always why — and half of them are design choices you control before uploading CAD.
- The tooling ladder is the decision. A sand pattern costs $500–3,000, a wax die $2,000–10,000, a die casting tool $8,000–50,000. Each rung buys a better surface and a cheaper pour — climb only as far as your volume pays for.
- Part size sets tool size. Casting tooling scales with projected area, and die casting adds machine tonnage: a part twice the area needs a bigger press, and the hourly rate follows.
- Cores and slides multiply cost. Internal passages need sand cores or die slides — each slide adds $2,000–5,000 to a die tool. Geometry that pulls straight from the mold is the cheapest DFM win in casting.
- Complexity is nearly free in investment casting. The wax pattern carries the detail, so an ornate part costs little more than a plain one — the opposite of machining, where every feature is cutter time.
- Machining allowance is part of the price. As-cast faces hold ±0.8 mm in sand; any bore, seal face, or bolt pattern still gets CNC finishing at $3–15 per part. Quote castings as cast + machined, never cast alone.
- Qualification costs real money at the top rungs. X-ray, dye penetrant, heat treat, and first-article layout add fixed program cost — routine for aerospace investment castings, overkill for a garden-variety bracket.
Metal casting cost — FAQ
How much does metal casting cost?
Two numbers: the tool and the pour. Sand casting patterns run $500–3,000, investment casting wax dies $2,000–10,000, and die casting tools $8,000–50,000, while the cast part itself is $0.50–50 in metal, melt, and labor. Add a machining allowance of $3–15 per part for critical faces. Amortized together, casting beats CNC machining only once quantity climbs past roughly 100 units.
When does casting become cheaper than CNC machining?
For a fist-size aluminum bracket, the total-cost lines cross at about 110 units against a sand pattern. Below that, machining wins because there is no tooling to amortize and the design stays changeable. Die casting needs roughly 1,500 units before its $25,000 tool overtakes sand casting, and it runs away from everything at 10,000-plus.
What is the difference between die casting and investment casting cost?
They solve different problems. Die casting buys the lowest piece price in metal ($0.50–5) with expensive steel tooling — but only for aluminum, zinc, and magnesium. Investment casting tooling is 3–5× cheaper and pours steel, stainless, and superalloys that die casting physically cannot, at a higher per-part price. High volume in a soft alloy: die. Complex steel or stainless near-net shape: investment.
Why does die casting tooling cost $8,000–50,000?
The tool is a hardened-steel mold that survives molten aluminum slamming in at high pressure, thousands of times. Machining that steel, adding slides for undercuts ($2,000–5,000 each), cooling lines, and ejection, then tuning it — that is real toolroom time. The payback is a $0.50–5 part for 100,000+ shots.
Which metals can be die cast?
Aluminum, zinc, and magnesium — the low-melting-point alloys. Ferrous metals melt hotter than the die steel survives, so steel, stainless, and iron parts route to investment or sand casting instead, or get machined from billet below tooling volume.
Do cast parts still need machining?
Almost always. As-cast tolerance runs ±0.1 mm (die) to ±1.5 mm (sand), so bores, seal faces, threads, and bolt patterns get CNC finishing after the pour — typically $3–15 per part. Design tip: put tolerance only on machined faces and let the rest stay as-cast; every toleranced face you add is machining time.
Price casting and machining on your actual part.
Upload a CAD file and compare machined and cast pricing on your real geometry — engineering review included, before you commit to tooling.