How to Price Tight Tolerance Work

Tight tolerance work is where shops earn their reputation — and where they can quietly give it away if they're not pricing it right. The difference between holding ±0.005" and ±0.001" isn't just a number. It's a different class of setup, inspection, and sometimes tooling. If your quote doesn't reflect that, you're doing precision work at general machining rates.

Why tolerance affects every part of the job

At looser tolerances, you can often run faster, check parts periodically, and move on. As tolerances tighten, you slow down, check more frequently, and invest more time in first-article inspection. The tools wear faster and matter more. The fixtures need to be more precise. The operator needs to pay closer attention for longer.

None of this shows up automatically in a quote based on hours alone, because hours are just one part of what's happening. The risk is higher, the attention is more intense, and the margin for error is smaller. That has value.

How to build it into your pricing

There are two common approaches. The first is to add a tolerance premium as a percentage of the job total — something like 10-20% for work under ±0.001", applied as a line item or rolled into the op rates. The second is to quote tighter tolerance operations at a higher hourly rate than general machining.

Both work. The important thing is that you have a consistent policy so you don't end up pricing tight tolerance jobs as though they're standard work.

The inspection line item

First-article inspection and in-process inspection for tight tolerance work should almost always be a separate line item. It takes real time, requires real skill, and in many cases it's what the customer is actually paying for — confidence that the parts are right. Making it visible in the quote communicates that you take it seriously.

When to ask for the print

If a customer describes a job as tight tolerance without specifying what tight means, ask for the print or at least the tolerance callouts before you quote it. "Tight tolerance" can mean ±0.005" to one customer and ±0.0002" to another. Quoting blind on tolerance is one of the fastest ways to win a job you'll wish you hadn't.