Best laser cutting services for custom parts

The short answer: for one to a few hundred custom metal parts, six US online laser cutting services cover almost every case. SendCutSend is the only one that publishes real per-part prices. OSH Cut and Fabworks cut the thickest metal of the group. Protolabs is the fastest on simple parts. Xometry reaches furthest when your part is unusual. Ponoko is the one to use for acrylic and mixed materials. The thing nobody tells you before you start: their published thickness ceilings differ by a factor of sixteen, so the first thing to check is not price but whether the vendor can cut your alloy at your gauge at all.

This comparison was built by reading each company's own capability and pricing page in September 2026, not from directory listings or aggregated review sites. Where a vendor publishes no figure, that is recorded as not stated rather than estimated, because guessing at a number and presenting it as a fact is how buyers end up designing to a limit that does not exist.

The six services compared

Two of six publish any dollar amount at all. That single line is the most useful finding in the table, because it means the widespread advice to shop around on price is not optional here. There is no list price to compare. You upload the file to three vendors or you do not know what your part costs.

Best for seeing a price before you commit: SendCutSend

SendCutSend is the only service of the six that puts worked per-part numbers on its own site. Its published example is a 0.187 in 5052 aluminum part at $9.90 each at quantity one and $3.70 each at quantity 100, so the hundredth part costs about 37 percent of the first. It also publishes the shape of its discounting: savings start at 2 parts, with volume discounts running up to 80 percent at higher quantities. Its own disclaimer notes that pricing examples may not always reflect current prices, which is fair and worth respecting.

Capability is broad for an instant quote platform: 0.015 in to 0.750 in, steel, aluminum, stainless, and titanium plus acrylic and thin gaskets, tolerances of plus or minus 0.005 in on parts under 12 in and plus or minus 0.010 in above that, and a stated 1 to 3 day turnaround with no minimum quantity. Wholesale accounts require $1,000 monthly or 5,000 parts annually, so most first orders sit on the standard tier.

Best for thick plate and tube: OSH Cut

OSH Cut publishes the highest sheet ceiling of the group at 0.005 in to 1 in, and it is one of the few instant quote services that also offers laser tube cutting, with tube wall thickness up to 0.375 in and CNC tube bending alongside it. Standard lead time is 2 business days with a rush option, over 400 grades and alloys, no minimums, and 2 day delivery included across the US. It publishes no prices.

If your part is round or square tube, this is the shortest path in the category. Most flat sheet quoting engines simply cannot price a tube, so the alternative is emailing job shops and waiting.

Best for large flat parts: Fabworks

Fabworks cuts sheets up to 60 x 120 inches, which is a full standard mill sheet and comfortably the largest working envelope published by any of the six. Parts bigger than that have to be split and joined. Thickness is published per material rather than as one number, and this is the most honest capability statement in the whole comparison: mild steel to 0.500 in, stainless to 0.375 in, aluminum to 0.250 in, all on the same fiber laser. Turnaround is 1 to 2 business days with next day available on eligible small orders, tolerance is plus or minus 0.005 in overall with features often as tight as plus or minus 0.002 in, and there are no order minimums. No prices are published.

Best for speed on simple parts: Protolabs

Protolabs quotes as fast as 1 day with a 3 day standard for quantities under 50, holds plus or minus 0.005 in on all features and plus 0.003 minus 0.000 in on hardware holes, and works in aluminum, steel, stainless, copper, and brass. It is also the most restrictive on size and thickness: 0.024 in to 0.250 in, with a maximum sheet of 39 x 47 in for thin material and 39 x 19 in for thicker. No prices are published.

That narrow window is not a weakness so much as a design choice. Protolabs optimizes hard for a specific slice of work, and if your part sits inside it you get the fastest reliable answer in the group.

Best when your part is unusual: Xometry

Xometry states its laser service can cut through up to 4 inches of metal or plastic, which is far beyond the rest of this list, and the materials list runs from tool steel and titanium through acrylic and foam to cherry hardwood, MDF, and plywood. It is certified ISO 9001:2015, ISO 13485, IATF 16949:2016, and AS9100D. Minimum feature size is 2x material thickness with a floor of 0.062 in, and kerf is approximately 0.020 in. No prices are published.

The reason its ceiling sits so far above everyone else's is structural rather than technical. Xometry routes work across a network of partner shops, so it publishes the capability of the network, while a vendor that owns its machines publishes what those machines do. Both numbers are true and they answer different questions. If you have a regulated product, the certifications a vendor holds also become part of your own compliance file, so collect the certificates at onboarding rather than during an audit.

Best for acrylic and mixed materials: Ponoko

Ponoko lists 250 plus engineering grade materials including acrylic, Delrin, card, and felt alongside steel, brass, copper, and aluminum, with a maximum part size of 3000 x 1500 x 25 mm and no minimum order quantity. It publishes pricing signals rather than a rate card: from $50 for a single part, a worked example at $2.36 per part, and a stated 93 percent discount at 10,000 units. If your product needs an acrylic panel and a metal bracket from one vendor, this is the practical pick.

How thick can a laser actually cut?

There is no single answer, and the spread between these vendors is the point. Published ceilings run from 0.250 in at Protolabs, to 0.375 in in stainless and 0.500 in in mild steel at Fabworks, to 0.750 in at SendCutSend, to 1 in at OSH Cut, to 4 in at Xometry. That is sixteen times between the lowest and highest published figure, from six companies describing the same process.

The part of this that changes how you design is that the ceiling is per alloy, not per machine. Fabworks is the only one of the six to publish it plainly, and its numbers make the case: identical fiber laser, 0.500 in in mild steel, 0.250 in in aluminum. Aluminum reflects the beam and pulls heat out of the cut faster than steel does, so it caps at roughly half. The question can you cut three eighths of an inch has no answer until you name the metal.

Why does everyone say the limit is a quarter inch?

Because the famous 0.250 in number is a bending limit that escaped its context. It belongs to fabrication, meaning cutting and forming together, and not to cutting alone. OSH Cut publishes both figures where you can see them next to each other: laser cutting to 1 in, bending to 0.750 in. Protolabs publishes its 0.024 in to 0.250 in window as part of a sheet metal fabrication service that includes press brake work, not as a laser specification.

So if your part is flat, your real ceiling is two to four times higher than the number most buyers quote themselves. Base plates, gussets, shims, mounting plates, and heavy brackets all live above the folk limit. Add one bend and you drop back toward the forming ceiling, because the press brake becomes the binding constraint. When a heavy part needs a flange, cutting two thick flat pieces and welding them is often cheaper and much faster than hunting for a shop that can form one. Our guide to laser cutting services and custom metal parts covers how to filter vendors on alloy and gauge before you look at price at all.

Is there really no minimum order for laser cutting?

Not as a stated policy. SendCutSend, OSH Cut, Fabworks, Xometry, and Ponoko all publish no minimum order quantity and every one will cut a single part. What exists instead is an effective minimum created by shipping and setup, and it is worth doing the arithmetic once.

SendCutSend publishes free US shipping on orders of $39 or more, and its own worked example prices that aluminum part at $9.90 each. Those two published numbers meet at four parts. Order one and you pay $9.90 plus freight, so freight is a real per-part cost on a small order. Order four and you cross $39, freight goes to zero, and the delivered cost per part drops even before the quantity discount that the same page says starts at 2 parts. Ponoko's own signal points the same direction, at $50 for one part against a $2.36 per part worked example at volume.

The practical rule: when you are prototyping, order the spares. The second and third copies of a bracket are close to free relative to the first, and having them on the shelf when the first one gets drilled wrong saves a week.

What file do you need to send?

A DXF for flat parts, with closed contours, no duplicate or overlapping lines, and units clearly defined. A STEP file if the part is bent or has hardware, so the quoting engine can read the formed geometry. A PDF or a photo cannot be quoted automatically and will either be rejected or sent to manual review, which turns a ten second answer into a two day one. If your part has features on multiple faces or starts from solid stock rather than flat stock, it is not a laser job at all and belongs with CNC machining companies.

What if none of these six can quote your part?

It happens more often than the instant quote experience suggests, and it is not a dead end. Thick plate, large weldments, unusual alloys, tight formed tolerances, and production volumes with a release schedule all sit outside the automated lane and go to job shops that quote by hand. Those shops are close to invisible in search because they fill capacity through referrals and have no reason to compete for keywords, which is exactly why buyers assume the online platforms are the whole market. They are not. Our guide to metal fabricators and sheet metal fabrication companies covers how to reach that second lane and what to send them.

Describe the part you need cut, and the AI sourcing agent shortlists services that can hold your alloy, thickness, and tolerance, with lead times, minimums, and quotes side by side, and the vetting evidence attached to every match.