Gene synthesis price, compared on published per-base rates

Advertised prices, verified

How a synthesis order is actually priced

1. The per-base entry rate. Every vendor advertises a 'from' price per base pair, and that figure assumes the easy case: a sequence of ordinary length with no difficult structure, in the vendor's standard vector, on standard turnaround. It is a real price for real orders, but it is the floor of a range rather than a quote.
2. Sequence complexity re-tiers the rate. High GC content, long repeats, homopolymer runs and strong secondary structure all push a construct into a higher complexity tier, and the same vendor will quote a materially higher per-base rate for it. Vendors that publish more than one rate are showing you the tier structure directly; ones that publish a single rate still apply it.
3. Cloning, vector and prep are separate lines. A synthesised fragment is not a usable plasmid. Cloning into an expression vector, the vector itself, and the plasmid prep that gives you working DNA are priced separately by most vendors, which is why a flat-rate-per-construct price and a per-base price are not comparable until you add the same lines to both.
4. Turnaround is a price lever, not a service level. Express turnaround is sold as an uplift on the same construct. When you are comparing two vendors whose per-base rates look close, check what each charges to hit the date you actually need, because that surcharge routinely exceeds the per-base difference on a short construct.

Why the per-base headline is a poor single comparison

On a 1.5 kb construct the difference between the cheapest and dearest advertised entry rate in this index is real but small in absolute terms, and it is routinely swamped by the lines that are not in the headline: the vector, the cloning, the prep and any complexity uplift. A vendor with a higher per-base rate that bundles cloning and plasmid prep into a flat construct price can easily land below a cheaper per-base rate quoted bare.

That is why this index publishes the flat-rate construct price beside the per-base rate wherever a vendor advertises one. They are different pricing models for the same job, and reading them side by side is the only way to see which is cheaper for the construct you actually have.

What to send a vendor to get a comparable quote

Send the sequence, the vector you want it delivered in, the amount of DNA you need, and the date you need it. Those four things determine almost the whole quote, and sending them to two vendors on the same day is the only genuinely like-for-like comparison available to a buyer.

Ask each vendor to itemise: synthesis, complexity uplift, cloning, vector, prep and shipping. Vendors will do this readily, and an itemised quote is what turns two incomparable headline rates into a decision you can defend to whoever signs the purchase order.

Enzymatic synthesis, and where it changes the order

Chemical synthesis builds a strand base by base in organic solvent with a small failure probability per step, which is why long constructs accumulate deletions and why difficult sequences are quoted with a warning. An enzymatic route builds in water with a polymerase, which removes much of that chemistry and makes long and repetitive sequences more tractable.

For a customer the practical difference is which sequences stop being refused and what the turnaround looks like, rather than the price per base. If a sequence has already been quoted as high risk or returned as a failure, it is worth asking whether the vendor offers the enzymatic route for it.

Gene synthesis and cloning as one order

Ordering the sequence and its vector together is usually cheaper and always faster than synthesising a fragment and cloning it yourself, because the supplier assembles and sequence verifies in one workflow. It also moves a failure onto them: a difficult sequence that will not assemble is their problem until it arrives.

What to specify is the vector by name, the exact junctions you want, whether a tag is in frame, and the strain the plasmid is grown in if methylation matters downstream. Send a map rather than a description, since most of the errors in this kind of order are ambiguity about the ends rather than the sequence.

A mutagenesis service, and which route a change takes

A mutagenesis service delivers a sequence-verified construct carrying the changes you asked for, and the route it takes depends on the change. A point mutation or a small insertion is cheapest by primer-based amplification of your own plasmid. Several scattered changes, a recoded stretch or anything approaching a library is cheaper to synthesise as a fragment and assemble, which is why a quote sometimes comes back as synthesis rather than mutagenesis. Send the parent plasmid's full sequence rather than a map, and state whether silent changes are acceptable, since that decides how cheap the primers can be.

A reporter gene assay, and choosing the reporter

A reporter assay reads a promoter or a pathway by the protein it drives, and the reporter decides the experiment's limits. Luciferase is the most sensitive with the widest dynamic range and needs a lysate and a substrate, so it is an endpoint. Fluorescent proteins are live-readable and much less sensitive, with maturation time to account for. Secreted reporters let the same culture be sampled repeatedly. Beta-galactosidase and beta-lactamase remain useful for normalisation and for FRET-based readouts. A second, constitutive reporter for transfection normalisation is what makes numbers comparable between wells.

genomic services, and what falls under the phrase

Genomic services covers sequencing, genotyping, gene synthesis and editing, and the analysis attached to each. Sequencing runs from Sanger confirmation through targeted panels to whole genomes. Genotyping covers arrays and targeted assays for known variants. Synthesis and editing make DNA rather than read it, from an oligonucleotide to a construct to a modified cell line. Analysis is a service in its own right. A quote is comparable only when the deliverable is named, a set of reads, a variant call file, a verified construct, and when the depth or coverage behind it is stated.

primer synthesis, and what the scale means

A primer is the smallest thing a synthesiser makes, and the order is four lines: sequence, scale, purification and modifications. Scale sets the amount rather than the price per base, so a 25 nanomole synthesis is plenty for thousands of reactions and a larger scale is bought only for a screen or a kit. Desalted material is fine for routine amplification; a cartridge or HPLC purification is bought where a probe, a modification or a sensitive assay is involved, and the application is worth stating so the supplier picks it.

crispr services, and what each one delivers

Editing services come in three shapes and they are priced differently. Reagent supply delivers guides, nuclease and validated plasmids for you to run. An edited cell line service delivers a clone with the change made, sequence verified, with an off-target assessment if you ask for it, and a timeline in months rather than weeks. A screening service delivers a library, a screen and the counts. Ask which validation is included, since a clone without sequence and copy number evidence is a hypothesis rather than a deliverable.

Common questions

How much does gene synthesis cost per base pair?

The vendors in this index that publish a rate advertise entry prices spanning the range shown in the table above, each quoted verbatim from the vendor's own page with the date we checked. Those are entry rates for standard-complexity sequences; a difficult construct is quoted higher by the same vendor.

Why is my quote higher than the advertised price?

Almost always sequence complexity, or lines the headline excludes. High GC, repeats and secondary structure move a construct into a higher tier, and cloning, the vector and plasmid prep are separately priced by most vendors. Ask for the quote itemised and the gap is usually explained on the first line.

Is a flat rate per construct cheaper than a per-base price?

It depends entirely on construct length. A flat rate wins on longer constructs and on anything where you would have paid separately for cloning and prep; a per-base rate wins on short fragments delivered bare. This index publishes both wherever a vendor advertises both, for exactly that reason.

Do these prices include cloning into my vector?

Only where the vendor says so. One flat-rate price in this index explicitly includes cloning and plasmid preparation, and its source quote says as much; the per-base rates generally do not. The quote beside each figure is the vendor's own wording, so you can check what is covered.

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• Compare Gene synthesis on advertised prices