Powder Coating Cost: Per m² and Per kg Explained

Powder coating quotes come in two currencies — per square metre of coated surface and per kilogram of powder consumed — and mixing them up is the fastest way to misprice a job. Here is how each is built and when to use which.

Per m²: the job-shop standard

Coating shops price most work per m² of developed surface, because their real costs (labor, pretreatment, oven time, rack space) scale with area. A typical European job-shop range is €4–8/m² for standard RAL colors on straightforward parts, with surcharges for:

Small batches — setup and color change dominate; a one-off part can cost as much as ten.
Special powders — metallics, textures, two-coat systems, marine/C4-C5 specs.
Masking and plugging — threads, bearing seats and contact faces cost hand labor.
Oversize parts — anything near the oven limit books the whole oven.

The catch: you need the developed area, and for profiles that is not obvious. A 60×40×3 rectangular tube has a perimeter of ~0.2 m, so every metre of it carries 0.2 m² of surface — 100 m of that profile is 20 m² of coating, not "a bit of tube".

Per kg: the powder consumption view

Powder itself costs roughly €6–12/kg for standard polyester. How far a kilogram goes is pure geometry:

Theoretical coverage = 1000 / (thickness in µm × specific gravity). At 80 µm and SG 1.5 that is ≈ 8.3 m²/kg.
Practical coverage — first-pass transfer efficiency is 60–70% without powder recovery, so plan on 5–6 m²/kg in real production.
Thicker builds (outdoor, textured) at 100–120 µm cut coverage by a third.

Per-kg pricing appears when you run your own line or negotiate large series — then powder, gas and labor split into separate line items.

Which number should you quote with?

Buying coating as a service → per m². Compute the area, multiply, add masking.
Running your own line → per kg powder + labor + energy, with area only as the intermediate step.
Sanity check: at €8/kg powder, 5.5 m²/kg practical coverage adds ≈ €1.45/m² in material — if a shop quotes €4/m², powder is about a third of their price; the rest is process.

The tedious part, automated

Working out the developed surface of angles, channels, tubes and beams is exactly what our powder coating cost calculator does: pick a profile from 9 types, enter dimensions and length, and it returns the coated area and the cost both per m² and per kg — enter either price and it converts. For raw part weight (shipping, racking) the metal weight calculator uses the same profile geometry, and alloy data lives in the materials database.

Rules of thumb worth keeping

Standard RAL, decent batch, simple part: €5–6/m² is a fair 2026 midpoint.
Double the price for single pieces; halve your surcharge fear above ~50 m² per color.
80 µm nominal build unless the spec says otherwise; every extra 20 µm is +25% powder.
Always quote area from the profile geometry, never from "length of part" — perimeter is where the money hides.