Cryo-EM Cost 2026: Titan Krios Price per Hour, Day and Project
Titan Krios time costs $30–124/hr for internal academic users, $47–183/hr for external academics and $125–381/hr for industry, from 14 facilities' published rate sheets. Plus what a Krios costs to buy and what data processing adds.
How Much Does Cryo-EM Cost?
Microscope time is priced mostly by who you are, not which facility you pick. From the published rate sheets of 14 core facilities in our directory: Titan Krios time runs $30–124/hr (median $85/hr, 5 facilities) for internal academic users, $47–183/hr (median $132/hr, 5 facilities) for external academics, and $125–381/hr (median $298/hr, 4 facilities) for industry. Billed by the day, Krios time is $184–1,940/day (median $1,300/day, 6 facilities) internal and $375–3,000/day (median $425/day, 3 facilities) external. 200 kV screening time on a Glacios or Talos Arctica runs $75–176/hr (median $106/hr, 3 facilities) for external academics. The table has every tier the data covers and how many facilities each figure rests on.
Titan Krios (300 kV collection)
| Who pays | Per hour | Per day |
|---|---|---|
| Internal academic | $30–124/hrmedian $85/hr · 5 facilities | $184–1,940/daymedian $1,300/day · 6 facilities |
| External academic | $47–183/hrmedian $132/hr · 5 facilities | $375–3,000/daymedian $425/day · 3 facilities |
| Industry | $125–381/hrmedian $298/hr · 4 facilities | $6,000/day1 facility · anchor, not a range |
200 kV screening (Glacios / Talos Arctica)
| Who pays | Per hour | Per day |
|---|---|---|
| Internal academic | $21–153/hrmedian $82/hr · 6 facilities | $158–1,400/day2 facilities · anchor, not a range |
| External academic | $75–176/hrmedian $106/hr · 3 facilities | $350–1,600/day2 facilities · anchor, not a range |
| Industry | $264–402/hrmedian $300/hr · 3 facilities | not published |
Cryo-FIB milling (Aquilos / Arctis)
| Who pays | Per hour | Per day |
|---|---|---|
| Internal academic | $25–66/hrmedian $52/hr · 3 facilities | not published |
| External academic | $39–75/hr2 facilities · anchor, not a range | not published |
| Industry | $77/hr1 facility · anchor, not a range | not published |
Sample prep (Vitrobot, glow discharge, CLEM)
| Who pays | Per hour | Per day |
|---|---|---|
| Internal academic | $10–52/hrmedian $20/hr · 4 facilities | not published |
| External academic | $18–35/hrmedian $25/hr · 3 facilities | not published |
| Industry | $77/hr1 facility · anchor, not a range | not published |
From the published rate sheets of 14 core facilities in the directory (compiled 2026-08-24). Every underlying number appears verbatim on a facility's own page; nothing is modelled or interpolated. Facilities that do not publish rates are not represented, so the sample leans toward academic cores. Instrument time only: staff assistance, consumables and storage are usually billed on top. Estimate a session in the cost estimator →
Internal vs. External Rates
Most university cores run a tiered rate card. Internal rates are subsidized by the host institution and by instrumentation grants; external academic and industry rates recover more of the true cost. At the median, published Krios rates are $85/hr internal, $132/hr external academic and $298/hr industry: external academics pay about 1.5x the internal rate, and industry about 2.2x the external academic rate. The microscope is often identical; the funding model is not.
What a Titan Krios Costs to Buy
Purchase prices are negotiated and rarely published, so the useful figures are public records. In April 2019 Purdue University's Board of Trustees approved $6,905,260 for a Titan Krios G3i, plus $750,000 for room renovation and $222,920 for a vibration-stabilization platform: $7,878,180 in total, shared by a six-member consortium of universities, a research institute and a drug company. The same year the University of Colorado Boulder announced a $5 million Howard Hughes Medical Institute award for its Titan Krios, with the university paying for the camera, renovation and service contracts. Federal instrument grants cover only part of that. NIH's High-End Instrumentation (S10) program caps an award at $2,000,000 whatever the instrument costs, so institutions co-fund the rest; S10 awards for 200 kV cryo-TEMs such as the Glacios have reached that cap (University of Iowa, 1S10OD036262, fiscal 2025). Service contracts, cryogens, staff and the room come on top of the purchase price every year.
Data Processing Fees
Collection is only part of a structure's cost. A single-particle dataset is processed in cryoSPARC or RELION, and a tomography project adds reconstruction, segmentation and often sub-tomogram averaging. In-house, the software is free for academic labs (RELION is open source, and cryoSPARC is free for non-profit academic use, with paid licences for companies), so the cost is GPU compute plus weeks of a trained person's time. Outsourced, I run end-to-end processing remotely for $2,000–5,000 per project, fixed and agreed before any work starts, so the figure can go straight into a budget.
Hidden Costs to Budget For
Beyond microscope time, budget for: sample preparation and grid-making time (external academics pay $18–35/hr on Vitrobot, glow-discharge and similar equipment, from 3 facilities), two or three screening sessions before final collection, staff-assisted time (often billed hourly on top of instrument time), grids and consumables, data storage and transfer (a single-particle dataset is often 1–5 TB), and processing. Some facilities bundle these into a session rate; others bill each item separately.
Private Providers and Free National Centers
Private providers (contract research organizations) run the whole workflow for a project fee: you ship a sample, they prepare grids, collect data and often process it. They rarely publish prices, so our dataset does not cover them; ask each for a quote. NIH-funded national centers (NCCAT in New York, PNCC in Portland and S²C² at Stanford-SLAC) offer free, proposal-based Krios time instead of paid access.
Does Cost Vary by Region?
With 14 facilities publishing rates, the data is too small to say one region is cheaper than another, and we would rather not guess. The spread inside every tier is wide (external Krios time runs $47–183/hr), so the facility matters more than the region. Each facility page shows that facility's own published rates; compare the ones you could actually use.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Titan Krios session cost?
From 14 facilities' published rate sheets: per hour, $30–124/hr (median $85/hr, 5 facilities) for internal academic users, $47–183/hr (median $132/hr, 5 facilities) for external academics and $125–381/hr (median $298/hr, 4 facilities) for industry. Facilities that bill by the day charge $184–1,940/day (median $1,300/day, 6 facilities) internal and $375–3,000/day (median $425/day, 3 facilities) external; one publishes an industry day rate of $6,000.
What does a Titan Krios cost to buy?
Public records put a Titan Krios at roughly $5–7 million before installation. Purdue University approved $6,905,260 for a Titan Krios G3i in 2019 ($7,878,180 with room renovation and a vibration platform), and CU Boulder's Krios was funded by a $5 million HHMI award the same year. NIH S10 instrument grants are capped at $2,000,000, so institutions co-fund the rest.
How much does cryo-EM data processing cost?
In-house, the software is free for academic labs, so the cost is GPU compute and a trained person's time. Outsourced, I process single-particle and tomography data remotely for $2,000–5,000 per project, fixed before any work starts.
Are there free cryo-EM facilities?
Some NIH-funded national facilities offer free cryo-EM access through competitive proposal processes. Several institutions also offer subsidized rates through pilot project grants. Check our facility directory and funding finder for access policies.
What is included in the hourly rate?
Most facilities include instrument time and basic operator assistance. Some charge separately for sample preparation, grid screening, and data transfer. Always confirm what's included before booking.
What is the average cost of cryo-EM?
Median published Krios rates are $85/hr internal, $132/hr external academic and $298/hr industry. A whole project depends on how many screening and collection sessions it needs, plus processing. As a planning estimate (ours, not from published rates), a straightforward single-particle project at an academic core often comes to $5,000–$25,000 including processing.
How do I budget for a full cryo-EM project?
Budget two or three screening sessions before final collection, one or more collection sessions at the rates above (a day of external academic Krios time is $375–3,000/day where facilities bill by the day), sample preparation, storage and processing. Our planning estimate for a complete single-particle project at an academic facility is $5,000–$25,000; outsourced processing with me is $2,000–5,000, fixed.
Do NIH grants cover cryo-EM costs?
Yes. Cryo-EM costs can be included in R01, R21, and other NIH grants as 'other direct costs' or under core facility fees. NIH S10 instrumentation grants fund the microscopes themselves, keeping user rates lower at funded institutions.
Related Resources
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