The decision has been made to automate a manual handling process. The automation concept has been chosen. Now is time to look into the details on how we will pick, hold and place those parts. The cost of the gripping units itself is not a big part of an automation project. Suction cups can be as little as $10 and an electric gripper can be several $1,000; but these costs represent a small fraction of the whole project. That is why grippers are too often the last aspect to be analyzed in an automation project. But grippers have a direct impact on cell performance and throughput. When budgeting and choosing grippers, it is important to consider performance, purchase cost and even more importantly recurring costs that will come from using the gripper in production. Let's assume that you have analyzed the performance of different gripping options and now want to analyze which one will be the most cost-effective. This article explains how to compare the cost difference between robot gripper options for your automation project.