Exciting Update from Illumina: Sequencing Costs Now Aligned Across Flow Cells!

Great news for NGI users! Illumina has now harmonised the sequencing cost per read across the 10B and 25B flow cells — and this new pricing structure is already reflected in our services. Even better, the upcoming 5B flow cell is expected early next year and will also follow this simplified pricing.

What does this mean for you?

Previously, the cost per read decreased with larger flow cells. To offer competitive pricing for smaller projects, we have been selling partial lanes on the 25B flow cell — a solution that can sometimes complicate scheduling, extend turnaround times, and is only available when NGI prepares libraries.

With the new pricing model, we gain greater flexibility to choose the best flow cell for each project — optimizing both data yield and turnaround time. Once the 5B flow cell is available, it will significantly reduce costs for ready-made library pools that don’t require the high data output of a full lane on a large flow cell.

A simpler way to plan your sequencing.

Sequencing will now be purchased in units of 600 million read pairs:

• 5B flow cell: 1 lane = 1 unit (not yet available)
• 10B flow cell: 1 lane = 2 units
• 25B flow cell: 1 lane = 5 units

All you need to do is specify the number of units you require — we will take care of selecting the most suitable flow cell for your project.

This streamlined pricing makes it easier to design and budget sequencing projects while enabling smoother scaling from small to large studies. We’re excited about the flexibility and efficiency this brings to NGI users and look forward to supporting your future research with more predictable sequencing costs!

Last Updated: 17th November 2025