When shopping for glasses online, it’s pretty common to feel bogged down by the cost of prescription lenses.

Why are My Prescription Lenses Expensive?

If you are in the market for a new pair of prescription glasses and have decided to buy them online, you may feel like you’re being gouged when you see how lens prices are laid out and the cost of each upgrade or coating. Lens costs often aren’t broken down when buying prescription glasses at the eye doctor’s office, so looking at them online can be a bit of an eye-opener, especially if you’re used to using eye insurance to pay for your lenses.

The truth is, when you’re buying prescription glasses without using insurance to cover it, there is no better way to save money than buying online. Our store keeps its prices lower than the eye doctor’s by doing most of our work in-house using our own prescription optical labs.

If you are wondering about prescription lens costs, here’s some useful information:

• Our lens costs are considerably lower than most eyewear retailers’ because we own our own lab.
• Lens material can increase your costs considerably simply because the materials themselves have different costs for us.
• Special lens colors and polarization cost more because they generally involve complicated composites or other means of manufacturing.
• Simple tints are generally much cheaper than special lens colors because they are done in-house using a simple tinting machine.
• Some coatings are fairly expensive because they require a special clean room environment, special machinery, and extremely high temperatures. The unique materials used in the actual coating also get quite expensive. Some examples of coatings like this are Anti-Reflective (AR) coating, fog free coating, and mirror coating.
• Many eye labs have different approaches to pricing lenses. For instance, some places double their prices, then claim to offer a “free” warranty replacement within a certain amount of time of owning the glasses. We keep our prices as low as possible, excluding any hidden prepayments on eyewear replacements you might not even need.
• In addition to the overhead cost of maintaining a retail store, eye doctors raise their prices much above ours because they need to include the overhead of having employees do fittings, maintaining and changing displays, and many other services required at such a facility.

When you’re ordering prescription glasses online, you are generally saving money compared to buying glasses at a store. The internet market is considerably more competitive than the optician’s market, and prices are considerably lower accordingly.

When you’re shopping for eyewear and trying to save money, you should pay special attention to what you need and what you don’t. If you’re using the glasses for a specific task, you might not need bifocals or anti-reflective coating that you typically get on your regular glasses.

If you’re not sure which of these is right for your eyewear or if you have any other questions about lens costs, you can leave a comment on this post or contact our customer service department. Also, you may be able to find answers to your questions in some of our other posts.

Thanks so much for reading, and happy shopping!