Polycarbonate Sheet Price in Canada, Line by Line

Here is the polycarbonate sheet price in short. A full 4x8 sheet of clear solid polycarbonate costs $90.65 at 2 mm and $357.95 at 9 mm at our North York warehouse today, before HST. That is $2.83 to $11.19 a square foot.

The sheet is only the first line of the bill, though. Most jobs also pay for a cut, a trip and a tax, and many pay for a thickness or a finish they did not need. So this guide reads the bill one line at a time. Every price on this page is read live from our catalogue and from the same pricing engine our checkout uses, so it matches what you would pay today, not what was true when the page was written.

Start with the whole thing. This is one real order, priced the moment you opened this page:

That receipt is the map for the rest of the page. Each line below gets its own section: what sets it, and how to make it smaller.

Line 1: the sheet, and what each millimetre costs

Price follows thickness, but not in a straight line. Here is the polycarbonate sheet price for every thickness in our clear range. Each row is a clear polycarbonate sheet, 4x8, priced live:

A flat price list hides the useful part, which is how big each step up is. The chart below draws every thickness as the price of the one below it, in grey, plus the step to reach it, in orange.

Two habits keep this line small. First, buy the thickness the job needs, not the one that feels safe. Our Lexan sheet guide matches thickness to common jobs, from thin covers to heavy machine guards. Second, check the span before you check the impact. A roof or canopy panel needs stiffness more than toughness, which is why our polycarbonate roof panel guide starts at 6 mm and shows when 9 mm earns its price.

Check the weight column too if you plan to carry sheets yourself. The thick ones go on a cart. The weights come from a density of about 1.2 g/cm³, the value Covestro publishes for its Makrolon polycarbonate.

If you searched for a Lexan sheet price, these are the same material. Lexan is SABIC's brand name for polycarbonate. What we stock is clear solid polycarbonate without the brand name, and our Lexan guide explains why the name on the masking film does not change how the sheet performs.

Line 2: the finish

Clear is not the only choice. We also stock frosted polycarbonate, matte on one side so light passes but shapes blur, and diffused white polycarbonate, which spreads LED light evenly across a sign face. Each finish has its own price at each thickness, and they do not simply follow clear.

At 3 mm, frosted costs $5.50 less than clear. At 6 mm it costs $83.60 more than clear. So never assume a finish adds a fixed amount. Read the cell.

Clear, frosted and diffused white, lit from behind. Frosted softens what is behind it. Diffused white hides it and spreads the light. Illustration.

The bigger difference is not price. Frosted and diffused white are sold as full sheets, and they are not in our cut-to-size configurator. Plan the job around whole 4x8 sheets, cut them yourself with the saw and blade our polycarbonate cutting guide recommends, or ask us to quote the cutting. If a panel only has to hide what is behind it and nobody will hit it, frosted P95 acrylic is the other way to go, and that one goes straight through the configurator.

Line 3: the cut, and the quarter inch that can halve it

We cut clear polycarbonate to size on a CNC router. We do not laser it. Universal Laser Systems, which builds the machines, says that a laser always leaves a polycarbonate edge discoloured, often charred, because of how the plastic is made. That is also why our cutting guide calls the laser the wrong tool for polycarbonate.

A cut order is built from four parts: each piece's share of the sheet, router time, one setup fee per order, and an order minimum. Here is how they stack up for one machine guard window as the order grows:

Material is the biggest part at every quantity. So the best way to lower a cut price is to fit more pieces on each sheet, and this is where a quarter inch matters.

A router bit has a width, and it cuts away a strip as wide as itself between every two pieces. A piece that is exactly half the sheet's width, 24 inches, leaves no room for that strip, so only one fits across. Trim it a quarter inch and two fit side by side. The same sheet, the same router, a very different bill:

The rule is simple. If a size is an even split of 48 or 96 inches, such as 12, 16, 24 or 32, ask whether it can lose a quarter inch. For a window that sits in a frame with a gap around it, it rarely matters to the fit. To the price, it can matter more than the thickness.

A router cuts polycarbonate cleanly where a laser would scorch the edge. Illustration.

Try your own sizes in the cut-to-size configurator. It shows the pieces per sheet and the price as you type, before anything is ordered.

Line 4: how many you buy

Quantity changes the bill in two ways, depending on what you buy.

• Cut pieces get a volume discount on their own, by the number of identical pieces in one order. It starts at 50 pieces and steps up at 500 and 1,000. The chart above shows the first step at work.
• Full sheets are priced per sheet. From 10 sheets of the same thickness and finish, volume pricing is by quote.

Line 5: getting it to you

A 4x8 sheet is eight feet long, so plan how it gets home before you order. Here is what each distance costs from our warehouse, read live from our checkout:

Pickup is free. Inside the GTA the flat fee goes away once an order reaches the free delivery mark, so it can pay to buy for two jobs at once. Further out, our own truck charges by the kilometre, and past that a carrier takes over at the rate checkout shows you.

Line 6: the tax

Tax is the last line, and it is charged on the goods and the delivery together. Where you take the sheets decides the rate. Under the CRA's place of supply rules, a sale of goods happens in the province where they are delivered or handed over. So you pay Ontario HST when you pick up in North York, and the rate of the province we deliver to otherwise, as the chips above show. The CRA keeps the current GST and HST rates on its own site.

Is polycarbonate expensive? Set it against acrylic

People often ask if polycarbonate is expensive. Next to acrylic, which many people call plexiglass, it usually is. How much more depends on the thickness, so here they are, matched thickness for thickness:

So acrylic is the cheaper choice, and for signs, displays and indoor covers that nobody will hit, it is the better one too: clearer and harder to scratch. Polycarbonate earns its extra cost where a panel has to take a blow: machine guards, bus shelters and glazing that has to stand up to vandals. Our acrylic vs polycarbonate guide works through the choice job by job, and if acrylic fits your job, our clear acrylic sheet prices are laid out the same way.

Checking a polycarbonate sheet price from somewhere else

Store shelves and other suppliers sell polycarbonate in pieces of every size, which makes prices hard to compare. Turn each one into dollars per square foot first. Type in any price and size:

Two checks before you trust the comparison. First, make sure the other price is for solid sheet. Multiwall and corrugated polycarbonate are different products, built hollow or wavy, and they are priced differently. Our greenhouse panel guide explains when they are the right buy. Second, compare like with like. A cut piece carries cutting and setup on top of the plastic, so set it against our cut price, not our sheet price.

Ordering

Every row in the first table is a sheet you can order online, for pickup or delivery. For cut pieces, the cut-to-size configurator prices the exact job. For 10 sheets or more, or anything out of the ordinary, ask for a quote and we reply the same business day. You can also call +1 (416) 857-7555, or come to Unit 29, 601 Magnetic Drive in North York.

The sheets priced on this page

Polycarbonate Solid Clear Sheets

Impact-resistant clear PC, 2mm to 9mm, 4×8 ft

From $90.65 CADView Product →

Single-sided Frosted Polycarbonate Sheets

Frosted / white matte PC, privacy and diffusion in one panel

From $98.35 CADView Product →

Diffused White Polycarbonate Sheets

Even LED diffusion, white PC for backlit signs and light panels

From $98.35 CADView Product →

Extruded Acrylic Sheets (PMMA)

Clear, grey, and sparkling extruded PMMA, value-grade for fabrication

From $54.68 CADView Product →

For everything else about the material, from grades to UV protection, start with our polycarbonate sheets guide.