Cost-optimized starting material selection

Bill-of-materials cost is dominated by starting materials and high-volume reagents, not by labor. This tutorial uses commercial stock filtering, route comparison, and the lab bundle export to land on a route designed for low cost of goods.

Steps

1. Submit your target with Commercial Stock Filter enabled. This restricts results to routes whose starting materials are commercially purchasable.
2. On the result, sort by Lowest cost in the route-viewer dropdown. The feasibility score's cost dimension uses the COGS calculator and live vendor data to rank.
3. Compare the top routes:
   • Step count (fewer = lower labor + lower yield-loss compounding).
   • Per-step starting material price (look at the vendor badges).
   • Solvent / reagent reuse across steps.
4. Hover over any node to see the full vendor list with supplier links and unit prices.
5. Once you've picked a candidate, export the lab bundle. The reagents.csv ships with vendor, catalog ID, vendor URL, and vendor count for every commercially sourceable molecule, ready as a preliminary BOM for procurement.
6. Cross-check the BOM against your vendor agreements and quote accordingly.

Pitfall

Vendor pricing in reagents.csv is best-effort via PubChem; it's a preliminary signal, not a quote. For commitments past ~kg scale, always confirm with the supplier directly.