Attachment answers / Buying & freight
How much does an excavator bucket cost?
Short answer
Across our own catalog, excavator buckets run from about $1,300 for a 12 in. trenching bucket on a 3-4.5 t machine to about $8,400 for a 54 in. heavy-duty bucket on a 33-55 t machine. Weight class drives price more than width.
Last reviewed August 2026 · Quarrymark Attachments sales engineering desk
Bucket pricing confuses people because the obvious variable - width - is not the one that moves the number most. A 24 in. bucket can cost $1,857 or $3,937 depending entirely on the machine it is built for.
What actually drives the price
Weight class, first and by a wide margin. A bigger class means thicker plate everywhere, larger pin bosses, a heavier tooth series and simply more steel. Our 24 in. digging bucket for a 2-3 t mini and our 24 in. heavy-duty digging bucket for a 16-25 t excavator are the same width and roughly double the price apart.
Wear package, second. A severe-duty bucket adds AR plate, a full wrapper, wear straps and heavier cutters - real cost in both material and fabrication.
Width, third. Within a class, going wider adds material and adds price, but the increments are modest compared to the first two factors.
Mount, fourth. A coupler-specific bucket carries the coupler bracket in its price. Pin-on is generally the cheapest mount and the most machine-specific.
Indicative ranges from our catalog
Trenching buckets, 6-12 in.: roughly $1,300-$2,400 depending on class and coupler. Digging buckets on mini excavators, 18-30 in.: roughly $1,700-$2,700. Heavy-duty digging buckets on 10-25 t machines, 24-54 in.: roughly $3,300-$4,900. Large-class heavy duty on 33-55 t machines: up to roughly $8,400. Severe-duty buckets sit above standard buckets in the same class, and skeleton buckets sit alongside them.
Cost per hour, which is the number that matters
A bucket is not a consumable, and comparing purchase prices alone is the wrong analysis. A correctly classed bucket in the correct wear package will outlast an under-classed one several times over in the same material, and the difference in downtime, cutting edges and repair welding is normally larger than the difference in purchase price.
The second-order cost is even larger. Buying one mid-width general-purpose bucket instead of a trenching bucket and a digging bucket saves you a couple of thousand dollars once and then costs you excavation, bedding, backfill and restoration on every trench you dig for the life of the machine.
Freight
Buckets are heavy freight. Orders over $500 ship free within the continental United States from our Charlotte, North Carolina warehouse. Larger attachments ship on a pallet or a skid and need a way to get them off the truck - a forklift, a loader, or a liftgate arranged in advance. If you are receiving to a job site rather than a yard, tell us at order time so we can route it accordingly.
Why does the same width bucket have several prices?
Because width is only one specification. The same nominal width is built in several weight classes, several pin diameters and several wear packages, and each of those changes the amount and grade of steel in the bucket.
Is a cheaper bucket from another supplier the same thing?
Compare the plate thickness on the wear surfaces, the side-plate height, the pin boss doubler and the empty weight. Two buckets quoted at the same width and class can differ by a hundred pounds of steel, and that difference is exactly the price difference.
Do you ship free?
Orders over $500 ship free within the continental United States. Oversized attachments may need special handling at delivery - tell us if the delivery site has no forklift or loader.
