How Much Does an Acrylic Fill Cost?
Thirty dollars. That's roughly the midpoint you'll see quoted for a standard acrylic fill across most US salons, with the realistic range sitting at $25 to $50 depending on where you live and how long your nails have grown out.
Salon location does most of the heavy lifting here. Booking data aggregated across thousands of US salons by booking platform StyleSeat's pricing data puts a standard fill toward the lower end of that range, while big-city salons and specialty shapes like coffin or stiletto push it higher. Length matters too: a short, simple set costs less to fill than long, sculpted nails that need more product and more time in the chair. Compare that to a full set, where you're paying for complete removal and rebuilding from scratch. If you haven't had a full set yet and want the baseline number, acrylic nails cost is covered start to finish in our dedicated guide, and a fill should consistently land well under that full-set figure, generally in the 40 to 55 percent range. If your quote is creeping closer to the full-set price, that's worth a conversation with your tech, not necessarily an accusation.
How Much Does a Gel Fill Cost?
A gel fill runs a touch higher than acrylic almost everywhere, typically $30 to $55 against acrylic's $25 to $50, because gel removal and reapplication takes marginally more time at the cuticle.
That gap is rarely more than five to ten dollars per visit, so it shouldn't be the deciding factor between the two systems on its own. What does change the math is builder gel, often sold under the name BIAB. Builder gel, often called BIAB, is a thicker structural gel applied to add strength or light extension, and it gets rebalanced rather than soaked off at each fill. Because it's never fully removed, a BIAB infill behaves more like a true maintenance appointment than a gel polish refresh, and pricing reflects that. If BIAB is part of your system, our breakdown of how much does BIAB cost walks through full-set and infill pricing specifically for that product, which sits slightly apart from standard soft gel.
Can You Get a Dip Powder Fill, and What Does It Cost?
Yes, but not everywhere. Some salons offer a genuine dip fill that buffs back the top layer at the regrowth area and adds fresh powder, typically $30 to $50. Others remove the entire set and redo it from scratch every single time, which is closer to full-set pricing than a true fill.
This inconsistency is the single biggest source of dip powder confusion, and it isn't your imagination. Dip's chemistry makes a partial removal trickier than acrylic or gel, so plenty of salons skip the partial approach entirely and default to a full redo, charging accordingly. The smart move is asking directly, before you book: "is this a fill or a full redo?" That one question resolves more pricing confusion than any amount of online research, because the answer changes which price range applies to your appointment. A salon quoting $45 for a "dip fill" that's actually stripping and reapplying the entire set isn't overcharging you. They're just pricing a different, more time-intensive service under a familiar name.
Nail Fill Cost by Country: US, UK, Australia & Canada
Roughly thirty. That's the rough midpoint figure, in local currency, that a standard acrylic or gel fill lands near across every Tier-1 English-speaking market, once you account for the fact that the number is dollars in the US and Canada, pounds in the UK, and Australian dollars down under.
In the US, expect $25 to $55 for acrylic or gel, with dip running $30 to $50. In the UK, infills typically run £20 to £35 outside London, climbing to £50 to £85 in the capital, where rent alone pushes every service up. BIAB-specific infills in the UK tend to sit a little higher than standard acrylic, in line with the system's added structural work. Australia runs noticeably higher in raw numbers: acrylic infills sit around $37 to $70 AUD, while builder gel and Gel-X infills commonly run $55 to $65 AUD, reflecting both higher salon overheads and a market where premium positioning is common. Canada lands closest to the US pattern, with acrylic and standard gel fills generally $35 to $50 CAD, and Vancouver or Toronto salons sitting toward the top of that band the way London does in the UK. The pattern holds everywhere: capital cities and major metros cost more than regional ones, gel and BIAB sit slightly above standard acrylic, and a fill consistently lands under half of what a full set costs in the same market.
