Restringing a tennis racket costs labor plus string, and the two are priced separately. Racquet Point, whose pricing page we cite below, publishes $25 labor per tennis racquet, with synthetic gut string starting at $4.99 and premium strings "typically run $14 to $22+". So a budget restring lands around $30 and a premium one around $45 to $50 before any shipping. Their own worked examples are "~$30" for a budget mail-in job and "~$75" for a premium one including a $30 shipping add-on. Prices vary by shop and city, and that is the honest range to budget against.
We are quoting one shop's published price list rather than inventing a national average, because a national average for this is not a thing anybody publishes and we are not going to make one up. Use it as a reference point and check your own club or local shop — which, conveniently, is also the cheapest option for most people, because there is no shipping.
The two halves of the bill
Labor. What you pay somebody to do the job: mount the frame, pull every string to tension, weave the crosses, tie off and finish. It is skilled, it takes 30 to 40 minutes, and it does not vary with which string you choose. $25 per racquet is the published figure we are working from.
String. Entirely your choice, and the half with the enormous range. Published prices on the same page: synthetic gut "starts at $4.99", premium strings including Luxilon, Tecnifibre, Solinco and natural gut hybrids "typically run $14 to $22+".
So the string is between about 17% and about 47% of the bill, which is why the single most effective way to control restringing cost is to be honest about which string you actually need. Which is the next section.
Which string tier you actually need
Under $5 — synthetic gut. A solid nylon core with wraps. The honest answer for most club players below 4.0: it is comfortable, reasonably durable, plays well enough that you will not notice what you are missing, and it keeps a restring near $30. Prince Synthetic Gut is the one here. If you are not breaking strings and your arm is fine, you do not need to spend more.
$10–20 — multifilament. Thousands of fine fibers in a matrix. This is the tier worth paying for if your arm hurts, because it stretches on impact and returns depth rather than shock. Wilson NXT is the reference. A genuinely good reason to upgrade; see arm-friendly strings.
$12–22 — polyester. Stiff, control-oriented, spin-friendly, and the right choice if you swing fast enough to need it. Solinco Hyper-G is the one here. If you are below about 4.0 and your arm is sensitive, this tier is a cost you are paying for a benefit you are not collecting — poly vs multifilament has that argument in full.
$22+ — natural gut and gut hybrids. The best-playing string there is, and it does not last. Real for a 4.5+ who wants the feel; an expensive mistake for anybody else.
What it costs you per year
The useful number is annual, not per job, and it depends on one rule: restring as many times a year as you play per week — plus immediately whenever you break one. Someone playing twice a week restrings roughly twice a year.
Using the published $25 labor and the string tiers above:
| How often you play | Restrings/year | With $5 synthetic gut | With $18 premium string |
|---|
| Once a week | 1 | ~$30 | ~$43 |
| Twice a week | 2 | ~$60 | ~$86 |
| Three times a week | 3 | ~$90 | ~$129 |
| Four+ times a week, or you break strings | 6–12 | ~$180–360 | ~$258–516 |
Those are arithmetic on the published figures, not survey data. The row that matters is the last one, because that is where the whole economics changes.
When buying a machine pays for itself
Two savings, and people usually notice only the first one.
You stop paying labor. $25 a job. At six restrings a year that is $150 you keep.
You start buying string by the reel, which is the bigger saving. A set is one racquet's worth, about 40 feet. A reel is 200 meters — roughly sixteen racquets — and the cost per restring drops substantially. This is the part that makes home stringing genuinely cheap rather than just free labor.
Put together: a drop-weight machine like the Klippermate plus a reel of synthetic gut pays back in roughly a season for somebody restringing six or more times a year, and faster if you string for more than one person in the house. Below about two restrings a month it does not pay, and your time is worth more than the labor you save.
The real catch is not money, it is the first two racquets, which will take over an hour each and will not be good. How to restring a tennis racket walks the process so you know what you are signing up for.
Four ways to spend less
1. Use a cheaper string, if you do not need an expensive one. The single biggest lever, and the one most people have backwards. If you are not breaking strings and your arm is comfortable, synthetic gut at under $5 is the right string and it halves the bill.
2. Use your club or local shop rather than mailing it. The cited pricing shows a $30 shipping add-on, which can be as much as the labor. Local is usually 24 to 48 hours as well, against 5 to 10 days door to door by mail.
3. Do not restring on a schedule you do not need. "As many times a year as you play per week" is the working rule. If you play once a week socially and the string is not fraying or dead, once a year is genuinely fine.
4. Do not drop tension to make string last. It does not work that way, and it is worth saying because it sounds plausible. Change tension because of how you want the racquet to play — the tension guide covers that properly.
One thing worth paying for
If you own two frames and play league, pay for them to be strung together with the same string at the same tension. A spare frame that plays differently is not really a spare — it is a second racquet you have to adjust to mid-match. It costs nothing extra beyond the second job, and it is the one place where the cheap option is a false economy.
And if you are weighing restringing cost against replacing the racquet entirely: a restring is almost always the better spend. New string in a frame you already like changes how it plays far more than most people expect, for a fraction of a new frame. The comparison is in what tennis gear costs.
The cost per job is only half the annual number — the other half is how many jobs. How often to restring a tennis racket has the published frequency table, and multiplying the two is what makes owning a stringing machine worth the arithmetic. Which string you buy next time is how to choose tennis strings.
