Spheroid & Organoid Microwell Plates
Microwell and ultra-low-attachment plates for aggregate formation — InSphero Akura and Gri3D at published prices, plus the bulk formats that are quote-only.
| Category | Culture Devices & Custom Microfabrication |
|---|---|
| Unit | One plate, or one pack (Akura 96 5-pack or 20-pack; Akura 384 5-pack or 10-pack; Gri3D per plate) |
| Lead time | 1-3 weeks for the published-price InSphero formats; longer for quote-only bulk formats and for territories served through a distributor |
| Pricing | Published list price |
| Provenance | Partner manufactured |
| Data current | 2026-09-01 |
Description
Empty plasticware in which you form your own spheroids or organoids, sourced against the two variables that actually decide the format: how many aggregates you need per run, and whether you have to track individual aggregates over time. InSphero publishes live list prices and is the transparent end of the category: the Akura 96 is one addressable spheroid per well with a tapering cavity and a SureXchange ledge on an optically clear flat bottom; the Akura 384 is ANSI/SLAS 1-2004 compliant with a black-walled polystyrene body, a 188 um COP membrane bottom, 4.5 mm pitch and a 40-50 uL working volume, accommodating spheroids up to 1 mm; Gri3D is a 96-well hydrogel microcavity array giving 31 to 121 cavities per well across 400, 500, 600 and 800 um cavity options. The bulk formats do not publish prices and are quoted: STEMCELL AggreWell 400 gives 1,200 microwells per well in a 24-well plate and 5,900 in a 6-well, AggreWell 400Ex gives 4,700, AggreWell 800 gives 300; Kugelmeiers Sphericalplate 5D gives roughly 750 microwells per functional well and about 9,000 per plate in transparent COC with a non-fouling AziGrip EX coating on a standard SBS footprint at 20.15 mm tall; Corning Elplasia 12K is an 80 cm2 flask at 152 microcavities per cm2 producing about 12,000 spheroids on a covalently bonded ULA hydrogel. The two things we make sure a buyer settles before ordering are the seeding arithmetic — cells to load per well equals microwells per well times cells wanted per spheroid, so spheroid size is set by seeding density and not by the plate — and the debubbling step, because a microwell that traps air produces no spheroid and the published mitigation requires a plate rotor balanced at 2,000 x g.
Why this is hard to buy today
Microwell count per well spans a factor of forty inside a single product line — AggreWell 400 in a 6-well plate is 5,900 aggregates per well against AggreWell 800 in a 24-well at 300 — and buyers order on brand rather than on the seeding arithmetic, so the commonest failure in the category is buying the right vendor's wrong plate and getting multiple small spheroids per microwell instead of one.
Price evidence
InSphero live list prices captured from the public Shopify products endpoint on 2026-09-01: Akura 96 spheroid microplate $355.00 for a 5-pack ($71.00 per plate, $0.74 per well) and $1,195.00 for a 20-pack ($59.75 per plate, $0.62 per well) — a 16 percent volume step; Akura 384 spheroid microplate $688.00 for a 5-pack ($137.60 per plate, $0.36 per well) and $1,125.00 for a 10-pack ($112.50 per plate); Gri3D hydrogel microcavity plate, plastic, one plate covering all four cavity sizes, $660.00; Gri3D imaging variant with a flat continuous 180 um COP membrane bottom $730.00; Akura tilting stand $59.00; Incubox $1,840.00; Akura 3D SureKit $3,810.00. STEMCELL AggreWell, Kugelmeiers Sphericalplate 5D and Corning Elplasia publish specifications but no price we could verify, and we do not estimate one.
These are supplier list prices we located and recorded, not a quotation from Wetware World. Your price depends on quantity, specification and freight, and is only binding once issued in writing.
What you must specify
A quote cannot be produced without these. Anything you leave open, a supplier will assume — usually expensively.
| # | Parameter |
|---|---|
| 01 | Aggregates required per run, and whether individual aggregates must be tracked over time |
| 02 | Target spheroid diameter and the cells per aggregate implied by it |
| 03 | Microwells per well required, worked back through cells-to-load = microwells x cells per spheroid |
| 04 | Plate format and footprint, and whether ANSI/SLAS 1-2004 compliance is required |
| 05 | Bottom material and thickness if imaging (COP membrane, optically clear polystyrene, hydrogel) |
| 06 | Non-attachment chemistry: covalently bonded ULA, non-fouling coating, or surfactant pre-treatment |
| 07 | Working volume per well and medium-exchange method |
| 08 | Whether the workflow is automated, including z-clearance for tall plates |
| 09 | Pack size and annual volume |
| 10 | Whether a plate rotor balanced at 2,000 x g is available for debubbling |
Quality documentation
Typically available with this item. What actually ships is confirmed on the quotation, per supplier.
- Manufacturer certificate of conformance and lot number
- Stated sterilisation method (Kugelmeiers SP5D is X-ray irradiated)
- Vendor-stated microwell count, cavity dimensions and working volume per the product data sheet
- Coating chemistry and bonding method as stated on the data sheet
Candidate suppliers
Organisations we have identified as capable. Listing does not imply a partnership, an endorsement, or that they have agreed to quote.
| Organisation | Basis for inclusion |
|---|---|
| InSphero | Public Shopify products endpoint returns live USD list prices; queried 2026-09-01. Akura Twin technical specification SPEC007 publishes ANSI/SLAS 1-2004 compliance, 188 um COP bottom, 40-50 uL working volume, 4.5 mm pitch and 0.09 mm microchannel height. |
| STEMCELL Technologies (AggreWell) | Publishes microwell widths, microwells per cm2 and per well, and 50-3,000 cells per spheroid across the range. Protocol literature states surfactant rinsing is not optional for AggreWell 400Ex. No price published in a form we could verify. |
| Kugelmeiers (Sphericalplate 5D) | Published data sheet: transparent COC, SBS footprint 127.76 x 85.47 x 20.15 mm, 12 functional wells, ~750 microwells per well and ~9,000 per plate, 0.5-2 mL working volume, non-fouling AziGrip EX coating, X-ray irradiated. No price published. |
| Corning (Elplasia) | Elplasia 12K Flask product information sheet: 80 cm2, 152 microcavities per cm2, ~12,000 spheroids per flask, microcavity 850 x 650 um, working spheroid 500 x 600 um, 25-50 mL working volume, covalently bonded ULA hydrogel, 30+ day culture stated. No price published. |
Sources
- https://shop.insphero.com/collections/all
- https://insphero.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Technical-Specifications-Akura-Twin-Microplate.pdf
- https://www.stemcell.com/products/brands/aggrewell-microwell-plates.html
- https://www.sp5d.com/cm/wp-content/uploads/Kugelmeiers-Datasheet-SP5D24.pdf
- https://fishersci.nl/content/dam/fssite/eu/brands/c/corning/corning-elplasia-12k-flask/pdf/19692_Corning_Elplasia_12K_Flask.pdf
doc WW-DV-22907 · rev 2026-09-01 · research use only · prices indicative and not binding until quoted in writing