Sequencing a human genome cost $100 million in 2001, now it is a couple of hundred dollars.

Cost to sequence one human genome ($, log scale), against Moore's law, the pace of computer chips. Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles about every two years, so computing power gets steadily cheaper. Sequencing cost tracked it until around 2008, then plunged far below it.

Why this is happening

Around 2008 next-generation sequencing replaced reading DNA one fragment at a time with reading millions of fragments in parallel, which broke the cost curve away from the steady pace of computer chips.
Fierce competition between sequencing-machine makers, and ever-rising output per run, kept driving the price down year after year.

The take

When reading your DNA costs less than a blood test, it stops being research and becomes routine. Medicine built around the average patient gives way to treatment tuned to the individual one.

Source: National Human Genome Research Institute (2026)