An external storage device of a component cost estimation system stores various cost information representing a component material and its cost in association with each other, and a component manufacturing step and a cost involved in the step in association with each other. An information processing apparatus specifies a material of a component to be manufactured, and a plurality of manufacturing steps. Then, the information processing apparatus retrieves a cost of the specified material, and costs corresponding to the specified manufacturing steps from the cost information, and estimates a cost of the component based on the retrieved costs. The cost of the component is computed by adding up the cost of the material and the costs involved in all the manufacturing steps.