We show that the quantitative PCR reaction volume can be reduced significantly compared to the standard procedures, without compromising data quality. By analyzing dilution series (10(0)-10(-7)) we found that measurement in 1 mu l reaction volume indeed gave valid results comparable to 10 mu L, when using a routine pipetting robot. This may enable a significant cost reduction through cutback of both biological material as well as chemical reagents. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.