Stainless steel pipes are mainly categorized by their rolling processes into hot rolled, hot extruded, and cold drawn (rolled) stainless steel pipes. They are also differentiated by the microstructure of stainless steel, including ferritic-martensitic stainless steel pipes, martensitic stainless steel pipes, austenitic stainless steel pipes, and austenitic-ferritic stainless steel pipes, among others.

In terms of specifications, the sizes of stainless steel pipes are mainly based on the GB14975-94 "Stainless Steel Seamless Steel Pipes" standard. Precision stainless steel thick-walled pipes generally range in length (not cut to length) from 1.5 to 10 meters for hot-rolled pipes and are greater than or equal to 1 meter for hot-extruded pipes. Cold drawn (rolled) stainless steel pipes with wall thickness of 0.5 to 1.0mm have a length of 1.0 to 7 meters; those with wall thickness greater than 1.0mm have a length of 1.5 to 8 meters.