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Cell components comprise the individual parts of a battery cell prior to its assembly into a complete cell. Cell components can be considered the stage between raw materials and complete cells, as cell components generally consist of raw materials processed to adopt the chemical and physical properties required to optimally function for the purpose of electrochemical energy storage.

Cell components may be classified into active components, which participate in the electrochemical reaction, and inactive components, which do not participate in the electrochemical reaction but are necessary and help facilitate the electrochemical reaction. Cell components may be solid or liquid, porous or non-porous, and may be monolithic materials or composite mixtures.

When working with cells at the lab-scale, cell components are often optimized to be handled one piece at a time, often by hand or in some cases by a small robot. At lab-scale, volumes are not large and components are produced as needed or desired. It is important to note that since the size of the components is generally smaller, defects in the components tend to have a larger effect on the results. Cell components may be artisanally made in the lab or purchased commercially, and complete cell assemblies are often a mixture of the two.

At the lab-scale, coin cells or small pouch cells are most often the form factor used. Coin cells are typically chosen from several industrial standard sizes, such as {{Template:Viewer/Link|page=Category:OSWb61b96acf2f44b7482d5565fe3a2d88b|url=|label=CR2032}}, and consist of several subcomponents which can be assembled into a complete cell. Pouch cells can be handmade and readily customized in size and number of layers according to need or desire. Pouch cells also require several subcomponents in order to be assembled into a complete cell. 

Cells used for scientific research may not have all the cell components listed below, which are typical for most commercial Li-ion battery cells. Research may focus on reducing, replacing, or eliminating certain cell components for the sake of improving performance.

Custom-designed cells may be purpose-built for use in advanced characterization techniques, such as ''in situ'' or ''operando''. These types of cells will have additional components related to their end-use.