To provide a manufacturing method of an optical element and an optical element, forming a step in a boundary part 22 between two adjacent machined surfaces 21 in manufacturing an optical element or a mold by cutting.

A machined surface 21 for forming an element surface is formed by relatively moving a milling cutter 10 and a base material 20 for forming the optical element in the cutting direction and in the feeding direction while the milling cutter 10 including a rotating shaft 11 and a blade part 12 projected in the direction intersecting the axial direction of the rotating shaft 11 is rotated around the axis of the rotating shaft 11. In the boundary part 22 of the machined surfaces 21, out of the two machined surfaces 21 adjacent to each other with the rotating shaft 11 pointing in the orthogonal direction to the boundary part 22, the lower machined surface 21 is cut.