Abstract The dependence of gear tooth wear on the angle of skew is investigated. It is noted that in gear mechanisms, due to elastic deformations of the elements, manufacturing and installation errors, the symmetry of the system’s compliance is violated, and instead of nominal contact between the teeth, edge contact takes place. As a result, there is a concentration of stresses in the places of initial contact of the teeth, contact stresses sharply increase in these places, which in turn cause increased wear of the teeth in these zones. Because of this, the load capacity of the transmission is reduced, and the durability of the entire mechanism is also significantly reduced. From what has been said, it is important to establish the dependence of the wear value on the transmission load parameters, primarily on the angle of skew. The problem was solved using the method proposed in the paper using an elastic base model. In order to increase the accuracy of matching the specified model with the real picture, a bed with a variable base coefficient is used in the work. Formulas are obtained in closed form for the amount of wear as a function of the skew angle. Verification of these formulas according to the experimental data available in the literature has shown good convergence. It was found that the misalignment significantly increases tooth wear. The results can be useful in the design of gearboxes with cylindrical gears.