To provide a material for forming a glass-made optical element before press forming in the case of producing an optical element made of optical glass containing a large quantity of easily reducible components other than lead by a press forming process, and to provide a method for stably producing an optical element free from surface defects with high productivity and reasonable cost while reliably preventing adhesion of optical glass to dies during press forming by inhibiting reduction of easily reducible components in the optical glass.

The material 10 for forming a glass optical element has a three-dimensional shape and comprises: a core glass 1 that substantially bears the optical properties; and a surface layer 2 with which at least the surface of the core glass which serves as an optical functional surface has been coated. At least a portion of the surface layer in contact with the core glass is borosilicate glass that has a chemical composition comprising, by mass%, 78.0-83.0% SiO₂, 3.5-5.0% Na₂O, 0.5-2.5% Al₂O₃ and 9.5-16.5% B₂O₃.