The problem of estimating the surface area, L 0 , of a set G ⊂ R d has been extensively considered in several fields of research. For example, stereology focuses on the estimation of L 0 without needing to reconstruct the set G. From a more geometrical point of view, set estimation theory is interested in estimating the shape of the set. Thus, surface area estimation can be seen as a further step where the emphasis is placed on an important geometric characteristic of G. The Minkowski content is an attractive way to define L 0 that has been previously used in the literature on surface area estimation. Pateiro-López and Rodríguez-Casal [B. Pateiro-López and A. Rodríguez-Casal, Length and surface area estimation under smoothness restrictions, Adv. Appl. Prob. 40(2) (2008), pp. 348-358] proposed an estimator, L n , for L 0 under convexity type assumptions. In this paper, we obtain the L 1 -convergence rate of L n .