The main goal of the present paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the intrinsic coupling loss for multi-step index (MSI) fibres and compare it with those obtained for step- and graded-index fibres. We investigate the effects of tolerances to each waveguide parameter typical in standard manufacturing processes by carrying out several simulations using the ray-tracing method. The results obtained will serve us to identify the most critical waveguide variations to which fibre manufactures will have to pay closer attention to achieve lower coupling losses.