🖨️ 3D Print Cost Calculator
Calculate accurate costs for 3D printing projects including filament, electricity, machine time, and labor. Perfect for pricing prints, estimating project costs, or running a 3D printing service.
Printer Type
Print Details (FDM)
Operating Costs
Business Settings (Optional)
📊 Typical Material Costs
PLA Filament
Cost: $15-25/kg
Avg: $0.015-0.025/gram
Best for: General prints, prototypes
Brands: eSun, Hatchbox, Overture
PETG Filament
Cost: $20-30/kg
Avg: $0.02-0.03/gram
Best for: Functional parts, outdoor use
Brands: Prusament, 3DXTech
ABS Filament
Cost: $18-28/kg
Avg: $0.018-0.028/gram
Best for: Heat-resistant parts
Brands: Polymaker, Prusament
Standard Resin
Cost: $25-40/liter
Avg: $0.025-0.04/ml
Best for: Detailed miniatures
Brands: Elegoo, Anycubic
💡 Expert Tips from a 3D Printing Service Owner
Track your actual costs for 20-30 prints before setting prices. Theoretical calculations are great, but real-world printing has hidden costs: failed prints (mine run 8-12% failure rate), support material you can't reclaim, wasted filament from purge/priming, and time spent troubleshooting. I thought my cost per print was $3.50 based on calculator estimates. After tracking 50 prints meticulously—weighing filament before and after, timing actual print duration including restarts—my real cost averaged $4.80. That 37% difference would've killed my business if I'd priced at theoretical cost.
Electricity cost is negligible—don't obsess over it, but do include it. A 10-hour print at 150W costs $0.18 in electricity (at $0.12/kWh). That's insignificant compared to $4 in filament or $15 in machine time, but customers notice if you can't justify your pricing. I list it separately on invoices even though it's tiny. What DOES matter: heated chamber printers (Voron, Bambu X1C with chamber heater) can hit 300-500W, doubling your power cost. My Voron 2.4 with chamber at 60°C uses about $0.50/day in electricity vs $0.20 for my Ender 3. Track your specific printer with a power meter.
Printer depreciation is real—calculate it or lose money slowly. An Ender 3 ($200) lasting 2000 hours = $0.10/hour depreciation. A Prusa MK4 ($1000) over 5000 hours = $0.20/hour. Add nozzle replacements ($15 every 200 hours = $0.075/hr), belts, fans, hotends. My actual maintenance cost over 18 months: $340 for a $250 printer (1200 hours of printing) = $0.28/hour real cost. I wasn't tracking this initially and wondered why I wasn't profitable despite "covering material costs." Those $0.28/hr × 800 hours = $224 in unaccounted expenses ate my profit margin completely.
Charge for your labor separately from machine time—they're different costs. Machine time is what the printer ties up (opportunity cost). Labor is YOUR time for design work, print setup, support removal, post-processing, quality checking. I charge $2/hour machine time but $25/hour for actual labor. A complex miniature might be 6 hours print ($12 machine) + 1.5 hours setup/cleanup/finishing ($37.50 labor) = $49.50 before materials. Early on, I lumped everything into "per hour" rates and made $8/hour effective wage while thinking I was charging $20/hour. Separate the rates, track both accurately.
Markup percentages vary wildly by print complexity and customer type. Simple commodity prints (phone cases, basic brackets): 20-30% markup max due to competition. Custom designs: 50-100% markup justified. One-off complex prints with finishing work: 100-200% markup. I printed a fully assembled articulated dragon for a client—18 hours print time, 4 hours assembly/sanding/painting. Cost: $28. I charged $180 (540% markup). Customer was thrilled because commissioning a traditional sculptor would've been $400+. Know your value and charge accordingly based on what the customer is actually buying (result, not raw materials).
⚠️ Common 3D Printing Cost Mistakes
❌ Only charging for filament, ignoring machine time
The Problem: Pricing prints at material cost only, not accounting for your printer being tied up.
Real Example: A maker charged $5 for a 16-hour print that used $3.50 in filament, thinking they made $1.50 profit. But their printer sat idle for 16 hours earning $1.50 when they could've printed 3-4 smaller jobs worth $25 total in the same time. After a month of "busy work" printing long cheap jobs, they calculated earning $0.09/hour effective rate and were wondering why their hobby wasn't profitable. Their printer was a $300 asset generating pennies.
The Fix: Charge minimum $1-2/hour machine time for hobby work, $3-5/hour for business. A 16-hour print should bill (16 × $2) + $3.50 filament = $35.50 base cost minimum. Add markup on top of that.
❌ Not accounting for print failures
The Problem: Pricing based on successful prints without buffering for the 10-20% that fail.
Real Example: A student took on 20 custom orders at $8 each ($160 revenue), calculating perfect success. Their actual results: 3 prints failed completely (bed adhesion, warping), 2 had defects requiring reprints, one print had a power outage 8 hours in. They reprinted 6 total pieces, using an extra $35 in filament and 42 hours of machine time they hadn't budgeted. Net profit dropped from expected $120 to $45, and they delivered 3 days late, damaging their reputation.
The Fix: Add 10-15% failure buffer to all material and time estimates. If a print needs 50g filament, price for 55g ($0.10 extra). That buffer covers your real-world failure rate without eating profit margins.
❌ Forgetting post-processing time in labor costs
The Problem: Not billing for support removal, sanding, painting, or assembly time.
Real Example: A maker printed 10 miniatures for $50 total, thinking they charged properly for machine time and materials. Each mini required 20 minutes of careful support removal and 15 minutes of sanding/cleanup. That's 35 minutes × 10 = 5.8 hours of labor they performed for free. At even $15/hour labor value, they donated $87 worth of work while collecting $50. They lost $37 on the job plus materials, effectively paying the customer to do the work.
The Fix: Estimate post-processing time BEFORE quoting. Add it as labor hours. For that miniature job: $30 materials/machine + $87 labor (5.8hrs × $15) = $117 base cost. Add markup for $140-150 final quote. If customer balks, you know the job isn't worth taking.
❌ Using outdated filament cost in calculations
The Problem: Basing prices on old filament costs when current prices have increased 20-40%.
Real Example: A service provider bought PLA at $18/kg in 2021 and set their pricing formula at $0.018/gram. By 2023, their supplier's PLA was $28/kg ($0.028/gram), but they never updated their spreadsheet. Over 6 months of steady work (roughly 80kg of filament used), they lost $800 in untracked material cost increases ($0.01/gram × 80,000g). Their quoted prices no longer covered costs and they operated at a loss for months before realizing the problem.
The Fix: Update material costs EVERY time you reorder. Check current spool prices monthly even if you haven't reordered. Build a "last updated" date into your pricing calculator. I review my cost sheet the 1st of every month and adjust if filament prices shifted more than $2/kg.
❌ Not tracking actual print time vs. slicer estimates
The Problem: Blindly trusting slicer time estimates without verifying against real prints.
Real Example: A maker quoted a customer based on Cura showing "8h 32m" print time. They charged for 9 hours. The actual print took 11 hours 45 minutes due to slower acceleration settings they'd configured for quality but forgotten about. Cura's estimate assumed default speeds they weren't using. They undercharged by 2.75 hours ($8.25 at their $3/hr rate) and the print finished late, delaying delivery. After this happened 4 times, they realized their average time overrun was 22%, costing them hundreds in unbilled time.
The Fix: Print 5-10 test objects and compare slicer estimates to actual times with a stopwatch. Calculate your real-world "correction factor" (for me, 1.15× slicer time). Apply this multiplier to all quotes. If Cura says 8 hours, quote for 9.2 hours. Better to finish early than late, and you're charging fairly for actual printer usage.
📖 How to Use This Calculator
- Choose printer type: FDM (filament) or Resin (liquid)
- Enter material amount: Get this from your slicer after slicing the model (grams for FDM, ml for resin)
- Enter material cost: Check your spool/bottle price ($/kg for filament, $/L for resin)
- Enter print time: From your slicer's estimate (add 10-20% buffer for reality)
- Set power consumption: 150W typical for FDM, 60W for resin (check your printer specs)
- Configure costs: Electricity rate from your bill, printer wear ($0.10-0.30/hr typical), failure buffer (10-15%)
- Add labor rate: If you're doing setup/finishing work, add your hourly rate
- Set markup: 30-50% for business, 0% for personal projects
- Click calculate: Get complete cost breakdown and pricing recommendation
"Most 3D printing hobbyists lose money without realizing it because they don't track costs properly. They see filament cost but ignore machine depreciation, electricity, failures, and their own time. After running a print service for 6 years with meticulous cost tracking, I can tell you the difference between a $5 print and a $25 print isn't the amount of plastic—it's understanding the true cost of operating equipment and valuing your expertise. This calculator captures those hidden costs that separate profitable businesses from expensive hobbies."