About the 3D Printing Cost Calculator
This 3D printing cost calculator adds up everything a print really costs: the filament it uses, the electricity the printer draws, a share of the printer’s purchase price, an allowance for failed prints and the time you spend removing supports and finishing. Enter the part weight from your slicer, your spool price and the print time, and it returns the cost per print and a suggested selling price.
It is built for hobbyists who want to know what a model actually costs, makers selling prints on Etsy or at markets, and small print farms quoting customer jobs. Because every line is shown separately, you can see whether material, machine time or your own labor drives the price — and which one to optimise.
The slicer’s filament estimate (in grams) is the most accurate input; if you only have a length in metres, multiply by about 3 g/m for 1.75 mm PLA. Printer power is the average draw while printing, which is usually well below the power supply’s rating once the bed is up to temperature.
With the default inputs, the total cost per print is $8.99. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the 3d printing cost calculator
- 1Slice the model and copy the filament weight (g) and print time into the calculator.
- 2Enter your spool price and net spool weight to get the price per gram.
- 3Add your printer’s average power draw and your electricity price per kWh.
- 4Enter the printer price and how many print hours you expect it to last.
- 5Set a failure allowance, your finishing time and labor rate, then choose a markup.
- 6Read the cost breakdown and the suggested selling price.
Formula and method
Filament cost is the grams your slicer reports multiplied by the price per gram of the spool. Electricity is the printer’s average power draw converted to kilowatts, times the print hours, times your tariff. Printer wear spreads the purchase price evenly over the hours you expect the machine to print, so a $400 printer expected to last 5,000 hours costs $0.08 for every hour it runs.
The failure allowance is added as a percentage of the material, power and machine cost, because a failed print wastes those but not your finishing time. Labor is charged separately at your hourly rate. The selling price applies a markup to the total cost; a 50% markup gives a 33% profit margin on the selling price.
- Weight
- Filament used by the print in grams
- W
- Average printer power draw in watts
- Hours
- Print time in hours
- Failure%
- Allowance for failed or reprinted parts
- Markup%
- Markup applied on top of total cost
Worked examples
Default: 120 g PLA part, 6-hour print
Filament is 120 g × $0.025/g = $3.00. Power is 0.15 kW × 6 h × $0.16 = $0.144 and printer wear is $400 ÷ 5,000 h × 6 h = $0.48. A 10% failure allowance on those $3.624 adds $0.36, 15 minutes of finishing at $20/h adds $5, for a total of $8.99; a 50% markup gives a price of about $13.48.
Large PETG print, 18 hours, no labor charged
Filament is 450 g × $0.022/g = $9.90, power is 0.2 kW × 18 h × $0.30 = $1.08 and wear is $0.08 × 18 = $1.44. Adding 5% for failures to the $12.42 subtotal gives $13.04, and doubling it (100% markup) suggests a price of about $26.08.
Small detailed miniature with heavy finishing
A 15 g part from a $40 spool uses $0.60 of material; power ($0.048) and wear ($0.16) bring the machine cost to $0.808, or $0.889 with the 10% failure allowance. Half an hour of finishing at $25/h ($12.50) dominates the $13.39 total, and a 40% markup gives about $18.74.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate the cost of a 3D print?+
Multiply the filament weight by the price per gram of your spool, then add electricity (kW × hours × tariff), a share of the printer’s price per print hour, an allowance for failures and any labor. This calculator does each step and shows the breakdown.
How much electricity does a 3D printer use?+
A typical desktop FDM printer averages roughly 100–250 W while printing, with peaks while the bed heats. At 150 W, a 10-hour print uses 1.5 kWh — about $0.24 at $0.16 per kWh — so electricity is usually a small part of the cost.
How much should I charge for 3D printing?+
Start from the full cost including your time, then add a markup. Many sellers use 50–200% markup depending on design work, finishing and demand. Custom design or modelling time should be quoted separately at your hourly rate.
How do I find how many grams of filament a print uses?+
Your slicer (PrusaSlicer, Cura, Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer) shows the estimated filament weight after slicing. If it only gives length, 1 metre of 1.75 mm PLA weighs about 3 g; PETG is slightly heavier because of its higher density.
Should I include printer depreciation in the price?+
Yes, if you sell prints. Nozzles, belts, build plates and eventually the printer itself wear out. Dividing the printer price by its expected print hours gives a simple per-hour charge that builds up the money to replace it.