Print Room HQ; FREE TOOL · 3D print cost calculator
What does that print really cost?
Filament is only part of it. Add the electricity, wear on the printer, your hands-on time and the prints that fail, then your markup. Change any number and the price updates as you type. Nothing is sent anywhere.
; HOW IT WORKS
How to work out what a 3D print costs
Most people price a print by its filament and stop there. That's the smallest honest number you can get, and it's why so many first print sales lose money. A real cost has five parts:
- Filament: grams used × (spool price ÷ spool weight). A 120 g print from a $20, 1 kg spool is $2.40.
- Electricity: print hours × average watts ÷ 1000 × your rate. Five and a half hours at 150 W is 0.83 kWh, about 14 cents at $0.17.
- Printer wear: what the printer costs per hour of its working life, plus upkeep. A $600 printer that lasts 5,000 print hours costs 12 cents an hour before nozzles, plates and belts.
- Your time: clearing the plate, pulling supports, sanding, packing. Ten minutes at $20 an hour is $3.33, often more than the plastic.
- Failed prints: if 1 in 20 prints fails, every good one carries 5% of the filament, power and machine time that went in the bin.
How much should you charge?
Start from that real cost and add a markup. Hobby sellers commonly use 30 to 100% on top, and charge separately for design time, rush jobs, finishing and multi-color work that needs a lot of purging. If a customer pushes back on price, the breakdown above is a good way to show them what goes into it.
How much electricity does a 3D printer use?
Less than most people think. Once the bed is hot, a desktop FDM printer averages roughly 100 to 200 W printing PLA. ABS, ASA and nylon with a hot bed and chamber use more. The first few minutes of heating use the most, which is why many short prints cost proportionally more power than one long one. A smart plug that measures power will give you the real number for your printer.