What a 3D print really costs
The price of filament is the obvious part, but a fair cost per print also includes electricity, wear on the printer and the prints that fail. This calculator adds all four and, if you sell your prints, applies a markup to suggest a selling price.
The formulas
- Filament = grams used ÷ spool weight × spool price
- Electricity = power (kW) × print hours × price per kWh
- Machine wear = print hours × wear cost per hour
- Total = (filament + electricity + wear) × (1 + failure margin)
- Selling price = total × (1 + markup)
Worked example
A 120 g PLA part takes 6 hours on a printer averaging 150 W.
- Filament: 120 ÷ 1,000 × $22 = $2.64.
- Electricity: 0.15 kW × 6 h = 0.9 kWh, × $0.17 = $0.15.
- Wear: 6 h × $0.25 = $1.50.
- Subtotal $4.29, plus a 10% failure margin = $4.72, or about 3.9 cents per gram.
Typical inputs
| Item | Typical value |
|---|---|
| PLA or PETG, 1 kg spool | $15 to $30 |
| TPU or specialty filament, 1 kg | $30 to $60 |
| Desktop FDM printer, average draw | 100 to 200 W |
| US electricity price | about 17 cents per kWh |
| Wear and parts | 10 to 50 cents per hour |
| Failed prints | 5 to 15% of material |
Estimating machine wear
Divide what the printer cost, plus the nozzles, belts, build plates and fans you expect to replace, by the hours it will print over its life. A $600 printer expected to run 3,000 hours, with $150 of parts, comes to $0.25 per hour. Printers used for business should also count their share of maintenance time.
Where the time goes
Material and electricity are usually small next to the time spent on design, slicing, supports and finishing. When pricing commissions, many makers charge an hourly rate for design and post-processing on top of the print cost, and keep the markup for the print itself modest.