3D Printing Cost Calculator
Calculate the true cost of 3D prints including filament cost per gram, electricity per hour, machine wear, and your labor. Get accurate cost per hour and cost per gram calculations, plus profitable selling prices after marketplace fees. Stop guessing and start charging what your 3D printing actually costs.
Display only — amounts are not converted between currencies.
Filament and print
Labor, waste and price
Total production cost
$14.33
- Total production cost
- $14.33
- Recommended selling price
- $32.94
- Profit
- $16.47
- Profit margin
- 50.0%
- Profit per hour
- $3.14
- Cost per hour
- $2.73
Cost breakdown
| Filament cost | $3.00 |
|---|---|
| Electricity cost | $0.11 |
| Machine cost | $4.00 |
| Labor cost | $5.00 |
| Waste cost | $0.97 |
| Packaging | $1.25 |
| Platform fees | $2.14 |
| Total production cost | $14.33 |
Printed · Craft Pricing Tools · CraftPricingTools.com
Total production cost
$14.33
When to use this calculator
Use this calculator when you need both the real production cost of a print and a selling price. Filament is only the start: electricity, machine time, cleanup labor, failed prints and packaging all belong in the number.
Filament is prorated from spool price and grams used. Electricity uses printer watts, hours and your kWh rate. Machine cost is hours times your hourly depreciation rate. Labor is finishing minutes times your wage.
Waste applies to production costs so failed prints are funded by the jobs that succeed. The recommended selling price then applies your target margin after marketplace fees. If you already have a listing price, switch to the 3D printing profit calculator.
How this calculator works
How we calculate this
- Filament = grams used / spool grams × spool price
- Electricity = (watts / 1000) × hours × kWh rate
- Machine = print hours × machine hourly rate
- Labor = (minutes / 60) × labor rate
- Waste = (filament + electricity + machine + labor) × waste %
- Total cost = those lines + packaging
- Recommended price = cost / (1 − margin − fee %) when that denominator is valid
- Profit per hour = profit / (print hours + labor hours)
Example
Example: a 120 g functional print
$25 per 1 kg spool, 120 g used, $0.15/kWh, 150 W printer, 5 hour print, $0.80/hr machine rate, 15 minutes labor at $20/hr, 8% waste, $1.25 packaging, 50% margin, 6.5% fees.
- Filament is $3.00 — real, but usually not the largest line.
- Electricity is about $0.11.
- Labor and machine time will likely exceed filament.
- Waste adds a slice of production so reprints are funded.
- The recommended price must cover fees taken from the customer payment, so it is higher than cost ÷ (1 − margin) if you forget fees.
- Check profit per hour — overnight prints can look profitable in dollars and poor in time.
How much should I charge?
Charge the recommended price when you sell the part, then sanity-check profit per hour. If the hourly number is too low, raise margin or shorten the print (different infill, smaller model, faster profile).
If you only need shop cost for internal use, ignore the price line and use total production cost. Quote rush jobs with a higher machine rate.
Pricing tips
- Weigh a finished part or read slicer grams — do not guess 50 g for everything.
- Put support-heavy prints in a higher waste or labor time.
- Increase machine hourly rate if the printer is a bottleneck.
- Include drying, sanding and insert installation in labor minutes.
- Batch identical parts to spread setup labor.
- Keep filament and kWh rates in one note so you are not re-guessing every quote.
Common mistakes
- Pricing only filament because electricity “is just the house bill.”
- Assuming zero failures on a new filament or a tall print.
- Matching the cheapest Etsy print without checking hours.
- Using 90% margin plus 15% fees — the math cannot close.
- Leaving support removal out of labor.
FAQ
How do I calculate 3D printing cost?
Add filament, electricity, machine time, labor, waste and packaging. This calculator lists each line from your inputs, then optionally turns that cost into a selling price after fees.
How much should I charge for a 3D print?
Charge a price that covers production cost and your target profit after fees. This calculator outputs that recommended price and the hourly return so a cheap, slow print is visible.
What machine hourly rate should I use?
A simple method is purchase price divided by expected productive hours, plus a little for maintenance. Even $0.50–$2.00/hr changes long prints.
Should I charge for failed prints?
Yes, through a waste or failure percentage on successful jobs. Customers should not pay for a specific failure, but they should pay for a process that sometimes fails.
Related calculators
- 3D Printing Profit Calculator — Enter your print cost and selling price to see profit, margin, markup and hourly economics.
- 3D Printer Filament Cost Calculator — Calculate filament cost per print, per gram and per kilogram including waste.