Pricing guide for 3D print shops
Most underpricing comes from a cost that leaves something out: the packaging, the minutes, the parts that did not come out right. Here is the formula, then one real example worked from start to finish: desk cable organiser, which costs $4.56 per part and sells at $9.12.
Updated . Example prices checked on supplier sites the same month.
Margin is the share of the price you keep. A 50% margin means the price is twice the cost. A 60% margin means 2.5 times.
A small print shop or print farm usually runs a job of 10 to 50 copies of one part. This example prints 10 desk organisers of 85 g plus 5 g of purge and supports each, 4 hours a print, with 5% failed prints.
| Material | Used | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| PLA filament, 1 kg spool$18.99 for 1 kg | 947.37 g | $17.99 |
| Labour: 1 h 5 min at $20.00/hr | $21.67 | |
| Time on the printer: 42 h 6 min at $0.14/hr | $5.93 | |
| Total for 10 parts | $45.59 | |
| Cost per part | $4.56 | |
Prices change and shipping is extra. They are here to make the example real, not as a quote. Put your own prices in the calculator.
Shops that buy wholesale usually pay about half of the shop price. Half of $9.12 is $4.56. That still covers the $4.56 cost, with $0.00 left per part.
The 3d printing cost calculator starts with this example. Change the prices and amounts to yours and you have your cost and price in a minute. Save it as a recipe in Stockria and the cost stays right when a supplier changes a price.
Add filament, printer time at an hourly rate, failed prints and your time to get the cost per part. Then divide by 1 minus your margin. A part that costs $2.00 sells at $4.00 for a 50% margin.
Divide the filament and printer cost of one print by 1 minus your failure rate. With a 5% failure rate, divide by 0.95. That spreads the cost of the failed prints over the good ones.
Neither alone. Grams miss the printer time and hours miss the filament. Add both, plus your time, and price from the total. Long, light prints and short, heavy ones then both come out right.
Setup and slicing are done once per job, so they spread over more parts. Filament and printer time per part stay the same. A job of 50 usually costs less per part than a job of 5.