How this is calculated

Here are the steps, with the example on this page: 10 PLA planters.

  • Filament per print = spool price ÷ spool weight × grams used. Units are changed first: 1 kg is 1,000 g. $19.99 ÷ 1,000 × 85 g = $1.70.
  • Printer rate = printer price ÷ hours of life + spare parts per hour + watts ÷ 1,000 × price per kWh. $449 ÷ 5,000 + $0.05 + 0.15 × $0.18 = $0.167 an hour.
  • Printer time per print = print hours × printer rate. 4.5 hours × $0.167 = $0.75.
  • Failed prints: filament and printer time ÷ (1 - failure rate). At 5%, $1.70 becomes $1.79 and $0.75 becomes $0.79. Failures add $0.13 a part.
  • Finishing = minutes ÷ 60 × hourly rate. 5 minutes at $20 is $1.67.
  • Setup per part = setup minutes ÷ 60 × hourly rate ÷ quantity. 15 minutes at $20 is $5.00, and ÷ 10 parts is $0.50.
  • Cost per part = $1.79 + $0.79 + $1.67 + $0.40 extras + $0.50 = $5.15. The job costs $51.45.
  • Suggested price = cost ÷ (1 - margin). At a 50% margin: $5.15 ÷ 0.5 = $10.29 a part, $102.91 for the job.

Why your cost per part drifts

Filament prices move, a new printer changes your hourly rate, and a run of failed prints quietly eats the profit. If you price from the filament alone, every part that takes hours to print or minutes to clean up is sold too cheap.

Stockria keeps each part with its filament and its printer and finishing time. When you print a job, it takes the filament off your shelf by the gram and adds the finished parts, so you know what you have, what each part cost, and how many you can still print from the spools you have. See how it works for job shops and print farms, or read how to work out a machine hour rate.

How to work out the cost of a 3D printed part

  1. Price the filament. Divide the spool price by its weight, then multiply by the grams the slicer shows for one part.
  2. Price the printer time. Work out your printer's hourly rate from wear, spare parts and power, and multiply by the print hours.
  3. Allow for failed prints. Divide the filament and printer cost by 1 minus your failure rate. At 5%, divide by 0.95.
  4. Add your time and extras. Add the finishing minutes at your hourly rate, plus anything that goes with the part, like magnets or a box.
  5. Share out the setup. Turn the setup minutes into money and divide by the number of parts in the job.
  6. Set your price. Divide the cost per part by 1 minus your margin. For a 50% margin, divide by 0.5.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to 3D print a part?

With the example on this page, a 4 inch PLA planter that takes 85 g of filament and 4.5 hours to print costs about $5.15, counting failed prints, 5 minutes of finishing, setup and a box. The filament is only $1.70 of that. Your time is often the biggest cost, so do not leave it out.

How do I work out an hourly rate for my printer?

Add three things. Wear: the printer price divided by the hours you expect it to print, so $449 over 5,000 hours is about $0.09 an hour. Spare parts like nozzles, plates and belts, about $0.05 an hour here. And power: the watts it draws, divided by 1,000, times your price per kWh. Together that is about $0.17 an hour for the example.

How much electricity does a 3D printer use?

It depends on the printer, the bed temperature and the room. Many home printers draw somewhere around 100 to 300 W while printing PLA, more while heating up. At 150 W and $0.18 per kWh, a 4.5 hour print uses 0.675 kWh, about $0.12. A plug-in power meter shows what yours really uses.

How do failed prints change the cost?

A failed print wastes its filament and its printer time. If 5% of prints fail, you print about 1.05 times for every good part, so the filament and printer cost go up by about 5%. The calculator shows that share on its own line, so you can see what failures cost you.

Should I charge for slicing and setup?

Yes. Slicing, clearing the plate and starting the job take time even for a single part. The calculator charges setup once per job at your hourly rate and shares it across the parts, so a one-off part carries all of it and a run of 50 carries very little.

Does this work for resin printing?

Yes. Enter the resin weight for one part and the price and size of the bottle. Slicers often show resin in ml: most resins weigh about 1.1 g per ml, so 50 ml is about 55 g. Add the time to wash and cure the part as finishing time, and gloves and alcohol as extras.

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