Guide

How to Price 3D Prints

Price a 3D print by adding up every layer it actually costs to produce — material, energy, machine wear, your labour, a reserve for failed prints and overhead — then solving a sell price that covers those costs at your target margin after platform fees. This guide walks through each layer with real numbers you can open in the calculator.

Step 1 — Cost the material

Filament is costed by weight. A 1 kg spool at $25 with 5% waste gives 950 g usable, so the rate is $25 ÷ 950 ≈ $0.0263/g. A 50 g print therefore costs about $1.32 in material. Resin is costed by volume at your price per litre, with IPA, gloves and FEP wear added separately.

cost/gram  = spool_price ÷ usable_grams
material   = 50 g × $0.0263/g ≈ $1.32

Open the filament calculator → Open this example in the calculator →

Step 2 — Add energy and machine time

A 6-hour print at an average 120 W and $0.16/kWh uses 0.72 kWh — about $0.12. Machine time covers the printer paying for itself: a $400 printer with a $50 residual and $80 lifetime maintenance over 4,000 hours depreciates at $0.1075/h, so 6 hours is about $0.65.

energy   = 120 W ÷ 1000 × 6 h × $0.16 ≈ $0.12
machine  = ($400 + $80 − $50) ÷ 4000 h × 6 h ≈ $0.65

Open the electricity calculator → Open this example in the calculator →

Step 3 — Add labour and a failure reserve

Count setup, post-processing and packing at your hourly rate. Keep setup separate — it happens once per order, so it amortises across a batch. Then add a failure reserve so the prints that genuinely fail are covered over time, not ignored.

labour          = (setup + post + packing minutes) ÷ 60 × rate
failure_reserve = repeatable_cost × p ÷ (1 − p)

Step 4 — Solve the price (margin vs markup)

Margin and markup are not the same. Margin is profit as a share of the selling price; markup is profit as a share of cost. On a $10 cost, a 30% margin prices at $14.29 while a 30% markup prices at $13.00. With platform fees, solve backwards so your take-home still hits the target:

price = (cost + fixed_fee) ÷ (1 − percentage_fee − margin)

Worked end-to-end example

Material $1.32 + energy $0.12 + machine $0.65 + labour $1.00 + failure reserve $0.25 + overhead $0.50 ≈ $3.84 cost. At a 30% target margin with a 6.5% + $0.30 fee, the solved price is about $6.52 — leaving roughly $1.96 profit after fees. Build it live in the 3D printing cost calculator.

The mistakes that quietly kill margin

Confusing markup with margin and underpricing by the gap between them.
Forgetting machine depreciation — the printer is a consumable too.
Ignoring failed prints until a bad month wipes out the profit.
Folding shipping charged and shipping cost into one number.
Applying percentage fees to the wrong base, or forgetting the fixed per-order fee.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good profit margin on 3D prints?

There is no universal number — it depends on your market, volume and risk. Many hobby sellers target 25–40% margin on custom work; commodity items run thinner. The point is to choose a margin deliberately and price to it, not to guess. The calculator solves the price for whatever target you set.

Should I charge by the hour or by the gram?

Neither alone is enough. Charging by the gram ignores machine time, labour and failures; charging by the hour ignores material. A defensible price itemises every layer — material, energy, machine, labour, failure reserve, overhead — then adds margin and fees.

How do I account for failed prints?

Use an expected-value reserve: repeatable cost × p ÷ (1 − p), where p is your failure probability. At a 10% failure rate on $3.10 of repeatable cost, that is about $0.34 per job — enough to cover the prints that genuinely fail over time, without padding every quote arbitrarily.

These figures are illustrative estimates. Your machine, materials, rates and failure experience will differ — enter your own numbers. The definitions and formula versions behind every layer are documented in the methodology.