How this calculator works
Filament is cheap and printer time is not. A part using $1.40 of PLA can occupy the machine for six hours, and at any honest machine rate that time dominates the cost several times over.
Failures matter more here than in most crafts, because a print that fails at hour seven has consumed nearly the whole cost of a successful one. Enter an honest failure rate and the allowance is applied to material, machine time and handling together.
The formula
- Material = quantity × grams per part × cost per gram ÷ (1 − waste %)
- Plates = ⌈ quantity ÷ parts per plate ⌉
- Printer time = plates × print minutes per plate
- Failure allowance = (material + printer + handling labour) ÷ (1 − failure %) − those costs
What to watch for
- Printer time usually dwarfs filament. Six hours at even $0.55 an hour is $3.30 against about $1.15 of PLA — and that machine rate is conservative for anything beyond a hobby printer.
- The failure allowance is applied to machine time as well as material, which matters enormously here: a print that fails at hour seven has consumed the electricity, the wear and the slot on the bed.
- Support removal and finishing is the largest labour line on most parts and is consistently under-estimated. Time it once properly.
- Fitting more parts per plate is the single most effective lever, because print time per plate rises far more slowly than the part count.
Common mistakes
- Pricing from filament weight alone, which typically covers under a fifth of the real cost.
- Using a printer rate that only counts electricity, ignoring depreciation and nozzle wear.
- Setting the failure rate to zero on long prints where it is most expensive.
- Forgetting support removal, which on a resin miniature can exceed the print cost.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for 3D printing?
Work from machine hours rather than filament. A 45-gram part on a six-hour plate of four typically costs $5 to $8 to produce once printer time, failures, handling and support removal are counted — several times the roughly $1.15 of filament in it. Pricing at a multiple of material cost is the most common way 3D printing services lose money.
What failure rate should I use?
Five to ten percent for well-tuned FDM on familiar materials, and higher for long prints, large parts, or anything in exotic filament. Resin is often around ten percent once failed supports and incomplete cures are counted. The important part is that the allowance covers machine time too, not just the plastic.
How do I work out my printer cost per hour?
Take the printer’s purchase price less resale over its useful life, add nozzles, belts, build surfaces, maintenance and electricity, then divide by the hours you realistically print in a year. The machine cost per hour calculator does exactly this. Most hobby printers land between $0.30 and $0.80 an hour.
Should I charge for modelling separately?
Usually yes, for custom work. Modelling is skilled time that is unrelated to how many copies get printed, so charging it as a one-off design fee — or setting it once per job as this calculator does — is fairer to both sides than burying it in a per-part price that then looks expensive.