3D Print Cost Calculator
Calculate the true cost of a 3D print: filament, electricity, and a failure buffer, from slicer weight and print time. Free and instant.
A 8 h print using 0.2 lb of filament costs $2.69 all-in — $2.27 material + $0.18 electricity with a 10% failure buffer.
How it works
Work out what a print really costs. Enter the filament used (from your slicer), your spool price, the print time, your printer's average power draw, and your electricity rate. A failure buffer spreads the cost of the occasional failed print across successful ones.
- Material = filament used (kg) × spool price per kg
- Electricity = power (kW) × hours × price per kWh
Enter filament used from your slicer, spool price, print time, average printer power and your electricity rate for material cost, energy cost and total. What it deliberately excludes is your time and the machine itself — modelling, slicing, bed prep, part removal and post-processing dwarf the material cost on most jobs, and printer depreciation is real if you print constantly. If you are pricing prints for other people, calculate this figure and then add labour and a margin, because the material cost alone is not a business.
Frequently asked questions
What does a 3D print actually cost?
Less than most people guess. A typical 8-hour PLA print using 100 g of filament from a $25 spool costs $2.50 in material and about $0.18 in electricity — roughly $2.95 with a 10 percent failure buffer. Even a 24-hour, 250 g print comes to under $6.
Why is electricity such a small part of it?
Because printers draw far less than people expect — typically 100 to 200 watts average, with the bed rather than the hotend accounting for most of it. Eight hours at 150 W is 1.2 kWh, about 18 cents at typical US rates. The material dominates the cost of almost every print.
What is the failure buffer for?
Spreading the cost of failed prints across the successful ones. If roughly one print in ten fails, adding 10 percent to every job's cost recovers the wasted filament and time over the long run. Set it from your own experience: a well-tuned printer running known profiles may sit near zero, while a new machine or an experimental material warrants more.
Examples & notes
- Typical 8-hour PLA print
- Day-long 250 g print
- Quick part, pricey filament
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