3D Print Cost Calculator Community

What this tool does

Filament weighs almost nothing per gram, but a real print also costs electricity, machine wear and your own time — and guessing at a price undercharges most makers selling prints. Enter the real grams of filament used, your filament price per kilogram, the print duration, your printer's power draw and your local electricity price, an hourly machine-time rate (covering depreciation and maintenance) and any labor/post-processing time, and this tool adds up the real, itemized cost.

How to use it, step by step

1. Enter filament grams used and price per kg.
2. Enter print time and your printer's wattage and electricity price.
3. Enter your machine hourly rate and any labor time.
4. Set a waste allowance and markup to see the suggested price.

Tips from the guide

• Machine hourly rate should roughly cover depreciation (printer cost divided by its expected lifetime hours) plus maintenance — a common starting figure is $0.50–$2/hr for a typical desktop FDM printer.
• Build a waste allowance from your own real failure rate over recent prints rather than a guess — even a reliable setup benefits from a small buffer.
• For a batch of identical prints, multiply the per-unit filament and time figures first, then run the total through the calculator once, since machine time and labor often don't scale perfectly linearly per unit.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Pricing only on filament weight and ignoring electricity, machine wear and your own time — the real cost of a print is almost always more than the filament alone.
• Using a national average electricity price instead of your actual local rate, which can be off by a large margin depending on region and time of use.
• Forgetting a waste/failure allowance entirely, which means occasional failed prints are quietly absorbed as pure loss instead of spread across successful sales.

Who uses it

• Makers pricing prints to sell. Get a real, defensible cost breakdown instead of guessing a round number.
• Print farms quoting jobs. Work from real per-job inputs (grams, time, machine rate) instead of a flat per-gram rule of thumb.
• Hobbyists curious what a print actually costs. See filament, electricity and machine time broken out separately.

How to ask a question people can answer

A good thread on the 3D Print Cost Calculator saves everyone time. Start with a title that names the exact problem, such as the input you used, the result you expected and the result you got. A title like “Not working” is hard to answer, while a title with the specifics gets replies quickly.

• Say what you tried. List the steps you followed and any settings you changed, so replies do not repeat what you already did.
• Share a small example. A short sample input and the output you saw is worth more than a long description. Remove anything private first.
• Mention your setup. Your device, browser and whether you are on a phone or a computer can explain many odd results.
• One question per thread. Separate topics get clearer answers and are easier to find later with the search box above.
• Come back and reply. If a suggestion worked, say so and upvote it, and if you found the fix yourself, post it for the next person.

Community rules

Be kind, stay on topic and keep personal data out of your posts. Do not post adult, hateful or illegal content, advertising or repeated links. Every post is shown with its author’s username and date, and posts that break these rules can be hidden by moderators. This space is for help with the 3D Print Cost Calculator and related tasks, and it is separate from the sitewide discussion forum where broader topics live.