How much does 3D printing cost? A practical pricing formula

Two jobs with the same mass can have very different costs. One may print without supports and leave the plate in a minute; another occupies the machine for a day, needs manual supports and sanding, or must be repeated after a failure. Calculate each component separately.

Base formula

For internal costing, start with:

Production cost = material + machine time + energy + consumables + labour + failure allowance + packaging.

Selling price = production cost + taxes or platform fees + margin.

Practical next step: Calculate 3D printing cost

Every input should come from your workshop data. Do not copy another shop’s hourly printer rate without accounting for utilisation, maintenance and local costs.

Material

Calculate material from the sliced mass including supports, purge towers and expected waste. For FDM:

spool price / spool mass × slicer material estimate.

For resin, include wash losses, supports, vat residue and filters. Model mass without supports understates the job cost.

Machine time and depreciation

An hourly machine rate should cover wear, maintenance and non-productive time. One simple starting point is:

(machine purchase price + expected repairs) / planned productive hours.

Then account for the production slot being occupied. A long print blocks capacity and carries more failure exposure even when material use is low.

Labour and post-processing

Include model inspection and repair, slicer setup, support removal, washing and curing, assembly, sanding, priming, painting, customer communication and packaging.

An automated printer does not mean zero labour. Preparation can cost more than the plastic on a bespoke order.

Failure allowance

Track failures by product class. If complex miniatures periodically need a reprint, price an evidence-based expected allowance. Do not charge one customer for every experiment, but do not model production as perfect either.

For a new model, run a test first and agree separately on the risk and scope of later changes.

A market-neutral calculation example

Suppose the slicer reports 120 g and nine hours. Enter the current material price, your internal machine-hour rate, 25 minutes of operator time, packaging and a failure allowance. Add modelling or generation as a separate line if the customer supplied only a photograph.

Publish a formula and editable example rather than a universal currency price: materials, wages, electricity and demand vary by market and date.

Case: a personalised figurine

Digital generation can reduce sculpting time, but the order still includes variant selection, mesh correction, a base, a test, printing and finishing. Separate “3D model preparation”, “printing” and “finishing” in the quote so the customer understands the value and the model can be reused without charging twice.

Mistakes and limitations

Do not treat electricity as the only overhead, use unsupported final mass, or forget marketplace fees and shipping. Pricing too low removes the capacity to replace failures; a high unexplained price creates distrust. Medical, engineered and certified parts need more than a simple calculator.

Frequently asked questions

Summary

Transparent pricing separates material from machine capacity and skilled work. AIPRINTGEN can shorten model creation, while the physical product still needs a full file-to-packaged-part calculation.