Have you ever wanted to figure out how much a print costs? Or how much you should charge someone for a print? It’s actually quite a complex question. To provide some help, we’ve put together this easy-to-use online calculator. It includes the basic factors that are pretty easy to obtain, and gives you a reasonable cost calculation.

Using the calculator is easy: just go through the data boxes below, and fill in the appropriate information. You will get a lot of the information from the slicing software’s report on the print job, but you’ll also have to make a few guesses about the future of your equipment.

Both resin and filament 3D printers will work with this calculator, as long as you’re able to obtain the weight of material used in the job. FFF slicers typically report weight, but sometimes resin slicers report material consumption in ml. A rough approach to convert ml to grams is to consider them equivalent.

IMPORTANT: several fields ask for prices. The currency doesn’t matter, but just be sure to use the same currency in each of these fields.

If you have any suggestions for improving this calculator, please contact us.

3D Print Job Cost Calculator

Before the Job

Design Cost:

Cost for creating or acquiring the 3D model(s) for this job. Enter zero if it was free.

Information from your Slicer

Print Weight (grams):

Total weight of the print job, including support material.

Print Time (mins):

Estimated duration of the print job.

Materials Cost

Material Cost (per kg):

Average price per kg of material used.

About Your 3D Printer

3D Printer Purchase Price:

Total acquisition cost of the 3D printer, incl. shipping and taxes.

3D Printer Power Consumption (W):

Power consumption of the 3D printer in watts.

Electricity Cost (per kWh):

Your cost of electricity per kWh.

Expected 3D Printer Lifetime (years):

Estimated years of use of this 3D printer until its retirement or breakdown.

Typical Usage (hrs/day):

Average daily usage of the printer over its lifetime.

Repair Ratio (percent):

Anticipated repair costs as a percentage of the purchase price. If you expect to spend the same amount repairing it, then enter 100%.

Labor Cost

Manual Labor Cost (per hour):

Your hourly rate for operating the machine.

Print Setup Time (mins):

Time spent setting up the print job in slicing software.

Print Operations Time (mins):

Time spent starting and monitoring the print job.

Print Post Processing Time (mins):

Time spent post-processing all parts from a single job.

Other Costs

Fail Ratio (percent):

Estimated percentage of failed print jobs. If every third job fails, enter 33.

Component Cost:

Cost of non-printable components for this job, including bolts, attachments, wiring, etc.

Markup (percent):

Desired profit markup percentage.

Quantity (number):

Number of identical print jobs to be run.

Results

Total Customer Price:

$0.00