If you've started selling 3D prints, you've probably priced a few jobs by weighing them and charging something per gram. It's quick, and it feels objective. The problem is that filament is often one of the smallest costs in a print — the biggest is usually your time. This guide breaks down every cost in a 3D print, walks through a complete example, and shows how to turn it into a price you can defend.
How much should you charge for a 3D print?
Charge for a 3D print by adding material, electricity, printer wear, a buffer for failed prints, your hands-on time and any extras, then adding a profit margin. In the worked example below, an 85-gram PLA print taking 5 hours costs about $7.95 to make and sells for about $13.25 at a 40% margin — and most of that cost is labor, not filament.
What goes into the cost of a 3D print?
| Cost | How to calculate it |
|---|---|
| Material | Grams used ÷ 1,000 × price per kg (or ml ÷ 1,000 × price per liter for resin) |
| Electricity | Printer watts ÷ 1,000 × print hours × your price per kWh |
| Printer wear | Printer cost ÷ expected lifetime hours × print hours |
| Failure buffer | A percentage of the above to cover reprints |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes ÷ 60 × your hourly rate |
| Extras | Magnets, inserts, paint, packaging |
Your slicer gives you material and print time directly, so most of these take seconds to fill in.
What does a complete worked example look like?
An 85 g PLA print, 5 hours, on a $400 printer:
| Cost | Inputs | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Material | 85 g at $20/kg | $1.70 | 21% |
| Electricity | 150 W × 5 h at $0.17/kWh | $0.13 | 2% |
| Printer wear | $400 ÷ 5,000 h × 5 h | $0.40 | 5% |
| Failure buffer | 10% of the three above | $0.22 | 3% |
| Your time | 15 min at $20/hour | $5.00 | 63% |
| Extras | Packaging | $0.50 | 6% |
| Total cost | $7.95 |
At a 40% profit margin, the price is $7.95 ÷ 0.6 = $13.25.
Two things jump out. The filament is only about a fifth of the cost. And fifteen minutes of your time — removing supports, cleaning up, packing — costs more than everything else combined.
Why does per-gram pricing undercharge?
Per-gram pricing assumes cost scales with weight. But your hands-on time barely changes between a 40 g print and an 85 g print, and printer time scales with hours, not grams. A tall, thin print can tie up your printer far longer than a squat, heavy one.
The result: per-gram pricing tends to undercharge small, fiddly prints (lots of support removal, little filament) and long prints that tie up your machine. A cost-based price covers both.
How should you set your profit margin?
Your hourly rate already pays you for your time, so the margin is what the business keeps on top. Many sellers start around 30–50% and adjust based on demand and competition. Custom design work, rush jobs and one-off prototypes usually justify more than repeat production of a proven model.
Once you know your costs, it's also useful to look at the price per printer hour — here, $13.25 ÷ 5 hours = $2.65. Our guide to quoting 3D printing jobs explains how to use that number to compare jobs and set a minimum charge.
What about selling on Etsy?
If you sell prints on Etsy, fees come out of your price. On a $13.25 print, Etsy's US listing fee and 6.5% transaction fee plus 3% + $0.25 payment processing add up to about $1.71, leaving you about $3.59 of profit after the $7.95 cost. Selling 3D prints on Etsy covers fees, pricing and the licensing rules for models you didn't design.
A related guide covers resin vs filament printing costs.
