Once people know you have a 3D printer, the requests start: a replacement part, a batch of prototypes, a cosplay piece, a gift. Quoting each one from scratch is slow, so most people reach for a shortcut — a price per gram or a price per printer hour. Those shortcuts work until they don't. This guide compares the three common quoting methods, shows where each breaks down, and explains how to set a minimum charge and handle failed prints.
What's the best way to quote a 3D printing job?
The most reliable way is cost-plus: add material, electricity, printer wear, a failure buffer, your hands-on time and extras, then add a profit margin. Per-gram and per-hour pricing are useful shortcuts for comparing jobs, but on their own they ignore your hands-on time, which is often the largest cost.
How do the three quoting methods compare?
| Method | How it works | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Per gram | A fixed price per gram of material | Undercharges small, fiddly prints and long, light prints that tie up the printer |
| Per printer hour | A fixed price per hour of print time | Undercharges jobs with lots of support removal, sanding or painting |
| Cost-plus | Full cost of the job + profit margin | Takes a minute longer — but covers everything |
The fastest practical approach is to quote cost-plus, then check the result against your per-hour figure to see whether a job is worth your printer's time.
What does a cost-plus quote look like?
For an 85 g PLA print taking 5 hours with 15 minutes of hands-on work:
- Material: $1.70
- Electricity: $0.13
- Printer wear: $0.40
- Failure buffer (10%): $0.22
- Your time (15 min at $20/hour): $5.00
- Packaging: $0.50
- Total cost: $7.95 → price at 40% margin: $13.25
That's $2.65 per printer hour ($13.25 ÷ 5 hours). If a different job comes out at 90 cents per printer hour, it's tying up your machine for very little — worth knowing before you say yes. How much to charge for 3D prints breaks down each cost in detail.
Should you have a minimum charge?
Yes. Every job has fixed work that doesn't shrink with the print: answering messages, slicing, preparing the build plate, removing the part, packing and handing it over. For tiny prints, that fixed work can be most of the cost.
A minimum charge covers it. Set it at roughly what your fixed handling time costs plus a small margin, so a 10-gram part isn't quoted at a price that doesn't cover the conversation about it.
How much does the failure rate change your price?
Less than you might expect, because the failure buffer applies to material, electricity and printer wear — not your hands-on time. Using the example above:
| Failure rate | Failure buffer | Total cost | Price at 40% margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5% | $0.11 | $7.84 | $13.06 |
| 10% | $0.22 | $7.95 | $13.25 |
| 30% | $0.67 | $8.40 | $13.99 |
Even a 30% failure rate only adds 74 cents to this job's price. Failures cost you far more in time and frustration than in materials, which is a good argument for tuning your printer, not for padding every quote.
How should you quote prototypes and custom designs?
Prototypes often need several iterations. Quote each iteration separately, or agree a price for a set number of revisions up front. If you're designing the model too, charge design time separately from printing — it's skilled work, and it doesn't depend on grams or print hours at all.
For batch orders, your hands-on time per part usually drops (one setup, many parts), so cost-plus quoting naturally rewards larger orders without you having to invent a discount.
Two related reads: resin vs filament printing costs, and selling 3D prints on Etsy.
