How much to charge for 3D printing

How much to charge for 3D printing: the complete guide

It's the most common question in 3D printing groups, and the short answer is that there is no price per gram or per hour that works for everything. What does exist is a way to work it out that never loses you money: add up all your real costs and then the profit you want on top.

The five costs you need to add

1. Filament: grams of the part × price per kilo ÷ 1,000. Include supports, colour-change purge (AMS) and the prime tower: your slicer gives you the total.
2. Electricity: hours × the printer's average power (in watts) ÷ 1,000 × price per kWh. On modern printers it's usually very little, a few cents an hour.
3. Printer wear: the machine's price spread over the hours it will last. Every hour of printing wears it a little: nozzles, belts, build plate, fans.
4. Your time: preparing the file, removing supports, sanding, painting, taking photos and packing. It's the cost most people forget and the one that weighs most on small parts.
5. Failures and extras: a percentage for failed prints, packaging and, if you sell online, the platform fee.

That total is your cost. The selling price is that cost plus your profit and any sales tax. Suma3D does the whole sum as you type, and if you drop in a Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer or Cura file it fills in the grams and time for you.

Example prices by part size

Worked out with the Suma3D calculator itself: Bambu Lab A1 printer (~$407, 95 W on average, 4500 h service life), PLA at $22/kg, power at $0.165/kWh, your time at $13.20/h, 8% waste for failed prints, $0.66 packaging, 40% profit and no sales tax, rounded to .90. These are guide prices for direct sales: change the inputs in the calculator to see yours.

Look at the small part: the filament costs a few cents, but the recommended price is several times higher. That's your time and the packaging, which cost the same however tiny the part is. That's why charging "so much per gram" loses money on small parts and stops being competitive on large ones.

Charge per gram, per hour or per part?

• Per gram: easy to explain, but it ignores machine time and your time. It only works if your parts are all very similar.
• Per machine hour: better for long prints, but it forgets expensive materials (TPU, nylon, carbon fibre) and finishing work.
• Per part, adding up real costs: that's what Suma3D does and it's the fairest for you and your customer. It also gives you the minimum price, below which you lose money.

The most common pricing mistakes

• Not counting your time. If you don't charge for finishing, you're working for free.
• Forgetting failed prints. 5-10% waste is normal, more on large parts or tricky materials.
• Working out the fee on the cost. Etsy, eBay and Amazon charge on the selling price, not your cost. The calculator handles this in advanced mode and compares platforms.
• Copying another seller's price. Their printer, power and time aren't yours. Use it as a reference, but always start from your own costs.
• Badly calculated bulk discounts. An order of 50 parts spreads your setup time better, but discount too much and you can end up below cost. The quantity price table warns you.

Keep reading

• 3D printing price calculator, with every material and printer.
• Price calculator for 3D printing, laser, sublimation and DTF.