Material Cost
$0.00
55 g of filament, waste included.
Quick Start
Load a sample product
Pick the listing closest to yours, then fine-tune costs, print time, and business settings below.
Step 1
Printer & material settings
$ / kg
grams
Your slicer reports this. For resin, assume ~1 g per ml.
Supports, rafts, brims, and purge.
watts
$ / kWh
On your utility bill. 0.15 is a common US average.
USD
hours
Default 3,000 hrs for depreciation.
$ / hr
Default $15/hr. Your time is a real cost.
Step 2
Print time & labor
hrs
min
min
Default 10% — accounts for spaghetti and ruined prints.
Step 3
Business & marketplace settings
Share of the retail price you keep as profit. 30–50% is a common maker target.
%
6.5% for Etsy, 0% for direct sales.
USD
$0.20 per Etsy listing. $0 for direct sales.
USD
Box, bubble wrap, labels, inserts.
Step 4
Run the numbers
Results update automatically as you type. Saving keeps your inputs on this device only — nothing is sent anywhere.
Results
Your true cost & price
Electricity & Machine Wear
$0.00
$0.00 power + $0.00 depreciation for 2.0 h.
Labor & Post-Processing
$0.00
5 min at $15/hr, plus $0.50 packaging.
Failure Rate Buffer
$0.00
Cost of failed prints absorbed per sellable unit (10% failure rate).
True Base Cost
$0.00
Total cost to produce one successful unit.
Recommended Retail Price
$0.00
Includes 30% margin & 6.5% marketplace fee. Consider rounding to a market price.
Estimated Net Profit / Unit
$0.00
30% of retail after all costs and fees.
Notes & Warnings
This calculator provides financial estimates only — actual costs vary by location, electricity rates, machine, and material prices. Verify with your own records before committing to a listing price.
Shop Stock
Your restock checklist
The supplies that keep a selling operation running — mode-aware for FDM and resin workflows.
Gear
Recommended Maker & Business Supplies
Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, Gadget Earth may earn from qualifying purchases. Product availability and prices change frequently. We link to broad product categories — always compare specifications and reviews yourself.
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The maker’s guide to profitable pricing
How to Price 3D Prints for Etsy and Make a Real Profit
Profitable listings start with the full cost stack, not the filament price. Add up: material with waste, electricity, machine depreciation, a failure buffer, every minute of your hands-on labor, and packaging. Then solve for a retail price that covers marketplace fees and still leaves your target margin — the formula is (base cost + fixed fees) ÷ (1 − margin − fee %). Only after you have that number should you look at competitors. If the market will not bear your true price, the fix is cheaper production, faster prints, or a more valuable product — not silently eating the loss.
The Hidden Costs of 3D Printing: Electricity and Depreciation
Electricity is small but not zero: a 120 W printer running 10 hours at $0.15/kWh costs about $0.18 per print, and heated chambers and long prints push it higher. Depreciation is the one most sellers ignore: a $300 printer with a 3,000-hour life costs $0.10 for every hour it runs. That sounds tiny until you realize a farm printing 16 hours a day is quietly spending hundreds of dollars a year in machine life. Add wear parts — nozzles, build plates, FEP film, belts — and “free machine time” disappears from your books.
FDM vs. Resin: Which is More Profitable for Small Businesses?
FDM wins on cheap material, low mess, and big durable parts — ideal for toys, organizers, props, and planters. Margins come from volume and fast, reliable prints. Resin (SLA) wins on detail, which supports premium pricing for jewelry masters, miniatures, and dental-style work — but adds consumables (FEP film, gloves, IPA), curing time, and waste handling. In practice, FDM shops scale on throughput while resin shops scale on price per gram of detail. Track your full cost per unit in both worlds before choosing a niche.
How to Account for Print Failures in Your Pricing
If one in ten prints fails, you need 1 ÷ (1 − 0.10) = 1.111 attempts per sellable unit. Apply that multiplier to material and machine-time costs — exactly what this calculator does. The same logic covers power and wear: a failed 30-hour print burns electricity and depreciation just like a good one. Log your failures for a few weeks; most shops land between 5% and 15%. Every reliability improvement — better filament drying, tuned first layers, enclosures — goes straight to margin.
Etsy Fees vs. Shopify: Where Should You Sell Your Prints?
Etsy brings built-in buyers but charges a listing fee plus a 6.5% transaction fee, with payment processing on top — plan around roughly 9–12% all-in. Shopify-style storefronts keep fees lower per sale but you must drive every visitor yourself with social content, SEO, or ads. Many sellers use both: Etsy for discovery, then inserts and branding that build a direct audience over time. Wherever you sell, your price must clear your true cost plus that channel’s fees — run the numbers per channel, not once globally.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for 3D printing services?
There is no single rate, but a workable method is to calculate your true cost per print — material, electricity, machine wear, failure buffer, and labor — then add your target margin and any marketplace fees. Many sellers also benchmark machine-time rates of roughly $0.50–$1.50 per hour plus materials. Always verify your number covers every cost before matching a competitor’s price.
How do I calculate the electricity cost of a 3D print?
Multiply your printer’s average power draw in watts by the print time in hours, divide by 1,000 to get kilowatt-hours, then multiply by your electricity rate. For example, a 120-watt printer running 8 hours at $0.15 per kWh costs about $0.14. Heated beds and heated chambers push the number up, especially for large, long prints.
What is a good profit margin for 3D printed items?
Most small makers target a 30–50% margin after all costs, including labor and fees. Commodity items may not sustain that, while custom or design-heavy work can support much more. Remember that the margin must also cover your time designing, photographing, listing, and supporting orders — not just the print itself.
How do I factor in failed prints (spaghetti) when pricing?
Use a failure multiplier of 1 ÷ (1 − failure rate). A 10% failure rate means you need about 1.11 attempts per sellable part, so multiply material and machine-time costs by 1.111. Track your real failure rate for a few weeks, dial in your machines, and update the number — reliable farms can often get below 5%.
Should I charge for my time spent removing supports and sanding?
Absolutely. Post-processing is often the biggest real cost of a print, especially for resin parts that need washing and curing, or props that need sanding and priming. Decide an hourly rate you would accept for that work, estimate the minutes per unit, and bake it into the base cost. If you skip this, you are paying yourself nothing for the least fun part of the job.
How much does it cost to run a 3D printer per hour?
Electricity alone is small: a 120 W FDM printer at $0.15/kWh costs about two cents per hour, and a typical resin printer around one cent. The bigger hourly costs are machine depreciation — roughly $0.05–$0.15 per hour depending on the machine — plus wear parts like nozzles, films, and belts. Together they are small per print but significant across a whole catalog.
Is selling 3D prints on Etsy still profitable?
It can be, but commodity trinkets are a race to the bottom. Profitable sellers focus on niches where design value is high — cosplay props, custom gifts, tabletop terrain, functional parts — and they price with real costs including Etsy’s fees. If your true cost plus fees leaves a healthy margin at a price buyers accept, the platform works. If not, direct sales or craft fairs may serve you better.
How do I price custom 3D modeling and design work?
Charge design separately from printing. Common approaches are an hourly CAD rate — often $25–$75 per hour depending on skill — or a flat modeling fee quoted after seeing reference images. Clarify who owns the finished file and whether the buyer gets exclusivity, since those change the price. Then add the print cost on top using your normal pricing workflow.
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