Cost & quoting
3D printing cost calculator
The full cost of one good print — plastic, electricity, machine hours and the ones you throw away — plus the price to charge so your margin survives contact with reality.
Put this calculator on your own site
Free to embed, no sign-up, and the numbers are calculated in the visitor’s browser — nothing is uploaded anywhere. The widget runs the same model as this page, cut down to one column, and fits any width from 300 to 720 px. It carries its own credit line, so no extra attribution is needed.
<iframe src="https://stlcheck.com/embed/quote/" width="100%" height="520" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="3D printing quote calculator"></iframe>Its parameters come from the dated cost dataset: material density and price, measured printer draw, household electricity rates and the failure-rate band. The widget prints that check date, so an embedded copy cannot silently age.
How the numbers are built
Five lines, in this order. Nothing is hidden in a magic “3D printing cost” constant.
| Line | Formula | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Material | weight_g ÷ 1000 × price_per_kg | Weight comes from the slicer, or from volume × density. |
| Electricity | watts ÷ 1000 × hours × price_per_kWh | Measured average draw, not the power-supply rating. |
| Machine time | (printer_cost ÷ life_hours + maintenance_per_hour) × hours | Depreciation and wear only accrue while the machine runs. |
| Failure amortisation | subtotal × f ÷ (1 − f) | To deliver one good unit at failure rate f you must print 1/(1−f) units. |
| Unit cost | subtotal ÷ (1 − f) | Subtotal plus the failure line, which is the same thing. |
| Suggested price | unit cost ÷ (1 − margin) | Margin is a share of the price, not a markup on cost. |
A 30% margin is not “cost × 1.3”. Cost × 1.3 gives a 23% margin. The difference is the entire point of quoting properly.
Worked example, checked by hand
100 g of PLA, 5 hours, entry-level printer, US average household electricity, 10% failure rate, 30% target margin. Every number below is read from the shipped dataset at build time, so this table and the calculator cannot drift apart.
| Line | Working | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Material | 0.100 kg × $14.99/kg | $1.4990 |
| Electricity | 0.125 kW × 5 h × $0.1831/kWh | $0.1144 |
| Machine time | ($279.00 ÷ 8,000 h + $0.0035/h) × 5 h | $0.1918 |
| Subtotal | $1.8053 | |
| Failures at 10% | $1.8053 × 0.10 ÷ 0.90 | $0.2006 |
| Cost per good unit | $2.0058 | |
| Price at 30% margin | $2.0058 ÷ 0.70 | $2.8655 |
| Profit per unit | $0.8596 |
The same inputs loaded into the calculator produce those figures to the cent. If your numbers differ, one of the six inputs is different — the arithmetic does not have a second mode.
What this calculator deliberately does not do
- It does not add packaging, shipping or payment fees. If you sell through a marketplace, those come out of the price you set here.
- It does not know your scrap rate better than you do. Measure twenty prints, then set the failure rate to what actually happened.
- It does not model multi-material or purge towers. Add the purge weight to the material weight.
Frequently asked questions
Does this include my own labour?
Only if you fill in the two fields in the advanced section: hours per piece and your hourly rate. Left at zero the calculator reports machine cost only. Most people who sell prints should charge for at least the handling time.
Why is the failure rate applied to machine time as well as material?
Because a failed print also occupies the machine, burns electricity and wears the printer. Amortising only the plastic understates the cost of a reprint, which is exactly how most competing calculators under-quote.
Is the electricity figure realistic?
It uses measured power draw, not the power supply rating. An Ender 3 pulls about 110–125 W while printing PLA, not the 360 W its PSU is rated for. Multiply that by your real kWh price and you get the honest number, which is usually a few cents per print.
What is the difference between margin and markup?
A 30% margin means profit is 30% of the selling price. A 30% markup means profit is 30% of the cost. On a $3.31 unit cost, 30% margin gives $4.72 while 30% markup gives $4.30 — the same words, 10% less money.
Can I share my numbers with a customer?
Yes. Every input is written into the URL as you type, so the link reproduces the exact calculation. Nothing is stored on a server; the parameters live in the link itself.
Where do the prices and rates come from?
Each page carries the dataset name and the date it was checked, with links to the primary sources: manufacturer data sheets for densities, the EIA, Ofgem, BDEW, the AER and the OEB for electricity, and published or measured power figures for printer draw. Material prices are the mid-point of three sampled retail listings on the date shown — close enough to quote with, not a substitute for your invoice.