3D Print Cost Calculator
Get the real cost of a print: filament + electricity, plus optional labor and markup. No sign-up, no guessing — just the numbers your slicer already gives you.
Know exactly what a print costs before you hit print — filament plus electricity, in your own currency. No more guessing when you price a commission, decide whether a reprint is worth it, or just want to see where the money actually goes (spoiler: it's almost all filament, not electricity). Pick your country and printer and the rate and wattage fill themselves in.
Show instructions
1.Enter filament weight and spool price
Copy the filament weight straight from your slicer's print summary (PrusaSlicer, Cura, Bambu Studio, and OrcaSlicer all show grams). For spool price, use what you actually paid for a 1 kg spool — a typical PLA spool runs about $15-$25. The tool divides grams by 1000 to get kilograms, then multiplies by your spool price.
2.Add print time and printer wattage
Enter the estimated print time in hours (again, from your slicer) and your printer's average power draw in watts. If you don't have a wattmeter, use ~120 W for a typical open-frame FDM printer like an Ender 3, or 200-400 W for a large heated-chamber machine. Set your electricity rate in $/kWh — the US residential average is about $0.17.
3.Optionally add labor or markup, then read the breakdown
If you're selling prints, add an hourly labor rate or a percentage markup to cover your time and overhead. The result shows filament cost and electricity cost separately so you can see — usually at a glance — that the plastic dominates and the power is pennies.
Electricity rates verified against Eurostat (2025-S2, EU), US EIA, UK Ofgem and national regulators; printer wattages from plug-meter measurements. Country averages — last checked Jun 2026; adjust to your bill for precision.
Your slicer tells you a print will use 84 grams and take 6 hours. What it doesn't tell you is what that actually costs you. This calculator turns those two numbers — grams of filament and print time — into a real dollar figure, combining the cost of the plastic you burn and the electricity your printer draws. Enter what you know (filament weight, spool price, print hours, printer wattage) and you get a per-print cost you can use to price commissions, decide whether a reprint is worth it, or just understand where your money goes.
For almost every FDM print, filament is the cost that matters and electricity is rounding error. A 100-gram print on a $20 spool costs about $2.00 in plastic. The same print at 120 watts over 5 hours uses 0.6 kWh — roughly 10 cents at the US average rate. That ratio surprises people who assume their printer is a power hog: it isn't. The calculator makes that split explicit so you can stop worrying about the electric bill and focus on filament choice, infill, and failed-print waste, which is where the money really moves.
The math
Total cost = filament cost + electricity cost + labor/markup Filament cost = (filament grams / 1000) x spool price ($ per 1 kg spool) Electricity cost = print hours x (printer watts / 1000) x electricity price ($ per kWh) Labor/markup = optional, added on top (e.g. an hourly design/handling rate, or a flat percentage markup) Worked example: 100 g print, $22 spool, 5 hours at 120 W, $0.17/kWh. Filament = (100 / 1000) x 22 = $2.20 Electricity = 5 x (120 / 1000) x 0.17 = 5 x 0.12 x 0.17 = $0.102 Total (no labor) = $2.20 + $0.10 = $2.30
Good to know
Filament cost dominates — electricity is almost always pennies
For a standard FDM print, the plastic is typically 90-95% of the cost. At ~120 W and the US average rate near $0.17/kWh, a printer costs roughly 2 cents per hour to run. A full 8-hour print is about 16 cents of electricity. Don't agonize over the power figure; get the filament number right.
Know your real wattage — it varies a lot by machine
Open-frame FDM printers (Ender 3, Prusa MK-series) average roughly 50-150 W while printing, dominated by the heated bed. Enclosed machines with actively heated chambers or AMS/multi-material units draw more — commonly 200-400 W, and briefly higher during bed/nozzle heat-up. A $10-15 plug-in wattmeter gives you the exact average for your setup and removes the guesswork.
What this calculator does NOT include
This is material plus electricity, not a full cost-of-ownership figure. It excludes machine depreciation and wear (nozzles, belts, build plates), failed prints and wasted filament, post-processing (sandpaper, primer, resin, glue, IPA), support material, and your own time unless you add it as labor. For a true business cost, layer those in separately — failed prints in particular can quietly double your effective material cost.
Spool price assumes a full 1 kg spool
The formula treats spool price as the cost of 1 kilogram. If you buy 0.5 kg or 2 kg spools, or specialty filament priced per spool rather than per kilo, convert to a per-kilogram price first (price paid divided by spool weight in kg) so the cost-per-gram math stays correct.
FAQ
What electricity rate should I use, and where do I find mine?
Use the price per kWh from your most recent electricity bill, or look it up on your utility's website — that's the exact number for your home. The dropdown fills in your country's average residential rate as a starting point (for example the US averaged about 17¢/kWh in 2025), but real rates range from roughly 12¢ in cheap US states to 40+¢ in Hawaii, Germany, and parts of Europe, so plugging in your own value makes the cost far more accurate.
Why is the printer wattage so much lower than my printer's power supply rating?
Because they measure different things. The rating printed on the power supply (often 350-500W) is the peak it can deliver, sized for the brief moment the nozzle and heated bed warm up. Once a print is actually running, most desktop FDM printers settle at roughly 80-150W (a large CoreXY like the Bambu X1 runs about 100-200W, and resin/MSLA printers are even lower). We use that real average-during-print figure, which is why our number is 2-3x below the PSU sticker. Want your exact draw? A cheap plug-in power meter shows it live.
Does the filament weight need to include supports, brim, and skirt?
Yes — and your slicer already does this for you. The estimated filament weight (in grams) shown by PrusaSlicer, Cura, OrcaSlicer, and Bambu Studio counts everything the printer extrudes: the part plus supports, brim, skirt, and purge. Just copy that single total into the weight field — don't try to add supports separately or you'll double-count. Note slicer estimates are typically off by only a few grams, so the cost is a close estimate, not an exact invoice.
How much does it cost to 3D print something?
For a typical FDM print, cost is mostly filament. A 100-gram print on a $20/kg spool is about $2.00 in plastic, plus only a few cents of electricity. So most everyday prints land between roughly $0.50 and $5 in direct material-and-power cost. Larger or denser prints scale up with grams used.
How much electricity does a 3D printer use per print?
Most open-frame FDM printers average about 50-150 watts while printing (often cited around 120 W). At that draw, a 5-hour print uses roughly 0.6 kWh — about 10 cents at the US average rate of ~$0.17/kWh. Heated-chamber and multi-material machines draw more, commonly 200-400 W, but electricity is still a small fraction of total cost.
What wattage should I enter if I don't have a wattmeter?
Use about 120 W for a standard open-frame FDM printer such as an Ender 3 or Prusa MK-series. For an enclosed printer with a heated chamber or an AMS/multi-material setup, use 200-400 W. The most accurate option is a $10-15 plug-in energy meter, which reads your printer's real average draw over a full print.
Why does the calculator say electricity barely matters?
Because it usually doesn't. At ~120 W, a printer costs roughly 2 cents per hour to run. Even a long 10-hour print is around 20 cents of power — far less than the filament. Filament typically accounts for 90-95% of the direct cost, which is why getting the grams and spool price right matters far more than the wattage.
Does this include the cost of failed prints?
No. The calculator covers only the filament and electricity for a successful print. Failed prints, spaghetti, and wasted support material are real costs but unpredictable, so they're not built in. If failures are common for you, add a buffer — many makers pad material cost by 10-30% to account for them.
How do I price a print I'm selling to someone?
Start with the material-plus-electricity cost from this tool, then add labor and markup. Charge for your active time (modeling, slicing, removing supports, post-processing) at an hourly rate, and add a percentage markup to cover machine wear, failed prints, and overhead. The optional labor/markup field lets you layer those on top of the base cost.
What does the cost NOT include?
Machine depreciation and wear parts (nozzles, belts, build plates), failed prints, post-processing supplies (sandpaper, primer, glue, IPA), shipping, and your time unless you add it as labor. It's a direct material-and-power estimate, not a full cost-of-ownership or business-pricing figure.
How is cost per gram of filament calculated?
Divide the spool price by the spool weight in grams. A $20 spool of 1 kg (1000 g) works out to $0.02 per gram. Multiply that by the grams your slicer reports to get the filament cost — which is exactly what this calculator does when you divide grams by 1000 and multiply by the per-kilogram spool price.