How Much Should You Charge for a 3D Print?
How to price a 3D print by adding production costs, operating costs, margin, and selling fees — with a full line-by-line example.
By OrcaCostPrint Team · Published
There's no universal "market" price per gram that works for everyone. The right price is the one that covers everything the piece cost you and still leaves a margin — and that depends on your printer, your filament, your electricity bill, and where you sell.
Quick answer: find the total cost of the piece first, then apply your markup on that cost, and only then bake in the fees of the channel you sell through. In this order:
Total cost = production costs + operating costs
Price before fees = total cost × (1 + markup)
Final price = (price before fees + flat fee) ÷ (1 − commission)
A marketplace commission is charged on the final price, not on your cost — which is why it goes in as a division, not an addition: adding the percentage on top of cost leaves you with less than you planned.
Below, each block with a full example. The numbers are illustrative — they're here to show the math, not to be copied as your price.
1. Production costs
This is what the print consumes while the machine is running.
- Material: grams consumed (piece + supports + purge) × the price per kilogram you paid.
- Energy: the printer's average power draw × hours × your electricity rate per kWh.
- Machine: how much each hour of use needs to earn back so the printer pays for itself — its price divided by the useful hours you expect to get out of it.
- Failures: some prints fail; that cost gets spread across the ones that succeed.
Example: a 120 g PLA piece, 7h30 of print time.
| Item | Assumption | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Material | 120 g × $20/kg | $2.40 |
| Energy | 350 W × 7.5 h × $0.16/kWh | $0.42 |
| Machine | $800 ÷ 4,000 useful hours = $0.20/h × 7.5 h | $1.50 |
| Failures | 10% of the three items above | $0.43 |
| Production cost | $4.75 |
Notice: filament — which is what a lot of people charge for — is just over half of the production cost.
2. Operating costs
This is everything around the print that doesn't show up in the slicer.
- Labor: prepping the file, leveling the bed, removing the piece, taking off supports, sanding, packaging. Time it once.
- Packaging: box, protective material, label.
- Overhead: rent, internet, software — divided by the productive hours in the month.
In the example: 20 minutes of labor at $24/h ($8.00) and $2.00 in packaging. The running total is $14.75.
3. Margin
Margin is what sustains the business: it pays for the next printer, the slow months, and your growth. Here it's applied as markup on cost.
In the example: 40% markup → $14.75 × 1.40 = $20.65. That's the price before selling fees: it still contains the cost, and your share is the difference — $5.90.
Markup and margin aren't the same thing — a 40% markup gives you a margin of about 28.6% of the price. To set markup, margin, a floor price, a target price and the room you have for discounts, see the pricing guide.
4. Selling fees
Marketplaces and payment processors charge on the final price, not the cost. That's why the fee doesn't just add on — it has to be baked in:
Final price = (price before fees + flat fee) ÷ (1 − commission)
In the example, on a hypothetical platform with a 20% commission and a $0.35 flat fee per sale: ($20.65 + $0.35) ÷ 0.80 = $26.25.
Just adding 20% on top ($20.65 × 1.20 = $24.78) looks like the same thing, but it isn't: the platform takes 20% of $24.78 — and your margin shrinks without you noticing. Real fees vary by platform and category; check the current ones before you finalize a price.
The full example
| Block | Running total |
|---|---|
| Production cost | $4.75 |
| + operating costs | $14.75 |
| + margin (40% markup) | $20.65 |
| + selling fees baked in | $26.25 |
The same piece, charged for filament alone, would go for $2.40 — or $4.80 with the classic "double the material" trick. Both lose money.
When to charge more
- Rush turnaround: jumping the printer queue has a cost; charge for it.
- Finishing: paint, primer, assembly, and fine sanding are hours of work — quote them separately.
- Small pieces: every print has a fixed setup cost. Set a minimum order value so a 5 g piece doesn't go out for free.
Next steps
If you don't know yet how much each hour of your printer costs, start with the cost of a 3D print. To test the numbers now, use the 3D printing cost calculator — no sign-up required.