To calculate the cost of a 3D printed part, add six lines: the material it consumes, the machine time it occupies at an hourly rate, the labour minutes it needs, any post-processing, an allowance for failed prints, and a share of overhead. Price is that cost plus your margin. The lines are the same for every process; what changes is how you measure each one, and for powder processes the machine time is shared by a whole build rather than owned by one part.
Key points
- Six cost lines cover every additive process: material, machine time, labour, post-processing, failures and overhead.
- Material is usually the smallest line. Machine time and labour drive most 3D printing prices.
- Machine time comes from the geometry and your printer’s real speeds, not from the part’s volume.
- Powder processes (SLS, MJF) are costed per build, and each part pays its share of that build.
- Measure your failure rate and apply it to the cost of a reprint, not to the price.
- Overhead and margin are applied once, at the end, and shown as their own lines.
What goes into the cost of a 3D print?
Every additive job, from a desktop FDM bracket to a nylon production run, uses the same six resources. Getting a price right means putting a number on each of them, using your own figures where you have them.
| Cost line | What it covers | How you measure it |
|---|---|---|
| Material | Filament, resin or powder in the part, plus supports and waste | Mass or volume × price per kg or litre × (1 + waste) |
| Machine time | Depreciation, maintenance, space and energy while the machine is busy | Estimated hours × your machine-hour rate |
| Labour | Plate preparation, removal, support removal, inspection, packing | Minutes per activity × the rate of whoever does it |
| Post-processing | Sanding, dyeing, vapour smoothing, painting, inserts | Minutes or a fixed charge per option |
| Failures | Reprints of jobs that did not come off the plate right | Your failure rate × the cost of one attempt |
| Overhead | Rent, software, admin, sales, quoting time | A percentage of cost or a rate per hour |
The machine-hour rate is the line most shops get wrong, because it has to include everything the machine costs you while it stands there, not just its purchase price. Our guide to the machine-hour rate works through it from scratch.
How do you work out material cost?
Material cost is the mass of material consumed times its price per kilogram, or the volume times the price per litre for resin. The mistake is to take the part’s mesh volume and multiply by density. The real figure depends on how the part is built:
- FDM: walls and top and bottom skins are solid, infill is a fraction of the inside volume, and supports add their own material. A part at 15 % infill may use well under half of its mesh volume in plastic.
- Resin: a solid part uses its full volume, a hollowed part much less, and the support struts add a small but real amount.
- Powder: the part uses its own sintered volume, and the build also consumes the unsintered powder that has to be replaced with fresh powder. That second number is often larger than the first.
Then add waste: purge, priming, the end of a spool, resin left in the vat. Typical allowances are a few per cent, but use your own.
How do you estimate machine time?
Machine time is the line where a simple formula fails most visibly. On FDM it depends on perimeters, infill, layer count and how much time the head spends accelerating on short moves; two parts with the same volume can differ by a factor of three. We explain why in why volume does not predict FDM print time.
On masked resin printers (MSLA and DLP) time depends on layer count, which means on the height of the tallest part on the plate, and hardly at all on how many parts there are. On SLS and MJF the build height and the cool-down set the time, and every part in the build shares it.
Whatever the process, the hours you estimate are multiplied by the machine-hour rate. If you print several parts on one plate, the plate time is divided between them.
How do you price labour and post-processing?
Price labour by activity, in minutes, at the rate of the person doing it. A typical FDM job has plate preparation and part removal per plate, then support removal, inspection and bagging per part. On a long print these minutes are small next to machine time. On a short print they are most of the cost, which is why a minimum order value exists.
Post-processing is labour too, plus consumables: sanding paper, primer, dye, blasting media. Treat each finish as an option with its own minutes and materials, so a buyer who chooses it pays for it and one who does not is not charged for it. Heavy support structures belong here as well, since their removal time grows with how much support the part needs.
How do you account for failed prints?
Failures are a cost of doing business, and if they are not in the price they come out of your margin. The honest approach is to measure your failure rate over a few months, then add that fraction of the cost of one attempt (machine time and material, plus the labour wasted on the failed plate) to every job.
Do not add it twice. If your machine-hour rate already divides fixed costs by good hours only, the failure allowance for machine time is already inside it and you only need to add it for material and labour.
Where does overhead go, and where does margin go?
Overhead is the cost of running the shop that no single job causes: rent, software, the time spent quoting and invoicing. Spread it over jobs either as a percentage of direct cost or as an extra amount per machine hour. Then add margin once, on the total, and keep the two apart so you can see each. If the difference between margin and markup is hazy, our guide to margin vs markup sets it out.
A worked example: one FDM part
Worked example: one PETG bracket on an FDM printer (example figures)
| Line | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Material | 85 g × 1.05 waste = 89.25 g × €25.00/kg | €2.23 |
| Machine time | 4.5 h × €3.00/h | €13.50 |
| Labour | 12 min (plate, removal, supports, inspection) × €36.00/h | €7.20 |
| Failure allowance | 5 % × (€13.50 + €2.23) | €0.79 |
| Direct cost | €2.23 + €13.50 + €7.20 + €0.79 | €23.72 |
| Overhead | 15 % × €23.72 | €3.56 |
| Total cost | €23.72 + €3.56 | €27.28 |
| Price at a 30 % margin | €27.28 ÷ 0.70 | €38.97 |
Notice that material is under a tenth of the cost. A quote built on grams would have missed most of this job.
A worked example: one SLS part
Powder processes are costed differently. You cost a whole build, then charge each part its build share: the volume of its cell (its bounding box plus the gap between parts) divided by the usable volume of the build the nester can actually fill.
Worked example: one PA12 part in a shared SLS build (example figures)
| Line | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Machine time per build | 18 h × €28.00/h | €504.00 |
| Powder refreshed per build | 9.5 kg unsintered × 30 % refresh × €60.00/kg | €171.00 |
| Labour per build | 2 h set-up and break-out × €35.00/h | €70.00 |
| Build cost | €504.00 + €171.00 + €70.00 | €745.00 |
| Usable build volume | 27,000 cm³ envelope × 55 % nesting efficiency | 14,850 cm³ |
| Part’s share | 120 cm³ cell ÷ 14,850 cm³ × €745.00 | €6.02 |
| Part’s own powder | 30 g × €60.00/kg | €1.80 |
| Per-part labour | 6 min de-powder, blast, inspect × €35.00/h | €3.50 |
| Failure allowance | 3 % × (€6.02 + €1.80) | €0.23 |
| Direct cost | €6.02 + €1.80 + €3.50 + €0.23 | €11.55 |
| Overhead | 15 % × €11.55 | €1.73 |
| Total cost | €11.55 + €1.73 | €13.28 |
The same part run on its own would carry the whole €745.00 build. That is why powder shops either wait to fill a build or quote single parts honestly and let the buyer choose. The mechanics, including packing density and cool-down, are in SLS pricing and nesting.
The same method for resin, MJF and metal
The six lines do not change between processes; the weight of each one does.
| Process | Line that usually dominates | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| FDM | Machine time | Walls, infill, small-feature slow-down, labour on short prints |
| SLA, DLP, MSLA | Labour | Wash, cure and support removal per part; tank and screen wear |
| SLS | Build share and powder | Packing density, refresh ratio, cool-down |
| MJF | Build share | Agents and printhead wear on top of SLS-style costs |
| Metal powder bed | Machine time and finishing | Laser hours, supports, stress relief, plate removal |
The detail for each lives in its own guide: resin printing cost, MJF vs SLS and what drives the cost of metal 3D printing. If you run many printers, print farm pricing shows how utilisation changes the hourly rate you should charge.
Checking your numbers
A costing model is only as good as its coefficients: your printers’ real speeds, your failure rate, your labour minutes. Compare a handful of finished jobs against what the model said they would take, and adjust. To try the arithmetic on your own figures, the 3D printing cost calculator runs these six lines for a single part.
Quotometry applies this method automatically for FDM, SLA/DLP/LCD, SLS, MJF, metal powder bed, PolyJet and binder jetting: it analyses the part once, prices each line from your own machines and rates, and shows the buyer a price with a breakdown.
Questions people ask
What is the simplest correct formula for 3D printing cost?
Cost = material + machine hours × machine-hour rate + labour minutes × labour rate + post-processing + a failure allowance, then overhead on top. Price = cost plus margin. Any of the lines can be small for a given part, but leaving one out of the formula means it is missing from every quote, and the jobs where it is large lose money.
Should I price 3D prints by weight or by volume?
Neither on its own. Weight tracks material cost, which is often the smallest line. Machine time depends on geometry, layer count and walls, and labour depends on supports and handling per part. Weight-based pricing overcharges chunky parts and undercharges small fiddly ones, which shifts your order book towards the work you lose money on.
How big should the failure allowance be?
It should be your own measured rate, not a guess. Count failed and reprinted jobs over a few months and divide by jobs run. Many shops land somewhere between a few per cent and ten per cent for FDM, lower for a well-tuned powder process. Apply it to the cost of a reprint: machine time, material and the labour of the failed attempt.
Is the calculation different for SLS and MJF?
The lines are the same but the unit changes. A powder part does not own a machine for its print time; it shares a build with other parts. So you cost the whole build, including cool-down and the powder that is refreshed, and charge each part its share of that build by the space it occupies, plus its own powder and handling.
Quotometry prices every part from your own machines and rates, on your website, in seconds.