How to Price 3D Prints.
Train yourself to quote your own customer jobs. A clear six-part method, material, machine time, labor, electricity, failure buffer, and margin, with a full worked example so your prices cover your real costs and still leave a profit.
To price a 3D print for a customer, add up six things and apply your markup once at the end: (1) material, grams used ÷ 1000 × your filament $/kg; (2) machine time, print hours × your machine hourly rate; (3) labor, prep, slicing and post-processing hours × your hourly rate; (4) electricity, printer watts ÷ 1000 × print hours × your $/kWh; (5) a small failure buffer added to consumables for failed prints; then (6) multiply the total by your margin, once, never twice.
Build a Real Cost, Then Add Margin.
Most makers under-price their work because they only count filament. But a customer job costs you far more than plastic, it costs machine wear, your own time, electricity, and the occasional failed print. Price only the filament and you are effectively working for free.
The reliable method is simple: add up every real cost the job imposes on you, arrive at a true cost, and only then apply your markup, a single time, at the very end. This is exactly the logic behind Forgely’s own instant-quote tool at /quote; this guide teaches you to run the same math by hand for your own jobs.
There are six inputs. The first five build your true cost. The sixth, margin, turns that cost into a price. Get the order right and you will never accidentally lose money on a job again.
The Six Inputs.
Work through these in order. The first five add together into your true cost; the sixth is applied once at the end to produce the customer price.
- 1. Material Cost
- Grams of filament used ÷ 1000 × your filament price per kilogram. Your slicer reports grams directly. A $25 1kg spool of Forgely PLA costs $0.025/g, so a 40g part = $1.00 of material. If you only have a model volume, convert it: volume in cm³ × material density (PLA 1.24, PETG 1.27, ABS 1.04 g/cm³) = grams.
- 2. Machine Time
- Print time in hours × your machine hourly rate. The machine rate spreads printer depreciation plus maintenance over its working life, roughly (printer price + expected repairs) ÷ expected lifetime print hours. A common figure is $0.50–$2.00/hr for a hobby-to-prosumer FDM printer. A 5-hour print at $0.75/hr = $3.75.
- 3. Labor
- Your hands-on hours (modelling/prep + slicing + post-processing) × your own hourly rate. This is time you cannot get back, so value it honestly, often $15–$40/hr. Keep it separate from machine time: the printer runs unattended, but your hands do not. 30 minutes of prep + finishing at $25/hr = $12.50.
- 4. Electricity
- Printer power in watts ÷ 1000 × print hours × your electricity price per kWh. A 120W printer running 5 hours at $0.15/kWh = 0.12 kW × 5h × $0.15 = $0.09. Electricity is usually the smallest input, but include it, it keeps your true cost honest and matters at volume.
- 5. Failure Buffer
- A small percentage added on top of your consumable costs (material, and optionally electricity) to cover prints that fail. Commonly 3–10%. Rather than charging any one customer for a reprint, this buffer spreads the cost of occasional failures across all your jobs. Tighter-tolerance filament lowers your real failure rate, and therefore the buffer you need.
- 6. Margin (applied once)
- Sum inputs 1–5 into your true cost, then multiply by your markup a single time. A 2x markup (100% margin) is a common starting point. The golden rule: apply margin ONCE, at the end. Never mark up material, then mark up the subtotal again, double-applying margin quietly inflates or distorts your quotes.
A Sample Part, End to End.
Let’s price a real job: a customer wants a functional PLA bracket. Your slicer says it uses 40g and prints in 5 hours. Your rates: filament $25/kg, machine $0.75/hr, labor $25/hr, electricity $0.15/kWh on a 120W printer, a 5% failure buffer, and a 2x markup.
Run all six inputs, sum the first five into your true cost, then apply margin once. The steps on the right show the full walk-through, a true cost of about $17.40 and a customer price of about $34.79.
- Material: 40g ÷ 1000 × $25 = $1.00
- Machine time: 5h × $0.75/hr = $3.75
- Labor: 0.5h × $25/hr = $12.50
- Electricity: 120W ÷ 1000 × 5h × $0.15 ≈ $0.09
- Failure buffer: 5% of consumables ($1.00 material + $0.09 power) ≈ $0.05
- True cost: $1.00 + $3.75 + $12.50 + $0.09 + $0.05 ≈ $17.39
- Margin (×2, applied once): $17.39 × 2 ≈ $34.79 customer price
Material Density Reference.
To convert a model’s volume (cm³) into grams when your slicer does not report weight directly, multiply volume by the material density below. Grams ÷ 1000 × your $/kg then gives material cost.
- PLA, 1.24 g/cm³
- The most common FDM material and the default for most maker jobs. A 20cm³ part in PLA weighs about 24.8g. Forgely PLA is priced by weight, so grams map straight to cost.
- PETG, 1.27 g/cm³
- Slightly denser than PLA, so the same volume weighs a little more (a 20cm³ part ≈ 25.4g). Used for tougher, more heat- and water-resistant functional parts.
- ABS, 1.04 g/cm³
- The lightest of the three per cm³ (a 20cm³ part ≈ 20.8g), so ABS parts use fewer grams for the same volume. Factor in its higher scrap rate when setting your failure buffer.
Where Makers Lose Money.
Only counting filament. Filament is usually the smallest of your five cost inputs, your own labor almost always dominates. Price only the plastic and you are quietly subsidising every customer.
Forgetting to value your time. Machine time and labor are different costs. The printer runs unattended; your prep, slicing, and finishing do not. Track and charge both.
Double-applying margin. Apply markup once, on the summed true cost. Marking up material and then marking up the subtotal again distorts your pricing and makes quotes impossible to reason about.
No failure buffer. A single failed 12-hour print can erase the profit on several jobs. A few percent added to consumables across every quote absorbs that risk quietly, and higher-consistency filament keeps that buffer small.
Frequently Asked.
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