How much to charge for 3D prints
Filament is the cost everyone counts, and usually the smallest one. A price that pays you also covers electricity, printer wear, the prints that fail, your time and the marketplace's cut. The numbers below are for a 2 h, 50 g PLA print on a Bambu Lab A1, sold on Etsy in the US.
1. Filament and electricity
50 g of PLA at $18.99 per kg, plus 10% for purge, supports and test prints, is $1.04. Electricity for 2 hours at $0.18 per kWh is $0.03.
2. Printer wear
Your printer wears out, and nozzles, build plates and belts need replacing. Spread the Bambu Lab A1's price over its working life and add spare parts, and 2 hours of printing costs $0.22.
3. Failed prints
Some prints fail: spaghetti, warping, a layer shift. Most calculators leave them out. A 5% buffer on filament, electricity and wear adds $0.06. Raise it for long or tricky prints.
4. Your time
Slicing, starting the print, removing supports and packing take time even when the printer does the work. 10 minutes at $15.00 an hour is $2.50, often the biggest line in the whole cost.
5. Markup and marketplace fees
Add packaging and the print costs $4.36. With a 50% markup you want to keep $6.54. Etsy takes its fees from the sale price, so the price has to be higher than that: at $7.73, Etsy takes $1.18 and you keep $6.54.
The formula: find the price where price − marketplace fees = cost × (1 + markup). The calculator below solves it for your own numbers and fees.
Work out your price
2 h 0 min · 50.00 g of filament
| Listing fee | $0.20 |
|---|---|
| Transaction fee | $0.50 |
| Payment processing | $0.48 |
| Total fees | $1.18 |
| Filament | $0.95 |
|---|---|
| Waste | $0.09 |
| Electricity | $0.03 |
| Printer wear and parts | $0.22 |
| Failed-print buffer | $0.06 |
| Your time | $2.50 |
| Packaging | $0.50 |
| Total cost | $4.36 |