Guides and articles
What we have written about costs, prices and margins in 3D printing. Every figure comes from the same formulas the calculators use.
These guides exist because a calculator gives you a number but does not explain why. Here is the reasoning behind each field: where the cost per gram comes from, what a marketplace takes, why a 50% markup is not a 50% margin.
Everything here is written by hand and checked: every figure in the text is verified automatically against the site's formulas, so if they ever stop adding up, a warning fires before anything is published.
They come in two groups, which are the two moments you need them: first understanding what printing costs, then selling it without losing the margin along the way.
Understanding what it costs
What you really pay for a part, where the money you cannot see goes, and how far a spool stretches.
How much does 3D printing cost: 20 parts with real numbersThe real cost of 20 typical 3D printed parts: keyring, planter, phone stand, gear and more, with their grams, their hours and a link to recalculate.
Why 3D prints fail and what it really costs youA failure halfway through costs 2.96 €, and only 32% of that is material. The four causes in order, with the real annual cost of each failure rate.
How long does a 1 kg filament spool lastHow many metres and how many parts you get from a 1 kg spool, by material and diameter. Tables for PLA, PETG and ABS, and how to gauge what is left.
Density and price of 3D printing filamentsDensity (g/cm³) and price per kilo of the most used filaments, with the metres each one gives and how much they change the cost of your part.
What PETG, ABS or TPU cost to print compared with PLAABS costs 20% more per kilo and the same part comes out one cent dearer. The real cost table for the ten most used filament materials.
Why a part twice the size costs four times as muchAt double size you use eight times the plastic, but the cost only multiplies by four. And shrinking it by half barely saves you a third.
What an hour of 3D printer time really costsThe machine and the power cost 13 cents an hour. But if you print rarely, the real depreciation is seven times higher and the part goes up 84%.
What each infill percentage costsDropping infill from 20% to 15% saves 22 cents. Doubling it does not double the plastic. What each percentage costs, worked out on a 50 mm cube.
What lowering the layer height costsGoing from 0.2 to 0.1 mm doubles the time and adds 41 cents to the part. The material does not change by a single gram. What quality really costs.
What supports and the plastic you bin really costThe gram that ends up in the bin costs 3.5 cents, not 2: it used the machine too. What supports, purge and raft add up to on one part and over a year.
Printing at night: what you actually save on electricityRunning the printer on the cheap tariff saves 10 cents a part and $18 a year. What really moves the needle is somewhere else entirely.
What maintenance costs and what happens if you ignore itThe maintenance field is the one most people leave at zero, and the one most often underestimated. What it really costs and what it does to your part.
The hours you never bill and what they do to your priceYou charge 15 minutes a part but put in five hours a week. That sum does not work, and here it is with numbers: your hour is worth $4.27.
Selling and charging
What the marketplace keeps, what the tax office takes and what is left for you at the end.
What you actually keep when you sell 3D prints on EtsyWhat Etsy really takes from each sale in the eurozone: 12.5% normally, 27.5% with Offsite Ads. With the table of what is left at every price.
VAT on selling 3D printed parts: what you actually take homeOf 20 € listed you keep 8.95 €. How VAT works on printed parts, the 10,000 € threshold and the One Stop Shop if you sell to other EU countries.
How to charge for design time in 3D printingDesign is not charged per part: it is spread. Three hours are 36.00 € that come to 1.80 € each across 20 units, and to 36.00 € on a single one.
Break-even point: how many parts you have to sellAt 2.55 € of contribution per part, 100.00 € of monthly fixed costs is 40 parts. And selling on Etsy doubles that figure. The full sums.
How to quote a 3D printing job, step by stepA job of 12 parts costs 105.42 € and only 58% of that is the parts. What to put in the quote, what deposit to ask for and when to charge for a rush.
What shipping costs and what is left of your marginA 60 g part leaves $2.55 of margin. A $3 shipping label already puts you in the red. The three real ways out, with the numbers in front of you.
Were you looking for the calculators?
The guides explain the reasoning; the four calculators do the arithmetic. Nearly every guide ends with a link that opens the tool with the example from the text already loaded, so you can type your own numbers over it.