How much does 3D printing cost: 20 parts with real numbers
A table of real parts, their grams, their hours and what each one costs. With a link to recalculate any of them with your own numbers.
Written by Álvaro Melgar Merenciano·
The short answer: 3D printing at home costs around 3 cents a gram once you count plastic, power, machine and failures, and don't count your own time. The long answer is this table, because weight isn't everything: two 60 gram parts can take 4 hours or 9, and hours cost money.
| Part | Weight | Time | Cost | Selling price | In the calculator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom keyring | 5 g | 24 min | $0.15 | $3.23 | run this example → |
| Bookmark | 6 g | 30 min | $0.18 | $3.27 | run this example → |
| Tabletop miniature (32 mm) | 8 g | 1 h 30 min | $0.33 | $3.49 | run this example → |
| Drone wheel or propeller | 10 g | 1 h | $0.32 | $3.48 | run this example → |
| Cookie cutter | 12 g | 48 min | $0.35 | $3.52 | run this example → |
| Replacement gear | 15 g | 1 h 12 min | $0.45 | $3.68 | run this example → |
| Phone stand | 25 g | 2 h | $0.75 | $4.13 | run this example → |
| Electronics enclosure | 40 g | 3 h | $1.19 | $4.78 | run this example → |
| Pen holder | 45 g | 3 h 30 min | $1.35 | $5.02 | run this example → |
| Articulated figure (dragon) | 55 g | 5 h | $1.72 | $5.58 | run this example → |
| Small planter (8 cm) | 60 g | 4 h | $1.73 | $5.59 | run this example → |
| Headphone stand | 70 g | 5 h | $2.05 | $6.08 | run this example → |
| Controller stand | 80 g | 6 h | $2.37 | $6.56 | run this example → |
| Drawer organiser | 90 g | 6 h 30 min | $2.64 | $6.97 | run this example → |
| Vase-mode vase (20 cm) | 95 g | 6 h | $2.70 | $7.06 | run this example → |
| Box with lid (10 cm) | 110 g | 8 h | $3.24 | $7.86 | run this example → |
| Lithophane lamp | 130 g | 9 h | $3.78 | $8.67 | run this example → |
| Large planter (15 cm) | 180 g | 11 h | $5.09 | $10.63 | run this example → |
| Cosplay mask | 320 g | 22 h | $9.29 | $16.94 | run this example → |
| Full cosplay helmet | 900 g | 60 h | $25.94 | $41.91 | run this example → |
What that cost includes and what it doesn't
The «cost» column is what it takes to produce the part: the plastic, the electricity for those hours, the share of the printer that wore out and 10% failed prints. It does not include your time. The «selling price» column does: it adds 10 minutes of handling at $12/h and a 50% markup, which is what a small workshop would charge on a one-off job.
If your electricity tariff, your filament or your printer are different — and they will be — click «run this example» on any row: the 3D printing cost calculator opens with those values already loaded and you only have to change yours.
Three cents a gram: the rule and its exception
The surprise in the table is how little the cost per gram moves. Nineteen of the twenty parts land between 2.8 and 3.2 cents, and that list holds both a 5 gram keyring and a 900 gram helmet.
| Part | Grams per hour | Cents per gram |
|---|---|---|
| Tabletop miniature | 5.3 | 4.1 |
| Keyring | 12.5 | 3.0 |
| Small planter | 15.0 | 2.9 |
| Cosplay helmet | 15.0 | 2.9 |
| Vase-mode vase | 15.8 | 2.8 |
| Large planter | 16.4 | 2.8 |
The exception is the miniature, and it explains the whole rule. It works out at 4.1 cents, 36% above the average, because it prints at 5.3 grams an hour instead of 15: fine layers, a lot of detail, and the machine tied up nearly three times as long to lay down the same plastic.
Out of that comes a rule of thumb that is right nearly every time: multiply the grams by three cents. If the part is small and detailed, add a third. And if you are going to charge for it, do not charge by grams: on the miniature you lose money and on the planter you overcharge the client.
Same weight, different cost
This guide opens by saying that two 60 gram parts can take four hours or nine. Here is how the sum looks when that happens:
| Takes | Machine | Power | Cost | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 hours | $0.30 | $0.07 | $1.73 | $5.59 |
| 6 hours | $0.45 | $0.11 | $1.93 | $5.90 |
| 9 hours | $0.68 | $0.16 | $2.24 | $6.36 |
The plastic is identical on all three rows: $1.20. The only thing that changes is the hours, and even so the cost goes up 30% going from four to nine.
On the selling price it shows less, 14%, because in there sit two dollars of your time that do not depend on the machine's clock. That is why a slow part hurts more when you print it for yourself than when you sell it.
And it is why you want to look at the time the slicer gives before taking a job on: the weight is only half the story.
What that cost is made of
The four items, in money, for four very different parts from the table:
| Part | Material | Power | Machine | Failures | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keyring (5 g, 24 min) | $0.10 | $0.01 | $0.03 | $0.01 | $0.15 |
| Miniature (8 g, 1 h 30) | $0.16 | $0.03 | $0.11 | $0.03 | $0.33 |
| Planter (60 g, 4 h) | $1.20 | $0.07 | $0.30 | $0.16 | $1.73 |
| Helmet (900 g, 60 h) | $18.00 | $1.08 | $4.50 | $2.36 | $25.94 |
Two things jump out. First: material is around two thirds of the cost as soon as the part moves at a normal pace. Second: power does not reach 5% except on the miniature, which is the slow one. It is the exact opposite of what nearly every beginner fears.
On the miniature the machine (34%) eats almost as much as the plastic and the split flips over. That is not a freak case: it happens whenever a part takes a long time for what it weighs.
The three costs almost nobody adds up
- Power. Small per part, but constant. The detail is in how much electricity a 3D printer uses.
- The machine. A $300 printer that lasts 4,000 hours costs 7.5 cents for every hour it spends printing. If yours cost more, or you are going to use it for fewer hours, that figure goes up: it is worked through in what an hour of 3D printer time costs.
- Failures. 10% of prints lost makes everything else 10% more expensive.
Your time costs more than the plastic
The ten minutes of taking the part off, removing supports and packing it are $2.00 at $12 an hour. Compare that with how much filament the parts in the table carry.
On fifteen of the twenty, the plastic costs less than those ten minutes. The crossover sits exactly at 100 grams: below it your time is worth more than the material, above it the other way round.
On the keyring the gap is absurd: 15 cents of production and $2.00 of handling. Your time is thirteen times the cost of the part.
The consequence is practical. On small parts, hunting for cheaper filament fixes nothing: what decides is how many you handle per hour. That is why small things come out in batches rather than one by one, and why a one-off order for a single tiny part almost never pays.
How much other materials change the cost
The table is worked out with PLA at $20/kg. With PETG at $24/kg the material goes up 20%; with nylon or carbon-filled filaments, two to three times. Since material is only part of the cost, the effect on the total is smaller than it looks: on the 60 gram planter, moving from PLA to PETG puts the cost up 26 cents, not double. The price per kilo of every material is in filament density and price, and what changes part by part is in what it costs to print in PETG, ABS or TPU.
Where you get your own grams and hours
The two numbers you need to use the calculator are not something anyone has to give you: your slicer produces them the moment you hit slice, before printing anything.
When it finishes calculating, the estimated time and the material appear in a corner of the screen, almost always in grams and sometimes in metres too. With those two, the sum is done.
Three warnings that save surprises:
- The weight the slicer gives already includes supports and the brim, which is correct: you pay for that plastic even though it ends up in the bin.
- The time estimate usually runs short, by 5 to 15%, because it does not quite match your machine's real accelerations. If you are charging for it, round up.
- If your slicer gives you metres instead of grams, convert them in the grams to metres converter.
Is it cheaper to print it or to buy it?
The question is badly put until you put your time in, and with your time in the answer changes quite a lot. The phone stand in the table costs $0.75 to produce, but $2.75 counting the ten minutes of handling.
With that figure in front of you the rule is short: if you can find it made for less than it costs you to produce it plus your time, buy it. A waste bin or an ordinary plastic box are made by the million and you are not going to beat them.
Printing wins in three cases, and not on price:
- It does not exist. The part is yours, made to measure, or nobody makes it.
- It is not made any more. The discontinued spare for an appliance that otherwise works. Here you are competing against throwing the whole thing away.
- It has a name on it. Personalised things have no catalogue price to compare against.
In those three, the production cost is hardly ever the problem: on eighteen of the twenty parts in the table it does not reach $5.10. The two that break out are the cosplay pieces, which are huge.
What this table does not include
Four things stay outside it, and it is worth knowing them before you quote anyone a price.
The finish. The ten minutes are for removing and packing. Sanding, priming and painting a cosplay helmet is several evenings, and it costs more than the sixty hours of printing.
The design. If the part did not exist, somebody modelled it. That time is charged separately, and how to price it is in charging for design time.
Packing and shipping. A box, paper and a label are easily more than the plastic of the part on fifteen of the twenty rows in the table.
Batches. The calculator multiplies the price by the number of units, so six keyrings are six times ten minutes. In real life you handle one plate, not six parts, and your real cost per unit drops quite a bit. If you sell in batches, lower the minutes of work instead of raising the units.
All twenty parts together
For curiosity, and because it puts everything above into scale: printing all twenty parts in the table in one go is 2,256 grams of filament, meaning 2.3 spools, and 156 hours of machine time, which is six and a half days non-stop.
All of that costs $65.63 to produce and would sell for $158.45.
Seen that way, the numbers stop being frightening: the spend is not in the plastic, it is in the hours somebody has to be around for, and in your own.
And if I want to sell them
Then you have to add your real time — not a token ten minutes — and pick a markup with some thought. That sum, with the quote ready to send to a client, is in how much to charge for 3D prints. And if what you want to know is how many parts you have to sell for it to be worth it, that is the break-even point.
Want the exact number for your own case? 3D printing cost calculator does the full sum with your filament, your electricity tariff and your printer, and leaves the quote ready to copy.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to 3D print a small part?
A 5 gram keyring that takes 25 minutes costs about 15 cents to produce: plastic, power, machine and failures included.
Sold, with ten minutes of work and a 50% markup, it comes to about $3.23.
How much does it cost to print a whole kilo of filament?
A kilo of PLA costs between $15 and $25, but printing all of it adds power and machine wear.
At around 12 grams an hour, which is the pace of a small part, a kilo of PLA is about 80 hours of printing, which at 120 W and $0.15/kWh is $1.44 of electricity, plus about $6 of depreciation on a $300 printer.
Is 3D printing cheaper than buying the part?
For small, spare or personalised parts, nearly always: production cost rarely goes past a few dollars.
For mass-produced objects, like an ordinary plastic box, buying is usually cheaper: the advantage of printing is in what the shop doesn't sell.
How much does it cost to print a cosplay helmet?
About 900 grams and around 60 hours of printing, which in PLA comes to roughly $26 of production cost, and about $42 as a selling price with ten minutes of work and a 50% markup.
The bulk of the work comes afterwards: sanding, priming and painting a helmet is several hours that have to be charged separately.
How much does a gram of filament cost?
The plastic alone is 2 cents a gram with PLA at $20 a kilo. Adding power, machine and failures, a printed gram works out at about 3 cents.
That gap is the one nearly everybody forgets when working it out in their head: the real cost is half as much again as the spool says.
Why does my printer work out dearer than the one in the table?
Because the table assumes a $300 printer spread over 4,000 hours, which is 7.5 cents an hour. With a dearer machine, or if you are going to use it for fewer hours, that part goes up.
Exactly how much is in the guide on what an hour of 3D printer time costs, with the sum for putting in your own hours of service life.
Does the slicer weight include supports?
Yes, and that is correct: you pay for that plastic even if it goes in the bin the moment you pull the part off the bed.
That is why you take the weight the slicer gives you and not the one the finished part shows on a scale.
Do these prices include tax?
No. They are base prices, before tax.
If you sell as a business, add whatever tax applies in your country.
More tools and guides
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.
3D printing cost calculatorWork out the real cost and selling price of a 3D printed part: material, power, machine wear, failures and markup. Free, no sign-up, nothing uploaded.
How much to charge for a 3D printed partPrice your prints properly: real cost, your labour and your markup. Generates a quote you can copy and send straight to the customer.
How much electricity does a 3D printer useWork out your 3D printer's power use and what it costs per month on your own tariff. With the average wattage of the most common models.