How to quote a 3D printing job, step by step
What you forget to put in a job quote, how much deposit to ask for so you are not left holding it, and what rush surcharge makes sense.
Written by Álvaro Melgar Merenciano·
Somebody asks you for twelve identical parts. You open the calculator, enter the grams and the hours, type 12 into units and out comes 91.97 €. You send that quote, it is accepted, you do the work and you deliver.
You have lost 13.45 €.
Not because the calculator is wrong: it gave you exactly what you asked for, the price of twelve parts. The problem is that a job is not twelve parts. It is twelve parts plus everything around them, and that everything is 42% of the cost.
The example job
So the figures can be followed, this is the job the whole article is about. It is small and ordinary, the size anybody takes on:
- 12 identical parts, 60 grams and 5 h 30 each: this site's reference part, which costs 5.11 € to produce.
- 2 hours of design, because the part does not exist and has to be modelled.
- One prototype: you print one, show it, they approve it. That part is not sold.
- 45 minutes of admin: talking to the customer, understanding what they want, preparing the quote, arranging delivery.
- 6.00 € of shipping for the complete package.
All the time goes at 12.00 € an hour, the calculator's default.
The parts are 58% of the quote
Added up, the job costs 105.42 €. This is how it breaks down:
| Item | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| The 12 parts (12 × 5.11 €) | 61.31 € | 58.2% |
| Design (2 h) | 24.00 € | 22.8% |
| Admin (45 min) | 9.00 € | 8.5% |
| Shipping | 6.00 € | 5.7% |
| Prototype (1 part that is not sold) | 5.11 € | 4.8% |
| Total | 105.42 € | 100.0% |
What is not the parts adds up to 44.11 €, 42% of the job. And it is precisely the part nobody puts in the quote, because it cannot be seen: there is no filament to weigh and no printer hours to log.
Look at the design. Two hours are 24.00 €, nearly five times what producing one part costs. It is the second most expensive item in the job, above the admin, the shipping and the prototype put together.
What happens if you quote only the parts
Back to the number at the start. You can see it yourself: the calculator with twelve units loaded gives an order total of 91.97 €. That number is correct for what it was asked — twelve parts at 7.66 € — and it is the wrong quote for a job.
| Only the parts | The whole job | |
|---|---|---|
| What you quote | 91.97 € | 158.14 € |
| What it actually costs you | 105.42 € | 105.42 € |
| What you make | −13.45 € | 52.71 € |
That is 66.16 € of difference, 42% of the correct quote. And it is not that you earn less: it is that you put 13.45 € of your own money in to do somebody else's job, after six hours of your time and six days of printer.
The pricing calculator is built to price a catalogue part: something you have already designed, that you print when somebody orders it and that you sell many times over. A custom job is a different thing, and it has to be built up item by item.
The per-part price of a job is not the catalogue price
At the default 50% markup on the real cost, the job is quoted at 158.14 €.
| Markup | Price of the job | Per part | Profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30% | 137.05 € | 11.42 € | 31.63 € |
| 50% | 158.14 € | 13.18 € | 52.71 € |
| 80% | 189.76 € | 15.81 € | 84.34 € |
Look at the middle column. The same part that in your catalogue is worth 7.66 € comes out at 13.18 € in this job: 72% more.
That is not gouging, and it is worth knowing how to explain it: in the catalogue the design is already paid for and spread across everything you have sold; on a job one customer pays for it alone. It is exactly the reasoning in how to charge for design time.
And if the customer compares it with your shop and argues, the honest answer is to offer both: the custom job at 13.18 € a part, or something you already have at 7.66 €.
The deposit: how much to ask and why
A deposit is not a custom or a sign of distrust: it covers what you are exposed to before you get paid. On this job, what you are exposed to is the design, the prototype and producing the twelve parts: 54.42 €.
| Deposit | Amount | Does it cover your exposure? |
|---|---|---|
| 30% | 47.44 € | No |
| 40% | 63.25 € | Yes |
| 50% | 79.07 € | Yes, comfortably |
30% falls short, and it is precisely the one most often asked for out of habit. At 47.44 € you do not reach the 54.42 € you will have put in before delivering.
That is why on a job with design the sensible deposit is 40%. And if the design were longer, more: the rule is not a fixed percentage, it is that the deposit covers what you will spend before the rest is paid.
What happens if the customer backs out
This is where the deposit stops being paperwork. The customer approves the quote, you design, you print the prototype, you show it to them… and they disappear.
By then you have spent 38.11 €: the two hours of design, the prototype part and the three quarters of an hour of admin.
- With a 40% deposit you collected 63.25 € up front, so you are 25.14 € to the good. The work did not happen, but you have not put money in.
- With no deposit, you lose the whole 38.11 €, plus the hours.
And one detail changes a lot: the file stays with you. If the design works for other people, those two hours are not lost, only waiting to be spread. If it was a part that suits only them, there is nothing to recover, which is why the deposit matters twice as much there.
Revisions, again
The prototype is almost never approved first time. Every change is minutes of CAD plus a fresh print, and at 12.00 € an hour every half hour of tweaking is 6.00 €.
| Revisions | Added cost | Cost of the job |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6.00 € | 111.42 € |
| 2 | 12.00 € | 117.42 € |
| 3 | 18.00 € | 123.42 € |
Three revisions eat 18.00 € of the 52.71 € of profit: a third of it, without you noticing, because it goes half an hour at a time.
The fix is not to charge for all of them, it is to write the limit into the quote: two revisions included, the third is charged. A customer who knows they have two sends the changes together; one who does not sends them one at a time over a fortnight.
The rush surcharge
“Could you have it by Friday?” Before saying yes, look at the hours: twelve parts plus the prototype are 71.5 hours of printer time. With the machine running twelve hours a day, that is six days, and that is without a single failure.
A rush is not a pricing whim: to deliver sooner you have to stop printing something else, or work at night, or both.
| Surcharge | Price | What you add |
|---|---|---|
| 20% | 189.76 € | 31.63 € |
| 30% | 205.58 € | 47.44 € |
| 50% | 237.20 € | 79.07 € |
What matters is not the percentage, it is saying it the other way round from how it is usually said. Instead of “I charge 30% more for a rush”, this works better: “at the normal lead time it is six days and 158.14 €; for Friday it is 205.58 €”. The customer chooses, and they nearly always choose to wait.
If the job comes in through a platform
A job that arrives through a marketplace pays fees like any other sale, and on 158.14 € the fees show: 17.08 €.
The profit goes from 52.71 € to 35.64 €: 32% less for the same work.
That does not mean turning them down. It means the quote for a job that comes in that way cannot be the same as for one that reaches you directly, exactly as set out in the Etsy fees guide and in the VAT one, which takes its own share separately.
If they ask for a discount, quantity is the lever
Almost every job reaches the moment of “can you not do it a bit cheaper?” You have four levers, and only one of them costs you nothing.
The good one is raising the quantity, because the design, the admin, the prototype and the shipping spread across more parts:
| Units | Price of the job | Per part | Your profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 112.15 € | 18.69 € | 37.38 € |
| 12 | 158.14 € | 13.18 € | 52.71 € |
| 24 | 250.11 € | 10.42 € | 83.37 € |
| 50 | 449.38 € | 8.99 € | 149.79 € |
Going from twelve parts to twenty-four takes the per-part price from 13.18 € down to 10.42 €, 21% less. And your profit goes from 52.71 € up to 83.37 €: 58% more. It is the only discount where you both win, which is why it is the first one to put on the table.
The other three have a price.
Dropping the prototype saves 5.11 € and leaves the job at 150.47 €. That is little money and a lot of risk: if the twelve come out wrong, the twelve get redone.
Simplifying the design saves the most of the three. One hour of modelling instead of two is 12.00 € less cost and a price of 140.14 €. If the customer can give up a detail, this is where it shows.
Dropping the markup from 50% to 30% leaves the job at 137.05 €, 13% cheaper. But your profit falls from 52.71 € to 31.63 €: 40% less. It is the lever that hurts most and the one reached for first, nearly always in that order.
What the quote has to say
A one-line quote — “12 parts: 158.14 €” — looks tidier and is worse for both of you. The customer does not know what they are paying for and you have nothing to point at when they ask for changes.
These are the lines worth having on it:
The design, separately. It is 24.00 € of the 105.42 € of cost. Hidden inside the per-part price, any change of quantity throws the whole quote out.
The prototype, separately. Make it clear that one is printed for approval and that it is charged for, whether it comes out well or not.
The revisions included. Two, and 6.00 € per half hour after that.
The lead time, in days and with a date. Six days of printing is not “a little week”: it is six days if nothing fails and if you have nothing else on the machine.
The deposit and when the rest is due. 40% on acceptance, 60% on delivery.
How long the quote stands. Thirty days. Filament goes up, your hours fill, and a quote from six months ago is no longer yours.
The pricing calculator has a copy quote button that leaves you the breakdown written out. Use it as a skeleton: you add the lines for design, prototype, admin and shipping on top, which are the ones it does not produce.
Do it with your own figures
The order that works is four steps.
One. Get the cost of one part in the cost calculator, with your grams, your hours and your handling minutes. Multiply it by the units in the job, and add one more unit for the prototype.
Two. Add your design and admin hours separately, at your hourly rate. They are the ones that appear nowhere and weigh the most.
Three. Add the shipping and anything you buy only for this job: a spool in a colour you do not use, a metal insert, a special box.
Four. Apply your markup to the total, not to the parts. And work out the deposit by looking at what you will spend before being paid, not at a percentage out of habit.
If the job is for a single part instead of twelve, spreading the design changes completely and so does everything else: that is in the article on design time. And if what you want to know is how many jobs like this you need a month for the business to hold up, the sum is in 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
What do I have to include in a 3D printing job quote?
The parts, the design time, the prototype you print for approval, the admin time and the shipping. On a twelve-part job, everything that is not the parts adds up to 44.11 €: 42% of the cost.
It is also worth putting the lead time, the revisions included, the deposit and how long the quote stands in writing.
Can I quote a job with the pricing calculator?
Only partly. The calculator prices the parts: with twelve units it gives an order total of 91.97 €, which is correct for twelve catalogue parts.
For a job you have to add the design, the prototype, the admin and the shipping separately. If you quote only the parts, in this example you lose 13.45 €.
Why do I charge more per part on a job than in my shop?
Because in the catalogue the design is already paid for and spread across every unit you have sold, and on a custom job a single customer pays for it.
The same part that is 7.66 € in the shop comes out at 13.18 € inside this job: 72% more.
How much deposit should I ask for on a job?
Enough to cover what you will spend before collecting the rest. On this job that is 54.42 € between design, prototype and production, so the usual 30% (47.44 €) falls short.
At 40% (63.25 €) it is covered. If the design is longer, the deposit has to go up.
What if the customer cancels after the prototype?
By then you have spent 38.11 € between the design, the prototype part and the admin. With no deposit, you lose all of it.
With a 40% deposit you are 25.14 € to the good. And if the design suits other customers, those hours are not lost: they are waiting to be spread.
How much should I add for a rush job?
Between 20% and 50%, depending on what it forces you to move. On 158.14 € that is 31.63 € at 20% and 79.07 € at 50%.
It works better given as two options with dates: the normal lead time at 158.14 € or the rush at 205.58 €. They nearly always choose to wait.
How long does twelve parts really take?
Twelve parts plus the prototype are 71.5 hours of printer time. With the machine running twelve hours a day that is six days, and that is without a single failure and with nothing else in the queue.
On top of that you need about six hours of your own between design, admin and handling the thirteen prints.
How do revisions affect the quote?
Every half hour of tweaking is 6.00 €. Three revisions take the cost of the job from 105.42 € to 123.42 € and eat a third of the profit.
The practical move is to write the limit into the quote: two included and 6.00 € per half hour after that.
More tools and guides
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.
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.