Enter the grams and hours your slicer reports. You get the true cost of the print, and a price if you sell it.

How it is calculated

filament     = grams × (spool price ÷ spool grams)
electricity  = (watts ÷ 1000) × hours × price per kWh
printer wear = (printer price ÷ expected life in hours) × hours
your time    = (minutes ÷ 60) × hourly rate
cost         = (filament + electricity + wear + time) ÷ (1 − failure rate)
price        = cost × (1 + markup)

Dividing by one minus the failure rate spreads the cost of failed prints over the ones that succeed. At 5% failures, every good print carries about 5.3% extra.

Use average power, not the number on the power supply. A printer rated at 350 W or 1,300 W only pulls that while the bed heats up. Over a whole PLA print most desktop machines average far less. The accurate way is a plug-in energy meter: run one print, read the kWh, divide by hours. We start you at 110 W. Swap in your own figure once you have measured it.

What usually dominates

For most hobby prints filament is the largest part and electricity the smallest. Once you count your own time, time dwarfs both, which is why people who sell prints lose money when they price on filament alone.

Sources for the default prices

US average residential electricity, June 2026: 18.34 cents per kWh. U.S. Energy Information Administration. Checked 2026-09-20.
UK price cap unit rate, 1 October 2026 to 31 December 2026: 26.32 pence per kWh. Ofgem. Checked 2026-09-20.

3D print cost calculator

Your print

Result

How it is calculated

What usually dominates

Sources for the default prices