How much should you charge for a 3D print?

The short answer

There is no responsible flat price per gram or print hour that works for every shop. Two parts using the same amount of filament can require very different machine time, cleanup, failure risk, packaging, and customer support. Start with the cost of the whole job, then solve for a selling price after fees and desired margin.

1. Find the true production cost

Material

Divide the grams the job consumes by the spool weight, then multiply by spool cost. Use total slicer consumption when possible so supports, brims, purge towers, and color changes are not silently treated as free.

Printer time

Machine occupancy has three common costs. Electricity equals printer kilowatts multiplied by hours and your energy rate. Machine wear spreads the purchase cost across useful production hours. A separate maintenance allowance covers nozzles, build plates, lubricant, belts, and other routine upkeep.

Hands-on labor

Charge for active work, not unattended print time. Count file checks, setup, plate preparation, removal, cleanup, sanding, assembly, packing, and the communication the order requires. Multiply those hands-on hours by an honest hourly rate.

2. Price ordinary failure risk

A shop with an 8% failure rate needs successful work to cover more than an extra 8% of base cost: only 92% of attempts succeed. A useful reserve is base cost × failure rate ÷ (1 − failure rate). Track your own history by material, printer, and job type rather than assuming every print carries the same risk.

3. Solve for margin after selling fees

Percentage fees and profit margin both consume revenue, while fixed transaction fees add a known amount. If production cost is $20.23, fixed fees are $0.20, the percentage fee is 6.5%, and the target margin is 35%, the unrounded revenue requirement is about $34.93. A practical selling price is $35.00.

Markup and margin are not interchangeable

A 35% markup on $20 adds $7 and creates a $27 price before fees. A 35% margin means profit must equal 35% of the final revenue, so the necessary price is higher. If you sell through a marketplace, solving backward from revenue prevents fees from quietly taking the profit you meant to keep.

Sanity-check the answer

• Verify current selling and payment fees from your own account or statement.
• Include shipping only when your displayed price is expected to absorb it.
• Check whether commercial model licensing adds a per-sale or recurring cost.
• Use a higher risk allowance for unfamiliar materials, delicate geometry, or deadlines.
• Review completed jobs and replace assumptions with actual time and waste.

A defensible price is not necessarily the price a market will accept. If demand will not support it, change the design, batch size, process, channel, or product—not the arithmetic. Selling below a sustainable floor merely hides the loss.