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3D print cost calculator

Add up filament, electricity, labor and printer wear, allow for failed prints, and get a suggested price. It runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent or saved.

Enter 0 to leave a cost out. Amounts are in US dollars.

Your print

Filament

Add a line for each filament the print uses (up to 16).

Print time and electricity
Print time

Enter a whole number, like 4.

Enter whole minutes from 0 to 59.

Average while printing, not the power supply's peak.

Enter a number from 0 to 1,000,000, like 19.99.

Enter a number from 0 to 1,000,000, like 19.99.

Printer

Enter a number from 0 to 1,000,000, like 19.99.

Enter a number above 0, like 1000.

Nozzles, build plates, belts and other wear parts.

Enter a number from 0 to 1,000,000, like 19.99.

Your time

Slicing, starting the print, removing it and cleaning it up.

Enter a whole number, like 4.

Enter a number from 0 to 1,000,000, like 19.99.

Failed prints and markup

Added to the filament, electricity and printer costs to cover prints that fail.

Enter a percentage from 0 to 100.

Added on top of the total cost.

Enter a percentage from 0 to 1,000.

Cost and suggested price

Cost breakdown and suggested price
Filament—
Electricity—
Printer depreciation—
Upkeep—
Failed-print allowance—
Labor—
Total cost—
Markup—
Suggested price—

Fill in every field to see the total. Enter 0 to leave a cost out.

Each figure is rounded to the cent on its own, so the lines can add up to a cent more or less than the total.

Spoolsight works out the filament cost of every print you log, from what you paid for each spool.

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How it's calculated

Filament
Spool price ÷ spool weight × grams used, for each filament, added together.
Print hours
Hours + minutes ÷ 60.
Electricity
Power draw (W) × print hours ÷ 1,000 × price per kWh.
Printer depreciation
Printer price ÷ expected lifetime (print hours) × print hours.
Upkeep
Upkeep per print hour × print hours.
Failed-print allowance
(Filament + electricity + depreciation + upkeep) × allowance %.
Labor
Hands-on minutes ÷ 60 × hourly rate.
Total cost
Filament + electricity + depreciation + upkeep + failed-print allowance + labor.
Suggested price
Total cost + total cost × markup %.

Nothing is rounded along the way. Each figure is rounded once, to the cent, with half a cent rounding up.

Markup is added on top of cost: a 50% markup on a $10.00 cost gives $15.00, which is a 33% margin.

Amounts are shown in US dollars. The math is the same in any currency: enter every price in yours.

Everything is worked out in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.

About the example values

  • 125 g of PLA from a $19.99, 1,000 g spool. 1 kg of PLA typically sells for $15 to $25 in the US.
  • 4 h 12 min on a Bambu Lab P1S, about 30 g an hour.
  • 110 W: the printer's average draw while printing PLA. The heated bed draws more for a few minutes while it warms up.
  • $0.17 per kWh: close to the average US residential electricity price reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
  • $600 printer over 5,000 print hours, plus $0.04 an hour for wear parts like nozzles, build plates and belts.
  • 15 minutes of hands-on time at $20 an hour.
  • A 5% allowance for failed prints and a 50% markup.

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