What the Manual 3D Print Cost Calculator Does
The Manual 3D Print Cost Calculator lets print shops, Etsy sellers, and rapid-prototyping service bureaus compute unit production cost and profitable selling prices directly from slicer mass (grams) and print duration (hours) without uploading a file. It accounts for filament price per kilogram, printer electrical power consumption, hourly machine maintenance and depreciation, print failure scrap buffer, and marketplace fee schedules.
How to Price a 3D Printed Part in 4 Steps
- Enter Slicer Grams & Hours: Read the estimated filament weight (g) and print time (hours) from Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer, OrcaSlicer, or Cura and enter them in Section A.
- Configure Material & Energy Rates: Set your spool cost (`$/kg`), printer average watts (e.g., `135–150 W` for PLA on an enclosed CoreXY printer), and your local utility rate (`$/kWh`).
- Set Machine Wear & Scrap Buffer: Include an hourly reserve (`$0.15/h` typical) for nozzles, belts, build plates, and fans, plus a failure percentage (`5–10%`) for adhesion or power-loss reprints.
- Select Marketplace & Pricing Mode: Choose your sales channel (Etsy, eBay, Whatnot, Shopify, Amazon Handmade, TikTok Shop, or Direct Invoice) and either a cost multiplier (`1.5×` to `5.0×`) or a target net margin percentage.
Worked Example: Marketplace vs. Direct Pricing (Golden Vectors C1 & C2)
Using the same part (`48.5 g` PLA at `$22/kg`, `3.7 hours` at `150 W`, `$0.16/kWh`, `$0.15/h` wear, `7%` failure buffer, `3.5×` markup):
Direct Invoice (0% fee): Price = $1.8306 × 3.5 = $6.41 | Profit = $4.58 | Margin = 71%
Etsy (9.5% + $0.45 fee): Price = ($6.4069 + $0.45) ÷ (1 − 0.095) = $7.58 | Profit = $4.58 | Margin = 60%
Notice that by grossing up the denominator by `(1 − channel_fee_rate)`, your net dollar profit remains `$4.58` on both Direct and Etsy orders instead of being eroded by platform fees.
Limitations & Fee Verification Notes
Platform fee presets (last verified `2026-11-01`) reflect standard US listing, transaction, and payment processing tiers. Offsite ads, promoted listings, currency conversion, and shipping label fees vary by seller account status; use the Custom (% + fixed $) channel option if your shop pays mandatory offsite ad fees.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much electricity does a 3D printer actually use per hour?
Peak heater wattage (often 350–500 W during initial bed heat-up) only lasts a few minutes. Once at steady state with a 60°C bed, most modern FDM printers draw 110–150 W on average for PLA/PETG, or 200–260 W with a 100°C bed for ABS/ASA. At `$0.16/kWh`, 150 W costs `$0.024` per hour.
What markup multiplier should I use for commercial 3D printing?
Wholesale batch production typically uses `2.0×–2.5×`, standard retail marketplace listings use `3.0×–3.5×`, and rush engineering prototypes or multi-material prints use `4.0×–5.0×` to cover setup and post-processing labor.
How is machine hourly wear calculated?
Divide the purchase price of your printer plus annual replacement parts (nozzles, PEI sheets, PTFE tubes, extruder gears) by its expected productive service life (typically 4,000–6,000 printing hours). A `$750` printer over `5,000` hours equals `$0.15/hr`.
What happens if I enter 0 for all inputs?
MeshKit calculates a `$0.00` unit cost and displays an em dash (`—`) for net margin percentage rather than dividing by zero or substituting hidden fallback numbers.