How the Cost of a 3D Print Adds Up
Filament is only part of the cost. This calculator adds the material (with supports and waste), the printer's own cost per hour, the electricity it uses, your time for setup, plate changes and finishing, a share of your overhead, and an allowance for failed prints. The price is then set to give your target margin.
It runs the same pricing engine as the Customakr app, so the figures match what you would see in a quote.
What an Hour on Your Printer Costs
A printer wears out. Here its hourly cost is its price, less a tenth kept as resale value, spread over the hours it will print in its life, plus maintenance and parts such as nozzles and build plates. Power is added separately: the average draw in watts times the hours, at your electricity price.
A cheap printer running every day costs very little per hour. An expensive one that prints a few hours a week costs a lot more, and the calculator shows the difference.
Failed Prints and Minimum Charges
If one print in ten fails, every good part has to pay for a little of the failed one. The failure rate adds the expected cost of reprinting the material, machine time and hands-on work. Setup is left out because a failed print rarely needs setting up again.
A minimum order charge stops tiny jobs from costing you money once you count the time to answer, set up and pack them.
Go Further in the App
Customakr also prices resin prints, multi-part jobs, packaging, delivery and taxes. On Pro and Team it reads print time and filament weight from G-code and project files from common slicers, and a customer ordering page gives your customers an instant estimate from an STL or 3MF.