Material
From your slicer's estimate.
Energy
Measured with a wattmeter if possible, otherwise a typical estimate.
Advanced optionsMachine depreciation and failure allowance — optional, both off by default
Fill in with expected lifetime to include depreciation.
A rough estimate is fine — this is your assumption to adjust.
Share of prints that fail — spreads their cost across successful ones.
Estimated production cost
$1.09
- Material cost
- $1.00
- Electricity cost
- $0.09
Selling prints? Use the Price Calculator to turn this into a selling price.
How it's calculated
Production cost is the sum of three cost centers, plus an optional allowance for failed prints:
Material cost
(Spool price ÷ Spool weight) × Filament used
Electricity cost
(Printer power ÷ 1,000) × Print time × Electricity rate
Machine cost
(Printer price ÷ Expected lifetime) × Print time
Total production cost
(Material + Electricity + Machine) ÷ (1 − Failure rate)
Machine depreciation spreads a share of the printer's purchase price across every hour it's expected to run — it's optional and only applied when you fill in both the printer price and expected lifetime. The failure allowance, if set, inflates the total so that occasional failed prints are covered by the successful ones.
Assumptions
- Your inputFilament used, spool price/weight, print time, printer power, and electricity rate — you enter these directly.
- Industry approximationPrinter power draw, if you haven't measured it with a wattmeter, is only a rough estimate — actual draw varies with bed/hotend heating.
- Industry approximationMachine depreciation and failure allowance are both based on estimates you provide (expected lifetime, failure rate) — they are not fixed constants.
Worked example
A print uses 50g of filament from a $20/1kg spool, takes 5 hours, and your printer draws 120W at an electricity rate of $0.15/kWh.
Material: (20 ÷ 1000) × 50 = $1.00. Electricity: (120 ÷ 1000) × 5 × 0.15 = $0.09. Total: $1.09 (before any optional depreciation or failure allowance).
Frequently asked questions
Does this include what I should charge if I sell the print?
No — this calculator only estimates your production cost (what the print cost you to make). If you sell prints and want to work out a selling price, break-even price, and profit margin, use the 3D Printing Price Calculator, which takes this production cost as its starting point.
Where do I find my printer's power consumption?
The most accurate source is a plug-in power meter (wattmeter) measured while the printer is actively printing, since draw varies with bed/hotend heating. If you don't have one, a reasonable estimate for most FDM desktop printers is 80–150 W while printing, and 120–350 W during bed heat-up. This field is a configurable estimate, not a fixed constant — override it if you know your printer's actual draw.
Why include machine depreciation in a single print's cost?
A printer wears out and eventually needs replacing, so a share of its purchase price is a real cost of every print it makes. Depreciation is estimated on a straight-line basis: purchase price divided by the number of hours you expect it to last, multiplied by the hours this print takes. Both the price and expected lifetime are estimates you can adjust.
What does the failure allowance do?
If you enter a failure rate, the calculator spreads the cost of expected failed prints across your successful ones — for example, a 10% failure rate means roughly 1 in 10 prints fails, so the calculator inflates the cost of a successful print by about 11% to account for the wasted material and time on the ones that don't finish.
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