Price an FDM print from your slicer's numbers, or drop in an STL or OBJ. Everything runs in your browser, so no file is ever uploaded.
YOUR PRINT
NO SIGN-UP
Material$20/kg
ColorsNo surcharge
Sets wear & power
Drop an STL or OBJ
Auto-fills time & weight
User Setting
PLA
$20/kg
Electricity
$0.17/kWh
Machine wear
$0.25/h
Labor
$2
Profit
50%
Failure buffer
10%
ESTIMATED QUOTE
LIVE · updates as you type
—
Enter a print time and filament weight on the job ticket, or drop an STL/OBJ into it, and the quote appears here, updating as you type.
EVERY QUOTE PRICES
Material—
Electricity—
Machine wear—
Labor—
Profit—
Failure buffer—
TOTAL—
✓ NEVER UPLOADED · PRICED IN-BROWSER
FILES STAY HOMENO ADSFREE FOREVERQUOTED IN UNDER A SECOND
How 3D Printing Costs Are Calculated
A 3D print cost calculator estimates what a 3D print actually costs to produce by combining the model's geometry with the real running costs of a printer. PrintCost.site does this entirely in your browser: it reads volume and surface area straight out of your STL or OBJ file, then prices six separate cost drivers: filament, electricity, machine wear, labor, a failure buffer, and a multi-color surcharge when a print needs more than one filament.
Filament is only part of a fair price: across the 9 prints we sliced, it runs from 2% of the shop price on the keychain to 49% on the life-size figure. Quoting from material weight and nothing else is the single most common reason makers, print farms, and maker spaces end up charging less than a print costs them. Here is one real print priced the way the calculator prices it, in the order it works, at the rates in your calculator. Open any line to see what goes into it.
Print
Worked example: Articulated dragon
Filament
65.9 g PLA
Print time
5h 39m
Printer
Bambu Lab A1
165.9 g × $20/kg$1.32
Filament is calculated from the weight of material your model needs. When you upload a file, the calculator estimates the volume of plastic in the part (solid outer walls plus 20% infill) and multiplies it by a filament density of 1.24 g/cm³, the figure for PLA, to get a weight in grams. It uses that one density for every material, so choosing PETG, ABS, ASA or TPU changes the price, not the estimated weight. If your slicer gives you the real weight, type it in instead. That weight is then priced at the rate you set for that material, per kilogram: PLA at $20, PETG at $22, ABS at $23, ASA at $23 and TPU at $24. Each price is editable under User Setting on the job ticket.
25.65 h × 0.12 kW × $0.17/kWh$0.12
A typical FDM printer draws about 120 watts while printing, roughly the same as two incandescent light bulbs. At $0.17 per kWh, a 6-hour print adds about $0.12 to the cost; you can set your own local rate under User Setting on the job ticket. The formula: print hours × power draw (kW) × electricity rate. It's a small number on its own, but it adds up over dozens of prints.
35.65 h × $0.25/h$1.41
3D printers wear down over time. Belts stretch, nozzles get clogged, bearings develop play, and beds need replacing. A per-hour wear rate ($0.25, set under User Setting) accounts for these consumable parts and maintenance. The longer the print, the more wear on the machine. This line item is what separates a realistic quote from a simple material-cost-only estimate.
4per job$2.00
Labor covers the hands-on work around a print: inspecting and slicing the file, setting up the printer, monitoring the print, and cleaning up after it. It is a flat $2 per job, however long the print runs; set your own under User Setting.
Cost to make it$4.85
510% of $4.85+$0.49
Prints fail, especially long ones. The failure buffer adds 10% on top of the cost to make the print to absorb those losses. Adjust the percentage under User Setting.
61 color, none—nothing added
Multi-color prints add complexity. Every filament swap increases print time, introduces purge waste, and adds wear on the AMS unit. The calculator applies a surcharge of 5% for two colors, up to 15% for four or more. If you're printing a multi-color model, set the color count on the job ticket.
750% of $5.34+$2.67
Your margin on top of the true cost: 50% of the cost to make the print with its failure buffer and any color surcharge. Adjust the percentage under User Setting.
8$5 floor, cleared—nothing added
Very small prints still take setup time. If the price comes out below your minimum charge, $5, the quote is raised to the minimum. It floors the print alone, before any shipping is added.
9$8.01 up to the next $0.50+$0.49
The total is rounded up to a clean price: to the next $0.50 below $20, the next $1 below $100 and the next $5 above that. It only ever rounds up, never down.
Shop price$8.50
Grams and time are OrcaSlicer 2.4.2's own totals for Articulated Spirit Dragon by sunset3d. Change a rate under User Setting and every line above follows.
Where the grams and hours come from
Print time drives two lines of the quote, electricity and machine wear, so a small 30-minute keychain costs far less to run than a 12-hour helmet. When you upload a file, the calculator estimates print time from the model's volume at 8 cm³ an hour, the pace it assumes for 0.2 mm layers. Real printers vary: thinner layers (0.12 mm) slow things down for detail, while 0.28 mm layers finish faster. If you already sliced your model, you can enter the exact time from your slicer for a more precise quote.
The calculator assumes 20% infill when it estimates filament from a file, which uses far less material than 50% or 100%. Slicer profiles differ: the stock 0.20 mm Standard profile that sliced the prints below uses 15%. Functional parts that need strength should use higher infill and will cost more in filament. Decorative prints can drop to 10–15% infill to save on material without sacrificing looks.
Overhanging geometry often requires support structures that consume extra filament and add print time. While PrintCost.site currently estimates base volume and surface area, models with heavy overhangs will use more filament in practice. To allow for supports, raise the Filament figure by 10–20%, or type your slicer's weight, which already counts the supports it adds.
Pricing it right
The most common mistake is quoting based on filament cost alone. Material is only part of the true cost, and on a small print a small part of it. Forgetting electricity, machine depreciation, and your own time (labor) leads to prices that don't cover actual expenses. Another frequent error is charging every filament the same: TPU costs more per gram than PLA, and specialty filaments add even more. Finally, don't forget the failure buffer: prints fail, especially on long runs, and the calculator's default 10% buffer helps absorb those losses.
If a quote comes back higher than expected, several levers can bring it down. Reducing infill from 20% to 10% saves filament without meaningfully weakening most parts. Switching to PLA from PETG or TPU usually lowers the material line, because PLA tends to be the cheapest filament per kilogram. Printing at 0.28 mm layer height instead of 0.12 mm cuts print time by nearly half. Combining multiple small parts into a single plate reduces labor fees. And for draft prototypes, consider lower-quality settings that print faster.
What real prints cost
We sliced 9 real models on a Bambu Lab A1 and priced them at your calculator's rates. Here are 4 of them, from the keychain to the life-size figure. DIY cost is the filament, electricity and wear alone; shop price is the full quote.
Filament, print time, the cost to print it yourself, and a print shop's price for each model
Everything runs locally. Your files never leave your device.
Client-Side Parsing
STL and OBJ files are analyzed entirely in your browser. No data is ever sent to our servers.
Files Never Uploaded
Your 3D models stay on your device. The file picker reads locally using the File API.
No Cloud Processing
Volume, surface area, and cost estimates are computed on your machine. No API calls, no queues.
Fast Local Analysis
Most files are parsed and quoted in under a second. Results appear instantly.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The file analysis happens entirely in your browser. Your STL or OBJ file is read using the browser's File API, parsed locally, and never transmitted anywhere. The calculation itself needs no network connection at all.
Yes. Volume calculation, surface area estimation, filament weight, and the final price are all computed on your device using JavaScript. No cloud servers, no data collection, no API calls.
Currently STL (binary and ASCII) and OBJ files. Both are the most common formats for 3D printing. Maximum file size is 100 MB.
The calculator uses the actual geometry of your model to compute volume and surface area. These values are combined with material density, print speed assumptions, and your local electricity/machine costs. Final numbers are estimates, and actual results depend on your printer, settings, and filament.
Yes. Type the print time and filament weight your slicer reports (Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer, Cura, etc.) into the Print time and Filament fields, and the quote updates as you type. Those numbers are also more precise than a file estimate. The estimate has to assume your infill and layer height, and your slicer already knows them.
It depends mostly on the size of the print. In US dollars at the calculator's starting rates, a 5.5 g keychain costs about $0.25 to print yourself and $5.00 from a print shop; a 65.9 g articulated dragon, $2.85 and $8.50; a 708 g cosplay helmet, $23.75 and $43.00; and a 16.74 kg life-size figure, $411.40 and $685.00. Those are 4 of the 9 real models we sliced on a Bambu Lab A1. Filament is only part of a fair price: a quote that covers your costs also has to include electricity, machine wear, failed prints, and your own handling time. That is what this calculator adds up for you.
A 3D print cost calculator stops you from underpricing. Makers, hobbyists, and small print farms who quote from filament weight alone routinely charge less than the print actually costs them, because material is only one of six real cost drivers. Pricing from the model's true geometry, plus electricity, machine wear, a failure buffer, and a handling fee, turns guesswork into a number you can defend to a customer.
