Guides / Pricing

How much to charge for 3D printing.

Most shops undercharge because they price the plastic and forget everything else. Here's a formula you can use today, with a worked example.

The five costs in every print

  • Material. What the spool or resin bottle cost you, divided by its weight. A $25 one-kilogram roll is 2.5 cents a gram. Include supports and purge, not just the part.
  • Machine time. An hourly rate for the printer that covers what it cost, power and wear parts, spread over the hours it really runs.
  • Labour. Your time to check the file, set up the plate, remove supports, finish and pack. Even 15 minutes is real money.
  • Failures. Some prints fail. Add a few percent so the good prints pay for the bad ones.
  • Overhead. Rent, software, shipping supplies and the time you spend answering emails that never turn into orders.

Add those up and you have your cost. Then add your markup on top, because cost is break-even, not profit.

A worked example

These numbers are made up to show the maths. Use your own.

  • Material: 80 g of PLA at 2.5 cents a gram = $2.00
  • Machine time: 6 hours at $1.50 an hour = $9.00
  • Labour: 15 minutes at $40 an hour = $10.00
  • Failures: 5% of the above = $1.05
  • Cost: $22.05. With a 40% markup, the price is about $30.87.

Notice the plastic is less than a tenth of the price. That's normal, and it's why "price per gram" alone leaves you short.

Mistakes that make shops too cheap

  • Pricing by weight only. A tall, thin part can take three times longer than a heavy, chunky one.
  • Forgetting a minimum order. Set a minimum so a 5 g bracket still pays for the setup.
  • No charge for rush. Jumping the queue moves other jobs back. Charge for it.
  • Same price for every quantity. Ten copies on one plate cost less each than one. Give a quantity discount on purpose, not by accident.
  • Trusting the file's size. STL files have no units. A part drawn in inches looks 25 times smaller. Check the size before you quote.

Check your own prices

Our free price checker measures your STL in the browser and shows a fair price range for the material you pick. Type what you charge today and see if you're too cheap.

If you quote a lot of jobs, an auto quoter can do this maths on every file for you, using your own rates.

Questions

Quick answers

What's a good markup for 3D printing?

There's no single right number. Start with a markup that covers your time and the jobs you don't win, then check it against what customers actually accept.

Should I charge by the gram or by the hour?

Both. Material is charged by weight and machine time by the hour. Pricing on only one of them gets tall parts or heavy parts wrong.

Do I need a minimum order charge?

Yes. Every job has setup, checking and packing time, even a tiny one. A minimum makes sure small jobs still pay for that.

Let the quotes price themselves.

Layers3D measures the file and prices it from your rates. Founding Shops get Professional at CA$119.20 a month for their first year.

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