How to price resin 3D prints.

Price resin by volume, not by weight

Your slicer tells you the part's volume in mL, including supports. Divide what the bottle cost by its size: a $60 one-litre bottle is 6 cents a mL. Add a little for the resin left in the vat and on the supports you throw away.

The costs FDM doesn't have

• Consumables. IPA or wash fluid, gloves, paper towels and filters. Small per print, real over a month.
• Tank and film wear. FEP films and resin tanks wear out. Divide what one costs by the prints you get from it.
• Wash and cure time. Every part goes through both. That's your time, and your wash and cure machines' time.
• Support removal and sanding. Resin parts often need the most hands-on finishing. Price the minutes.

Machine time works differently

On an MSLA printer, print time depends on the height of the plate, not how many parts are on it. Ten parts printed side by side take about as long as one. So price machine time per plate, then share it across the parts on that plate. That's also why quantity discounts make sense on resin.

A worked example

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

• Resin: 40 mL at 6 cents = $2.40, plus 10% waste = $2.64
• Consumables and tank wear: $1.00
• Machine time: a 4-hour plate at $2.00 an hour = $8.00
• Labour: 20 minutes to wash, cure and clean up at $40 an hour = $13.33
• Failures: 8% of the above = $1.99
• Cost: $26.96. With a 40% markup, the price is about $37.74.

The resin is under a tenth of the price again. If you charge by the mL alone, you're working for free.

Engineering and specialty resins

Tough, flexible, high-temp and castable resins can cost two to five times standard resin. Give each one its own price per mL, and add time for any extra cure steps the maker asks for.

Check your numbers

The free price checker has resin materials. Drop an STL, pick the resin and see a fair range next to what you charge today. For the general method, read how much to charge for 3D printing.