How to Price Your 3D Prints (And Stop Losing Money)

You just finished a 24-hour print for a client. It looks flawless. You quoted them €25 because the filament only cost about €4, so you just made a solid €21 profit, right?

Probably not.

If you are running a 3D printing side-hustle or a growing micro-factory, undercharging is the fastest way to burn out. We've all been there—guessing the price, sending the quote, and hoping for the best. But when you only calculate the cost of plastic, you are working for free.

Here is how to calculate the true cost of your 3D prints so you can actually run a profitable shop.

The "Filament Only" Trap

The most common mistake makers make is the weight-based calculation. If a 1kg spool of PLA costs €20, and your part weighs 100 grams, the material cost is €2.

But what about the skirt? The tree supports? The purge line? That 100g part probably took 120g of filament to produce. Always calculate based on the total filament consumed by the job, not just the final weight of the object.

The Hidden Costs You Are Ignoring

To know your real baseline cost, you need to factor in the invisible variables.

1. Electricity Printers draw a lot of power heating the bed and the hotend. A 24-hour print on a standard desktop machine can easily consume 2-3 kWh. Depending on local energy prices, that could add €1 to €2 to your print cost. It doesn't sound like much, but over 50 orders, it eats your margins.

2. Machine Wear and Tear Printers are mechanical beasts. Belts stretch, nozzles wear out, and eventually, stepper motors die. You need to amortize the cost of the machine and its maintenance over its lifespan. A simple rule of thumb: charge a small hourly rate (e.g., €0.50/hour) just for the machine time.

3. Your Labor Your time is not free. Slicing the file, changing the spool, removing supports, post-processing, packing the box, and emailing the client all take time. Decide on an hourly rate for yourself and estimate how many minutes of hands-on labor the job requires.

4. The Failure Margin Spaghetti happens. Power outages happen. If a 10-hour print fails at hour 9, you eat the cost of the plastic, the electricity, and the time. Professional shops build a "failure margin" (usually 10-15%) into every quote to cover the inevitable misprints.

The Formula

Your true baseline cost looks like this: (Material + Waste) + Electricity + Machine Wear + Labor + Failure Margin = Baseline Cost

Once you have your baseline cost, then you add your profit markup (usually 2x to 3x your baseline).

Ditch the Spreadsheet

Calculating all of this manually for every single client inquiry is exhausting. You end up with a messy spreadsheet, outdated filament prices, and a dozen email threads trying to get quotes approved.

You should be running your print shop, not spreadsheets.

That is exactly why we built Limes. It handles the math for you. You enter your variables once, and our True Cost Calculator factors in filament usage, power, wear, failure rates, and markup automatically.

Stop guessing your costs. Know the exact profit of every print before you hit "Start".