What markup should I charge for 3D printing?

A 50-100% markup on total costs is common for hobbyist sellers. Professional print services typically charge 100-300% markup to cover overhead, customer support, and business costs. Consider your local market and competition.

Should I charge for failed prints?

Yes. Build a 5-10% failure buffer into your pricing. This calculator divides your costs by the success rate (cost ÷ (1 − failure rate)), so a 10% failure rate raises the base cost by about 11% — enough to cover the wasted material, energy and machine time across many orders. Do not charge the customer directly for failures.

How do I price post-processing time?

Include time for removing supports, sanding, painting, and packaging in the labour minutes field. These tasks often take as long as setting up the print itself.

What about shipping costs?

Add shipping costs separately or include a flat rate in your pricing. Use our Shipping Size Calculator to estimate packaging dimensions and weight for accurate shipping quotes.

3DPrintCalcs

Order Pricing Calculator — Fair Price for Print Orders

Calculate a fair price for customer print orders including all costs and markup.

Filament Used

Weight from slicer

Print Time

Estimated total print time

Spool Price

Cost per spool of filament

Spool Weight

Weight of filament on the spool

Printer Wattage

Printer power consumption in watts

Electricity Rate

Cost per kWh — UK 2026 price cap ~26.11p (£0.2611); check your latest tariff

Machine Wear Rate

Printer depreciation per print hour — printer price ÷ expected lifetime hours (~£0.20–1.00/hr)

Labour Time

Setup, post-processing, packaging

Labour Rate

Your hourly rate for setup, monitoring and post-processing

Markup

Profit margin on top of total cost (50–100% hobbyist, 100–300% print services)

How We Calculate This

Pricing Formula

Material cost = Filament weight x (Spool price / Spool weight)
Electricity = (Wattage x Hours / 1000) x Rate per kWh
Machine wear = Print hours x Wear rate per hour
Labour = (Minutes / 60) x Hourly rate
Base cost = (Material + Electricity + Wear + Labour + Packaging) / (1 − Failure rate%)
Selling price = Base cost x (1 + Markup%)

This gives you a cost-based selling price. Adjust the markup based on the complexity of the print, your quality, and market rates in your area.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Calculators

Print Cost Calculator

Calculate total print cost including material, electricity and machine wear.

Print Failure Cost Calculator

Calculate the true cost of print failures including wasted material, electricity and time.

Electricity Cost Calculator

Estimate the electricity cost of a print based on wattage and duration.

Time vs Quality Calculator

Compare print time at different layer heights and speed settings.

Batch Printing Calculator

Calculate time and cost savings from printing multiple parts in one batch.

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Last updated: February 2026

All calculations are estimates. Always verify settings with test prints before committing to final prints.