How to price your 3D prints: a simple formula for UK sellers

Most people pricing 3D prints for the first time either copy what everyone else charges or guess. Both leave money on the table. Here's a simple way to work out what a print really costs you, and what to charge for it.

The formula

Selling price = (filament + electricity + failure allowance + your time + packaging) × markup, then add selling fees

Let's go through each part.

1. Filament

Weigh the print in your slicer (it tells you the grams), then:

Filament cost = grams used × (spool price ÷ spool weight in grams)

A 1 kg spool that costs £20 works out at 2p per gram. Don't forget the supports, brims and purge lines. You paid for those grams too.

2. Electricity

Electricity cost = printer power in kW × print hours × your unit rate

From 1 October to 31 December 2026, the Ofgem price cap for electricity is 26.32p per kWh on a standard Direct Debit tariff (Ofgem). Use the rate on your own bill if it's different.

Check your printer's actual power draw with a plug-in energy meter. It's lower than the number on the power supply, because the heaters cycle on and off.

3. Failure allowance

Some prints fail. Spaghetti, warping, a nozzle clog at 90%. If roughly one print in ten fails, add about 10% to your material and electricity costs to cover it.

4. Your time

This is the one people skip. Count the time spent slicing, setting up, removing supports, cleaning up and packing. Not the print time itself, because the printer does that. Even 10 minutes at £12 an hour is £2, which can be more than the filament.

5. Packaging and markup

Add the box, padding and label. Then apply a markup, often 2× to 3× your total cost for small items. That covers your printer wearing out, spare parts, and the designs that don't sell.

Finally, add the fees for wherever you sell. Etsy, eBay and others all take a cut, so check their current fee pages and build the fees in, rather than paying them out of your profit.

A worked example

The figures below are an example, not a quote. A plant pot cover that uses 41 g of filament and takes 1 hour 23 minutes, on a printer averaging 120 W:

• Filament: 41 g × 2p = £0.82
• Electricity: 0.12 kW × 1.38 h × 26.32p = about £0.04
• Failure allowance (10%): about £0.09
• Your time (10 minutes at £12/hour): £2.00
• Packaging: £0.80

That's a total cost of about £3.75. At 2× to 3× markup, that's £7.50 to £11.25 before fees. Notice that the electricity is pennies and your time is the biggest cost. That's normal.

Skip the spreadsheet

Doing this by hand for every model gets old fast. PrintQuote does it for you. Upload an STL and get your true cost and a selling price in seconds.