1. Material

Use your slicer’s filament estimate, including supports, brims and purge material. Divide the spool price by its filament weight to get a price per gram, then multiply by the grams used. For a 1 kg spool, material cost = grams ÷ 1,000 × your price per kg.

2. Electricity

Electricity is billed in kilowatt-hours (kWh), not watts. Energy = average power in W ÷ 1,000 × print hours. Multiply that energy by your electricity price per kWh. A plug-in energy monitor gives a more useful reading than the printer’s maximum rated power.

3. Machine wear

Set an hourly allowance for maintenance, replacement parts and equipment use. Multiply your chosen wear cost per hour by the print duration. Base it on your own records and review it as your machine ages.

Or spread the printer’s purchase price over the hours you expect it to work. Enter the price, how many years it should pay for itself, how many hours a day it runs, and the share of the purchase price you expect to spend on repairs. The hourly cost is purchase price × (1 + repairs ÷ 100) ÷ (years × 365 × daily hours). When those three figures are set, that rate is used instead of wear per hour.

4. Failure allowance

Failed prints still consume material, energy and machine time. Add a buffer to those costs based on your experience. PrintQuote applies your chosen percentage to material, electricity and machine time; it is an allowance, not a guarantee or a measured failure probability.

5. Labour

Include preparation, slicing, support removal, finishing and packing. Split preparation and post-processing if they take different amounts of time or you charge different hourly rates. A setup fee, if you use one, is added once per job. Unattended print time is not automatically hands-on labour.

Add one-off extras, such as adhesive, tape or a nozzle bought for the job, as their own lines. They are added after the failure allowance and before the markup.

Postage and packaging are separate from those extras. Enter the amount you charge to pack and post the whole job. That amount is added to the customer price after the markup, and it is not part of the failure allowance. If you later record the postage you actually paid on an order, that is a further cost and is not the same figure.

6. Profit: markup is not margin

A markup adds a percentage of cost: price = cost × (1 + markup). A profit margin is profit as a share of the selling price: price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). PrintQuote’s current percentage setting adds a percentage to cost, so its calculation is a markup even where the setting is labelled “margin”. Choose the method deliberately.

Worked example — hypothetical numbers only

These round numbers are an example, not market prices or a recommended tariff. Suppose a job uses 100 g of filament at an example £20 per kg, takes 5 hours at an average 100 W, and electricity costs an example £0.40 per kWh.

  • Material: 100 ÷ 1,000 × £20 = £2.00.
  • Electricity: 100 ÷ 1,000 × 5 = 0.5 kWh; 0.5 × £0.40 = £0.20.
  • Wear: 5 hours × an example £0.20/hour = £1.00.
  • Failure allowance: an example 10% × £3.20 = £0.32.
  • Labour: an example £2 setup fee plus 0.5 hours × £10/hour = £7.00.
  • Total cost: £2.00 + £0.20 + £1.00 + £0.32 + £7.00 = £10.52.
  • With an example 25% markup: £10.52 × 1.25 = £13.15. For a 25% profit margin instead: £10.52 ÷ 0.75 ≈ £14.03.

VAT and final checks

VAT-registered businesses generally add VAT to taxable sales at the applicable rate. Check GOV.UK VAT guidance and seek professional advice for your circumstances. Keep the treatment of input costs and selling prices consistent.

Geometry-based estimates cannot fully account for your slicer’s toolpaths or supports. Check filament and print time against your slicer before sending a final quote.