3D Printing Material Cost Calculator
Estimate 3D printing material cost from print weight, filament price per kg, and electricity.
Get cost per gram and per print for any FDM filament type.
3D printing material cost per gram calculates the actual cost of filament or resin used for a specific print, helping makers, small businesses, and product designers accurately price their work and compare material options.
Core formula: Cost per Gram = Spool Price ÷ Spool Weight (grams) Print Material Cost = Print Weight (grams) × Cost per Gram Total Print Cost = Material Cost + Electricity Cost (add machine depreciation on top if you sell; see the note under the worked example)
What each variable means:
- Spool Weight: standard FDM spools are 1 kg (1,000g). Specialty materials come in 500g or 250g spools.
- Print Weight: the grams of filament used. Your slicer software (Cura, PrusaSlicer, Bambu Studio) reports this. It accounts for infill percentage and support material.
- Electricity Cost: FDM printers draw 100–300W. Resin printers draw 40–100W (UV lamp uses most of it).
- Machine Depreciation: divide printer purchase price by expected lifetime print hours. A $350 printer expected to run 2,000 hours = $0.175/hour machine cost.
Common FDM filament cost per gram (approximate, and they move every year):
| Material | Price/kg | Cost/gram |
|---|---|---|
| PLA (budget) | $18–$25 | $0.018–$0.025 |
| PLA (premium) | $25–$35 | $0.025–$0.035 |
| PETG | $22–$35 | $0.022–$0.035 |
| ABS | $20–$30 | $0.020–$0.030 |
| TPU (flexible) | $25–$45 | $0.025–$0.045 |
| ASA | $28–$40 | $0.028–$0.040 |
| Nylon | $35–$70 | $0.035–$0.070 |
| Carbon fiber filled | $50–$100 | $0.050–$0.100 |
Worked example: A phone stand printed with budget PLA ($22/kg spool). Slicer reports 47 grams used. Print time: 4.5 hours. Electricity: $0.13/kWh, printer draws 200W.
Cost per gram = $22 ÷ 1,000 = $0.022/gram Material cost = 47 × $0.022 = $1.03 Electricity = 200W × 4.5h ÷ 1,000 × $0.13 = $0.12
Total print cost = $1.03 + $0.12 = $1.15
Machine depreciation is worth adding on top when you sell. Divide the printer price by its expected lifetime hours: a $350 printer over 2,000 hours adds $0.175/hr, so this 4.5-hour print carries another $0.79 of machine wear. Fill in the two optional machine fields at the bottom and the calculator adds that line for you. Leave them blank and it reports material and power only.
How long is “lifetime hours”?
Two thousand hours is the figure most people settle on for a budget bedslinger, and it is closer to a rule of thumb than a specification. A hotend, a set of belts and a couple of fans are cheap enough that a well-treated Ender or Prusa runs far past it, so the number is really asking how long before the machine owes you nothing. Print farms running production hours often amortize over 3,000 to 5,000 instead. Pick the number you would be comfortable defending to a customer and stay consistent between quotes.
If selling: apply 3 to 5 times your all-in cost for small-batch sales, or around 10 times for retail.
How we build and check this calculator
This calculator runs entirely in your browser, so the numbers you enter stay on your device. The math behind it is written by hand and tested against worked examples and standard references before the page goes live.
SuperGlobalCalculator is independently built and maintained. See how we build and verify our calculators.