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What The 3D Print Filament Cost Calculator Works Out
- Filament: print weight in grams divided by 1,000, multiplied by the price per kilogram. PLA runs GBP 15-25 a kilo in the UK, so a 150 g print is about GBP 3 of plastic; PETG costs pennies more, while TPU, ASA and filled filaments price by the project.
- Electricity: average printer draw in kilowatts x print hours x the unit rate. A typical PLA printer averages 100-200 W, mostly the heated bed, so a six-hour print adds roughly 25p at the current Ofgem price cap unit rate.
- Total print cost: filament plus electricity, with a buffered figure underneath that adds the failure allowance. The slicer's weight and time estimates are accurate enough to quote from before a nozzle heats.
- Printer draw and unit rate (advanced): override the 150 W assumption and the default unit rate (the current Ofgem price cap). Enclosed printers and high-temperature materials pull more; Economy 7 and EV tariffs offer overnight rates of 7p-15p that suit long prints.
- Failure, support and purge allowance (advanced): supports, purge lines, calibration cubes and the 80%-finished spaghetti incident add a practical 20-30% to the cost of each kept print. Set it to your own failure rate.
- Printer wear per print (advanced): the printer price spread across its expected life in print hours, plus nozzles, beds and spares per 1,000 hours, multiplied by the print time. A GBP 300 printer over 3,000 hours with GBP 30 of spares is about 13p an hour, which hobbyists forget and sellers must not.
- Your time (advanced): setup and post-processing minutes at an hourly value (defaults to the National Living Wage). Leave at zero to cost a hobby print on materials alone.
- Full cost per kept print and cost per gram (advanced): buffered material and power, plus wear and time. This is the honest figure to compare with buying the part: a 40p print replacing a GBP 12 spare repays a printer in a season of small rescues.
- Suggested selling price (advanced): the craft-fair formula of material and running cost x 3 to 5, with wear and time added at cost. Material plus hope is not a pricing strategy; 15% infill rather than the default 20% and off-peak overnight printing both trim the base cost.