What machine rate should I charge?
Your machine rate covers everything a printer costs per hour of printing: electricity, depreciation, maintenance and a share of overheads such as rent and software. Work out the first three with the print cost calculator (“machine time costs … per hour”), then add overhead. Many small print farms land somewhere between a few tens of cents and a couple of dollars per hour, depending on printer size and overhead.
Markup vs margin: which is which?
Markup is added on top of cost (cost × 1.2 is a 20% markup). Margin is profit as a share of the price (a 35% margin means 35¢ of every dollar is profit). This calculator uses a material markup — to cover handling and filament waste — and a margin on the whole quote. A 35% margin is the same as a 54% markup on total cost.
How is lead time estimated?
Total printer-hours for the order, including expected reprints, divided by your capacity per day (printers × realistic print hours per printer per day), rounded up. Real lead times also depend on plate changes, queue order and other jobs already booked, so add a buffer before you promise a date.
How do I quote a 3D printing job?
- 1Slice each part to get grams and print time.
- 2Material: grams ÷ 1,000 × price per kg × (1 + markup) × quantity.
- 3Machine time: print hours × your machine rate × quantity. Work out your machine rate (power, wear, overhead per hour) with the print cost calculator.
- 4Labor: minutes of handling per part × your labor rate.
- 5Add a failure allowance on material and machine time, plus a setup fee per order.
- 6Price = total cost ÷ (1 − target margin).
Frequently asked questions
Should I charge a setup fee?
Many print services do, to cover file checks, slicing, test prints and order admin that don’t scale with quantity. It also stops very small orders from losing money.
How do I price multi-color parts?
Include the purge waste in the grams per part. The multi-color waste calculator shows how much each color change adds.
Does this include shipping and payment fees?
No. Add shipping separately, and if you sell through a marketplace such as Etsy, check its fees with the Etsy profit calculator.
Estimates for planning. Results depend on the numbers you enter — use the gram, hour and ml figures from your slicer, and your real material and power prices. Material densities are typical values; check your spool or bottle datasheet for exact figures.