Pricing 3D Prints Properly

Why most makers underprice

If you only count filament, you're undercharging. Filament is usually 15–25% of the true cost of a print. The other 75–85% is electricity, machine wear, your time, failed prints, packaging, payment fees and marketplace fees. Skip any of those and you'll be busy but broke.

The most common pricing mistake is anchoring to what other people on Etsy or Facebook charge. Those sellers are often losing money too — they just haven't done the maths yet. Price from your own real costs, not from the cheapest seller you can find.

The seven cost lines you must include

Build your true cost from these seven lines. Skip any of them and you're guessing.

• Filament: (grams used ÷ 1000) × cost per kg. Use the actual price you paid, not the price on a deal site.
• Electricity: (printer wattage ÷ 1000) × print hours × your kWh rate. A typical FDM printer pulls 60–120W average.
• Machine depreciation: printer cost ÷ expected lifetime hours. A £400 printer over 4,000 hours is £0.10/hr.
• Labour: (slicing + post-processing minutes ÷ 60) × your hourly rate. Pay yourself at least minimum wage. Ideally £15–25/hr.
• Failure buffer: multiply total cost by (1 ÷ (1 − failure rate)). 10% failure rate = multiply by 1.11.
• Packaging: box, tissue, thank-you card, sticker, label. Even a simple mailer is £0.50–£1.50 per order.
• Fees: Etsy ≈ 6.5% + listing + transaction + payment processing. Add ~10–12% total for marketplaces.

Worked example

An articulated dragon: 35g of PLA at £18/kg = £0.63 filament. Print time 4 hours at 80W and £0.30/kWh = £0.10 electricity. Machine wear at £0.10/hr × 4 = £0.40. Labour 15 min slicing + 5 min cleanup at £15/hr = £5.00. Subtotal = £6.13. Apply 10% failure buffer = £6.81. Add £0.80 packaging = £7.61. That's your true cost before fees.

Want a 60% margin? Suggested price = £7.61 ÷ (1 − 0.60) = £19.03. Selling on Etsy? Multiply by ~1.12 to absorb fees: £21.30. Round to £21 or £22. Anyone selling that dragon for £8 is losing money on every sale and just doesn't know it.

Apply your margin properly

Margin is not markup. A 50% markup on £10 cost gives £15 — which is only a 33% margin. Always work backwards: price = cost ÷ (1 − margin).

For most makers, target 50–65% margin on standard items and 65–75% on personalised or made-to-order pieces. Personalised work justifies higher margin because you can't restock unsold stock.

Sanity-check before you list

If your suggested price feels too high: re-check labour. Most makers wildly underestimate post-processing time. Time yourself for one full week and you'll be shocked.

If it feels too low: you've probably forgotten failure rate, fees or packaging. Or you're in a genuinely scaleable niche — in which case, good. Build volume.

Use the Profit Calculator inside MakerMind to lock these numbers in once and re-use them across every product.