3D Print Cost Calculator

How the 3D print cost calculator works

1. Pick your material and how your pack is sold. Resin bottles are sold by volume or by mass, and filament spools by weight, so tell the page which basis your price uses and enter the pack size in that unit. The density field is filled in from the material family, and it is what converts between millilitres and grams.
2. Enter the slicer's material figure. Resin slicers report millilitres of resin; FDM slicers report filament used in grams. Either one works — switch the radio button and type the number you have.
3. Add supports, waste and hollowing. These are the parts a slicer figure does not always carry: support material, vat and filter losses, failed prints, and any saving from hollowing the model.
4. Price the machine time. Say whether the hours figure is the whole batch or one copy. Watts divided by 1,000, times those hours, gives the energy for that scope; multiply by your electricity price. In batch mode the batch energy is divided across the copies rather than charged to each one.
5. Read the two tables. The first splits material, electricity and consumables; the second shows how the price per copy falls as the batch grows.

Reading the results

Material cost is the amount of material used multiplied by the price of the pack. A one-litre bottle at £40 or $40 is 4 cents per millilitre, so a 12 ml miniature is about 48 cents of resin before supports. Supports typically add 10–20% on top, and losses another 5–10%, which is why the estimate often lands a little above the bare slicer volume.

Electricity is small but not zero. A 60 W resin printer running a six-hour plate uses 0.36 kWh; at 0.30 per kWh that is about 11 cents for the whole plate. With the default batch scope the page divides that across the ten miniatures, so each copy carries about 1 cent — the plate is charged once, not once per miniature. The cost by batch size table makes that visible: consumables such as IPA, gloves and filters stay fixed for the run, so printing ten miniatures instead of one spreads them across ten copies.

Every figure is recalculated as you type, and the copy-ready breakdown is plain text you can paste into a notebook, a spreadsheet or a shop listing.

Worked example: ten resin miniatures from a one-litre bottle

Say you paid $40 for a one-litre bottle of standard resin, your slicer reports 12 ml per miniature, you print ten copies on one plate with a 60 W printer, the slicer's whole job takes six hours, electricity costs $0.30 per kWh and you add nothing for consumables. Supports at 15% and losses at 5% turn 12 ml into 14.49 ml, or 15.94 g at 1.1 g/cm³.

Ten copies use 144.9 ml of material, which is $5.80 at 4 cents per millilitre. The six-hour plate uses 0.36 kWh, or 11 cents — charged once for the batch. The batch total is therefore $5.90, or 59 cents per miniature. Hollowing the same model down to half its volume drops the material side to under 30 cents, which is usually the single biggest lever a resin printer has.

What to enter when your slicer reports something else

Most slicers give you more than one number. Resin slicers show resin volume in millilitres and an estimated print time; FDM slicers show filament length in metres, filament weight in grams and the same time estimate. Use weight for filament and volume for resin — those match how the material is sold, so no conversion is needed.

If a slicer only reports filament length, convert it yourself: multiply the metres by 100 to get centimetres, multiply by the filament's cross-section (for 1.75 mm diameter, π × (0.175 cm / 2)² ≈ 0.0240528 cm²), then by the density in g/cm³. Ten metres of 1.75 mm PLA at 1.24 g/cm³ is therefore 1,000 cm × 0.0240528 cm² × 1.24 g/cm³ ≈ 29.83 g. Or simply enter the weight the slicer shows. The calculator keeps both numbers visible — millilitres and grams — so you can check the figure against your own spool weighing.

What this calculator does not do

• It does not price the printer itself. Depreciation, nozzles, screens and FEP sheets are a per-machine cost, not a per-print one; add them through the consumables field if you want them in the batch.
• It does not know your model. Hollowing, infill and support percentages are yours to estimate, so the output is only as good as the slicer figure you type in.
• The default wattage, density, support, waste and failure figures are illustrative starting points you can edit, not measured performance guarantees for your printer, resin or filament. If the slicer's figure already includes supports or hollowing, leave those fields at 0 so they are not counted twice.
• It does not convert currencies. Pick a currency for the label and enter prices in that currency.
• It does not value your time, post-processing or shipping, and it does not set a selling price.
• It never sends or stores your numbers. Every figure is calculated in this page, in your browser.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to 3D print a miniature?

On a resin printer, most 28-32 mm miniatures use roughly 5-15 ml of resin each once supports and losses are counted. At $40 for a one-litre bottle that is 20-60 cents of material per figure, plus a few cents of electricity, so a typical miniature often lands between 25 and 70 cents in material and power. Resin is also sold by weight, so set the bottle basis and size to match your own pack. Metal or high-detail display sculpts use more resin and cost proportionally more; the calculator prices whichever volume your slicer reports.

Should I enter resin volume or model weight?

Use whichever number your slicer already shows. Resin slicers report millilitres of resin, and FDM slicers report the filament used in grams, which is also how filament is sold. If you only have the other figure, switch the radio button: the calculator converts between millilitres and grams using the density of the material you picked.

How much electricity does a 3D printer use per print?

Multiply the printer's average draw by the print time. A small resin printer often draws around 60 W, so a six-hour plate uses about 0.36 kWh, while an FDM printer with a heated bed often averages 100-150 W. At 0.30 per kWh that is roughly 11 cents for a six-hour resin plate, spread across every miniature on it, which is why electricity is usually the smallest line in the estimate. Enter the time as the whole batch (the default) or per copy, and the page keeps the unit explicit.

Does hollowing a resin print really save money?

It saves material, and material is the largest line in the estimate, but it is not free: hollow models need drain holes, extra washing inside and often more supports. The hollowing field is there so you can measure the saving honestly rather than assume it. Leave it at 0 when you are typing the slicer's own material figure, because the slicer has already accounted for the hollow.