3D printing cost for one print is the filament used, plus a little electricity, plus an allowance for waste and wear. Filament is nearly all of it: at $13.99 per kilogram, a 100 g part costs about $1.40 in plastic and a few cents in power. Read the part weight from your slicer, then multiply.
If you only read one thing. Cost of a print = (grams used x 1.1 for waste) x price per gram, plus electricity. At $13.99 per kg, one gram is about 1.4 cents, so a 50 g part costs roughly $0.70 in filament. All example weights and hours below are illustrative; the prices and the electricity rate are sourced.
This guide is about turning a slicer's filament weight into a dollar figure for a single object. For the wider list of what it costs to run a printer, see 3D printer running costs; for the power side alone, 3D printer electricity cost. You can also skip the arithmetic with the print cost calculator.
How do you work out the cost of a 3D print?
You work out the cost of a 3D print in four steps, and the first one comes straight from your slicer:
- Get the weight. After slicing, the slicer shows the filament used in grams (and meters). See what a slicer is if you are new to the step. Use the grams, not the meters.
- Convert price to price per gram. Divide the spool price by its weight in grams. A $13.99 1 kg spool is $0.01399 per gram, or 1.4 cents.
- Add a waste allowance. Supports, purge, test prints and failures use plastic the slicer's number does not include. A flat 10% (multiply grams by 1.1) is a sensible starting point for the allowance; it is an assumption, so adjust it to your own failure rate.
- Add electricity. Average watts divided by 1,000, times print hours, times your price per kWh.
In one line: cost = grams x 1.1 x price per gram + (watts / 1,000) x hours x price per kWh.
What does filament cost per print by weight?
Filament cost scales in a straight line with weight, so a table covers most prints. Elegoo's US store listed 1 kg of PLA at $13.99, and a 10 kg PLA pack at $104.99 (struck through from $140.00), which is $10.50 per kg, on 2026-10-19. The weights below are illustrative sizes, and the table excludes the 10% waste allowance.
| Part weight | At $13.99/kg (1 kg spool) | At $10.50/kg (10 kg pack) | Rough idea of the object |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 g | $0.14 | $0.10 | Small clip or knob |
| 25 g | $0.35 | $0.26 | Phone stand, simple bracket |
| 50 g | $0.70 | $0.52 | Small organizer or holder |
| 100 g | $1.40 | $1.05 | Palm-sized solid part |
| 250 g | $3.50 | $2.62 | Planter or large enclosure half |
| 500 g | $7.00 | $5.25 | Half a spool in one object |
Different filament changes the left column, not the method. Elegoo's PETG, ASA and specialty lines, Bambu Lab's and Prusament's PLA sit at other prices, listed with dates in how much filament costs.
How much does a 3D print cost with electricity and waste included?
Adding both usually moves the total by a few cents to a few tens of cents. These examples use the Elegoo $13.99 per kg price, a 10% waste allowance and an assumed 100 W average draw (illustrative, not a measurement of any printer). The electricity rate is 18.31 cents per kWh, the US residential average for July 2026 from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA, preliminary, released September 24, 2026). Use your own rate.
| Illustrative print | Slicer grams | Hours | Filament with 10% waste | Electricity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small bracket | 12 g | 0.8 | 13.2 g = $0.18 | 0.08 kWh = $0.01 | about $0.20 |
| Phone stand | 35 g | 2.5 | 38.5 g = $0.54 | 0.25 kWh = $0.05 | about $0.58 |
| Large planter | 180 g | 9 | 198 g = $2.77 | 0.9 kWh = $0.16 | about $2.93 |
Working the planter: 180 x 1.1 = 198 g; 198 x $0.01399 = $2.77. Power is 100 / 1,000 = 0.1 kW, times 9 hours is 0.9 kWh, times $0.1831 is $0.16. Total $2.93. In all three rows the plastic is 90% or more of the cost, which is why filament price matters more than a few watts.
What is left out of the cost of a print?
A per-print figure is a marginal cost, the extra cost of one more object. It does not include these:
- The printer. Spread the price over the prints you expect to make; how much a 3D printer costs lists dated prices, and the break-even view is in is it cheaper to 3D print or buy.
- Wear parts. Nozzles, build plates and belts age. Elegoo listed a 0.4 mm brass nozzle kit at $9.99 and a three-plate pack for its Centauri series at $39.99 on 2026-10-19, so a wear allowance of a few cents per print hour is reasonable. The full first-year picture is in the first-year cost of owning a 3D printer.
- Failures and tests. The 10% allowance covers some; a bad week can cost more. If your failures are frequent, raise the allowance.
- Your time. Setup, cleanup and design time are real but not cash costs.
- Tax and shipping on the filament.
How can you lower the cost of a print?
- Buy by the multi-kilo pack. The 10 kg pack above cut the per-kilo price by about 25% against the 1 kg spool on the same page.
- Reduce infill and walls where strength is not needed. Weight falls as these fall; the effect is shown in the slicer's gram figure before you print.
- Print fewer failures. A reliable first layer saves more plastic than any discount; see fixing a bad first layer and, for how far a spool goes, how long a filament spool lasts.
- Recycle or reuse. Ideas for failed prints are in how to recycle failed prints and filament.
If you are weighing up whether the hobby pays off at all, is 3D printing worth it gives the broader answer.
