Pricing a print job - how much to charge for a print

Other topics Off-topic
1

i sometimes sell prints to ppl but have come across to quite different methods on how to determine cost.

  • I print stuff for ppl randomly, i am NOT a company…if that makes sense. i do small batches for ppl from time to time

  • This question is for generic 3D prints, for stuff you did not design yourself from scratch but download.

  • If you need to design X item, yourself, then you should add valve to that. Charge $40/hr for designing time or whatever

Option 1 - Use a long formula to get price.

Material used + power usage + printing hrs + printer cost + other factors

While looking online for different formulas, i found that ppl consider “their printers as another person.“

For example, if u in the real world make $20/hr, you should charge $20/hr for your printer.

  • i get it, i want to pay off my printers myself but

Imagine someone wanted me to print a Pickacu or whatever, and it takes 4 hrs to print.

Going by the “their printers as another person.“ logic, i need to charge ($20*4) = $80 plus materal costs.

I dont know about you but NO WAY! I dont expect anyone will pay be $80 for a 3d print i randomly download

Option 2 - (Materal cost + power cost ) * Multiply by whatever factor makes you happy

For one of my customers, i had to print small 3d whistles. The cost for the was, maybe under .06 cents each (material cost + power)

I decided to charge .50 cents for each one.

Thus for 1 whistle, i made a profit of (.50-.06) = $ .44

For this order, i had to make 150 total. (150 * .50 cents) - (150* .06 ) = 75 - 9 = $66 profit

The client was happy to pay the $75 for it. I have been lucky enough to now have printed over 6,000 of them.

However, if i had to include “their printers as another person.“ (charge $20/hr) then i would expect my client to have gotten these whistles from amazon or whatever because the price i would give them but be HUNDREDS of $$ instead of just $75

2 Likes
2

Minutes x $0.28

1 Like
3

The printer costs basically nothing. If you had to replace an A1 every year it would still be only a few cents an hour.

Your costs will be filament, power, labour, and license fees. Most models can’t be printed commercially without a license from the designer. And don’t get me started on Pikachu and what it takes to license that.

Out of those costs, labour is #1, filament is #2, and licensing is arbitary. Usually you pay per month, or 1-off for ever, since no-one can track your sales accurately so per print is ridiculous.

2 Likes
4

I think there is nothing wrong with calculating the cost of the printer in, just 20$/h is excessive, very excessive. Let’s assume a life time of 2000h, an H2C at ±2000$ and 300$ in replacement parts/consumables, then the cost per hour should be more like 1.2$ / h. If you use an A1, it would be closer to 0.3$ / h.

I would factor in a small percentage for failed prints & human error (+ maybe profit?)

And a fixed average value for setup time, communication with your customer, time for buying filament and other stuff,…

So the formula I would use is closer to

(
15$ average work
'+ x $ / h print time (printer, consumables, electricity, …)
'+ x $ / kg of filament
)
'* factor
'+ extraordinary cost (post processing, hardware parts, assembly, …)

Some prints might be governed by time time, e.g. multicolor, while others might use an expensive filament, so I would keep those print time and filament separate)

1 Like
5

There is no single correct pricing formula. Price depends on your goals and your market. Cover material, electricity, and printer wear. Add a profit that makes the job worthwhile. Compare your price with similar local or online prints. Customers pay for value, not just print time. If someone asks for a replacement dishwasher clip. They may happily pay $12 for a part that uses only $0.40 of filament because it saves buying a new appliance. Conversely, a decorative Pokemon model might only be worth $15 in the local market, even if it took 10 hours to print.

6

This is key. Calculating your costs is important to making sure you don’t lose money (or making sure you actively profit), but the value of a 3d print is in being able to make exactly what the customer wants.

7

This is a great example of value. Before I got into printing myself I would have people or the public library print items for me versus replacing a perfectly good appliance.

8

Just saw a related Q/A on 3D Printing Stack Exchange and thought of this thread:

The accepted answer has a nice breakdown of estimating printer depreciation. Uses A1 Mini as example, but the formula would still apply to any model. Also the author of that answer apparently runs a whole site dedicated to pricing print jobs… who’d’a thought? :laughing: (see link at the end of the answer).

-Max