3D print profit calculator
See what one print really costs, your own time included, and check your price against similar items on Etsy.
Type it, or drag the marker below.Type a price or drag the marker. Everything on the page updates.
Price ladder · drag to set your price
$0 to $40At $15.00 you keep $5.10 (34%). That is under the 40% the sellers we studied treat as their minimum. You would need $16.79.
Your print
Example numbers for an articulated dragon. Drop your sliced file or type your own.
More optionsEtsy fees · $0.75 packaging · 5% failures · 1 part per plateShowClose
The print
$3.06filament per unitPLA starts at the usual US spool price on 2026-09-09, between the big brands and the budget ones. Bambu PLA Basic is $19.99 and Polymaker PolyLite $19.99. Elegoo is $13.99, Overture about $14 in two-packs, Sunlu $12.99.
What does parts per plate mean?ShowClose
Print six keychains on one plate. Each keychain gets one sixth of that plate's filament, power and printer wear. Print one dragon that fills the plate. It gets all of it. Your cleanup time is per finished item, so it is never split.
The machine
$0.88wear, power, failuresSelling
$2.63per unitEtsy fees · $0.20 listing · 6.5% transaction · 3.0% + $0.25 paymentChangeClose
Etsy charges 15% on an order it says its own advertising brought, and makes it compulsory for shops over $10,000 a year. It only costs you on the orders it lands on, so it is off until you say how many.
Why these numbersShowClose
Waste is filament you buy that never ends up in the part: supports, brim, skirt, and the purge an AMS or MMU throws away on a colour change. Leave it at 0 if the grams already include it. It raises the material cost only, never the hours, because your slicer was already printing all of that when it estimated them.
Design cost per unit is what you paid for the design divided by how many units you will sell from it. AI credits, a commission, a paid file. Leave it at 0 if you designed it yourself.
Buyer pays shipping means the buyer is charged for postage on top of the price. The marketplace still takes its percentage on that total, which is why the fee line moves when you tick it.
Change anything here and this browser remembers your printer, rate and fees for next time. They stay on your device.
Counting only this item’s share of the plate. The figures sellers aim for are what US sellers quote, in dollars.
Toys & games market check
See the index- Etsy median $15middle price of 46 listings for the Etsy search ‘3d printed dragon’
Your 60% price is $27.80. Compare roughly, not to the cent.
Cost per unit
$9.90- Your time34%$3.33
- Filament31%$3.06
- Channel fees19%$1.87
- Packaging7%$0.75
- Printer wear5%$0.53
- Failed prints2%$0.20
- Electricity2%$0.16
Your time is 34% of the cost. Electricity is 2%. Most calculators only show you the second number.
How is the cost of a 3D print calculated?
The articulated dragon from the calculator, line by line. Change any number above and the calculator does the same sums with yours.
- Parts per plate
- Print costs are split between the parts on a plate. Your time is not: you handle every piece.
- Waste
- Raises the grams you pay for, never the hours. Your slicer already counted the supports and purge in its time.
- 40% and 60% prices
- Worked out exactly, fees that grow with the price included, then rounded up to the cent, so the price shown always reaches its margin.
Sellers we read: public posts by 3D print sellers on Reddit and seller forums, read in September 2026. Most are in the US, so their rules of thumb stay in the dollars they wrote. Etsy prices are in dollars too, the way Etsy's US search shows them.
Questions
Pricing
What margin should I aim for on 3D printed products?
The sellers we read on Reddit and seller forums treat 40% as the lowest they will go, and most aim for around 60%. Under 40%, one failed batch or a postage increase eats the profit. The calculator shows the price you need for both.
Why does my time matter so much?
For most small prints it is the biggest single cost. A 10 hour print at 100 W uses about $0.18 of electricity. Five minutes of pulling supports and packing at $25 an hour costs $2.08. Many calculators leave your time out or make it optional, which makes a price look more profitable than it is.
What are Etsy's fees for a 3D printed item?
By default the calculator uses a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee on the item price plus shipping, and Etsy Payments at 3% + $0.25. You can change every one of them. We read the Etsy presets from Etsy's own fee pages on 2026-09-09.
How does Compare with work?
Pick a category under Compare with, next to your sale price. The calculator then shows what that kind of item sells for right now. That's the middle price (the median) of the Etsy listings we found for it. Each price says how many listings it's based on, and we show three real listings near that price underneath. The prices are in US dollars, the way Etsy's US search shows them. Pro also shows the range where the middle half of all listings sit.
Can I use this with a model made by Meshy or another AI generator?
Yes. Slice it in Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer or Cura like any other model, then drop the sliced file onto the calculator to fill in the grams and hours. Under More options there is also a Design cost field for what you paid to generate it, so that cost counts too. See what an AI-generated print actually costs and what you're allowed to sell.
About the site
What is the 3D Print Index?
Once a day we record the top 100 models in each category on MakerWorld and Printables. Once a week we record Etsy prices, how many of the Etsy results are ads, on sale or offer free shipping, what buyers type into Etsy's search box, and how often people search for each category on Google. It is free and lives at /movers.
What does Pro add?
Pro shows the price range where the middle half of all listings sit. It also shows each category's download history back to January, a full year of Google search interest, which Etsy search suggestions are new since last week, and a CSV download, and it saves your calculations to your account. $9 a month. Not on sale yet.
Is this calculator free?
Yes, and there is no account. We store your numbers in the page address, so you can bookmark it or send the link to someone. This browser also remembers your printer, hourly rate and Etsy fees for next time.
Platforms change their fees. Each preset names where we read it and on which date, under the fee details.