How the Cost Calculator Works
Understand the four cost components — material, machine time, labour, and overhead — and how Printforge calculates them.
The Printforge calculator breaks every 3D printed part into four cost components. Understanding each one helps you price jobs accurately and profitably.
Material Cost
Material cost is based on the weight of filament used (in grams) multiplied by your material's cost per gram. When you add a material to your library, you enter the spool weight and price — Printforge calculates the per-gram rate automatically. If you upload an STL file, it estimates the volume and uses your material's density to determine weight. G-code uploads are even more precise — the slicer has already calculated the exact filament length and weight.
Machine Cost
Machine cost accounts for electricity, wear, and depreciation. Each printer in your fleet has an hourly rate, calculated from the purchase price, expected lifetime hours, power consumption, and maintenance costs. Multiply the hourly rate by the estimated print time to get the machine cost for a job.
Labour Cost
Labour covers your time: design work, slicing and setup, removing supports, sanding, painting, quality inspection, and packaging. Set your hourly labour rate in the calculator and enter the estimated time for each job. Even small tasks add up — a 10-minute post-processing step at $40/hour adds $6.67 to your cost.
Overhead Cost
Overhead is everything else: rent, insurance, software, internet, marketing, accounting fees. Enter a flat overhead amount per job, or calculate it as a percentage of your other costs. The goal is to spread your fixed monthly expenses across all the jobs you produce.
The Final Calculation
Total cost = Material + Machine + Labour + Overhead. The calculator shows each component with a colour-coded breakdown bar. Your selling price adds a markup on top — set it as a percentage in the quote. A 50% markup on a $20 cost gives you a $30 sale price and $10 profit.
Real-Time Updates
Every field in the calculator updates the cost breakdown instantly. There are no loading spinners — all calculations run in your browser in real time. Change the material, adjust the print time, or update your markup, and the numbers update immediately.
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