Print time to cost: what an hour of printing costs
Every hour on the printer costs electricity and wear before you count material or your time. Use these tables to turn the slicer's time estimate into money.
Electricity per print hour
kW × hours × rate. Average draw while printing is usually well below the power supply's rating.
| Average draw | $0.12/kWh | $0.16/kWh | $0.25/kWh | $0.35/kWh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 W | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0.02 |
| 120 W | $0.01 | $0.02 | $0.03 | $0.04 |
| 200 W | $0.02 | $0.03 | $0.05 | $0.07 |
| 350 W | $0.04 | $0.06 | $0.09 | $0.12 |
Printer wear per hour
Purchase price ÷ expected working hours. A $600 printer over 5,000 hours costs $0.12 an hour, and parts and nozzles add a little more.
Running cost per hour by printer type
| Entry-level FDM printer | $0.08/h |
| Enclosed CoreXY printer | $0.20/h |
| Multi-color FDM printer | $0.21/h |
| Large-format FDM printer | $0.24/h |
| IDEX printer | $0.21/h |
| MSLA resin printer | $0.15/h |
| Large-format resin printer | $0.32/h |
| Small print farm | $0.15/h |
| High-temperature printer | $0.68/h |
| Delta printer | $0.12/h |
Power plus wear at each preset's typical price, life and draw at $0.16/kWh, excluding material and labor.
Why faster isn't always cheaper
- Cutting print time cuts power and wear, but higher speeds can raise failure rates, and a failed print wastes all of its hours.
- Batching a full plate spreads warm-up time and your setup minutes across every part.
- Labor usually costs more than machine time, so cutting post-processing often saves more than speeding up the print.
Next: turn cost into a price or run the cost calculator.
Know your cost. Now check the demand.
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