Free tools
Filament cost calculator.
Work out the true material cost of a print in seconds — with failed-print waste factored in.
Cost per print
$1.35
How it works
How filament cost is actually calculated.
Filament is sold by the spool, but prints are measured in grams. To get a per-print cost, you first convert the spool price into a cost per gram, then multiply by the grams your slicer reports for the model.
cost = (spool price ÷ spool weight) × grams × (1 + waste%)
Why waste matters. Not every gram you buy ends up in a sellable print. Failed prints, purge lines, brims, and supports all burn filament. A waste percentage — many shops use 5–10% — spreads that real loss across your good prints so you don’t quietly under-cost every job.
Worked example. A print uses 50 g. Your spool cost $25 for 1000 g, so filament is $0.025/g. That’s $1.25 of material; add 8% waste and the true cost is $1.35 — exactly what the calculator shows above.
FAQ
Good to know.
How do you calculate the cost of a 3D print’s filament?
Divide the spool price by the spool weight to get a cost per gram, multiply by the grams the print uses, then add a waste allowance for failed prints and purging. Formula: (spool price ÷ spool weight) × grams × (1 + waste%).
Why factor in waste?
Failed prints, purge lines, brims, and supports all consume filament you can’t sell. A waste percentage spreads that real cost across your good prints so your per-print cost isn’t artificially low.
Does this include electricity or machine wear?
No — this is material cost only. To price a print properly you also need machine time, labor, and markup. Use our pricing calculator for the full picture.
Stop doing this by hand
SpoolDeck tracks filament cost for you.
Log your spools once and SpoolDeck auto-deducts filament as jobs finish and rolls the cost into every order — no calculator, no spreadsheet.
Free plan · 2 printers · 25 orders/mo · No card