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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.
Reference
Typical filament cost per gram.
Your real cost per gram is always your spool price ÷ spool weight — but if you’re sanity-checking a number, here’s roughly where common materials land on a standard 1 kg spool. Prices vary by brand and supplier, so treat these as a starting point, not gospel.
| Material | Spool price (1 kg) | Cost per gram |
|---|---|---|
| PLA | $20 | $0.020/g |
| PETG | $25 | $0.025/g |
| ABS / ASA | $25 | $0.025/g |
| TPU (flexible) | $35 | $0.035/g |
| Nylon / PA | $45 | $0.045/g |
Specialty filaments — carbon-fibre blends, filled PLAs, soluble supports — can run well above these figures. Always enter your actual spool price.
Material cost is only the start.
Knowing a print costs $1.35 in filament tells you the floor — not what to charge. A sellable price also has to cover machine time (power, wear, depreciation), your labor (prep, removal, finishing, packing), and a profit on top. Under-pricing almost always comes from stopping at the filament number.
Once you have your material cost here, drop it into the 3D print pricing calculator to get a defensible price and margin. If you run a print farm and want filament cost tracked automatically across every job, see our guide on tracking filament usage and cost.
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 3D print pricing calculator for the full picture.
What is a typical filament cost per gram?
For a standard 1 kg spool, PLA usually works out to about $0.020 per gram, with PETG and ABS a little higher, and specialty materials like TPU or nylon higher still. Your exact cost per gram is just your spool price divided by the spool weight — which is what this calculator does for you.
Does “spool weight” mean the filament or the whole spool?
Use the net filament weight — the grams of plastic, not the plastic plus the cardboard or plastic reel. A spool sold as “1 kg” means 1000 g of filament, so enter 1000. Weighing a finished spool on a scale would include the reel and overstate your cost per gram.
Can I use this as a resin or PLA price-per-gram calculator?
Yes. The math is the same for any material sold by weight: enter the bottle or spool price and its net weight, and the grams your print uses. It works as a PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU, nylon, or resin cost-per-gram calculator.
How many grams does a 3D print use?
Your slicer (Cura, PrusaSlicer, Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer) reports the filament weight for a sliced model — usually shown in grams next to the estimated print time. Enter that number in the grams field.
Stop doing this by hand
SpoolDeck tracks filament cost for you.
SpoolDeck is 3D print shop management software that tracks filament cost automatically. Log your spools once and it auto-deducts filament as jobs finish, rolling the real cost into every order — no calculator, no spreadsheet.
Free plan · 2 printers · 25 orders/mo · No card