Pricing guide
How much to charge for a custom 3D print order
Someone sends a sketch and asks "how much for one?" or "how much for twenty?". A custom job has costs that a product in your shop does not: the work you do once, before the first good piece exists. This guide shows how to put that work into the quote, with one example priced for 1 to 50 pieces.
Published 11 November 2026 · by Spool & Margin · about 5 minutes
Two kinds of cost
Split every custom job into two piles.
- One-time job costs. Design or file repair, the messages and slicing needed to quote, and a test print if fit matters. You pay these once, whether the customer orders 1 piece or 50.
- Cost per piece. Material, machine time, electricity, your hands-on minutes, a failure allowance and packaging. This is the same true cost described in our guide on how to price 3D prints.
If the customer pays through a platform that also takes a fixed fee per order, add that fee inside the brackets.
Worked example: a custom shelf bracket
A customer wants a bracket made to their measurements. It slices to 80 g of PETG and 4 hours. Settings: PETG at $21.99 per kg, a $700 printer expected to last 5,000 hours, 150 W, electricity at $0.16 per kWh, labor at $20 per hour, an 8% failure allowance. Machine wear plus electricity come to $0.164 per print hour; our guide to price per print hour shows that calculation.
| Cost | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Material | 80 g × $0.02199 | $1.76 |
| Machine wear + electricity | 4 h × $0.164 | $0.66 |
| Labor per piece | 6 min × $20/h | $2.00 |
| Failure allowance | 8% × $2.42 | $0.19 |
| Packaging | $0.50 | |
| Cost per piece | $5.11 | |
| Design from the sketch | 45 min × $20/h | $15.00 |
| Quoting, messages, slicing | 15 min × $20/h | $5.00 |
| Test print | material + machine for one piece | $2.42 |
| One-time job costs | $22.42 |
The customer pays by bank transfer, so there are no selling fees, and the target margin is 40%. For one piece (totals use unrounded costs, so a line can differ by a cent):
The same formula for larger quantities:
| Quantity | Total cost | Quote total | Price per piece | Printer hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $27.52 | $45.87 | $45.87 | 4 |
| 5 | $47.96 | $79.93 | $15.99 | 20 |
| 10 | $73.50 | $122.50 | $12.25 | 40 |
| 25 | $150.13 | $250.21 | $10.01 | 100 |
| 50 | $277.84 | $463.06 | $9.26 | 200 |
Every row has the same 40% margin. The price per piece falls from $45.87 to $9.26 only because the $22.42 of one-time work is shared by more pieces. It can never go below $5.11 ÷ 0.60 = $8.51, the price of a piece with no one-time work at all.
What goes wrong without the split
- Quoting one piece at the "shop" price. At $8.51 for a single bracket you receive $8.51 and spend $27.52. The job loses $19.01.
- Guessing a quantity discount. "10% off for ten" has no connection to your costs. Here the calculated price for ten is 73% lower per piece than for one, and for fifty it is still above the $8.51 floor. Calculate each quantity the customer asks about.
- Forgetting the printer. The last column matters. Twenty-five brackets occupy a printer for 100 hours, plus 4 for the test print. The profit on that quote is $100.08, about $0.96 per printer hour. If your regular products earn more per hour and the printer is busy, raise the quote or give a longer delivery date. Our guide to profit per printer hour explains the comparison.
Fees, a ready file and a minimum charge
- Selling fees. If the single bracket were sold through a marketplace that takes 9.5% plus $0.45 per order (the US figures in our Etsy pricing guide), the quote becomes ($27.52 + $0.45) ÷ (1 − 0.40 − 0.095) = $55.39.
- The customer brings a print-ready file. Without design and without a test print, the one-time cost is the $5.00 of quoting and slicing. One piece: ($5.00 + $5.11) ÷ 0.60 = $16.85.
- Minimum order charge. Decide the lowest total you will accept for any custom job. The amount is your policy, not a calculation. If yours were $25, the $16.85 job above would be quoted at $25.
What to write in the quote
- Quantity, material and color, so the price is tied to a specific job.
- The total and the price per piece. If you offer several quantities, list each one.
- What is included: design from their sketch, one test print, packaging. Say what a further design change costs.
- A delivery date based on the printer hours in the table, not on a guess.
- How long the quote is valid, and whether you ask for part of the payment before you start.
Free spreadsheet
Check up to 10 products at once
Enter your printer, electricity and labor settings once and get the true cost per piece for ten products. That cost is the starting point of every quote. Excel and Google Sheets.
Download the free checkerExcel + Google Sheets · Free on Gumroad, enter 0
The full system · $14, one-time
A quote tab that prices 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 pieces
Enter the job and a one-time design or setup cost. The quote tab gives the price for each quantity and a quote you can send to the customer. Orders, filament stock and a profit dashboard are in the same file.
See the full system$14, one-time · Opens on Gumroad · Instant download
Questions
How much should I charge for a custom 3D print?
Add the one-time costs of the job (design or file preparation, quoting and slicing time, a test print) to the cost per piece multiplied by the quantity, then divide by 1 minus your target margin minus any percentage fee. In the example on this page, one custom bracket comes to $45.87 and ten come to $12.25 each, with the same 40% margin.
Why does one custom piece cost so much more than a product in my shop?
A shop product spreads its design and testing over every sale. A custom piece carries all of it alone. In the example, the piece itself costs $5.11 to make, and the one-time work costs $22.42.
Should I give a discount for larger quantities?
The price per piece falls on its own as the one-time costs are spread over more pieces. Calculate each quantity instead of picking a discount percentage. The price per piece can never go below the cost per piece divided by 1 minus your margin; in the example that floor is $8.51.
What is a minimum order charge?
The lowest total you accept for any custom job. It covers the messages, slicing and packing that every order needs, however small. You choose the amount. If the calculated quote is lower than your minimum, you quote the minimum.
The settings on this page are the sample settings of the Spool & Margin free price checker; the bracket, its times and the minimum charge are an illustration, not benchmarks. Before printing a model you did not design, check that its license allows commercial use. This is a calculation method, not tax or financial advice.