Written by James Hill
Quick answer: For most home prints, filament is the main cost: about 1.6 to 2.3 cents per gram for everyday OzFDM PLA and PETG, less with volume pricing. Electricity adds only a few cents an hour. If you sell prints, add wear parts, machine time and a failure allowance, which can more than double the filament figure.
"How much did that print cost?" has two honest answers. If you are a hobbyist, it is mostly the plastic, because the printer is already paid for. If you sell prints, the printer, its wear parts and the prints that fail all need to come out of the price. This guide builds a simple cost model you can run on paper or in a spreadsheet, using current OzFDM filament prices, 2026–27 Australian electricity tariffs and the power figures published by printer makers.
The cost formula
Every print cost breaks down into five parts. Work them out per print, add them up, then add your failure allowance.
| Cost | How to work it out | Where the numbers come from |
|---|---|---|
| Filament | Grams used x price per kg ÷ 1,000 | Your slicer's filament estimate and what you paid per roll |
| Electricity | Average watts x print hours ÷ 1,000 x tariff per kWh | Printer maker's power figures or a plug-in energy meter, and your bill |
| Wear and consumables | Yearly spend on wear parts ÷ printing hours per year x print hours | Your own receipts for nozzles, build plates, PTFE tube, belts and so on |
| Machine time | Printer price ÷ expected printing hours x print hours | What you paid and how long you expect the printer to work |
| Failure allowance | Subtotal x your failure rate | Your own print log |
Filament: the cost you can see
Take the filament weight from your slicer, not the model's volume. Use the total, including supports, brims, a prime tower and any purge from colour changes, because that plastic comes off the roll too. OzFDM data sheets list 1 kg of filament on a spool that weighs about 150 g empty, so the spool is not part of the cost per gram.
Prices below are current OzFDM prices for 1.75 mm, 1 kg rolls, checked in September 2026. Volume pricing takes 15% off when your cart holds 12 or more rolls in any mix, and 20% off full cartons of 12 of the same product and colour.
| Filament | Price per roll | Cost per gram | Per gram, 12+ mixed rolls (15%) | Per gram, full carton (20%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLA Basic, Black | $15.95 | 1.60c | 1.36c | 1.28c |
| PETG Basic | $17.99 | 1.80c | 1.53c | 1.44c |
| PLA+ | $21.95 | 2.20c | 1.87c | 1.76c |
| PETG+ | $22.95 | 2.30c | 1.95c | 1.84c |
| ASA | $29.95 | 3.00c | 2.55c | 2.40c |
| PETG-CF | $39.95 | 4.00c | 3.40c | 3.20c |
A 50 g part in PLA+ costs $1.10 in filament at the normal price, or 88 cents if the roll came from a full carton. The exact tier rules, with real cart examples, are in our guide to buying filament in bulk.
Electricity: smaller than most people expect
What power costs in Australia
The Australian Energy Regulator's Default Market Offer for 2026–27 sets flat-rate residential usage charges from about 28 cents per kWh in south-east Queensland to about 42 cents per kWh in South Australia, including GST, with the three New South Wales networks between about 33 and 35 cents. The DMO applies in New South Wales, south-east Queensland and South Australia. Other states set prices differently, so the most accurate figure is the usage rate on your own bill. The daily supply charge is paid whether you print or not, so leave it out.
How much power printers draw
A printer draws the most while the bed and nozzle heat up, then settles to a lower average. The average is what matters for cost. Bambu Lab publishes average power from its own test prints on its printer power parameters page, and Prusa's product page for the single-tool XL quotes 235 W when printing PETG. These are the three printer models in our own print farm.
| Printer | Material in maker's figure | Average power | Cost per hour at 28c/kWh | At 35c/kWh | At 42c/kWh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bambu Lab X1 Carbon | PLA | 105 W | 2.9c | 3.7c | 4.4c |
| Bambu Lab X1 Carbon | ABS | 150 W | 4.2c | 5.3c | 6.3c |
| Bambu Lab H2D | PLA | 197 W | 5.5c | 6.9c | 8.3c |
| Bambu Lab H2D | PETG | 150 W | 4.2c | 5.3c | 6.3c |
| Bambu Lab H2D | PC | 395 W | 11.1c | 13.8c | 16.6c |
| Prusa XL (single tool) | PETG | 235 W | 6.6c | 8.2c | 9.9c |
Your own figure will vary with bed temperature, chamber heating, room temperature and whether the printer sits idle between jobs. For a precise number, a plug-in energy meter over a whole print is cheap and accurate. Either way, a typical PLA or PETG print costs cents per hour in power, not dollars. High-temperature materials such as PC use more, mainly because of hotter beds and chambers. Bambu Lab retired the X1 Carbon in April 2026, but plenty are still printing, including ours.
Wear, consumables and machine time
Wear parts
Nozzles, build plates, PTFE tube, belts, wipers and hotend parts all wear out with hours of use. The simplest way to cost them is from your own receipts. If you spend $150 a year on wear parts and print for 1,000 hours, that is 15 cents per printing hour. Abrasive filaments speed this up: carbon fibre and glass fibre materials need a hardened steel nozzle, and even hardened nozzles eventually wear.
Machine time
Hobbyists can skip this line. If you sell prints, the printer itself is a cost that should be spread across the hours it works. A printer that cost $2,000 and does 5,000 printing hours before it needs replacing or a major rebuild costs 40 cents per printing hour. Swap in your own purchase price and a realistic lifespan for how hard you run it.
Failed prints
Every failed print costs filament, power and machine time with nothing to sell. Rather than guessing, keep a simple log for a month and work out what share of your printing hours ends in the bin. If one print in ten fails, add 10%. Dry filament, a clean build plate and a calibrated profile are the usual fixes. Failed prints and empty spools can go back through Recycl3D for store credit, which recovers a little of the loss.
Worked examples
These use example print times rather than measured ones, so replace them with your slicer's estimate. The rates are the same across all three: electricity at 35 cents per kWh, wear parts at 15 cents per hour, machine time at 40 cents per hour, and a 10% failure allowance. The power figures are the makers' published averages from the table above.
| Cost item | 50 g bracket | 300 g enclosure part | 1 kg batch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Printer and material | X1 Carbon, PLA+ ($21.95/kg) | H2D, PETG+ ($22.95/kg) | Prusa XL, PETG Basic ($17.99/kg) |
| Example print time | 2 hours | 12 hours | 35 hours |
| Filament | $1.10 | $6.89 | $17.99 |
| Electricity | 0.21 kWh: $0.07 | 1.8 kWh: $0.63 | 8.2 kWh: $2.88 |
| Wear and consumables | $0.30 | $1.80 | $5.25 |
| Machine time | $0.80 | $4.80 | $14.00 |
| Failure allowance (10%) | $0.23 | $1.41 | $4.01 |
| Full cost per print | $2.50 | $15.53 | $44.13 |
| Full cost with volume pricing on the filament | $2.26 (full carton, $17.56/kg) | $14.39 (12+ mixed, $19.51/kg) | $41.17 (12+ mixed, $15.30/kg) |
| Filament and electricity only (hobby cost) | $1.17 | $7.52 | $20.87 |
Three things stand out. Electricity is the smallest line in every example. For a hobbyist the filament figure is close enough to the real cost. And once you count machine time and failures, the full cost of a small part can be more than double its filament cost, which is why pricing prints for sale on grams alone tends to undercharge. If the 1 kg batch is 20 identical parts, each one costs about $2.21 all in.
How to bring the cost per print down
- Buy filament in the tiers. Moving from single rolls to 12 mixed rolls cuts filament cost by 15%, and full cartons of your main colour by 20%.
- Cut failures first. A 10% failure rate is a 10% surcharge on every print. Dry rolls before long jobs and fix recurring faults with our print failure guide.
- Batch parts on one plate. Heat-up energy and your own handling time are shared across every part on the plate.
- Trim supports and purge. Reorienting a part to need fewer supports, or grouping colours to reduce colour changes, saves grams you pay for but throw away.
- Match the material to the job. PLA Basic from 1.60 cents per gram is fine for prototypes and fit tests; save ASA and carbon fibre materials for the final part.
Shop the materials in this guide
- 1.75 mm PLA Basic Filament, 1 kg: the lowest cost per gram in the range, ideal for prototypes and test fits
- 1.75 mm PLA+ Filament, 1 kg: the everyday PLA used in the 50 g bracket example
- 1.75 mm PETG Basic Filament, 1 kg: low-cost PETG for batches of functional parts
- 1.75 mm PETG+ Filament, 1 kg: for enclosure parts that need more heat resistance than PLA
- 3D Printing Filament: every roll counts towards volume pricing
Frequently asked questions
How much does 3D printing cost per gram in Australia?
In filament alone, everyday OzFDM PLA and PETG costs about 1.6 to 2.3 cents per gram at normal prices and roughly 1.3 to 1.8 cents with full-carton pricing. Engineering materials cost more, for example 4 cents per gram for PETG-CF at the normal price.
How much electricity does a 3D printer use?
Not much. Bambu Lab's published averages are 105 W for the X1 Carbon printing PLA and 197 W for the H2D printing PLA, and Prusa quotes 235 W for the XL printing PETG. At 35 cents per kWh that is roughly 4 to 8 cents per hour.
Should I include the printer's cost when pricing prints?
If you sell prints, yes. Spread the purchase price over the printing hours you expect from the machine and add that rate to every job. Hobbyists printing for themselves can usually ignore it.
Why is my cost higher than the slicer's filament cost estimate?
Slicer cost estimates are usually based on filament alone, at the price per kg you entered. They leave out wear parts, machine time and failed prints. Also check that the weight includes supports, the prime tower and any purge from colour changes.
