How to price personalised 3D prints
Filament is the cheapest part of a personalised print. A simple way to price that covers your time, your machine and a margin worth the effort.
Most new sellers price a keychain by weighing it, multiplying by the cost of filament and adding a little on top. The result is a price that feels generous to the buyer and leaves the seller working for almost nothing.
Here is a better way to think about it.
The four costs in every order
1. Material. Filament for the print, plus any failed prints averaged across your orders. This is usually the smallest number.
2. Machine time. Your printer wears out, uses electricity and cannot print anything else while it works on this order. Give each printing hour a cost, even a small one.
3. Your time. Answering messages, setting up the print, removing it from the bed, checking it, packing it. For a single keychain this is often longer than the print itself.
4. Selling costs. Marketplace fees, payment fees, packaging and postage you do not pass on, and the design file.
A simple formula
Price = (material + machine time + your time + selling costs) × markup
Your time is the line people skip. Decide what an hour of your work is worth and count the minutes honestly, including the messages.
For the markup, a multiplier between 1.5 and 2 is a common starting point for handmade goods. It leaves room for discounts, mistakes and the orders that take longer than planned.
Work out your price
Put your own numbers into the calculator below. The example figures are a name keychain: a few grams of filament, under an hour on the printer and ten minutes of handling.
Price one personalised print
You will usually find that your time is more than half of the cost. That is why personalised items sell well above the price of a mass-produced keychain, and why buyers accept it: they are paying for something made for them.
Price bulk orders differently
A class of thirty school tags is not thirty single orders. You set up once, print a full bed at a time and pack everything together. Offer a lower price per piece for bulk, but keep a minimum order value so small "bulk" orders still pay for the setup.
Our guide to school name tags in bulk covers quoting a class order step by step.
Charge for rush and for changes
Two small rules protect your margin:
- Rush fee for anything needed sooner than your normal turnaround.
- One free change after the picture is approved. After that, a change is a new order.
Remove the design cost per order
If you redraw a file for every customer, design time quietly eats your margin. With STLmint, a new name is a new file in seconds, and the Seller plan has no per-file charge, so the design line in your formula stays the same however many orders you take.