If you've ever finished a print, looked at it, and just picked a number, you're not alone. Most new Etsy sellers price by gut feel. It feels close enough. Until you do the maths properly and realise you've been working for free, or even at a loss.
This guide walks through every cost that goes into a 3D printed item, with a real worked example, so you can price with confidence instead of guesswork.
What actually goes into the cost?
There are more cost factors than most sellers account for. Here's the full list:
1. Filament (material cost)
This is the obvious one. But most sellers estimate it wrong. You need to know your filament price per kilogram and the exact weight of the print, not a rough guess.
PETG typically runs around £13-15/kg. If your print uses 45g of filament:
45 / 1000 × £14 = £0.63 in filament
2. Electricity
Your printer draws power for every hour it runs. A typical FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling, the most common type of filament printer) uses around 0.1-0.2 kWh per hour. With UK electricity at roughly £0.29/kWh:
1.75 hours × 0.15 kWh × £0.29 = £0.11 in electricity
Small, but it adds up across hundreds of prints.
3. Failure rate
Prints fail. Filament snaps, beds unlevel, power cuts happen. If 1 in 10 prints fails, that failed print cost you material and time. Build that into your price.
A 10% failure rate adds roughly 10% to your base material cost. Don't ignore it.
4. Packaging
Bubble wrap, poly bags, tissue paper, boxes. It all costs something. Even £0.15-0.30 per order adds up fast if you're not accounting for it.
5. Platform fees
Etsy charges a listing fee, a transaction fee, and a payment processing fee. On a £7.99 sale that's roughly £0.65 in fees before you've made a penny of profit. If you're not factoring this in, your actual margin is much lower than you think.
6. Printer depreciation
Your printer cost money. Every hour it runs, it's wearing down. A simple way to handle this: divide the printer cost by its expected print hours. A £350 printer running 7,000 hours over its life costs about £0.05/hour to run. Small, but real.
A real example: Micro SD Card Case
Let me walk through the actual costs for one of my own Etsy listings, a PETG micro SD card case with a magnetic closure using 4 embedded neodymium magnets.
| Cost item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Filament (44.97g PETG @ £14/kg) | £0.66 |
| Electricity (1.75hrs @ 0.15kWh, £0.29/kWh) | £0.11 |
| Neodymium magnets (4x) + packaging | £0.30 |
| Failure rate buffer (5%) | included |
| Printer depreciation (£0.05/hr) | £0.09 |
| Total base cost | £1.16 |
| Etsy fees (transaction, listing, payment processing) | £0.65 |
| Total cost per sale | £1.81 |
At a 130% markup the recommended price is £2.66 before postage. The listing is priced at £7.99 with free UK delivery baked in (Royal Mail Tracked 48 at £2.85). That leaves roughly £3.13 profit per unit after all costs and postage.
If I'd priced by gut feel at £4.99, after postage and Etsy fees I'd be making around £0.33 per sale. Barely worth printing.
What markup should you use?
There's no universal answer, but here's a starting framework:
- 100% markup doubles your base cost. Minimum viable for a hobby seller with low volume.
- 120-150% accounts for your time, covers surprises, and leaves real profit. Good starting point for most Etsy sellers.
- 200%+ is justified for complex, unique, or high-demand items where you have no direct competition.
Check what similar items sell for on Etsy. If the market won't support your price at a healthy markup, that's a signal the product needs rethinking, not that you should accept lower margins.
Doing this without a spreadsheet every time
Manually calculating all of this for every listing gets old fast. I built PolyQuote, a free API that does all of this in a single call. You give it your filament type, weight, print time, and markup, and it returns a full cost breakdown with a recommended sale price in GBP, USD, and EUR.
There's a free tier with 200 calculations per month, more than enough to price every listing before you publish it. No credit card required, just an email address.
You can try it at api.polyformprints.co.uk
If you use Google Sheets to manage your listings, there's also a one-formula integration that pulls live pricing directly into your spreadsheet, no code required. That's covered here.
TL;DR
- Price by gut feel and you'll undercharge. Every time.
- Material, electricity, failure rate, packaging, platform fees, and depreciation all count.
- Work out your base cost first, then apply a markup that reflects your time and leaves real profit.
- Check the market, but don't race to the bottom. Cheap rarely wins on Etsy.