Is 3D printing profitable?

The honest answer is not yes or no, it is a rate. A printer is a machine with a working day: what matters is what it earns for each hour it runs, not what a single part earned.

Enter a print you actually sell. The profit per machine-hour is the line to watch.

Filament usedgPart weight — supports and purge are added by the waste factorPrint timeh

Material

Printer

Sales channel

ElectricityUSDper kWhYour hour of workUSDZero means “I do not count my time”. A fair choice, but it is the most common reason a workshop runs at a loss without knowingConsumables per plateUSDAlcohol for washing, gloves, filters — spent per print, not per hour. Mostly a resin thing; on filament it is usually zero

Your selling priceUSDLeave empty to see the recommended one

Preparation, post-processing, hardware and packaging. Without them the cost treats your time as free

True cost

$2.38

everything included, per unit

Profit per unit

$1.61

Per machine-hour

$0.81/h

Your selling price

$3.99

Break-even

$2.38

Three price levels — tap to apply

Where the money goes

Filament$2.16

Wear & maintenance$0.16

Failed prints$0.04

Electricity$0.02

Why per-hour beats per-part

Two items with the same profit are not equally good if one prints in forty minutes and the other in nine hours. The slow one occupies the machine that could have made a dozen of the fast ones, and that is invisible until profit is divided by hours.

This is also how you compare a cheap trinket with an expensive commission without arguing about taste.

What quietly eats the margin

Time you do not bill: preparing the plate, removing supports, sanding, packing. It is the most common reason a workshop stays busy and ends the year with nothing. Put your hourly rate in above and watch the cost move.