What It Really Costs to Run a 3D Printer

Electricity, filament and wear parts over three years — why the sticker price is often less than half the total, and how it changes from country to country.

People spend weeks comparing printer prices and almost no time on what the printer costs to run. Over three years, the running costs often add up to more than the printer itself.

The three running costs

1. Filament: the big one

For most people, filament is by far the largest ongoing cost. A kilogram of standard PLA costs about $20 in the US, £18 in the UK, A$30 in Australia and NZ$38 in New Zealand. Engineering materials cost more: $30–60 per kilogram for PETG-CF, ABS blends and nylon.

How much you use varies enormously. A casual hobbyist might use half a kilogram a month. Someone printing props, cosplay or items to sell can easily get through several.

Multi-colour printing adds a lot here. Every colour change purges filament, and a colourful model can use two or three times its own weight in waste. See our multi-colour guide for the numbers.

2. Electricity: smaller than people fear

Printers draw far less power than the wattage on their power supply suggests. A typical enclosed CoreXY like the Bambu Lab P1S averages roughly 100–150 W while printing. The bed-heating stage at the start takes more; the rest of the print takes less.

At 8 hours of printing a week, that is around 60 kWh a year. It costs about $10 a year in the US, £15 in the UK, or A$20 in Australia. It adds up with very large printers, heated chambers and constant printing, but for most people electricity is a small fraction of the total.

Where it does matter: machines with large heated beds or actively heated chambers, like the Elegoo Neptune 4 Max, Qidi X-Max 3 or Bambu Lab H2D, running many hours a week in a country with expensive electricity.

3. Wear parts

Nozzles, build plates, PTFE tubes and the occasional fan or hotend. For a hobbyist, allow roughly $25 a year. It is more if you print abrasive carbon-filled filaments, which wear through brass nozzles quickly. It is less if you mostly print PLA on a hardened nozzle.

A worked example

Take a P1S in the UK, printing 8 hours a week and using half a kilogram of PLA a month:

• Printer: about £550
• Filament: 6 kg a year at £18 = £108 a year
• Electricity: about £15 a year
• Wear parts: about £20 a year

That is roughly £143 a year to run, or about £980 over three years including the printer. The running costs come to almost 80 % of the purchase price, and that is before any multi-colour purge waste.

Why it depends on where you live

This is why every review on this site has a True Cost calculator. Filament and electricity prices vary a lot between countries. Filament in New Zealand costs nearly twice the US price, and electricity in Ireland and Australia costs about twice the US rate. A printer that is cheap to run in one country can cost noticeably more in another.

The calculator uses typical local rates for the country you choose in the header. You can change every figure to match your own electricity tariff, filament brand and usage.

How to spend less

• Buy filament in bulk from reputable brands. Multi-kilogram deals often cut the price per kilogram by a quarter or more.
• Keep filament dry. Wet filament causes failed prints, which waste both filament and electricity. See how to dry filament.
• Think before multi-colour. Use it for display pieces, not functional parts.
• Reduce infill and walls on parts that do not need strength. Default profiles are often generous.
• Pick the right size. A huge heated bed costs more to heat every print, even for small parts.

The bottom line

When you compare printers, compare the three-year cost, not the sticker price. Use the calculator on any review to see what a printer would cost in your country, with your usage.