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How much does it cost to run a 3D printer per hour?
For the 10 example printers on this site, running cost is between $0.17 and $0.43 per hour, counting machine wear (price over an assumed 4,000-hour life), a $0.10/hr maintenance reserve, and electricity at the 2024 U.S. average of 16.32¢/kWh. Electricity alone is only $0.01 to $0.03 of that.
| Printer | Machine wear | Maintenance | Electricity (U.S. avg) | Electricity, North Dakota to Hawaii | Total per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bambu Lab A1 Mini | $0.07 | $0.10 | $0.01 | $0.01 to $0.04 | $0.19 |
| Bambu Lab A1 | $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.02 | $0.01 to $0.05 | $0.22 |
| Bambu Lab P1S | $0.17 | $0.10 | $0.02 | $0.02 to $0.06 | $0.30 |
| Bambu Lab X1-Carbon | $0.30 | $0.10 | $0.03 | $0.02 to $0.07 | $0.43 |
| Prusa MK4S | $0.20 | $0.10 | $0.02 | $0.01 to $0.05 | $0.32 |
| Prusa MINI+ | $0.11 | $0.10 | $0.01 | $0.01 to $0.03 | $0.22 |
| Creality Ender-3 V3 KE | $0.05 | $0.10 | $0.02 | $0.01 to $0.04 | $0.17 |
| Creality K1 | $0.11 | $0.10 | $0.03 | $0.02 to $0.07 | $0.23 |
| Anycubic Kobra 2 | $0.06 | $0.10 | $0.02 | $0.01 to $0.05 | $0.18 |
| Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro | $0.06 | $0.10 | $0.02 | $0.01 to $0.04 | $0.18 |
How it is calculated
Machine wear = purchase price ÷ 4,000 hours (zero resale). Maintenance = the calculator's default $0.10/hr. Electricity = watts ÷ 1,000 × price per kWh. The state range uses the lowest (North Dakota, 11.51¢/kWh) and highest (Hawaii, 42.86¢/kWh) 2024 residential prices in the state dataset. This table excludes labor, filament, and the extra operating hours consumed by failed prints; the full job calculator includes them in the order estimate.
Turn an hourly cost into an order estimate
Multiply the hourly rate by the hours needed for one successful part, then divide by the expected success rate to budget repeat attempts. A $0.30/hour example for six hours costs $1.80 before failures or $2.00 at a 90% success rate. Hands-on labor is separate: 20 minutes at $30.00/hour adds $10.00 even if the printer itself runs unattended.
When setting a customer price, add material, setup, finishing, fulfillment, and fees to those machine hours, then solve for the target margin. Charging only this page's hourly running cost leaves those other costs uncovered. Use measured average watts and a realistic productive-life budget to replace the reference values.
Page reviewed 2026-10-05. Data source: Printer prices and power draw are example figures entered by us (verify with the vendor); electricity from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA-861), 2024 annual averages. All totals are computed on this page's own arithmetic from that data.
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