SPOOLMARGIN / FILAMENT TYPES
PLA filament cost and print settings
PLA filament typically costs about $20.00 per kilogram. Printing a 120 g part, a common single-part slicer estimate, costs about $2.40 in material at that price, before machine time, energy, labor, and failed attempts.
- Typical price
- $20.00/kg
- Density
- 1.24 g/cm³
- Nozzle temperature
- 200-215 °C
- Bed temperature
- 55-60 °C
- 120 g part, material only
- $2.40
What PLA is good for
The default choice for most desk and display prints: easy to print, rigid, and low odor, but softens well below boiling water and is brittle under sustained load.
How this is calculated
Material cost = spool price × printed grams ÷ 1,000. This uses only the material line; open the full calculator to add machine time, electricity, labor, failed attempts, and fulfillment for a real selling price.
Worked quote: 120 g, 6 hour PLA part
- Filament: 120 g at $20.00/kg
- $2.67
- Machine time: 6 hr at $0.30/hr
- $2.00
- Electricity: 120 W at $0.20/kWh
- $0.16
- Labor: 15 min setup + 20 min finishing at $30.00/hr
- $17.50
- Packaging, delivery and overhead
- $10.00
- Payment fees (9.5% + $0.25 on the suggested price)
- $6.38
- Suggested price at 40% target margin
- $64.51
The filament, machine, and electricity lines already include the 10% failed-attempt allowance, which adds $0.48 to this job. Fees use the calculator's typical Etsy profile (9.5% + $0.25); other fields are the calculator's defaults. Computed with the same calculateJob function as the calculator.
PLA spool to part cost
| Part | Material only | Suggested price (6 hr) |
|---|---|---|
| 20 g part | $0.40 | $50.18 |
| 60 g part | $1.20 | $51.66 |
| 120 g part | $2.40 | $53.88 |
| 250 g part | $5.00 | $58.70 |
A 1 kg spool at $20.00 yields about 8.3 parts of 120 g. Suggested prices keep 6 print hours and the calculator's other defaults, changing only grams and this filament's price.
Page reviewed 2026-10-05. Data source: Prices are example prices entered by us, not pulled from a vendor feed or price API; verify the current price with the vendor or your supplier. Density and temperatures are typical values entered by us.
Open the calculator with PLA's price →