Cost per gram
What a gram of filament actually costs
One gram of PLA is $0.0150. A printed part sold at a market runs from about 12 to 30 cents a gram. The gap between those numbers is not the plastic, and this page splits it line by line.
Every filament in the dataset, per gram
Each row is a sampled retail price divided by 1,000. The last column adds the failure allowance from the dataset's beginner floor of 10%: to deliver one sellable gram you must buy 1 ÷ (1 − 0.10) = 1.111 g.
| Material | Density g/cm³ | Low /kg | Mid /kg | High /kg | $/g at mid | $/sellable g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLA | 1.24 | $13.49 | $14.99 | $22.99 | $0.0150 | $0.0167 |
| PLA+ | 1.25 | $16.99 | $19.49 | $21.99 | $0.0195 | $0.0217 |
| PETG | 1.27 | $14.99 | $19.99 | $24.99 | $0.0200 | $0.0222 |
| ABS | 1.05 | $17.99 | $18.99 | $22.99 | $0.0190 | $0.0211 |
| ASA | 1.07 | $19.99 | $24.99 | $29.99 | $0.0250 | $0.0278 |
| TPU 95A | 1.22 | $17.99 | $23.99 | $41.99 | $0.0240 | $0.0267 |
| Nylon (PA) | 1.12 | — | $32.99 | — | $0.0330 | $0.0367 |
| Polycarbonate (PC) | 1.2 | $26.99 | $29.99 | $39.99 | $0.0300 | $0.0333 |
| PVA (water-soluble support) | 1.27 | — | $39.99 | — | $0.0400 | $0.0444 |
| Wood-filled PLA | 1.21 | $18.99 | $24.99 | $43.99 | $0.0250 | $0.0278 |
| Carbon-fibre PLA (PLA-CF) | 1.22 | $21.99 | $28.49 | $34.99 | $0.0285 | $0.0317 |
Prices are mid-points of sampled retail listings, checked 2026-10-23. Density is the manufacturer data-sheet value, which is why a cheap-looking material can cost more per cubic centimetre than an expensive one — see the density chart for the per-cm³ version of this table.
The spread is three times, and it is not the interesting number
The cheapest gram here is PLA at $0.0150; the dearest is PVA (water-soluble support) at $0.0400. A factor of 2.7 sounds dramatic, and then you notice what it buys: PVA is support material that dissolves, not a material you print a phone stand in. Within the four materials people actually print, the whole range is $0.0150 to $0.0250 — about 1.7×.
The number that moves a quote is not the price of a gram. It is how many grams leave the spool for every gram that leaves the door: failures, supports, brims, purge. At a 10% failure rate that multiplier is already 1.111 before a single support is generated.
Why a finished part sells for 3–5× its plastic
The rule of thumb is real, but it is not markup. Take the 100 g PLA part from the cost breakdown: $1.50 of filament, $0.11 of electricity, $0.18 of machine time and $0.20 to cover failures — $1.99 of cost, priced at $2.84 for a 30% margin. That is 1.9× the plastic. Still short of three.
The missing line is your hands. At $20 an hour of handling, the multiple moves like this:
| Hand time per part | Labour | Price at 30% | × material |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 min | $0.00 | $2.84 | ×1.9 |
| 2 min | $0.67 | $3.90 | ×2.6 |
| 5 min | $1.67 | $5.49 | ×3.7 |
| 10 min | $3.33 | $8.13 | ×5.4 |
| 20 min | $6.67 | $13.43 | ×9.0 |
Five to ten minutes of handling per part is exactly the 3–5× band. Which means the band is a statement about your workflow, not about prices: a print farm that loads a plate of six parts and walks away sits near 2×, and a shop that sands every part sits at 6×. Both are defensible quotes. Neither is a material cost.
Three rules for quoting from $/g
- Never quote from $/g alone. Convert grams to hours with the print-time guide, because machine hours are the line that decides whether a job is worth taking. A 500 g part holds the printer for a day.
- Put the failure allowance on its own line. Hiding it inside the material price makes the filament look expensive and your process look free. The pricing guide shows the same arithmetic with a quote sheet.
- Charge the setup once per order. Ten minutes of handling on a single unit is $3.33; the same ten minutes spread over six units is $0.56 each. That is the entire economics of accepting a batch — the quote template has a quantity field for exactly this reason.
Choosing the material is a separate question: what to look for on a spool, and what each category costs, is on best filament for beginners.
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Frequently asked questions
How much does 3D printing filament cost per gram?
$0.0150 per gram for PLA at the dataset's mid price of $14.99/kg, up to $0.0400 for PVA support material. The four materials most people print — PLA, PLA+, PETG and ABS — sit between $0.0150 and $0.0250 per gram.
Why do people say a 3D print costs 3–5 times its filament?
Because they are counting the whole job. On a 100 g PLA part the cost stack plus a 30% margin is 1.9 times the plastic; adding five to ten minutes of handling takes it to 3.7–5.4 times. The multiple is set by hand time, not by the price of a spool.
Does a heavier spool mean cheaper filament?
Only if it is still 1 kg of filament. Check the net weight, not the spool size: some listings sell 750 g on a full-size spool, which raises the real price per gram by a third.