Print farm profit per hour.

Worked example

A plate of 4 items sells at $9.00 each. With a 5% failed-plate rate, revenue is 4 x $9.00 x 0.95 = $34.20 and 10% fees take $3.42. The plate uses 80 g of $22.00/kg filament ($1.76), 6 h at 120 W and $0.15 per kWh ($0.11), printer wear of $600.00 / 5,000 h x 6 h ($0.72) and 10 minutes of handling at $20.00/h ($3.33). Profit is $24.86. The plate occupies a printer for 6 h + 10 min = 6.17 h, so profit per printer-hour is $24.86 / 6.17 = $4.03. Running 20 h a day gives 3.24 plates and $80.62 per printer per day; 4 printers over 30 days is $9,674.72.

How it works

Failed plates earn nothing but still cost filament, power, wear and handling, so revenue is multiplied by (1 - failure rate) while costs are not. Printer wear spreads the purchase price over the hours you expect the machine to last. Break-even price is the cost of one plate divided by the expected good plates and items, grossed up for fees.

Not included. Rent, tax, nozzles, bed sheets, packaging, shipping, design time and unsold stock. The result is only as good as the print times and failure rate you enter; track a month of real plates and replace the placeholders.

Sources (opened 2026-10-08). No published figures are used. All numbers are your inputs, and the formulas are plain arithmetic (kWh = kW x h, straight-line wear, expected value for failures). The 5,000 h printer lifetime and the example prices are placeholders, not published ratings or market data.

FAQ

How do I calculate 3D print farm profit per hour?

Work out profit for one plate (revenue after failures minus fees, filament, power, wear and handling), then divide by the hours that plate occupies a printer, including the changeover. This calculator does it in one step.

What failure rate should I use?

Use your own record. Count plates that were scrapped over a month and divide by plates started. If you have no history, start at 5 to 10% and replace it with real data.

Should I count my own time?

Yes if you want to know whether the business pays you. Put your hourly value in the handling fields. Set it to 0 to see profit before labour.

What is the break-even price?

It is the price per item at which profit per plate is exactly zero given your costs, failure rate and fees. Price above it to earn anything.

Why does changeover time matter?

A printer that sits idle between plates earns nothing. Ten minutes of changeover on a 6 hour print cuts the hourly profit by about 3%, and more on short prints.