Electricity Cost Calculator
The root calculator uses one flat wattage figure for a whole print. This one goes deeper: named printer presets, heat-up phase modeling, peak vs off-peak comparison, and a monthly cost projection.
Need the full picture, material, machine wear, labor, and a suggested selling price? Use the 3D Printing Price Calculator instead. This page stops at electricity.
Calculator
Estimates only. Actual draw varies by printer, settings, and ambient temperature.
How it works
- Enter your printer's power draw, or pick a preset for a known model.
- Add your print time and your electricity rate.
- Optionally model the heat-up phase for more accuracy on short prints, or compare peak and off-peak rates if your utility offers time-of-use pricing.
- Fill in weekly print hours to see a monthly and annual projection, useful if you print regularly or run more than one machine.
Worked examples
A 150W printer running 4 hours at $0.18/kWh costs about $0.11 in electricity using a flat average. Modeling the heat-up phase separately (8 minutes at 280W, the rest at 150W) puts it at $0.111, a small difference on a 4-hour print, but the gap grows on shorter ones where heat-up is a bigger share of the total.
The same print at a $0.28/kWh peak rate costs $0.17. At a $0.09/kWh off-peak rate, it's $0.05, a real savings of $0.11 just from scheduling it overnight. At 20 hours of printing a week, that same printer runs about $2.34 a month and $28.08 a year in electricity.
Electricity is almost always the smallest line item in a print's true cost, but it's the one most directly under your control. Scheduling long prints during off-peak hours costs nothing and can meaningfully cut your power bill over a month of regular printing.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between this and the price calculator?
This page covers electricity only, and goes deeper on it than the main calculator does. The price calculator adds material, machine wear, labor, and a suggested selling price on top.
Why does heat-up matter more on short prints?
The extra power draw during heat-up is roughly fixed, a few minutes at higher wattage, regardless of how long the print runs after that. On a 20-minute print, that fixed cost is a big share of the total. On an 8-hour print, it barely registers.
Do I have time-of-use electricity rates?
Check your utility's website or a recent bill. Not every utility offers it, but where it exists, off-peak rates are often dramatically lower than peak rates.
How do I find my printer's real wattage?
A plug-in watt meter or an energy-monitoring smart plug gives the most accurate number. Zero the cumulative kWh counter, start the print from a cold machine so the heat-up phase is included, let it finish, then divide total kWh by total hours for your true average watts. The number on the power supply label is the peak it can deliver, not what the printer actually draws while running.
Does this work for resin printers?
Yes. Resin (SLA/LCD) printers typically draw less power, often 30–100W, and don't have a heated bed, so the heat-up phase modeling matters less for them than for FDM printers.
About the author
Cedrick Reese founded Ready Utilities to build free, user-friendly online tools that simplify everyday tasks. His path started in the early 2000s with affiliate marketing and niche site development, which grew into a passion for practical digital utilities and calculators. After retiring from the military, he earned a Computer Systems Technician certificate from UEI College, completed Electro-Mechanical Technologies at Tulsa Welding School, and finished the Carpentry program at Florida State College at Jacksonville. Today he combines that technical background with traditional woodworking, gardening, and building tools like this one. Read more about Ready Utilities.
This calculator provides cost estimates for informational purposes and isn't a substitute for your own bookkeeping. Some links on this site may be affiliate links; see our affiliate disclosure.