3D printer electricity cost calculator
Pick your printer and enter your electricity price to see what a print costs in power, and the same print on other printers.
Working it out…
How this is worked out
A printer’s power is measured in watts. Divide by 1000 to get kilowatts, multiply by the hours it runs for the energy used in kilowatt-hours (kWh), and multiply by your price per kWh.
Energy per print = watts ÷ 1000 × print hours
Cost per print = energy per print × price per kWh
Cost per hour = watts ÷ 1000 × price per kWh
Cost per month = watts ÷ 1000 × hours per day × days used × price per kWh
Assumptions
- The watts are an average for the whole print. A printer draws far more while the bed and nozzle heat up than while it holds temperature, which the average already includes.
- The power figures are the makers’ own and are not measured the same way: Bambu Lab gives an average for printing PLA (for the P2S, a steady-state figure), and Prusa gives a PLA figure on its product page. Printing ABS or PETG, or heating a chamber, uses more.
- Standby and idle power are not counted. Use a plug-in power meter if you want your printer’s true figure; type it in the Average power field.
- The electricity price, the hours a day and the days a month are examples, not research. Enter your own.
Preset figures and where they come from
Each figure was read on the company’s own page, checked on 15 November 2026.
| Preset | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Bambu Lab A1 | 95 W | wiki.bambulab.com |
| Bambu Lab A1 mini | 80 W | |
| Bambu Lab P1S | 105 W | |
| Bambu Lab X1 Carbon | 105 W | |
| Bambu Lab P2S | 200 W | |
| Bambu Lab H2D | 197 W | |
| Bambu Lab H2S | 200 W | |
| Bambu Lab H2C | 200 W | |
| Bambu Lab X2D | 250 W | |
| Prusa MK4S | 80 W | prusa3d.com |
| Prusa Core One | 90 W | prusa3d.com |
Every preset is only a starting value. Change any field if your account, country or plan differs.
Questions sellers ask
How much electricity does a 3D printer use?
A Bambu Lab A1 averages 95 W printing PLA by Bambu Lab’s own figures, which is 0.095 kWh for every hour it prints. A 10 hour print therefore uses 0.95 kWh, and costs $0.19 at $0.20 per kWh. Most desktop printers are in the same range; larger machines, and printing in a heated chamber, use more.
How much does it cost to run a 3D printer for a month?
It depends on hours. With the example figures on this page, a Bambu Lab P1S at 105 W printing 8 hours a day for 30 days uses 25.2 kWh, which costs $5.04 at $0.20 per kWh. Electricity is usually a small part of the cost of a print.
Which 3D printer is cheapest to run?
By the makers’ figures the lowest-power printer on this list is the Bambu Lab A1 mini and the Prusa MK4S at 80 W, and the highest is the Bambu Lab X2D at 250 W. For a 10 hour print that is $0.16 against $0.50 at $0.20 per kWh. The comparison table above shows every printer for your own print time and price.
Should I add electricity to the price of my prints?
Yes, but it is a small line. A 2.5 hour print on a Bambu Lab P1S uses 0.26 kWh and costs about 5 cents at $0.20 per kWh. Put it in the price calculator with the other costs rather than leaving it out.