Print Per Gram is meant to be paid through affiliate links: if you buy through a link to Elegoo, Anycubic, Creality, Snapmaker or Bambu Lab, we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. No program has accepted the site yet, links to Shop3D Universe and Flashforge earn us nothing (no program found or joined), and a commission never decides a pick. How we choose.
A 3D printer is judged by four numbers before anything else: the build volume it can print, the materials its maker says it handles, the colors it can feed without you swapping spools, and the price, of the machine and of every gram it melts. Print Per Gram reads those numbers from the makers' own spec sheets and from the stores that sell the printers in the United States, puts them side by side, and works out what a print really costs in filament and electricity, state by state.
- 72printers read on November 7, 2026
- 6brands, 7 stores
- $13.49cheapest PLA per kg in our check
- 51state power prices (EIA)
We have not tested these printers. No hands-on verdicts, no star ratings, no "best overall" pulled out of a hat. Every figure on this site is quoted from a maker's or a store's page read on November 7, 2026, and every pick follows a rule written next to it. When a maker does not publish a number, we write "not published".
Three questions before you buy
- What will each print cost?Grams, hours, a spool from our price check and your state's electricity price: one part, 100 parts, and the printers with the lowest total over one or two years.
- Will it print this?Your part's size and material against 72 published build volumes and material lists, and your bench against the printers' outside dimensions.
- Which one, in 30 seconds?All 72 printers with every seller's price, and a pick for each need by a written rule.
What a print really costs
Four examples from our check, with the cheapest spool of each material we found in a U.S. store on November 7, 2026, and the printer's published wattage. Electricity uses the maker's steady-state PLA figure when it publishes one (Bambu Lab does for the P2S), otherwise the maximum, which makes it a ceiling. The last column uses Hawaii, the dearest state in the EIA table.
| Part | Printer and watts used | Cheapest spool in our check | Material [calc] | Electricity, U.S. avg [calc] | One part [calc] | 100 parts [calc] | 100 parts in Hawaii [calc] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phone stand, 40 g of PLA, 2 h | Bambu Lab A1 mini, 150 W | $13.49/kg | $0.54 | $0.054 | $0.59 | $59.41 | $68.11 |
| Same stand on a P2S (200 W printing PLA) | Bambu Lab P2S, 200 W | $13.49/kg | $0.54 | $0.073 | $0.61 | $61.22 | $72.83 |
| Helmet shell, 600 g of PLA, 20 h | Elegoo Neptune 4 Plus, 320 W | $13.49/kg | $8.09 | $1.162 | $9.26 | $925.62 | $1,111.35 |
| Car clip, 25 g of ABS, 1.5 h | Creality K1C, 350 W | $18.99/kg | $0.47 | $0.095 | $0.57 | $57.01 | $72.24 |
How we compare: criteria, sources and dates
Material is almost always the bigger line. The practical lever is the spool: in our check, a kilogram of PLA ran from $13.49 to $22.99 depending on brand and store, which moves the cost of a 40 g part from 54 to 92 cents [calc]. Run your own numbers in the cost per print calculator.
The six brands we read
Bambu Lab printers are priced at Shop3D Universe, a U.S. reseller, because Bambu Lab's own U.S. store redirects visitors from our server's location to its European store; the official store link is listed next to each Bambu Lab price. Flashforge printers carry two prices (Flashforge's store and Shop3D Universe). The other brands are priced on their own U.S. stores.
| Brand | Printers read | Price range | Types | Sellers read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bambu Lab | 18 | $199 to $2,499 | FDM | Bambu Lab US store, Shop3D Universe |
| Creality | 15 | $199 to $1,199 | FDM | Creality US store |
| Elegoo | 18 | $184 to $2,499 | FDM, Resin | Elegoo US store |
| Anycubic | 15 | $279 to $959 | FDM, Resin | Anycubic store |
| Flashforge | 5 | $249 to $849 | FDM | Flashforge store, Shop3D Universe |
| Snapmaker | 1 | $699 to $699 | FDM | Snapmaker US store |
How we compare: criteria, sources and dates
Filament or resin, open or enclosed, one color or four
Filament (FDM) printers melt a plastic wire layer by layer; they print big, practical parts in PLA, PETG, TPU and, when enclosed, ABS and ASA. Resin printers cure liquid resin with light, layer by layer, in a smaller vat: our median resin printer offers 6.5 liters of build volume against 17.2 for filament [calc], and the parts need washing and curing. See resin vs FDM in numbers.
An enclosure matters for ABS and ASA: Bambu Lab's own filament guide says ABS "requires an enclosure". Our ABS page keeps only enclosed printers whose maker lists ABS. And multicolor printers now start at $299 in our check: the multicolor comparison lists every printer sold with four or more filament slots or tool heads.
Starting out? The first-printer guide keeps the 27 filament printers at $400 or less; on a tighter budget, printers under $300.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to 3D print something?
Grams of material times the price per kilogram, plus the printer's watts times the hours times your electricity price. A 40 g PLA phone stand printed in 2 hours on a 150 W Bambu Lab A1 mini costs about 54 cents of filament at $13.49 per kg (the cheapest PLA in our check) and about 5 cents of electricity at the U.S. average of 18.16 cents per kWh (EIA, August 2026): 59 cents in all [calc].
Is electricity a big part of the cost of a print?
Usually not for small PLA parts: in our four examples it is 9 to 17% of the cost [calc]. It grows with long prints, high-wattage printers and expensive states: a 20-hour print on a 320 W printer uses up to 6.4 kWh, $1.16 at the U.S. average and $3.02 in Hawaii [calc].
What is the cheapest 3D printer in your check?
The Elegoo Mars 5 resin printer at $184 on November 7, 2026. The cheapest filament printers were the Bambu Lab A1 mini (at Shop3D Universe) and the Creality Ender-3 V3 SE, both $199.
Do you test the printers?
No. We have not tested any printer on this site. We read the makers' spec sheets and the stores' prices, quote them with the date, and do the arithmetic in the open. Our method page lists every source.
Keep reading
- Cost per printYour part's grams and print time, a spool from our Nov 7 price check, the maker's published watts and your state's electricity price.
- Will it print?Your part against every published build volume, the material against each maker's list, and your bench against the printer's outside size.
- Compare 72 printersEach seller's price, build volume, speed, enclosure, colors in the box, published watts and weight, cheapest first.