How to Quote a Batch of 3D Printed Parts: Getting the Price Per Piece Right
Printing 20, 50 or 100 identical parts doesn't cost 'single price × quantity'. How to calculate the real price per piece: setup time, material, and why unit cost drops with volume.
Sooner or later it happens: a client doesn't want one part, they want fifty identical ones. Gadgets for an event, display stands for a shop, spare parts for a company. And the question becomes: "how much per piece?".
The wrong — and very convenient — answer is to take the single-part price and multiply it by the quantity. Wrong in both directions: sometimes you ask too much (and lose the big job), sometimes too little (and eat the loss on your time). Let's see how it's actually done.
What changes in a batch
On a single part, a big slice of the cost is preparation time: slicing, starting the print, checking, removal, any post-processing. On a batch you spend that time (more or less) once, but you spread it across all the parts. Result: the unit cost drops as quantity goes up.
What does NOT change proportionally is material and machine time: 50 parts consume ~50 times the filament and ~50 times the hours of one part (if printed one at a time) — although fitting more onto the same plate saves you startups and dead time.
Price per piece = batch price / n. That's what drops with volume — not because you're "giving a discount", but because the setup weighs less per piece.
Example: 50 menu holders
Say a menu holder weighing 35 g, 25 minutes of print time, printed 2 at a time on the plate.
- Material: 35 g × 50 = 1,750 g → ~€21 (PLA at ~€12/kg including waste)
- Machine time: ~10.5 hours total (2 parts/cycle) → ~€5 of hourly machine cost
- One-time setup (batch preparation, checks): ~30 min → ~€7.50
- Labor per piece (removal, finishing): a few minutes × 50
Add it all up, apply your margin, and divide by 50: you get a price per piece noticeably lower than what you'd charge for ONE menu holder — but one that still leaves you your margin. That's what makes you competitive on volume jobs without underselling yourself.
If you want to revisit how the individual cost items break down (material, energy, depreciation, labor), start with the guide to calculating the cost of a 3D print; and for the machine's hourly cost there's a dedicated article.
The classic batch mistakes
- Single price × quantity. You ignore the fact that setup gets spread: you charge too much and the client goes elsewhere.
- Random discount "because it's a lot". You cut the price on gut feeling and eat into your margin. The volume discount has to come out of the math, not out of a feeling.
- Forgetting failures at scale. Out of 100 parts, some will come out bad: put that in the cost.
How I do it
In Stimalo I switch on batch mode: I load the G-code (or Bambu's .gcode.3mf), set the part quantity and an optional setup time, and the calculator gives me the unit price alongside the total. Both show up in the client's PDF — total and price per piece — so the volume job is clear and transparent.
It's free and you can try it without signing up: quote a batch here. To save it and send it to your client as a PDF, create a free account.
What's the biggest volume job you've ever taken on? Tell me about it, I'm curious.
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