How Much Does It Cost to Run a 3D Printer?
Short answer: about $0.087 a day and $2.62 a month, or $0.021 for each hour it runs at full power, at the 2025 US average electricity rate. That is for a 120 W 3d printer running 6 hours a day with a 70% duty cycle. Change the state and hours below for your own number.
Updated Nov 8, 2026
Quick answer
Quick answer, US average (17.3 c/kWh)
About $2.62 a month
The same use costs $1.79 a month in North Dakota and $6.14 in Hawaii.
- Per hour
- $0.015
- with 70% cycling; $0.021 at full 120 W
- Per day
- $0.087
- 6 h, 0.50 kWh
- Per month
- $2.62
- 30 days
- Per year
- $31.83
- 365 days at the same use
Your state, your hours
Per hour
$0.015
Per day
$0.087
Per month
$2.62
Per year
$31.83
3D Printer at 120 W, 6 h a day, 30 days a month, 70% duty cycle: 15.1 kWh a month. Using the 2025 US average of 17.3 cents/kWh.
Want to change the watts or duty cycle too? Open the full calculator.
What decides the cost of running a 3d printer
An FDM 3D printer is mostly a pair of heaters with motors attached. The heated bed is the big draw: it can pull 200 to 350 W while warming up, then cycles on its thermostat to hold temperature, while the hot end, stepper motors, fans and electronics add a steady background. Averaged across a PLA print, most desktop printers land around 80 to 150 W. The default here is 120 W at a 70 percent duty cycle, an average of 84 W, for 6 hours a day. That is about 0.5 kWh a day, roughly 9 cents, or $2.62 a month at the national average rate.
Material changes the number. PLA prints with the bed around 55 to 65 degrees, while ABS and ASA need about 100 degrees, often in an enclosure, so the bed heater runs much more of the time. Printers with a mains-powered AC bed heat up faster but can draw close to 1,000 W while doing it. Large-format printers with big beds use more across the board. Resin printers are cheaper again, typically 30 to 70 W, since the UV light and the lift motor are the only significant loads.
Room temperature matters more than people expect. A printer in a cold garage loses heat from the bed constantly, so the heater cycles far more often than it would in a heated room. An enclosure, even a simple one, holds the heat in and cuts that loss. Print settings matter too: a print that takes 10 hours at fine layer heights costs twice what a 5 hour draft print costs.
In any case, electricity is rarely the main cost of printing. A 10 hour print costs about 15 cents in power, and the filament for the same part usually costs several times that. Leave the printer off when idle, since the display, fans and controller can still draw a few watts.
How to cut it
- Print PLA where you can. Its lower bed temperature cuts heater time.
- Use an enclosure in a cold room to keep the bed and hot end from losing heat.
- Turn the printer off between jobs instead of leaving it idling.
- Use thicker layers for parts where surface finish does not matter. Shorter prints use less energy.
3D Printer cost by state
Monthly cost for 120 W, 6 h a day, 70% duty cycle, 30 days, sorted cheapest to most expensive. Pick your state above to highlight it.
| Rank | State | Cents/kWh | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | 11.81 | $1.79 |
| 2 | Idaho | 11.82 | $1.79 |
| 3 | Nebraska | 12.34 | $1.87 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 12.57 | $1.90 |
| 5 | Arkansas | 12.84 | $1.94 |
| 6 | Montana | 12.98 | $1.96 |
| 7 | Utah | 13.07 | $1.98 |
| 8 | Washington | 13.11 | $1.98 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 13.12 | $1.98 |
| 10 | Nevada | 13.15 | $1.99 |
| 11 | Tennessee | 13.18 | $1.99 |
| 12 | Kentucky | 13.24 | $2.00 |
| 13 | South Dakota | 13.38 | $2.02 |
| 14 | Wyoming | 13.38 | $2.02 |
| 15 | Missouri | 13.49 | $2.04 |
| 16 | Iowa | 13.72 | $2.07 |
| 17 | North Carolina | 14.02 | $2.12 |
| 18 | Mississippi | 14.03 | $2.12 |
| 19 | Kansas | 14.56 | $2.20 |
| 20 | Georgia | 14.73 | $2.23 |
| 21 | South Carolina | 14.96 | $2.26 |
| 22 | New Mexico | 15.08 | $2.28 |
| 23 | Florida | 15.24 | $2.30 |
| 24 | Virginia | 15.28 | $2.31 |
| 25 | Arizona | 15.32 | $2.32 |
| 26 | Oregon | 15.37 | $2.32 |
| 27 | West Virginia | 15.41 | $2.33 |
| 28 | Texas | 15.47 | $2.34 |
| 29 | Minnesota | 15.82 | $2.39 |
| 30 | Colorado | 15.85 | $2.40 |
| 31 | Alabama | 16.10 | $2.43 |
| 32 | Indiana | 16.23 | $2.45 |
| 33 | Ohio | 16.96 | $2.56 |
| 34 | Delaware | 17.13 | $2.59 |
| 35 | Illinois | 17.69 | $2.67 |
| 36 | Wisconsin | 18.16 | $2.75 |
| 37 | Pennsylvania | 19.30 | $2.92 |
| 38 | Maryland | 19.48 | $2.95 |
| 39 | Michigan | 20.01 | $3.03 |
| 40 | District of Columbia | 21.94 | $3.32 |
| 41 | New Jersey | 22.63 | $3.42 |
| 42 | Vermont | 22.92 | $3.47 |
| 43 | New Hampshire | 24.56 | $3.71 |
| 44 | Alaska | 26.09 | $3.94 |
| 45 | New York | 26.39 | $3.99 |
| 46 | Maine | 27.78 | $4.20 |
| 47 | Connecticut | 29.38 | $4.44 |
| 48 | Rhode Island | 29.46 | $4.45 |
| 49 | Massachusetts | 30.48 | $4.61 |
| 50 | California | 32.54 | $4.92 |
| 51 | Hawaii | 40.59 | $6.14 |
Rates: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, annual average residential price, 2025 (eia.gov). Full list on the electricity rates by state page.
Measure it instead of estimating
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P3 Kill A Watt P4400 Electricity Usage Monitor
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Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to run a 3D printer per hour?+
About 1.5 cents an hour. At an average of 84 W (120 W at a 70 percent duty cycle) a printer uses 0.084 kWh an hour, and 0.084 x $0.173 is $0.0145.
How much electricity does a 3D print use?+
About 0.084 kWh per hour of printing for a typical desktop printer, so a 10 hour print uses about 0.84 kWh, roughly 15 cents at the national average rate.
How much does it cost to run a 3D printer for 24 hours?+
About 35 cents. 120 W x 24 hours x 0.7 duty = 2.0 kWh, and 2.0 x $0.173 is about $0.35. ABS prints in a cold room run the bed heater more and cost more.
How much does it cost to run a 3D printer per month?+
About $2.62 a month at 6 hours of printing a day. That is 0.504 kWh a day, 15.1 kWh over 30 days, and 15.1 x $0.173 is about $2.62.
How much does it cost to run a 3D printer per year?+
About $32 a year at 6 hours a day. 0.504 kWh x 365 days is 184 kWh, and 184 x $0.173 is about $31.83.
How many watts does a 3D printer use?+
About 80 to 150 W on average for a desktop FDM printer printing PLA, with 200 to 350 W peaks while the bed heats up. Printers with AC beds can briefly draw close to 1,000 W. Resin printers use about 30 to 70 W.
Does a 3D printer use a lot of electricity?+
No. A full day of printing uses about 2 kWh, less than an hour of a 3,000 W electric oven element. The filament usually costs more than the electricity for the same print.
Does printing ABS cost more than PLA?+
Yes, somewhat. ABS needs a bed around 100 degrees against 55 to 65 for PLA, and often an enclosure, so the bed heater runs more of the time. Expect noticeably more energy per hour, though it is still only a few cents an hour.
How long will a power station run a 3D printer?+
About 10 hours from a 1,000 Wh station at an 84 W average, after about 15 percent inverter loss (850 / 84). The inverter must also handle the bed's warm-up draw, so check its continuous rating before starting a long print.
How can I lower the cost of running a 3D printer?+
Print in a warm room or an enclosure, use PLA where it works, turn the printer off when idle, and use faster draft settings for parts that do not need fine detail. Each hour of printing you avoid saves about 0.084 kWh, about 1.5 cents.
Marcus Reed
Founder and Editor, CrunchYourDollars
Marcus Reed builds the sizing tools on CrunchYourDollars. He is a software engineer with a long-running PC hardware and power supply habit, which is where the watts, watt-hours and surge math on this site comes from. Product specs are pulled from manufacturer data sheets, electricity rates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and water chemistry rules from the Water Quality Association. He is not a licensed electrician or plumber: the tools show the math and the matching models so you can make the call, and anything involving your electrical panel should be checked by a licensed pro.
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