How much does 3D printing cost in the UK?
Short answer: small FDM parts start around £3.50, most functional parts land between £8 and £25, and large or complex prints go up from there. The long answer — what actually drives the price — is below. Or skip the theory and upload your file for an exact price in seconds.
Prices and facts checked 1 October 2026: parts from £3.50, PETG £0.18 a gram all-in, delivery from £2.70 (large letter for thin parts) or £5.45 tracked (free over £40), no VAT, dispatch within 48 hours.
Typical UK prices at a glance
| Part | Example | Typical price |
|---|---|---|
| Small part | Bracket, knob, calibration cube, clip | £3.50 – £8 |
| Medium functional part | Enclosure, jig, impeller, phone stand | £8 – £25 |
| Large part | Housing, air duct, large fixture | £25 – £80+ |
FDM printing, dispatched within 48 hours, no VAT. Priority (next-day) and express (same-day) production carry multipliers.
What actually drives the price
1. Material weight — but read the fine print
Most services quote a rate "per gram". The honest version of that number is fully loaded: at Sync 3D, from £0.18 per gram for PETG including machine time, electricity, labour and hand-inspection. Some quotes advertise the raw filament price instead (£0.05–0.08/g) and add the rest later — always check what the per-gram figure includes.
2. Print time
A part that ties up a machine for 14 hours costs more than one printed in 40 minutes, even at the same weight. Fine layer heights (0.08–0.12 mm) look beautiful but multiply print time; 0.2 mm is the sweet spot for most functional parts.
3. Infill and walls
Parts are rarely printed solid. 20% infill suits most applications; going to 100% can nearly double material cost for strength you usually don't need.
4. Supports and orientation
Overhanging geometry needs support material that is printed and then thrown away. Well-oriented models with self-supporting angles quote noticeably cheaper.
Want the numbers without the theory? The full price and delivery list has every figure on one page.
5. Quantity
Batch discounts are real: ours apply automatically at 10, 25 and 50 units — 7%, 12% and 18% off — because setup happens once and machines run unattended.
Worked examples: what real parts cost
Rates only mean something applied to real objects. At a fully-loaded £0.18/gram, here is the arithmetic for four typical jobs:
| Part | Weight | Maths | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cable clip | ~15 g | 15 × £0.18 = £2.70 → £3.50 minimum per part applies | £3.50 |
| Phone stand | ~45 g | 45 × £0.18 | ≈ £8 |
| Wall bracket | ~90 g | 90 × £0.18 | ≈ £16 |
| Project enclosure | ~250 g | 250 × £0.18 | ≈ £45 |
Weights assume sensible settings (20% infill, standard walls). A solid-infill or heavily-supported version of the same part weighs — and costs — more, which is why quoting from your actual file beats any table.
Real orders priced on this site, September and October 2026
Tables are estimates. These are actual parts customers uploaded and the price the calculator gave them, before postage. Names and files stay private; the sizes and prices are exact.
| Part | Size | Material and settings | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screw-insert repair for a gaming chair side shield, ×2 | 18 × 18 × 10 mm | PETG, 100% infill | £3.50 each |
| Cover plate for a solar charge controller | 125 × 77 × 20 mm, 28 cm³ | PETG, 0.2 mm layers, 20% infill | £7.82 |
| Pair of replacement projector gears | small | PETG, fine layers | £7.45 for two (the customer reordered) |
| Large housing | 360 × 220 × 70 mm, about 1.2 kg | PETG, 0.2 mm, 20% infill | £198 estimate, confirmed by hand |
The spread is the point: the same service prices a repair insert at £3.50 and a 1.2 kg housing at about £200, and the only thing that changed is how much plastic and printer time the part needs. Anything over £80 is checked by an engineer and confirmed by email before you commit.
3D printing cost calculator
The calculator on the home page is the same model this article describes, run on your file instead of on examples. Drop an STL, 3MF or STEP file and it measures the volume, works out shell, infill, top and bottom layers and supports separately, estimates print time from those, and shows the price in about 30 seconds. Change the material, layer height, infill or quantity and the number updates live. Nothing is uploaded until you order, and there is no sign-up.
Per gram, per hour, or per cm³ — decoding quote styles
UK services price the same job three different ways, which is why quotes for one file can differ wildly:
- Per gram (fully loaded) — one rate covering filament, machine time, labour and inspection. Ours: £0.18/g. Simple to compare, nothing added later.
- Per gram (raw filament) + fees — a headline £0.05–0.08/g that covers only the plastic, with machine time, setup and minimum fees appearing at checkout. Often ends up above a fully-loaded rate.
- Per machine-hour — common for industrial services (£3–10+/hour FDM). Fair, but you can't estimate it without knowing print time, so you're dependent on their quote.
The only comparison that matters: the final number for your file, delivered. Everything else is marketing.
Service vs. buying your own printer
A capable FDM printer costs £300–£1,500, plus filament, spare nozzles, dry storage, failed prints and the hours to learn it. If you need parts every week, buying one pays off. If you need a handful of good parts now — engineering-grade, inspected, delivered — a service is almost always the cheaper path. See how our London service works.
How to get an exact price (in about 30 seconds)
Generic tables only get you so far — geometry decides everything. Our quoting engine analyses your actual model in your browser (the file never leaves your machine), splits it into shell, infill and supports, and prices each part of the job separately. No sign-up, no email tennis.
Stop estimating — get the real number
Upload an STL, 3MF or STEP file. Exact price, instantly.
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