How much does it cost to 3D print a vase?

A 3D printed vase costs about 28 cents to $3.89 in PLA and electricity when you print it in vase mode, and most cost under $1.50. Vase mode prints one continuous wall, so a 30 cm vase can use as little as 41 g of filament. Print the same vase with solid walls and it costs about 2.5 to 4 times as much.

How much does it cost to 3D print a vase?

A vase-mode vase 13 to 30 cm tall costs about $0.28 to $3.89 to print at home, counting PLA at $19.99 per kg and electricity. Published profiles use 13 to 186 g of filament and take 1 to 9.5 hours. Width, line width and nozzle size move the cost more than height.

Each row is a vase-mode print profile on MakerWorld that states both grams and print time, on a 0.4 mm nozzle unless noted. The hours are the slicer’s estimate.

Vase	Height x width	Grams	Hours	Filament	Electricity	Total
Modern Vase, Small	13 x 4.5 cm	13 g	0.96 h	$0.26	$0.02	$0.28
Torque, 0.7 mm line width	14 cm	58 g	3.11 h	$1.16	$0.05	$1.21
Modern Sphere Vase	15.4 x 14.6 cm	124 g	3.40 h	$2.48	$0.06	$2.54
Modern Vase, Medium	17 x 5.6 cm	21 g	1.31 h	$0.42	$0.02	$0.44
VASO DESIGN N°22	17 x 13.5 cm	44 g	1.69 h	$0.88	$0.03	$0.91
Sequence Vase	18.8 x 14.2 cm	41 g	1.87 h	$0.82	$0.03	$0.85
Modern Vase, Extra Large	25 x 8.3 cm	47 g	3.27 h	$0.94	$0.06	$1.00
Torque, 0.7 mm line width	25 cm	186 g	9.52 h	$3.72	$0.17	$3.89
Low Poly Designer Vase	30 cm	41 g	2.01 h	$0.82	$0.03	$0.85
aveiro, 0.8 mm nozzle	30 x 12.3 cm	146 g	1.40 h	$2.92	$0.02	$2.94

Filament is priced at Polymaker’s US price of $19.99 for 1 kg of PolyLite PLA, 2 cents a gram. Bambu Lab measures its A1 at an average of 95 W printing PLA. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) puts the July 2026 residential average at 18.31 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). That makes 0.095 kWh x $0.1831 = 1.7 cents per print hour.

Vase mode vs a solid-wall vase

Three designers publish both a vase-mode profile and a normal profile with two or more walls:

Vase	Vase mode	Normal walls	Cost, vase mode → normal
Modern Vase, Extra Large, 25 cm	47 g, 3.27 h	166 g, 5.89 h	$1.00 → $3.42
Sequence Vase, 18.8 cm	41 g, 1.87 h	158 g, 4.02 h	$0.85 → $3.23
Modern Sphere Vase, 15.4 cm	124 g, 3.40 h	319 g, 11.13 h	$2.54 → $6.57

A thick-walled vase costs far more. The $300 Vase (24.8 cm tall) uses 820 g and 27.7 hours with four walls and 15% infill, about $16.87. Vase mode trades strength for the savings: the Modern Vase designer notes the single wall is flexible and easier to break.

Nozzle size and line width

A vase-mode wall is one line thick, so a wider line means a thicker, stiffer wall and more plastic. Two designers publish the same vase on both nozzles:

• Modern Sphere Vase: 124 g and 3.40 h on 0.4 mm, 169 g and 3.61 h on 0.6 mm. That is 36% more filament, $2.54 → $3.44.
• VASO DESIGN N°22: 44 g and 1.69 h on 0.4 mm, 66 g and 2.83 h on its reinforced 0.6 mm profile. That is 50% more filament, $0.91 → $1.37.

The aveiro designer uses a 0.8 mm nozzle with 1.3 mm lines and 0.56 mm layers, and advises against 0.4 mm. Its 30 cm vase takes 146 g but only 1.4 hours.

Silk and specialty PLA

Silk PLA doesn’t always cost more. Polymaker’s US store lists Panchroma Silk PLA at $19.99 per 1 kg spool, the same as PolyLite PLA. Its Dual Silk PLA costs $22.99 and its Starlight PLA $29.99. For the 186 g Torque vase, that puts the filament at $3.72, $4.28 or $5.58. Enter your own spool price in the filament cost calculator.

How much to charge for a 3D printed vase

Charge for the filament plus every machine hour at your hourly rate. The printer hourly rate calculator defaults to $1.58 an hour. It assumes an $800 printer busy 25% of the time and covers wear, power, upkeep and overhead. It also pays 3 minutes of your time per printing hour at $20 an hour, plus 30% profit.

Worked example, the 25 cm Torque vase:

filament       = 186 g x $0.02          = $3.72
machine time   = 9.52 h x $1.58         = $15.04
price                                   = $18.76

Electricity is already inside the hourly rate, so don’t add it twice. The same math prices the 18.8 cm Sequence Vase at $0.82 + 1.87 h x $1.58 = $3.77. On vases, machine time is most of the price, so a fast vase-mode profile matters more than the filament. The rate’s inputs are placeholders: set your own printer price, utilization and handling time in the calculator. Add any marketplace fees with the print cost calculator.