How much do 3D printing services charge?

3D printing services charge from about $1 to $95 or more for one small plastic part, before shipping. The plastic barely moves the price. Minimum orders, setup fees and labor do: a 20 g part with 40 cents of filament in it costs $3 at a library that charges 15 cents a gram and at least $25 at an online service with a $25 minimum.

How much do 3D printing services charge?

One small fused deposition modeling (FDM) plastic part costs about $1 to $95 before shipping. JLC3DP lists FDM parts from $1.00, PCBWay charges at least $25 per order, and Protolabs says its 3D printed parts start around $95. Public libraries in Iowa and Georgia charge 15 cents per gram, so a 20 g part costs $3 there.

Service	How it prices	Published starting price or minimum	Shipping and extras
JLC3DP (online, ships from China)	Instant quote per part	FDM from $1.00, 3-day build time	Shipping at checkout; US import fees of 40% on plastic parts collected with the order
PCBWay (online, ships from China)	Instant quote per part	$25 minimum order, plus a $5 to $20 startup cost per material and usually under $1 per part	Shipping not included in the $25
Craftcloud (online marketplace)	Compares quotes from manufacturing partners	No minimum order value and no service fee	Set by the partner you pick
Xometry (online, US)	Instant quote per part	No minimum order for most services; no starting price published	Free shipping on US and international FDM orders
Protolabs (online, US)	Instant quote per part	3D printed parts start around $95	Not stated on its FAQ
Cedar Falls Public Library, Iowa	Per gram	$0.15 per gram, or $0.02 per minute if grams are unknown	Pick up in person
Sequoyah Regional Library System, Georgia	Per gram	15 cents per gram, $3.00 minimum per job	Pick up in person

Prices and fees are from each service’s own pages on October 10, 2026. Online services publish a floor price at most. Upload your file to see your number. Fees at eight more US library systems are in what it costs to 3D print at the library.

What a 20 g part costs at each service

Say you need a small bracket in PLA (polylactic acid, the most common filament). It weighs 20 g and prints in 1.5 hours.

Where	Arithmetic	Price before shipping
Your printer, filament and power only	20 g × $19.99/kg = $0.40, plus 0.12 kWh × $0.18 = $0.02	$0.42
Your printer, full cost	$0.42 + $0.32 wear + $0.04 failures + $3.33 for 10 minutes of your time	$4.11
Cedar Falls library	20 g × $0.15	$3.00
Sequoyah library	20 g × $0.15 = $3.00, equal to the minimum	$3.00
JLC3DP at its $1.00 floor	$1.00 + 40% import fee	$1.40
PCBWay	Part cost below the minimum	$25.00
Protolabs	Starting price	about $95

The home rows use the print cost calculator defaults:

• Filament: Polymaker PolyLite PLA at $19.99 per kg on its US store.
• Power: an 80 W average draw (Prusa’s measured figure for PLA) at 18.16 cents per kWh. That is the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) average residential price for January to June 2026.
• Wear: $0.16 an hour for an $800 printer over 5,000 hours, plus $0.05 an hour of maintenance.
• Failures and labor: a 5% failure rate and 10 minutes of your time at $20 an hour.

The JLC3DP row is the advertised floor. A real part can quote higher, and shipping comes on top.

Why a quote is higher than printing it yourself

A service bills for costs that a home printer hides:

• Machine time. The printer, its wear parts and its failed prints are paid off by the hour. With its defaults, the printer hourly rate calculator puts a desktop printer at $1.21 per machine-hour including labor. Add 30% profit and the rate is $1.58.
• Labor per part. PCBWay’s price covers tray planning, post-processing, packing and quality control. Its per-part fee pays for that hands-on work.
• Setup and minimums. PCBWay charges a $5 to $20 startup cost once per material per order. It bills $25 when the parts cost less. On a 40-cent part, the minimum is the whole price.
• Shipping and duties. JLC3DP collects 40% US import fees on plastic parts with the order. Shipping is extra.

How much does it cost to 3D print online?

Online FDM printing starts at about $1 a part, plus shipping, though some services set a $25 order minimum. JLC3DP lists FDM from $1.00 and adds 40% US import fees on plastic parts. PCBWay bills at least $25. Craftcloud and Xometry set no minimum order, and Xometry ships FDM orders free. Protolabs parts start around $95.

You get the real price by uploading your 3D model file (STL or STEP). PCBWay’s FAQ lists what moves the quote: the part’s volume, the space it takes in the printer, the number of parts and the finishing labor. Run the file through the STL cost calculator first. It shows the grams and the filament cost, so you know how much of the quote is plastic.

What gets added at checkout

• Shipping. Xometry includes it on FDM orders. JLC3DP and PCBWay add it at checkout. Craftcloud’s partners each set their own.
• US import fees. Individual US buyers at JLC3DP pay under DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) terms: the fees are prepaid with the order instead of at the door. Its rate for plastic parts has been 40% since March 17, 2026. On a $10 order, that adds $4.
• Startup and per-part fees. PCBWay’s $5 to $20 startup cost repeats for each extra material in the order.

How to lower an online quote

• Fill the minimum. PCBWay suggests ordering several copies when one part costs less than $25. If ten copies still come to less than $25, each costs $2.50.
• Order in one material. PCBWay’s startup cost is counted once per material per order.
• Shrink, hollow or split the part. JLC3DP’s FAQ suggests scaling down display parts and hollowing models (with escape holes). It also suggests cutting tall or long parts into sections, which saves build and shipping cost, and joining small parts into one.
• Compare quotes. Craftcloud shows prices from several manufacturing partners for the same file in one quote.