How much does 3D printing actually cost in the UK?

Every Flintform quote is built from the same public formula: machine time at £2 per hour, plus material charged by the gram, with a 7% waste factor on material because printing always uses slightly more filament than the finished part weighs. That subtotal is then multiplied by a factor for the material you picked — 1.0 for PLA, 1.1 PETG, 1.15 ABS, 1.25 ASA, 1.35 PETG-CF, 1.4 TPU, 1.5 PC and 1.6 PA12-CF — which covers the drying, the slower speeds, the nozzle wear and the higher failure rate that the tougher filaments genuinely cost us. Then £2.50 handling per item and £0.45 per order. That is the whole model, and you can check it against any quote we give you.

Supports — the scaffolding some shapes need while they print — add roughly 18% extra material and time, plus a £3 removal fee. You don't have to work out whether your model needs them: the quote page checks the geometry and prices supports in automatically, so there is no surprise later.

Three floors apply: a minimum of £4.50 per item, £8.50 per order, and £2.70 for each extra copy of the same part, before delivery. And because we're not VAT registered, no VAT is ever added — the number on the quote is final. Upload a model and get an instant quote; the full price appears in seconds and is locked in at checkout.

Material is charged by the gram. The first figure below is the base rate; the second is what it works out to once that material factor is applied, which is the number actually reflected in your quote:

• PLA — £0.06/g (no uplift), 22 colours. Crisp detail and vivid colours; the right default for models, prototypes and decorative parts.
• PETG — £0.065/g, £0.072/g after the 1.1 factor, 13 colours. Strong, slightly flexible and weather resistant, for functional parts, brackets and outdoor use.
• ABS — £0.07/g, £0.081/g after the 1.15 factor, 10 colours. Durable and heat resistant with a matte finish.
• ASA — £0.08/g, £0.10/g after the 1.25 factor, 8 colours. Like ABS but UV-stable, so it's the pick for parts living in sunlight.
• TPU 95A — £0.09/g, £0.126/g after the 1.4 factor, 9 colours. Rubber-like and tough: gaskets, grips, bumpers, phone cases. It also prints slowly, which is most of the cost.
• Polycarbonate (PC) — £0.11/g, £0.165/g after the 1.5 factor, 6 colours. Very strong and stiff, heat resistant to around 110°C.
• PETG-CF — £0.13/g, £0.176/g after the 1.35 factor, 2 colours. Carbon-fibre reinforced PETG: stiff, dimensionally stable, matte finish.
• PA12-CF — £0.24/g, £0.384/g after the 1.6 factor, 1 colour. Carbon-fibre nylon 12. Wear and impact resistant with very low moisture pickup, for end-use engineering parts — and the most expensive thing we run, which is why we will tell you when a cheaper material would do.

Formulas are abstract, so here are five real parts with real numbers, from statement pieces down to pocket-sized prints. All are printed in PLA, and each price includes the £2.50 handling fee (the £0.45 order fee is added once per order, not per item).

• Cactus Planter — 388 g, about 4.3 hours of print time: £41.95
• Twisted Spiral Vase — 241 g, about 2.9 hours: £28.95
• Portable Dice Tower — 82 g, about 1.2 hours: £8.95
• Flexi Manta Ray — 38 g, about 28 minutes: £6.95
• Articulated Flexi Cat — 22 g, about 19 minutes: £5.95

Notice where the money is: the jump from 82 g to 241 g roughly triples the price. Weight, far more than physical size, is what drives a 3D printing bill. All five parts come from our ready-made catalogue of 37 print-tested designs, printed to order in your choice of PLA colour.

It's also why one-off 3D printed replacement parts are usually cheap: most broken clips, knobs and brackets weigh just a few grams, so the print itself often costs less than postage.

When a quote comes out higher than you expected, it is nearly always one of these five things.

• Size and volume. Material scales with volume, so doubling a part in every direction means roughly eight times the weight, and the material cost with it.
• Infill. The default is 20%. A part printed nearly solid weighs far more; a decorative piece can often go well below the default.
• Layer height. 0.12 mm Fine layers are the smoothest but take the most machine time. 0.24 mm Draft is the fastest and cheapest, with visible layers.
• Supports. If your model has overhangs that can't print in mid-air, it needs support structures: around 18% extra material and time, plus the £3 removal fee.
• Material choice. PLA is £0.06/g; carbon-fibre nylon is £0.24/g. That is four times the per-gram rate for the same part.

Because the formula is public, so are the levers. None of these are tricks — they are the same choices we'd make on our own prints.

• Choose Draft layers where finish doesn't matter. 0.24 mm layers print far faster than 0.12 mm, and machine time is billed at £2 per hour.
• Drop the infill. Below 20% you can adjust it in 1% steps, and ornaments, props and display pieces rarely need the default.
• Avoid supports with geometry. We only add supports when a shape needs them, so a model orientated or designed to be self-supporting skips the extra ~18% material and the £3 removal fee entirely.
• Stay with PLA unless the job genuinely needs more. At £0.06/g it is our lowest-priced material and right for most decorative and prototype work. Full specs for all eight filaments are on our materials page.
• Order copies together. Extra copies of the same part are discounted: 5% off extras at 5+, 10% at 10+, 15% at 25+ and 20% at 50+.

UK delivery is by Royal Mail and weight-banded, so small parts ship cheaply. Tracked 48 starts at £4.49 (rising to £9.95 at 5 kg), takes 2–3 working days and carries £75 of cover. Tracked 24 starts at £5.49 and aims for the next working day after dispatch. If you're local, collection from the workshop is free.

We won't promise a fixed turnaround, because dispatch depends on the live print queue. Instead, the quote page shows an estimated dispatch date before you pay, so you know what you're agreeing to. Every part is printed on our Bambu Lab H2D, checked by hand and posted from our UK workshop — and if a print fails our standards or arrives damaged, we reprint and reship it free. Create an account and you can even watch your own part being printed live on the workshop camera from your order page.