Resin 3D printing cost per print: the math and an example

With resin, the raw material is only part of the bill. Every print session uses alcohol, gloves and paper towels, and every hour wears the screen and the vat film a little. Because those costs barely change with the number of parts on the plate, the same miniature can cost several times more when it is printed alone.

The math, item by item

A few notes on each line:

• Resin: use the volume the slicer (Chitubox, Lychee or your printer's own slicer) shows after generating supports, because supports and the raft use resin too. Common resins sit around 1.1 g/mL, but it varies from one to another; the data sheet for your bottle has the exact value.
• Screen: Elegoo states about 2,000 hours of life for its monochrome screens, four times longer than the older color screens (checked November 2026). Counting the full print time is a conservative choice, since the screen only lights up while each layer is exposed.
• FEP film: there is no official lifespan. It gets replaced when it is scratched, cloudy or punctured, so the right number comes from your own history.
• IPA: what counts is the alcohol lost per wash, to evaporation and disposal, not the whole tank, which lasts for several washes.

Example 1: a 40 mL part

A bust that the slicer shows at 40 mL of resin, supports included, prints in 4 hours and then spends 15 minutes in the wash and cure station:

1. Resin: 40 mL × 1.10 g/mL = 44 g × $0.03 = $1.32.
2. Electricity: 50 W × 4 h = 0.2 kWh, plus 60 W × 0.25 h = 0.015 kWh. That is 0.215 kWh × $0.17 = $0.04.
3. Screen: $60 ÷ 2,000 h = $0.03 per hour × 4 h = $0.12.
4. FEP film: $12 ÷ 200 prints = $0.06.
5. IPA: 40 mL of alcohol at $10 per liter = $0.40.
6. Gloves and paper towels: $0.30.
7. Wear and maintenance: ($600 ÷ 6,000 h + $0.05) × 4 h = $0.60.

Total: $2.84, and the resin is a bit less than half of it. Add 20 minutes of your time to wash, remove supports and cure, at $30 per hour, and that is another $10.00: the part now costs $12.84 before margin.

Example 2: 28 mm miniatures, one or twelve at a time

On an LCD resin printer, the screen exposes the whole layer at once. Print time depends almost entirely on the height of the part, not on how many parts are on the plate. That is why the IPA, gloves, film, screen and electricity are practically the same for one miniature or twelve, and only the resin grows.

Assumptions: a miniature uses 4 mL of resin with supports; resin at $30/kg and 1.10 g/mL; electricity at $0.17/kWh, a 50 W printer and a 60 W wash and cure station for 15 minutes; a $60 screen lasting 2,000 h; a $12 FEP film lasting 200 prints; IPA at $10/L, 40 mL per wash; $0.30 of gloves and towels per session; a $600 printer over 6,000 h plus $0.05/h maintenance. Swap in your own values.

A miniature printed alone costs about six times as much as the same miniature on a full plate. In this example, batching orders into one print lowers the cost per part more than any change of resin or alcohol. The guide to 3D printer cost per hour explains the wear and electricity part.

What usually gets left out

• Failed prints. A part that pulls off its supports or a layer stuck to the film wastes the resin and the IPA of that attempt. A percentage reserve on top of the cost covers it; track your own failure rate.
• Resin left in the vat. It is not a loss if you filter it back into the bottle. It becomes one when it cures in the vat or gets too dirty.
• Finishing. Sanding support marks, gluing parts and painting are labor: count the minutes for each part.
• Packaging and shipping, as with any sale.

In the MakerPrice 3D calculator, pick resin as the technology: fields for the screen, FEP film, IPA and wash and cure appear, and the mL are converted to grams by the density. It also imports sliced .goo and .sl1 files. If you are still choosing between the two technologies, the guide to resin vs filament compares cost and finish.

Safety: the minimum that also goes into the cost

The gloves in the example are not optional. Formlabs' safety page (checked November 2026) recommends:

• Nitrile or neoprene gloves when handling liquid resin, unwashed parts and solvent. If resin touches your skin, wash it right away with soap and water.
• Safety glasses during post-processing.
• A well-ventilated area for the IPA, away from heat and flames: its vapor is flammable. Keep the bottle closed.
• Disposal under local rules. Resin and used IPA do not go down the drain. Check the safety data sheet (SDS) for your resin.

Frequently asked questions

Resin sold by the liter or by the kilo: how do I compare?

Convert both to a price per mL. Per liter, divide the price by 1,000. Per kilo, divide by the number of mL in the bottle: at 1.10 g/mL, 1 kg is about 909 mL. So $30 per kilo works out to $0.033 per mL, and $30 per liter to $0.030 per mL.

Is hollowing the part worth it?

On a large part, yes: the inside volume stops being resin. A hollow part needs drain holes, because uncured resin trapped inside can leak or crack the part later. On a small miniature the saving tends to be small: thin parts are already almost all wall, and supports are not hollowed.

Does water-washable resin get rid of the IPA?

It swaps IPA for water in the wash, but water with resin in it cannot go down the drain either: it has to be cured and disposed of as waste, following the manufacturer's safety data sheet. In the math, the IPA cost goes down and the rest stays the same.

Why does the slicer show more mL than the volume of the model?

Because it adds the supports and the raft that hold the part on the build plate. On a miniature, they can be a large share of the total. Always use the volume with supports, since that is what leaves the bottle.

How many hours should I count for the LCD screen?

Start with what your printer's manufacturer states; Elegoo, for example, quotes about 2,000 hours for its monochrome screens. Older color screens last much less. If your screen starts curing unevenly before that, adjust the lifespan in the math to what actually happened.