Forge“How much should I charge for this resin figurine?” The answer you read most often — the bottle price divided down to the part — leaves out almost everything a resin part costs. I have been a printer for more than fifteen years. Here is how I price a resin plate (MSLA, LCD screen), item by item, with a complete example.
What changes compared with filament
Three things. Material is measured in millilitres, not grams. Print time depends on the height of the plate, not on how many parts sit on it. And a resin part does not come off the machine finished: washing, drying, support removal, UV curing, with consumables filament never needs.
Resin: per millilitre, never per gram
The slicer reports a volume in millilitres, supports included; the bottle is sold by the kilo. Between the two sits density: 1.05 to 1.25 g/cm³ according to the technical data sheet of Elegoo's standard resin, 1.07 to 1.09 for Anycubic's Water-Wash ABS-Like 3.0. So a kilo is 800 to 950 ml, not 1,000: counting 1 ml as 1 g underestimates material by 5 to 20%.
| Resin | 1 kg bottle | Per ml, raw |
|---|---|---|
| Standard (Elegoo) | €15.99 | €0.018 |
| ABS-Like V3.0 (Elegoo) | €18.99 | €0.021 |
| Water-washable (Elegoo) | €19.99 | €0.022 |
| Water-Wash ABS-Like 3.0 (Anycubic) | €32.99 | €0.036 |
Calculated at a density of 1.1 (1.08 for the Anycubic). And this raw figure is not your material price: it leaves out the resin that goes into the wash with the parts, the bottom of the vat that ends up thrown away, failed plates (one detachment and the whole plate is lost), washing alcohol and gloves. So I count €0.04/ml for a standard resin, and up to €0.085/ml for a pricier or trickier one. These are my rates; you set your own.
The consumables that come with resin
Isopropyl alcohol. IPA at 90% or more: about €7 per litre in bulk (€35.40 for five one-litre bottles at LV3D), up to €16.50 per litre for a single bottle at Filament2Print. It saturates, it is flammable, and a spent bath is chemical waste. A water-washable resin spares you the IPA but costs more per bottle: €19.99 against €15.99 at Elegoo. IPA and gloves are inside my per-millilitre rate.
The vat film. FEP, nFEP or ACF, it gets replaced when it is scratched, cloudy, deformed or leaking. Five FEP films for the Elegoo Mars 3: €32 on sale at LV3D, so €6.40 a film; nFEP starts at €15 per A4 sheet at Ameralabs; ACF releases better but costs considerably more.
The LCD screen. The consumable nobody counts. An Elegoo monochrome screen is rated for around 2,000 hours, and Anycubic says replacement can be considered between 500 and 2,000 hours. It costs €39.90 for a Mars 5 at Filament2Print, €140 for a Saturn 4 Ultra 16K at 123-3D. For the latter, €140 over 2,000 h is €0.07 an hour, twice that if it dies at 1,000 h. I round screen and film together to €0.10 per print hour, on top of my €0.15/h of machine wear.
The wash and cure station. An Elegoo Mercury Plus 3.0 is €124.73 on sale at Filament2Print (€138.59 at full price). It is a workshop tool, not a consumable: my post-processing hour pays for it.
Machine time: height, not the number of parts
In MSLA, the screen exposes a whole layer at once. Prusa says it plainly for its resin printers: print time is the number of layers multiplied by the time of one layer, whether there is one part or a dozen on the platform. Eight figurines of the same height take the time of one; to shorten a print, you reduce the height, by laying tall parts down.
The consequence for the price: machine time is counted for the plate, then shared. Billing 3.2 h to each of eight figurines means charging 25.6 h for a machine that ran 3.2 h. Conversely, a lone figurine carries the whole plate. I count this occupation as for FDM: €2/h, electricity included.
Post-processing, counted for the batch
Removing, washing, drying, cutting supports, UV curing, sanding the marks: that is your time, and it is where resin really costs. I count it at €20/h for the whole batch: washing and curing happen in one go for eight parts; only support removal and sanding grow with the count. Painting, if the customer asks for it, is a separate item, priced per part.
Safety, which has a cost too
The safety data sheet of Elegoo's plant-based resin classes it as irritating to skin and eyes and able to cause an allergic skin reaction (H315, H317, H319). Formlabs recommends nitrile or neoprene gloves, safety glasses, a ventilated room and an N95 mask for sanding; IPA vapours are flammable. Spent baths and liquid resin follow local rules for chemical waste, not the sink.
The complete example: eight figurines on one plate
Eight 32 mm figurines, files supplied already supported. The slicer reports 46 ml including supports and 3.2 h for the plate. ABS-like resin, which I count at €0.05/ml. Three quarters of an hour of post-processing for the batch:
| Item | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| File check | flat fee | €3.00 |
| ABS-like resin | 46 ml × €0.05/ml | €2.30 |
| Machine wear | 3.2 h × €0.15/h | €0.48 |
| LCD screen and film | 3.2 h × €0.10/h | €0.32 |
| Printing | 3.2 h × €2.00/h | €6.40 |
| Post-processing | 0.75 h × €20/h | €15.00 |
| Total | €27.50 |
That is €3.44 per figurine. Resin is €2.30 out of €27.50, barely 8%; post-processing, more than half. Ordered alone, the same figurine keeps the file check and the 3.2 h of plate, with 5.75 ml of resin and a quarter of an hour of finishing: €15.49. That is the price of a plate running for a single part. Tell the customer, and suggest grouping.
The mistakes I see most often
Counting resin per gram. Forgetting IPA, gloves and film, because they are bought separately. Forgetting that the screen is a consumable, until the day you have to buy one for €140. Billing each part for the time of a shared plate. Counting washing and curing per part when they are done for the batch. And applying the per-gram rate of PLA to resin.
What comes next
Material prices are detailed in “Price per gram of PLA, PETG and resin”, electricity and depreciation in “The real cost of a 3D print”. For a first figure, the online calculator takes resin per millilitre. ForgeCalc reads sliced resin files directly — sl1 from PrusaSlicer, ctb from Chitubox and Elegoo, photon and pwmx from Anycubic — and takes the volume, time and resin weight from them.
Read also: How much should you charge for a 3D print? · The real cost of a 3D print · the online calculator
These rates are mine; yours depend on your machine, your resin and your time. ForgeCalc calculates with your figures; it sets no price. The prices above were checked in early November 2026: check them again before your next quote.