By uploading your 3D model through the manual review or Insta3DP, you’ll get manual firm offer or instant price for your 3D printed product in various materials.
In Insta3DP, our quoting engine will quickly analyze your 3D model and show the price in all materials available for instant pricing.
In Manual review, we will send you quotation after reviewing and inspecting your requests with our experts.
How we price our 3D printing materials?
We cannot provide the exact formula for competitive reasons, but we can provide some key factors used to price each material. We will be tweaking our pricing algorithm regularly in the future to make more material available for accurate, instant pricing.
- Material Volume – The amount of material needed to 3D print your product.
In most cases, the actual volume of your 3D model itself determines the amount of raw material that is used to produce it. Making your model smaller or thinner reduces material cost. - Support Volume – The amount of support material required to 3D print your product in Fine Detail Plastic
Fine Detail Plastic is printed on a build plate, where the print head deposits liquid plastic layer by layer, starting at the bottom. To overcome gravity, the 3D printer surrounds the cured plastic with wax that will support the layers that come above. So every cavity, overhang, and negative angle requires support in wax. That wax gets melted away after the product emerges from the 3D printer. - Bounding Box Volume – The dimensions of your product used to determine the space it takes inside our 3D printers
Unlike Machine Volume, Bounding Box Volume is based on the dimensions (L x W x H) of your product, not the amount of space the product takes inside the 3D printer. For example, if your product is a bowl, in some materials, we can plan parts inside the hollow cavity of the bowl. Machine space calculates the amount of space your product takes up, not including the hollow cavity of the bowl. However, for other materials, it is not possible to place other parts inside the bowl. Bounding box calculates the amount of space your product takes up, in this case the total dimensions including the hollow cavity of the bowl. - Machine Space – The amount of space your product takes inside our 3D printers. This is usually related to bounding box volume of your 3D model.
Generally speaking, bigger parts cost more. However, occasionally, we can reduce the cost by packing other parts inside of it. These models must be hollow, have cavity openings of at least 40mm, and be strong enough that they don’t break when the inner models are removed. - Number of parts – The number of parts that need to be handled individually during production.
This matters because each individual part needs to be oriented and planned before printing. We call this step “tray planning.” Then it must be cleaned, sorted and packaged. Dyed and polished parts need to go through a few more steps, increasing the cost per part. See our Best Practices for High Part Count Models for more information on reducing the cost of multi-part models. - Production – Associated production costs including labor of post-processing or surface treatment; quality control; machine maintenance; general utilities; and other supporting services required to 3D print your product.
- Startup Cost – The minimum contribution to make for the work of changing the material in the printer. It is counted only once per material per order. This startup cost varies for different materials. Normally it’s $5-20 for most materials.
- Minimum Order Value – The minimum order amount is $25 excluding shipping cost. Which means if your parts manufacturing cost is less than $25, we will still charge $25, so it’s more economic to order multiple copies if your part is cheaper than $25.
- Per Part Fee – Since each parts has to be post processed manually, we normally charge extra per part to cover the labor cost. Normally it’s less than $1 per part, but if the parts are too complicated, the per part fee will be higher.
Manufacturing Speed & Shipping Speed
Currently, we don’t have different manufacturing speed level, we want to treat our clients equally and make sure they all get the parts made as fast as we can!
However, if you’re in a hurry, please be sure to select an expedited shipping option. You can tick ‘Fastest’ option in manual review, and make a note of the deadline in Insta3DP, we will choose the best express and change the shipping cost accordingly.
Shipping cost
We ship products worldwide. You can read more about shipping options and average transit time on our Shipping Information page.
Depending on your country, customs may charge taxes/import fees when importing and delivering your product. We will declare a low value
Taxes
We don’t charge any value-added taxes, only custom tax/import fees might apply from your local customs.