Price multicolor 3D prints made with Bambu Lab AMS or AMS Lite using the material totals from your slicer. Enter each color’s actual consumed grams, including its purge and prime-tower portions, with its own spool price. The calculator reports waste separately without adding it to the material total a second time.
Bambu AMS Multicolor Print Cost Calculator
Plan a multi-color plate, expected failed plates, machine hours, labor, and an after-fee selling price.
Custom printer: use your own build area, power measurement and AMS cost.
1. Filament lines from the sliced plate
| Color / material | Slicer total grams per plate (includes waste) | Waste grams already included | Spool price / kg | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Do not add purge to the slicer total again. If your slicer shows only model/support grams, add purge and tower mass into the total-grams field first. Waste is a subset of total grams and is used only for reporting.
2. Plate, machine and order costs
Multicolor cost breakdown
| Black PLA | $2.16 |
|---|---|
| White PLA | $1.68 |
| Equipment depreciation per attempted plate | $1.73 |
| Machine + AMS energy per attempted plate | $0.17 |
| Setup labor per attempted plate | $5.00 |
| Expected attempts per successful plate | 1.087 |
| Profit per sold unit at suggested price | $4.22 |
| Fee per sold unit at suggested price | $0.90 |
All rates are editable illustrations. Failed plate probability scales the complete plate’s material, printer time and plate setup cost, assuming a failed plate consumes the full attempt. Final-unit finishing and packing are only added for completed units. Power figures are examples, not verified Bambu average electrical specifications.
Material cost per attempted plate = sum of (each color’s slicer total grams × its spool price/kg ÷ 1,000). Waste % = sum of waste grams already included ÷ sum of total grams. Expected plate attempts per good plate = 1 ÷ (1 − failed plate probability). Cost per successful unit = expected plate costs divided across successful units plus finishing and packing each unit. Target unit price = (cost per successful unit + fixed selling fee) ÷ (1 − percentage selling fee − target net margin).
Worked example: a multicolor three-item plate
The sample contains 90 g of black PLA at $24/kg and 60 g of white PLA at $28/kg. The slicer totals include 15 g and 40 g of waste respectively. Total material is 150 g costing $3.84 on each attempted plate. Of those grams, 55 g or 36.7% are identified as color-change waste or tower material, already included in the purchased-plastic cost.
For three finished items printed in eight hours, the model adds printer and feeder energy, equipment wear, and fifteen minutes of setup. At an 8% plate failure probability, the expected attempted plates per successful plate are 1.087. The sample item cost is $6.93 and a 35% target after-fee margin produces a modeled $12.04 list price per sold unit.
Why the slicer total matters more than the model weight
Multicolor printers may flush filament during color or material changes and use extra filament for a purge tower. Actual waste depends on color transitions, filament types, flushing volumes, model placement, changes per layer and slicer settings. Enter the totals reported for each color on the complete sliced plate rather than multiplying the visible part’s mass by a universal AMS overhead percentage.
If your slicer already included flush and tower grams in its total, adding a separate waste percentage to the same total would double-count the plastic. This tool deliberately separates actual total grams charged from included waste grams shown for efficiency analysis.
Bambu A1, P1S and AMS differences
The Bambu A1 and P1S have a nominal 256 × 256 × 256 mm build volume in their manufacturer’s technical specifications. The A1 uses the AMS Lite feeder while the P1S can use the enclosed AMS. They do not necessarily use the same electricity per job, accessories, print settings, or material profile. Use measured average operating watts and your own acquisition cost in the editable fields; the manufacturer’s maximum electrical rating is not an appropriate substitute for measured average printing power.
Reference: Bambu A1 product information, Bambu P1 series product information and Bambu’s official Wiki.
Plate sharing, failures and capacity
When several identical items share one plate, the total plate material, unattended printer hours and setup work are distributed over the number of good units on that plate. Every item still carries its own finishing labor and packaging. The failure-rate formula is a probabilistic planning model. It assumes a failed plate consumes a comparable amount of material and time to a completed plate, which can overstate costs for failures caught very early.
Use your slicer’s estimated runtime for the whole plate. AMS color changes can increase printing time as well as material use; the printer-hour cost already accounts for that duration. Do not add a generic time uplift if your slicer estimate includes the real color-change moves.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use this for a non-Bambu multi-material printer?
Yes. Select Custom and enter actual color consumption, runtime and operating costs from your slicer. The formulas work for multicolor printing where total material use is known.
What does the waste column do?
It reports the share of total filament attributable to flushing and purge-tower material. It does not increase billed material cost because that waste is already included in the total grams input.
What if I have four colors at different prices?
Add one line for each spool or color. The total plate material charge is the sum of the individual gram × price calculations.
Do these prices include VAT, sales tax or marketplace tax?
No. Enter all money amounts consistently. The model includes only the selected selling fees and other explicit expenses; tax and market-specific rules need separate handling.
Does this include multiple AMS units?
You can add as many filament lines as needed and enter aggregate feeder power, but the tool does not calculate machine hardware limits or guarantee a particular model’s multi-unit compatibility.
Related tools: Overall 3D Print Pricing, Filament Cost per Gram, Failed Print Cost and Print Farm ROI.