How to price SLA resin prints

Short answer: Set a selling price per mL for each resin: your cost per mL times a markup that rises with how demanding the resin is and how much detail the job needs. Apply that rate to the slicer's total resin volume, supports and raft included. There's no separate support-material line, because supports are the same resin as the part. Washing and UV curing go in the base price. Support removal, sanding, and painting are add-ons, and you can offer a cheaper price with supports left on. Most shops also put a minimum or per-print charge under small jobs.

This is part 2 of our series on pricing 3D prints. The pillar guide explains the method across technologies, and part 1 covers FDM. This part covers resin printing (laser SLA, MSLA, and DLP), with published rates, a worked example, and prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, or any other AI assistant. Replace the [bracketed] parts with your own numbers, and check the AI's math before anything goes on a quote.

Numbers marked illustrative are example inputs, not market data. Every other figure links to its source. Resin and shop prices were checked on October 21, 2026 and change often.

The simple method, adapted for resin

Your slicer reports the resin a job uses, and customers understand "this resin, this much of it." Published rate cards follow that shape:

• LayerSlayers3D (Reno, Nevada) charges $0.15–0.25/mL for standard resin, $0.30–0.50/mL for tough resin, and $0.50+/mL for specialty resins like flexible and high-temp, with a $10 minimum order fee (LayerSlayers3D).
• Prism Ink & Packaging (New York) charges $0.28/mL for gray or clear resin and $0.33/mL for color (Prism Ink & Packaging).

Resin is simple to quote but not simple to calculate. The per-mL rate has to cover supports, waste, tank and film wear, washing and curing, and failed prints without listing them. And almost nobody runs on volume alone, so plan on a minimum or a per-print charge from day one. The floor section below has published examples.

The resin formula

Part price = total resin volume (mL, part + supports + raft) × resin cost per mL × resin markup
           + support removal (add-on, per part)
           + sanding support marks (add-on, per part or by surface area)
           + other finishing (priming, painting, clear coat)

Order price = sum of parts
            + per-print charge or setup fee (or raise the total to your minimum)
            − quantity discount
            × rush multiplier (if any)

Washing and UV curing are in the per-mL rate, not separate lines.

Markup tiers by resin type

Start from what you actually pay

Resin prices span a wide range. Formlabs sells by the liter, and consumer brands sell by the kilogram, so compare each within its own unit.

Formlabs (per liter, Form 4 bottles unless noted) (Formlabs materials):

That's about 4.4× from Grey V5 to BioMed Clear.

Consumer MSLA brands (per kilogram, US stores): standard resin runs about $18–33/kg, such as Elegoo Standard at $18.99/kg, and specialty resins run about $60–162/kg, such as Phrozen Elastomer EL400 at $162/kg (Elegoo; Phrozen). Many consumer listings are sale prices, so use your own invoices. Converting kilograms to milliliters needs each resin's density from its data sheet, so don't guess it.

Tier the markup by resin and detail

High-detail jobs (fine layers, tiny features) can move a resin up a tier.

What real tiers look like. LayerSlayers3D's tough rate ($0.30–0.50/mL) is about double its standard rate ($0.15–0.25/mL), with specialty above that (LayerSlayers3D). UC Davis Tech Foundry charges outside clients $0.30/mL for economy resin and $0.80/mL for premium resins like BioMed and Surgical Guide (UC Davis Tech Foundry). University rates can be subsidized; the spacing is the useful part.

Why the demanding resins earn more

• Tank wear. Formlabs caps Form 3 tanks at 250 print hours with "aggressive" resins such as Tough 2000 and Rigid 10K, against an estimated 600–800 hours for most jobs in other resins (Formlabs). Form 4 tanks are rated for 75,000+ layers, but BioMed Clear, Tough 1500, and High Temp can cause surface artifacts after 20,000–30,000 (Formlabs).
• Harder printing. Siraya Tech says its Tenacious Flex "likes thicker support to print well," and recommends layers of at least 80 µm, 1.2 mm support tips, and up to 25 minutes of curing (Siraya Tech).
• Certified workflows. Most Formlabs BioMed and dental resins only run on B-series printers, and for Tough 1500's skin-contact rating, Formlabs says post-processing "must be followed without deviation" (Formlabs materials).
• Shelf life. Formlabs' Alumina 4N Resin has "a total shelf life of 3 months at room temperature" (Formlabs materials).

Help me set selling prices per mL for the resins my resin print shop uses.

My markup tiers (multiplier on resin cost):
- Standard: [markup multiplier]
- Engineering: [markup multiplier]
- Specialty: [markup multiplier]

My resins (one per line):
- [resin and brand] | [price I pay] for [bottle size, in liters or kilograms] | [density in g/mL from the data sheet, or "unknown"] | [hard on tanks: yes, no, or unknown] | [needs thicker supports or special post-processing: yes or no]

Instructions:
1. Work out my cost per mL. If a bottle is sold by weight, convert using the density I gave. If the density is unknown, ask me for it. Don't assume one.
2. Put each resin in a tier and give a one-line reason.
3. Apply the tier markup to get a selling price per mL. Show your math for every row.
4. Output a table: Resin | Cost per mL | Tier | Markup | Selling price per mL | Reason.
5. If anything is missing or unclear, ask me before filling it in. Don't make up prices or markups.

Supports: no separate line, but don't leave them out

Supports and rafts print in the same resin as the part, so there's no support-material line on a resin quote. That only works if the per-mL rate actually covers the support resin. There are two ways to make sure it does:

1. Apply your per-mL rate to the slicer's total volume, part plus supports plus raft. This is the most direct option. Formlabs' own instant-quote example prices resin this way (Formlabs Developer Portal).
2. Build support resin into the rate if you quote from part volume. Raise the per-mL rate enough to cover the supports your typical jobs need.

Support resin isn't a rounding error:

• In Formlabs' example, 10 brackets used 89.2 mL of part resin plus 37.7 mL of supports and raft, so supports and raft were about 30% of the total (Formlabs Developer Portal).
• In a 2021 study of anatomical models simulated in PreForm, supports were about 15–23% of total volume for solid models and about 47–60% for hollow models, which need internal supports (Ravi & Chen, _3D Printing in Medicine_, 2021).
• AmeraLabs, a resin maker, weighed one batch of miniatures and found the supports (33.87 g) outweighed the minis (26.18 g). The build plate also gained 73.36 g against a slicer estimate of 42.5 g, about 73% more (AmeraLabs).

That's one batch, but it's a good reason to keep a waste allowance even when you quote from total volume. Option 2 is riskier, since hollow parts and miniatures can need far more support than your average job.

I price resin prints per mL. Help me check whether my rate covers the resin that supports and rafts use.

Recent jobs (one per line):
- [job name] | [resin] | [part volume in mL] | [total volume in mL, including supports and raft] | [solid or hollow] | [price I charged]

My resin cost per mL: [cost per mL]
My selling rate per mL: [rate per mL]
Do I bill from part volume or total volume? [part or total]

Instructions:
1. For each job, work out supports and raft as a share of total volume. Show your math.
2. Work out what I earned per mL of total resin used on each job, and compare it with my resin cost.
3. Flag jobs where support share was high, and say whether hollow parts or miniatures need their own handling.
4. If I bill from part volume, tell me how much my rate would need to rise to cover the supports on these jobs.
5. Don't invent numbers. If something is missing, ask me.

Finishing: what's included and what's an add-on

Included in the base price: washing and UV curing. Every shop and service we reviewed includes them. Lift Off 3D's miniature prices "include base, support removal, and wash & cure" (Lift Off 3D). Cover them in the per-mL rate.

Add-ons, priced separately:

• Support removal. Many shops include it, but it's real labor, and pricing it separately makes a supports-left-on option possible. UC Davis "may assess additional time to cover the cost of support removal" (UC Davis Tech Foundry).
• Sanding support marks. Big services sell sanding as a finish level. Protolabs' Natural finish sands supported surfaces and Standard adds fine blasting. Xometry's Natural and Matte finishes include sanding, and Matte adds media blasting (Protolabs; Xometry).
• Clear coats, priming, and painting. Prism Ink lists a glossy or matte coat at $1.50 and quotes alcohol ink and priming or painting per project (Prism Ink & Packaging). Nerdy Creations charges a $20 artist consultation, then the artist sets the painting price (Nerdy Creations).

Per part or by surface area? Price support removal per part, since it tracks support count more than size. Sanding, priming, and painting scale with the part's surface, so surface-area pricing suits them on large parts. We found no US resin service that publishes surface-area finishing prices, so set your own rate from your time.

The supports-left-on option

You can offer a cheaper price with supports left on, for customers who'd rather remove them and save money. The difference is the removal and sanding add-ons you don't do.

It's rare, though. Large services offer a cheaper finish level, but they still remove supports. Protolabs' Unfinished tier leaves support "nibs" and suits jobs where "fast lead times are required or cost is a factor," and Xometry's Strip and Ship leaves "grid-like dots or surface blemishes" (Protolabs; Xometry). UC Davis may "provide the part with supports for you, the client, to remove" (UC Davis Tech Foundry). No service we found publishes a dollar discount for leaving supports on.

Spell out the trade-offs: fragile features can break in shipping, and poor removal leaves marks.

Help me price post-processing for resin prints and decide whether to offer a supports-left-on option.

My labor rate: [labor rate per hour]
Average time to remove supports: [minutes per part, or per part size: small, medium, large]
Average time to sand support marks: [minutes per part, or minutes per 100 cm² of supported surface]
Consumables for sanding (paper, blasting media): [cost per part or per 100 cm²]
Typical customers: [for example: miniature painters, engineers, dental labs]
How parts ship: [packaging and shipping method]

Instructions:
1. Work out a support-removal fee per part and a sanding fee (per part or per cm², explain which fits). Show your math.
2. Show three price levels for one example part I describe here: [part description, resin, total mL, my per-mL rate]. Level A: supports removed and sanded. Level B: supports removed, not sanded. Level C: supports left on.
3. List which customers and parts suit Level C, and the risks (breakage in shipping, marks from poor removal) with a one-line way to reduce each.
4. Write a one-sentence description of each level for my quote.
5. Use only my numbers. If something is missing, ask me. Don't invent a discount.

The floor: minimum or per-print charge

Every resin job takes file prep, a build plate, a wash, and a cure, whatever its volume, so most rate cards put a floor under it:

• LayerSlayers3D: $10 minimum order fee (LayerSlayers3D).
• Prism Ink: print-time fees of $4 (1–5 hours) up to $20 (over 20 hours) on top of the per-mL rate (Prism Ink & Packaging).
• UC Davis Tech Foundry: $160 setup per tray and $8 per machine hour for outside clients (UC Davis Tech Foundry).

Resin printers expose a whole layer at once, so print time follows a part's height more than its volume. A tall, thin part can take much longer than a short, wide one with the same mL, and a per-print or time-based charge covers that.

Miniature shops often skip volume entirely. Lift Off 3D prices resin minis by size, from $6 to $18, "because resin print time and cleanup are the dominant costs" (Lift Off 3D).

Worked example: 10 resin brackets (illustrative prices)

This uses the resin volumes from Formlabs' published example: 10 brackets, 89.2 mL of part resin plus 37.7 mL of supports and raft, 126.9 mL in total (Formlabs Developer Portal). The resin is Grey V5 at its $79/L list price, which is $0.079/mL. An illustrative 3× markup gives $0.237/mL, rounded to $0.24/mL, inside LayerSlayers3D's published $0.15–0.25/mL for standard resin.

The same job at the other two levels:

• Supports removed, not sanded: $30.46 + $10.00 + $10.00 = $50.46 (about $5.05 per bracket).
• Supports left on (an example option): $30.46 + $10.00 = $40.46 (about $4.05 per bracket). The $10.00 difference is only the removal add-on you don't do, not a published discount.

If you'd quoted from part volume only, the resin line would be 89.2 mL × $0.24 = $21.41, about $9.05 less, unless your rate already includes support resin.

Check this resin print quote before I send it. Don't change my prices. Point out problems and explain them.

Slicer output:
- Resin: [resin name]
- Part volume: [mL]
- Total volume including supports and raft: [mL]
- Print time: [hours and minutes]
- Part height: [mm]

My rates:
- Resin: [price per mL], billed on [part or total] volume
- Add-ons: [support removal fee, sanding fee, coating or painting fees]
- Per-print charge or minimum: [amount]
- Supports-left-on option offered: [yes or no]

My quote lines:
[paste each line: description, quantity, unit price, line total]

Instructions:
1. Check the arithmetic on every line and the total. Show your math.
2. Check that the resin line uses the total volume, or flag it if it uses part volume and my rate doesn't cover supports.
3. Flag anything missing, such as a removal or sanding add-on the customer asked for, the per-print charge or minimum, or rush if the deadline is short.
4. Make sure there's no separate support-material charge, and no separate wash or cure charge.
5. If the print time looks long for the volume (for example, a tall part), say so.
6. If you need a number I haven't given you, ask for it. Don't assume one.

Optional depth: consumables and a margin check

You don't need a full cost model to quote, but check your tiers against real costs now and then. The pillar guide covers the method. Resin adds a few consumables:

• Tanks. A Form 4 resin tank is $119 and rated for at least 75,000 layers, about 190 prints of a 39 mm part at 100 µm (Formlabs). The tank wear limits above shorten that for some resins.
• Release film. Anycubic expects its nFEP and ACF films to last about 30,000 layers and its standard FEP about 10,000 layers (Anycubic). Elegoo sells a 5-pack of FEP film for its Mars printers at $24.99 (Elegoo). Tall prints use up more of both.
• IPA. Formlabs says to replace wash IPA "when the resin concentration reaches 10%," and that "up to 200 parts can be washed" before that, depending on part size and bucket volume (Formlabs).

Checking the brackets (illustrative). Resin costs 126.9 mL × $0.079 = $10.03. Add a 5% waste allowance (bringing resin to $10.53), 5 hours of printer time at $3/h ($15.00), and 30 minutes of washing, curing, and support removal at $30/h ($15.00), for $40.53. With a 5% failure allowance, the true cost is $40.53 ÷ 0.95 ≈ $42.66. The supports-removed, unsanded quote of $50.46 earns a margin of about 15.5%. If that's below your target, raise Grey V5's tier, the removal fee, or the per-print charge.

Help me work out what tanks and release film cost me per print, so my per-mL rate or per-print charge covers them.

My printer: [printer model]
Tank or vat: [price] | [rated life in layers or print hours, from the manufacturer]
Release film (FEP, nFEP, PFA, or ACF): [price per sheet or pack, and sheets per pack] | [expected life in layers]
My typical layer height: [µm]
Typical part heights: [mm, or a list of recent jobs with heights]
Resins that are hard on tanks, if any: [resin names, with any shorter life the manufacturer gives]

Instructions:
1. Work out layers per print from part height and layer height. Show your math.
2. Work out the tank and film cost per print, and per mL if I give typical volumes: [mL per job].
3. Say whether this cost is better covered in the per-mL rate or in a per-print charge, given that it follows height, not volume.
4. Use only the life figures I give. If one is missing, ask me. Don't assume a lifetime.

Putting it into a quoting tool

An instant quote tool can apply your rates, add-ons, and floor to every upload. AutoQuote3D's resin pricing follows this structure. Here's what its own pages describe:

• Each resin has its own price per mL (material pricing setup), with a startup cost per material (tutorials).
• The SLA quoting engine estimates support structures when it calculates a quote (SLA update).
• Bulk discounts (per material), a minimum job price (SLS quoting), and urgency percentages for rush work (tutorials).
• Add-ons on the Service Bureau plan can be a flat fee or a percentage of the part price, charged per part or per order and limited to a technology or a material, so support removal and sanding both fit (SLA update; pricing).

If you want to try it with your own resin rates, you can set up your shop free without a card. Plans start at $25/month, and new subscribers get a 14-day trial when they're ready to collect payments (pricing).

More in this series

• How to price 3D prints for a print shop (the overview)
• How to price FDM 3D prints (part 1)
• How to price SLS and MJF parts
• How to price metal 3D printing (coming soon)

FAQ

Should I charge per mL, per gram, or per print for resin?

Per mL for most jobs, applied to the slicer's total volume including supports. Consumer resin is sold by the kilogram, so per-gram works too if your slicer reports grams, but don't convert between them without the resin's density. Add a minimum or per-print charge for small jobs.

Do supports count toward the resin I charge for?

Yes, but not as a separate line. Supports are the same resin, so apply your per-mL rate to the total volume, supports and raft included, or build support resin into the rate. Supports were about 30% of the resin in Formlabs' example and can be far more on hollow parts and miniatures.

Should I offer a cheaper price with supports left on?

You can, as an option for customers who'd rather remove supports themselves. Price it as the quote without the removal and sanding add-ons. No service we found publishes a supports-on discount.

How much more should I charge for tough, flexible, castable, or dental resin?

There's no standard. One Nevada shop charges about double for tough resin, and more for specialty resins. Demanding resins wear tanks faster, need thicker supports, or require strict workflows, and the markup pays for that.

How should I price sanding, priming, and painting resin prints?

As add-ons, separate from the per-mL rate. Price support removal per part. Sanding, priming, and painting scale with surface, so price them per part for small parts or by surface area for large ones.

Are washing and curing extra?

No. Every shop and service we reviewed includes washing and UV curing in the base price, so cover them in your per-mL rate.

How often should I replace FEP film, and how do I cover the cost?

Follow your film's rated life. Anycubic expects about 10,000 layers for standard FEP and about 30,000 for nFEP and ACF. Film wears per layer, so cover it in your per-mL rate or a per-print charge.