3D print time calculator
How long will it take to print? Upload the STL or 3MF, pick your printer and settings, and OrcaSlicer slices it with your printer's profile to give the print time, with the filament and the cost. Change a setting and calculate again to see what it saves.Drop an STL or 3MF here
Up to 50 MB. No account needed.Printer and settings
Your prices
The currency only changes the symbol; nothing is converted. 120 W is an average draw for a desktop FDM printer over a PLA print: a heated bed makes it vary, higher for ABS or a large bed, lower on a small one.How to use the calculator
- 1
Upload the STL or 3MF
Drop a file of up to 50 MB on the page. It opens in 3D in the browser, with its size, and no account is needed. - 2
Pick the printer and settings
Choose your printer among 380+ models, the print profile (layer height), the material, infill, walls, supports and speed. - 3
Enter your prices
Filament price per kg, electricity per kWh and the printer's power (defaults: 20 per kg, 0.15 per kWh, 120 W), plus an hourly rate and markup if you sell prints. - 4
Calculate
OrcaSlicer slices the model with your printer's profile and returns the print time, filament grams and metres, layers and supports; the cost breakdown updates as you change a price.
Why the time has to come from a slicer
A printer does not print volume; it follows a path. The time is the sum of every move in the G-code, each at the speed the profile sets for that kind of line (outer wall, inner wall, infill, top surface, support, travel), limited by the printer's accelerations and by a minimum time per layer that slows small layers down so they can cool. None of that can be read from the model's size or weight, so the calculator slices the model with OrcaSlicer 2.4.2 and your printer's bundled profile and reports the time the slicer computes. The cost side (filament and electricity prices, pricing for a customer) is explained on the 3D print cost calculator page.
What makes a print take longer
- Layer height. The biggest lever. 0.12 mm layers are two thirds more layers than 0.20 mm, and the time follows. The print profile you pick sets it.
- Speed preset. Quiet runs the wall, infill, top and support speeds at 0.6 times the profile's, Fast at 1.3 times. Accelerations, travel and the minimum layer time do not change, so Fast saves less than the factor suggests.
- Supports. Every support is extra paths on many layers, plus the slower interface layers under the part. Auto adds them only where an overhang needs them.
- Walls. Each wall is one more loop around every outline on every layer: cheap on a compact part, significant on a tall thin one.
- Infill. Grows with the percentage, but on small or thin parts the walls and top layers dominate and infill changes little.
- Height and number of parts. Tall parts mean many layers; several parts on one plate add travel between them on every layer.
Why the real print takes longer than the estimate
The slicer's time covers the moves in the file. Before the first move, most printers heat the bed and nozzle, level or probe the bed and draw a purge line: often five to fifteen minutes that the estimate leaves out or underestimates. During the print, firmware may cap speeds or accelerations below what the profile asks for, and some slicer estimates assume the printer reaches its full speed on short moves when it does not. Expect the real print to run a few percent over, more on a printer whose firmware settings differ from the stock profile.
Different slicers also give different times for the same model, because their default profiles differ (layer height, walls, speeds) and each models acceleration its own way. The calculator uses OrcaSlicer's estimate with the stock profile of your printer, which is what OrcaSlicer on a computer shows for the same settings.
How to shorten a print
- Use a thicker layer. 0.24 or 0.28 mm on a 0.4 mm nozzle for parts where looks matter less. Layer height changes strength far less than walls do.
- Orient it well. Lying a tall part down cuts layers and often removes supports. The calculator's auto-orientation does this for you; compare with it off.
- Reduce supports. Supports from the build plate only, or a model with chamfers instead of flat overhangs, which the AI editor can change for you.
- Lower the infill on parts that are not loaded: 10 to 15% is plenty for most.
- Try the Fast preset for drafts and test fits, and a larger nozzle if your printer has a profile for one.
- Print several parts at once, when they fit, instead of one after the other: heating and levelling happen once.
Change one setting, calculate again and compare: the file stays open and only the settings change.
Then print it
The online slicer slices the file with the settings you picked and gives you the G-code (a .gcode.3mf for Bambu Lab printers). 1 free slice with a free account, no card. Slicer settings for functional parts covers which settings to spend time on for strength.
Questions
From a few minutes for a small test piece to several days for a large, fine print. A palm-sized functional part at 0.20 mm layers typically takes one to a few hours on a current printer. The only reliable number for your model comes from slicing it with your printer's profile, which the calculator does from an STL or 3MF.
Slice it. Upload the STL (or 3MF) to SpeakCAD's print time calculator, choose your printer among 380+ models, the layer height, material, infill and supports, and OrcaSlicer returns the print time with the filament weight and length. No account needed.
The estimate covers the G-code moves only. Heating, bed levelling and the purge line add minutes before the first layer, and the printer's firmware may cap speeds and accelerations below what the profile asks for. A few percent over the estimate is normal.
Their default profiles differ (layer height, walls, speeds, accelerations) and each slicer models acceleration differently. Compare slicers with the same settings and a profile made for your printer.
Use a thicker layer height, orient the part to reduce its height and supports, lower the infill on unloaded parts, use a faster speed preset for drafts, and print several parts in one job. Change one setting at a time in the calculator to see what each saves.
Less than people expect. On a large, chunky part going from 15% to 40% infill adds a lot; on small or thin parts, walls and top and bottom layers make up most of the time and infill changes little. Layer height and supports usually matter more.
Yes, more than any other setting. Halving the layer height about doubles the number of layers and close to doubles the print time, while changing strength far less than walls and orientation do.
Yes, without an account: up to 10 estimates per visitor per day, counted over the last 24 hours. Changing a price (filament, electricity, hourly rate, markup) recalculates the cost in the page and does not use an estimate. The calculator returns the numbers only, not the G-code; to print, the online slicer slices the same file and gives you the G-code: 1 free slice with a free account, no card.