How to add a 3D print cost calculator to your Shopify store

What you need before you start

You need a Shopify store on any plan (Basic, Shopify, Advanced, or Plus), at least one 3D printer producing parts you sell, and three numbers: your filament cost per gram, your hourly machine rate (covering electricity, depreciation, and maintenance), and your target markup percentage. If you don’t know your true cost per gram or hourly rate yet, read how to calculate 3D printing cost first — those numbers are the foundation of every quote.

Step 1: Install Filaquote

Open the Shopify App Store listing for Filaquote and click Add app. Shopify will ask you to authorise the app — it needs access to create draft orders and read your product catalogue. Once authorised, you land on the Filaquote dashboard inside your Shopify admin. The free tier is fully functional: you get the quoting widget, 3D preview, and a monthly quote allowance at no cost.

Step 2: Configure your first material preset

In the dashboard, click Add Preset. Enter the material name (e.g. “PLA”), filament density (1.24 g/cm³ for PLA), cost per gram, and the colours you stock. Each preset becomes a selectable option in your storefront widget. You can add as many presets as you need — PLA, PETG, ASA, TPU, or any custom material. If you’re unsure about density values, the Maker-tier filament library provides them automatically for 14 popular brands including Bambu Lab, Polymaker, and Prusament.

Step 3: Set your pricing formula

Under each preset, set your hourly machine rate, markup percentage, and minimum order value. The pricing engine multiplies estimated print time by your hourly rate, adds material cost (weight × cost per gram), then applies your markup. For guidance on what to charge, see how much to charge for 3D printing and the profit margin guide. A common starting point is $1.50–$3.00 per machine hour with a 2–3× markup, but your numbers should reflect your actual costs.

Step 4: Enable the widget on your storefront

Filaquote uses Shopify’s native app blocks, so the quote widget appears automatically on your product pages — no theme code editing required. If you want to control which products show the widget, you can enable or disable the block per product template in your theme editor. The widget loads only where you place it, so it won’t slow down pages that don’t need it.

Step 5: Test a quote

Visit your storefront, navigate to a product page with the widget enabled, and upload one of your own STL files. The widget analyses the geometry in-browser, shows a rotatable 3D preview with exact dimensions, and displays a price breakdown. Verify the price matches what you’d quote manually. If it’s too high or too low, go back to your preset and adjust the hourly rate or markup. Repeat until the widget quotes what you’d quote yourself — then you’re live.

What your customers see

From your customer’s perspective, the experience is seamless. They land on your product page, see an upload area, and drag their 3D file onto it. Within seconds they get a live 3D preview they can orbit, zoom, and pan. Below the preview, exact dimensions appear in millimetres or inches. They choose a material and colour from dropdowns, optionally select infill and quality tier, and see the price update instantly. One click adds the configured part to their Shopify cart at that price. No account creation, no waiting for an email reply, no ambiguity about what they’ll pay.

Supported file formats

The widget accepts STL, 3MF, OBJ, and STP/STEP files. STL and 3MF are processed entirely in-browser using a Web Worker, so analysis is instant even for large models. STP/STEP files are uploaded to a server-side converter and typically return results within five to fifteen seconds. For a deeper comparison of when to accept which format, see the file formats guide.

Going further: automation at scale

Once you’re comfortable with the basic setup, explore the Maker and Business tier features: precision tiers (Draft/Standard/Fine), turnaround options (Standard/Express), volume pricing, abandoned-quote recovery, and the order approval queue. If you’re quoting more than a handful of orders per day, read how to automate your 3D printing quotes to understand which parts of the workflow to keep manual and which to let the app handle.