Bambu Lab A1 electricity cost per hour
What a Bambu Lab A1 costs to run per hour on PLA, ABS and PC, from Bambu's own measured draw, with a worked quote for a 12-hour dragon.
What it draws
| Average while printing PLA | 95 WBambu Lab wiki |
| Average while printing ABS | 200 WBambu Lab wiki |
| Average while printing PC | 150 WBambu Lab wiki |
| Standby with Wi-Fi, top of the range | 5.4 WBambu Lab wiki |
| Maximum, at 110 V | 350 WBambu Lab wiki |
The maker’s own measurements. The maximum is what the power supply can pull while the bed heats; the bill sees the average.
What an hour on it costs
| Electricity, PLA | $0.017 |
| Electricity, ABS | $0.036 |
| Electricity, PC | $0.027 |
| Wear and upkeep at $299Bambu Lab store | $0.093 |
Electricity at the US residential average of 18.16¢ per kWh.EIA Wear spreads the list price over 6,000 hours of life; upkeep is $180 a year over 4,200 hours run. Both are assumptions you can change in the cost calculator.
From Bambu Lab
- Bambu measured the A1 at 95 W printing PLA and 200 W printing ABS, so an ABS hour on this open-frame machine draws more than twice a PLA hour.Bambu Lab wiki
- The A1's maximum draw is 1300 W on a 220 V supply and 350 W on 110 V.Bambu Lab wiki
A worked quote: Articulated dragon · teal
310 g of PLA, 12 hours on the machine, single colour, on PLA Basic at $14.99 for 1000 gBambu Lab store, sold on Etsy.
| Filament | $4.65 |
| Electricity at 95 W | $0.21 |
| Machine wear and upkeep | $1.11 |
| Your time, 25 min at $28 an hour | $11.67 |
| Consumables | $0.80 |
| Failed-print reserve at 6% | $0.41 |
| What it costs you | $18.84 |
| Price at 60% markup | $30.14 |
| Etsy takes, at the app's starting estimate | $3.31 |
| You keep | $7.99 |
The Etsy line is the app’s preset of 9.5% plus $0.45, a starting value rather than Etsy’s live schedule. Change any of it in the cost calculator or the electricity calculator.
Materials it has a measured draw for
Compare the Bambu Lab A1
- Bambu Lab A1 vs P1S: running costBambu Lab A1 vs P1S on price, power and wear. On PLA the Bambu Lab A1 costs $0.018 less an hour to run, from the makers' own figures.
- Bambu Lab A1 vs A1 mini: running costBambu Lab A1 vs A1 mini on price, power and wear. On PLA the Bambu Lab A1 mini costs $0.016 less an hour to run, from the makers' own figures.
Other printers
Keep these numbers for every print
Printyard runs this arithmetic on your phone at the machine and on the web: every quote itemised, every roll to the gram, and a month with the fees and the failed prints already taken out.
Sources
- Bambu Lab Printer and AMS power parameters · Bambu Lab · checked October 30, 2026
- 3D Printers, Bambu Lab US Store (typical price of the base printer, without AMS) · Bambu Lab · checked October 30, 2026
- PLA Basic, 1 kg: MSRP $14.99 (bundle discounts not used) · Bambu Lab US Store · checked October 30, 2026
- Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A: average price of electricity by sector, August 2026 · U.S. Energy Information Administration · checked October 30, 2026