Skip to content

What UV printing costs to run

A phone case on the eufyMake E1 costs about $4.41 to print once ink, the blank, cleaning cycles and failed prints are counted. The printer is the cost everyone sees; these decide whether a phone-case side business pays.

Updated October 21, 2026 · This page has affiliate links: we may earn a commission, at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. How we make money

Still from the video: UV printer ink cost per print, what a phone case really costs — UV printer ink cost per print, what a phone case really costs

Start from the example below, then change anything that doesn't match your setup. It opens on an eufyMake E1 printing 60 phone cases a month.

Printer's ink price Sets the price per ml Currency symbol Ink price per ml 0.30 for $29.99 per 100 ml What you're printing eufyMake's ink figure per item Ink per item (ml) Color, white and varnish together Good items a month Blank cost per item The case, tumbler, keyring Failed prints (%) Thrown away and printed again Cleaning and priming ink a month Example: one E1 owner's estimate for daily printing Selling price per item 0 if you're not selling What the printer cost For the payback time

Cost per good item

$4.41

Ink per print: $0.33
Prints needed a month: 63.2
Ink a month: $20.84
Blanks a month: $189.47
Total a month: $264.51
Profit per item: $15.59
Profit a month: $935.49
Printer pays for itself in: 2.6 months

An estimate from the numbers you enter, not a quote. It leaves out your time, electricity, filters, selling fees, shipping and tax.

The ink figures are eufyMake's: 1.1 ml of ink per phone case and $29.99 per 100 ml cartridge. The $54.20 a month of cleaning and priming ink is an example, not a maker figure: it is one owner's estimate for daily printing, from a review on eufyMake's US store. The $3.00 blank, 5% failure rate and $20.00 selling price are our assumptions.

Where the money goes

Split the example's $4.41 per case into its parts and the ink you can see on the case turns out to be the smallest one, about 8%. The blank is 72%, and the cleaning cycles add another 20%.

One phone case on the eufyMake E1, 60 a month

Per good item $4.41

The blank $3.1672%
Cleaning and priming ink $0.9020%
Ink on the item $0.358%

Cleaning ink is a monthly cost, so it weighs more when you print less. At 60 cases a month each one carries $0.90 of it; at 20 a month, $2.71.

Ink price per ml

US dollars per ml of ink, cheapest first

OMTech Spectra A3+Maker's price $0.07

HeyGears G1 and G1XPublished estimate $0.08-0.12

Morpho Standard and ProPublished estimate $0.08-0.11

xTool O1 OmniMaker's price $0.14

eufyMake E1Maker's price $0.30

Epson SureColor V1070Published estimate $0.55

Printer	Per ml	Based on
OMTech Spectra A3+	$0.067	about $67 per liter in 3-liter sets (3DPCC)
HeyGears G1 and G1X	$0.077-0.117	about $77-117 per liter at campaign prices (3DPCC)
Morpho Standard and Pro	$0.083-0.108	Kickstarter launch prices: about $0.083 per ml for white and varnish, $0.108 for CMYK (Morpho FAQ); list prices after launch are about $0.14 to $0.18
xTool O1 Omni	$0.136	$16.99 per 125 ml bottle (xTool US store)
eufyMake E1	$0.300	$29.99 per 100 ml cartridge (eufyMake US store)
Epson SureColor V1070	$0.550	about $550 per liter (3DPCC)

Only three makers publish a bottle or cartridge price we can divide by the volume; the calculator's presets use those. The HeyGears, Morpho and Epson figures are 3DPCC's per-liter estimates. Longer's ePrint takes third-party ink, so its cost depends on what you buy.

How much ink an item uses

eufyMake publishes examples for the E1. Here they are at the E1's and the O1 Omni's ink prices:

Item	Ink	E1 at $0.30/ml	O1 Omni at $0.14/ml
Key chain	0.37 ml	$0.11	$0.05
Sticker, 335 × 420 mm	0.78 ml	$0.23	$0.11
Phone case	1.10 ml	$0.33	$0.15
Fridge magnet	2.00 ml	$0.60	$0.27
Canvas print, 250 × 180 mm	3.32 ml	$1.00	$0.45

White underbase, tall texture and varnish all add ink, so dark objects and deep relief cost more than these figures. OMTech lists its Spectra A3+ at 20 ml per square meter.

The costs people forget

Cleaning and priming. Printers flush ink through the head to stop clogs. eufyMake doesn't publish a monthly figure for the E1; one owner's review on its US store works it out at about $54.20 a month for daily printing ($38.70 of deep cleaning, $15.50 of priming before prints). Procolored says the V11 Pro uses about 1 ml a day cleaning itself.
Idle weeks. Leave a printer unused and it may need a deep clean. xTool claims at least 14 days of idle protection; HeyGears says a deep clean is needed after more than two weeks idle.
Waste pads and filters. xTool says to replace its ink pad about every three months, and air filters wear out too.
Print heads. A replacement E1 head is listed at $599. HeyGears rates the F1080 head in its G1 at about 700 hours and the i3200 in the G1X at about 2,100.
Shelf life. eufyMake gives its UV ink 12 months, so buying a year's worth at once can waste money.
Failures. Every failed print throws away a blank as well as its ink.

Supplies: eufyMake E1 ink, xTool O1 Omni ink, UV printing blanks (Amazon US), blank tumblers (Amazon US).

How the sums work

Prints needed = good items ÷ (1 − failure rate)
Ink per print = ink per item × price per ml
Monthly total = prints needed × (ink per print + blank) + cleaning and priming ink
Cost per good item = monthly total ÷ good items
Payback = printer cost ÷ monthly profit (only when there is a profit)

Sources