Standard

PETG: full cost overview

PETG sits between PLA and ABS: stronger than PLA, much easier to print than ABS, food-safe with a clean hotend. Slightly translucent, good chemical resistance and survives sun and warm weather without sagging. The stringing is real — slow retractions and clean the nozzle between colors.

Specs

Typical price: ~$25.00/kg
Print temperature: 230–250 °C
Bed temperature: 70–80 °C
Enclosed chamber: Optional
Food-safe: Yes
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

When to use

• Food containers (with clean hotend)
• Outdoor parts in mild climate
• Translucent or naturally transparent prints
• Light functional parts: brackets, clips, hooks

When NOT to use

• Thin, intricate decorative parts (stringing)
• When you need PLA's matte finish
• Acetone smoothing (PETG doesn't react)
• Parts that face engine-bay heat

How to print well in PETG

PETG demands more care than PLA but less than ABS. Nozzle 235-250 °C, bed 70-80 °C, no enclosure required but zero airflow around the print. Stringing is the chronic issue: 4-6 mm retraction at 30-40 mm/s works on most direct-drive printers. Z-offset slightly higher than PLA (0.05 mm more) — PETG sticks too well and tears chunks off the build surface when the nozzle is too close. First layer 5-10 °C above the nominal temperature for guaranteed adhesion. Moderate cooling (40-60%) — fan 100% causes layer delamination. Translucent PETG goes foggy on thin layers; for truly transparent parts use 0.3 mm layers and a 0.8 nozzle.

Typical cost in practice

PETG in the US runs $22-30/kg in brands like Hatchbox or Polymaker, and $32-42/kg in premium (Polymaker PolyMax PETG). For a 50 g functional part, filament cost is $1.10-1.50 vs ~$1.10 for PLA — a delta that pays back in durability. For food-safe parts (containers, vases with direct contact), use natural uncolored PETG and a stainless steel nozzle. A 4× markup lands you at $6-9 per piece.

Sample calculation

For a 50 g part on a Bambu Lab A1, 6 h print time and 8% failure rate. Currency follows your selection at the top.

Filament$1.25
Energy$0.14
Amortization$0.15
Failures (8%)$0.12
Unit Cost$1.66
Final Consumer Price (3× / 6% / 2%)$7.23

Best printers for PETG

These models in our catalog handle PETG reliably out of the box — picked by enclosure, hotend temperature and drive system, not marketing.

PETG head-to-heads

PLA

~$22.00/kg · 190–220 °C

PLA+

~$28.00/kg · 200–230 °C

ABS

~$22.00/kg · 230–260 °C