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3D printing material comparison, PLA, PETG, ABS and TPU side by side

Put two or more 3D printing materials next to each other and read the figures that actually decide a part: print temperature, tensile strength, elongation at break and heat resistance. The comparison itself lives inside your free EduFacturing account, not on this page.

Open the material comparison Free and open, no account needed: eleven materials by strength, flexibility, heat and chemical resistance, price per kg and ease of use.

How it works

Three steps, and the free account is the only one that costs you anything.

  1. Log in to your EduFacturing account

    The comparison table itself lives inside the EduFacturing dashboard, not on this page. A free account is enough; there is no separate purchase for this specific tool.

  2. Pick two or more materials

    Choose from the filaments EduFacturing documents, PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU and others, and add them to the comparison.

  3. Read the figures side by side

    Print temperature, bed temperature, tensile strength, elongation at break and heat resistance line up for each material you picked, so the difference is a number, not an impression.

Built around the families EduFacturing already documents

Every property shown against a material in this comparison traces back to a manufacturer datasheet or an in house print test, not a guess.

PLAPETGABSASATPUNylon (PA)

Numbers that actually separate these materials

Four things that decide whether a filament finishes a part or ruins it, with the figures instead of adjectives.

  • Print temperature ranges do not overlap the way spool labels suggest

    PLA prints at 190 to 220 degrees C on a 50 to 60 degree C bed with no enclosure needed. PETG needs 230 to 250 degrees C, up to 260 to 280 degrees C on industrial pellet extruders, and a 70 to 80 degree C bed. ABS needs 230 to 260 degrees C and a 100 to 110 degree C bed, close to its own glass transition, plus a closed chamber. TPU sits lower again at 210 to 230 degrees C on a 30 to 50 degree C bed. Load one profile for the wrong material and the others will not compensate for it.

  • Heat resistance is not the same question as print temperature

    PLA softens once the finished part itself reaches 55 to 60 degrees C, which rules it out for a car interior or anything left in direct sun. ABS keeps its shape up to 90 to 100 degrees C, the highest of the four, which is why it survives under a bonnet or near a heat source where PLA would sag.

  • Ease of print and impact resistance move in opposite directions

    PLA is the easiest of the four to print and also the most brittle, snapping under a sharp impact rather than flexing. PETG trades a little of that ease for genuine toughness and excellent resistance to oils, fuels and coolants. ABS is the hardest to print reliably, needs a closed chamber to avoid warping and delamination, but rewards the effort with high impact strength and acetone vapour smoothing that neither PLA nor PETG can match.

  • TPU plays by a different rule book entirely

    TPU is rated on the Shore A hardness scale, not tensile strength: 95A is the industry standard for FDM printing, roughly the firmness of a shopping trolley wheel. Elongation at break of 400 to 600 percent or more means it stretches rather than snaps, which is exactly why it needs a direct drive extruder, not a Bowden setup, and almost no retraction.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an account to compare materials?

No. The comparison opens in English without an account: pick 2 to 4 of the eleven materials and the table highlights where they differ.

Why does ABS need a closed chamber and PLA does not?

ABS has a glass transition around 105 degrees C and shrinks noticeably as it cools, which pulls corners off the bed as warping or splits layers apart as delamination unless the whole chamber stays warm. PLA has almost no thermal shrinkage, so an open frame printer handles it without drama.

Which of these four materials is strongest?

By raw tensile strength, PLA leads at 50 to 65 MPa against PETG's 50 to 55 MPa and ABS's 40 to 50 MPa, but that number alone is misleading: PLA only stretches 3 to 6 percent before it snaps, while PETG stretches 8 to 12 percent and absorbs an impact instead of shattering. Strongest and toughest are not the same question.

Can PETG replace ABS for a part near a heat source?

Only partway. PETG's own working range tops out with a bed around 70 to 85 degrees C, well under ABS's 90 to 100 degree C structural limit, though PETG's chemical resistance to oils, fuels and coolants is the better of the two. Pick ABS for the heat, PETG for the chemical exposure.

Why is TPU left out of most strength comparisons?

Because tensile strength is not the property that matters for an elastomer. TPU is chosen for Shore hardness and elongation instead; 95A shore hardness and 400 to 600 percent elongation describe how a gasket, phone case or vibration damper behaves far better than a single MPa figure would.

Does the comparison cover resins and metal powders too?

The public description of this tool focuses on filaments: PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU and other FDM materials. For resins, powders and specific brands, EduFacturing's separate Material Database and Material Selector tools are the better starting point.

Other tools

Material comparison is one part of EduFacturing's wider set of engineering tools.

Material SelectorAnswer a few questions about the part's application, temperature and load, and get a recommendation instead of a side by side table.Material DatabaseKeep your own record of every material you have used, with your own settings, ratings and notes.3D Printing Technology ComparisonCompare FDM, SLA and SLS side by side before you compare the materials each one can actually print.3D Printing Software ComparisonCompare the slicers that turn a model into the print settings this page describes.