Best settings for every filament — from PLA to Polycarbonate. Speed tables, slicer tips, and how to push your printer without wrecking quality.
🐢 Slow (15–40 mm/s)
TPU/Flex, PVA, Carbon Fiber, Polycarbonate. Complex geometry, first layers, tricky materials.
🚶 Medium (40–80 mm/s)
PLA, PETG, ABS, Nylon, ASA, HIPS. The sweet spot for quality + speed on most printers.
🚀 Fast (80–200+ mm/s)
PLA on CoreXY with input shaping. Requires tuning — not a set-and-forget setting.
Speed is not just about time — it affects strength, appearance, and reliability.
At high speed, each deposited line has less time to bond with the previous layer before it cools. The result: delamination, weak inter-layer bonds, and reduced tensile strength (often 20–40% lower than at optimal speed).
Rule of thumb: if you need structural strength, slow down perimeters to 40–60 mm/s even if infill runs faster.
Rapid direction changes at high speed cause the printhead to vibrate. These vibrations appear as wavy ripples on flat wall surfaces — called ringing or ghosting. They become visible above ~80 mm/s on most Cartesian printers.
Solution: Input Shaping (see section below) or simply slow down outer perimeters.
Too fast: the hotend can't melt filament quickly enough → under-extrusion, gaps, clogging. Increase temperature 5–10°C when increasing speed by 20+ mm/s.
Too slow: filament sits in the hot zone too long → heat creep, ooze between moves, blobs. Especially problematic with Bowden setups at very low speeds.
Fast travel moves over open air pull molten plastic into thin strings. PETG is particularly prone to this. Fast printing also means less time for active cooling to solidify the layer, which can worsen warping in high-shrinkage materials like ABS and ASA.
Tested ranges for standard 0.4 mm nozzle. CoreXY/fast printers can push the upper end further with input shaping.
| Filament | Quality Speed | Std. Max | Fast Printer Max | Nozzle Temp | Category | Key Constraint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLA | 40–60 mm/s | 80 mm/s | 150 mm/s | 190–220°C | Fast | Ringing above 80 mm/s without IS |
| PETG | 30–45 mm/s | 60 mm/s | 80 mm/s | 230–250°C | Medium | Stringing, ooze; needs retraction tuning |
| ABS | 30–50 mm/s | 60 mm/s | 80 mm/s | 230–250°C | Medium | Warping; needs enclosure at all speeds |
| TPU / Flex | 15–20 mm/s | 30 mm/s | 40 mm/s | 220–240°C | Slow | Buckling in extruder; direct drive required |
| Nylon (PA) | 30–45 mm/s | 60 mm/s | 70 mm/s | 240–270°C | Medium | Moisture absorption degrades performance |
| ASA | 30–50 mm/s | 60 mm/s | 80 mm/s | 240–260°C | Medium | Warping similar to ABS; enclosure needed |
| Carbon Fiber (CF) | 20–30 mm/s | 40 mm/s | 50 mm/s | 240–260°C | Slow | Abrasive — wears brass nozzle fast; use hardened steel |
| Polycarbonate (PC) | 20–35 mm/s | 50 mm/s | 60 mm/s | 260–310°C | Slow | High temp needed; all-metal hotend required |
| HIPS | 30–50 mm/s | 60 mm/s | 80 mm/s | 220–240°C | Medium | Support material; similar to ABS behavior |
| PVA | 20–30 mm/s | 40 mm/s | 40 mm/s | 185–200°C | Slow | Water-soluble support; clogs easily if pushed |
* "Fast Printer Max" applies to CoreXY machines (Bambu X1C/P1S, Voron, RatRig) with input shaping enabled. Standard Cartesian printers (Ender 3, Prusa MK4) should stay within the "Std. Max" column.
Your slicer has many individual speed settings. Here's what each does and the numbers that actually work.
The most important speed for surface quality. This is what the camera sees. Slow this down to get sharp corners, smooth walls, and no ringing. Set it to 50% of your print speed as a starting rule, then tune from there.
Recommended
Inner walls aren't visible on the surface, so they can be faster. Run inner walls at 70–80% of your base print speed. For PLA this means ~60–70 mm/s when base is 80 mm/s.
Recommended
Infill is hidden inside the print — nobody sees it. Push it faster to save time. Gyroid, lightning, and honeycomb infill at 80–120 mm/s on a tuned PLA profile is realistic. On fast CoreXY printers, 200+ mm/s infill is common. The only limit is the hotend's melt rate.
Recommended
Travel moves are non-extrusion moves between features. Faster travel = less ooze exposure time, fewer strings. Push travel to 150–250 mm/s on Cartesian, and 300–500 mm/s on CoreXY. High travel speed is one of the cheapest quality improvements — it's free time.
Recommended
Never rush the first layer. It is the foundation of the entire print. Slow first layer gives the nozzle time to squish plastic into the bed texture for maximum adhesion. 20–30 mm/s is the sweet spot for nearly all materials. Some users go as low as 15 mm/s for tricky beds.
Recommended
Bridging (spanning gaps without support) benefits from higher speed + maximum cooling. Faster extrusion keeps filament taut; strong cooling solidifies it before it sags. A good starting point: 100% fan speed + bridge speed 60–80 mm/s for PLA, 40–60 mm/s for PETG (which sags more).
Recommended
Where to find speed controls in Cura, PrusaSlicer, and Bambu Studio.
Go to Print Settings → Speed. Key settings to expose:
Go to Print Settings → Speed. Key settings:
Bambu machines handle speed differently with their process profiles:
The technology that lets Bambu and Voron printers print at 300+ mm/s without ghosting.
Input shaping (also called resonance compensation) is a control algorithm built into Klipper and Bambu firmware. It measures the natural vibration frequency of the printer frame and printhead, then pre-filters motion commands to cancel those vibrations before they occur.
The result: a printer that can change direction at 300–500 mm/s without ringing artifacts. Without input shaping, ghosting appears at 80–100 mm/s on most printers. With input shaping, the same printer can do 200–300 mm/s cleanly.
Printers with Input Shaping built-in:
1. Hardware
Mount ADXL345 accelerometer on the toolhead (X) and bed (Y). Wire via SPI to Raspberry Pi or MCU.
2. Measure resonances
TEST_RESONANCES AXIS=X TEST_RESONANCES AXIS=Y
3. Auto-calibrate
SHAPER_CALIBRATE
4. Result
Klipper recommends a shaper type (MZV, EI, 2HUMP_EI) and frequency. Accept the recommendation and save config.
There's no universal number. Here's a repeatable method to dial in your specific printer + material combination.
Before testing speed, confirm your temperature is dialed in. Print a temperature tower at your current base speed (e.g., 50 mm/s for PLA). Look for the temperature that gives the best layer adhesion, least stringing, and sharpest bridges. This becomes your baseline temperature.
A common range for PLA: 210°C for slow/quality, 220°C for faster prints.
Print a simple 30×30×40 mm hollow cube or a dedicated speed-test cube with increasing speed. Start at 40 mm/s, increase in 20 mm/s increments every 10 layers. Inspect each band: look for gaps, ringing, or surface degradation. The last clean band is your ceiling.
Set final print speed to 80–90% of that ceiling to leave margin for real-world variation.
Each 20 mm/s increase in print speed roughly requires a 5°C temperature increaseto maintain the same melt rate and layer adhesion. If you go from 50 mm/s to 90 mm/s, add 10°C to your nozzle temp and re-test.
Maximum safe temperatures: PLA 230°C, PETG 260°C, ABS/ASA 260°C. Beyond these, degradation and clogging risk rise steeply.
Calibration cubes don't capture everything. Print a complex part (gear, bracket, articulating model) and inspect: overhangs, small details, bridging, layer adhesion on a failed break-point. Adjust speed down 10% if any of these fail.
Pro tip: run perimeters 10 mm/s slower than you found in Step 2 — the gain in wall quality is always worth it.
| Scenario | Outer Wall | Infill | Travel | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum quality (figurine, display) | 20–30 mm/s | 40–60 mm/s | 150 mm/s | 2–3× slower; exceptional surface |
| Balanced (everyday printing) | 40–50 mm/s | 80–100 mm/s | 200 mm/s | Good quality; reasonable time |
| Fast (draft / prototyping) | 60–80 mm/s | 120–150 mm/s | 250 mm/s | Visible layer lines; low detail |
| Speed run (CoreXY + IS) | 100–150 mm/s | 200–300 mm/s | 500 mm/s | Requires tuned printer + high-flow hotend |
Symptoms, causes, and exact fixes for the most common speed-related print failures.
Ringing / Ghosting on walls
Cause: printhead vibration at direction changes.
Fix: Reduce outer wall speed to ≤50 mm/s. Enable input shaping. Tighten belts. Reduce acceleration (2000–3000 mm/s²).
Under-extrusion / Gaps in walls
Cause: hotend can't melt fast enough → extruder skips.
Fix: Increase nozzle temp +10°C. Reduce speed. Check extruder tension. Upgrade to high-flow nozzle (Volcano, 0.6 mm).
Weak layer adhesion / Delamination
Cause: layers don't fuse before cooling.
Fix: Slow perimeter speed. Increase temp +5–10°C. Reduce fan speed 10–20% to give layers more bonding time.
Stringing (especially PETG)
Cause: high travel speed without enough retraction.
Fix: Increase travel speed (less ooze time). Tune retraction: PETG 4–6 mm Bowden / 0.5–1 mm direct drive. Lower temp 5°C.
Heat Creep / Clogging
Cause: filament sits in hot zone too long, softens high up in cold zone → jams.
Fix: Increase print speed. Improve hotend cooling (fan, heatsink). Lower temp slightly. Use all-metal hotend for high-temp materials.
Over-extrusion / Blobs
Cause: too much molten plastic deposited per mm at slow speeds.
Fix: Increase speed to design speed. Reduce temp slightly. Calibrate flow/extrusion multiplier (try 0.95–0.98).
Excessive Ooze & Stringing
Cause: slow travel means nozzle oozes longer between features.
Fix: Increase travel speed to 150–200 mm/s minimum. Enable combing/avoid crossing perimeters. Reduce temp 5–10°C.
Burn marks / Discoloration on small parts
Cause: nozzle dwells on small cross-sections; plastic overheats locally.
Fix: Enable "Minimum Layer Time" (8–15 sec in Cura). Print multiple objects at once. Use "cool head lift" option.
The biggest factor determining your max speed isn't the filament — it's the printer.
| Printer Type | Examples | Practical Max (PLA) | Limiting Factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bed-slinger Cartesian | Ender 3, CR-10 | 60–80 mm/s | Bed mass creates ringing; frame flex |
| Bed-slinger (upgraded) | Ender 3 + IS + linear rails | 100–120 mm/s | Still bed mass; IS helps significantly |
| i3-style (quality focus) | Prusa MK4, MK3.5 | 100–150 mm/s | IS enabled; hotend flow rate is next limit |
| CoreXY (consumer) | Bambu X1C, P1S, Qidi X-Max | 200–300 mm/s | Hotend flow rate; vibration at extreme speeds |
| CoreXY (DIY/tuned) | Voron 2.4, RatRig V-Core 4 | 300–500 mm/s | High-flow hotend + extruder; Klipper tuning |
| Delta | Anycubic Kossel, Flsun Q5 | 150–200 mm/s | Rod/joint compliance; calibration critical |
Yes — significantly. A 0.6 mm nozzle can extrude roughly 2.25× the volume of a 0.4 mm nozzle at the same linear speed. For structural parts where surface detail is less critical, moving to 0.6 mm nozzle and 0.3 mm layer height while keeping the same mm/s increases throughput dramatically. The trade-off: loss of fine detail in small features.
Yes. Acceleration determines how quickly the printhead reaches its target speed. High acceleration (5000+ mm/s²) on a rigid CoreXY is fine, but on a bed-slinger it causes severe ringing. A practical starting point: 1500–2500 mm/s² for Cartesian, 3000–5000 mm/s² for CoreXY. Jerk/junction deviation also affects quality — keep junction deviation at 0.04–0.08 mm for most printers.
No — TPU must be printed slowly: 15–30 mm/s maximum. The elastic nature of flexible filaments causes buckling and jamming in the extruder path at higher speeds. Direct drive extruders handle TPU far better than Bowden setups. Keep retraction minimal (0.5–1 mm direct drive, or disabled entirely on Bowden). Patience here pays off: bad TPU prints are almost always caused by too much speed.
Most slicers apply speed limits per feature type. Your infill might run at 60 mm/s, but outer walls, bridging, and first layers have their own (slower) limits. Additionally, short segments never reach the target speed because acceleration limits cut in — a 5 mm segment at 60 mm/s will peak at maybe 30 mm/s. This is normal and correct behavior. Effective average speed is always lower than the nominal print speed.
Yes, measurably. Studies on FDM layer adhesion show tensile strength in the Z-direction drops 15–35% as speed increases from 40 to 100 mm/s with constant temperature. Compensating with higher temperature (5–10°C per 20 mm/s increase) largely recovers this loss. For maximum strength parts: slow perimeters to 30–40 mm/s, increase temperature, and reduce layer height to 0.15 mm.
Print speed interacts with temperature, retraction, and drying. These guides complete the picture.
How to Dry Filament
Wet filament causes bubbles, stringing, and weak layers at any speed. Dry it first.
Retraction Settings Guide
Fast travel speed without tuned retraction = strings everywhere. Fix both together.
Temperature Tower Guide
Dial in the right nozzle temperature before you dial in speed. Always temp first.
First Layer Not Sticking
First layer speed (20–30 mm/s) is the #1 adhesion variable. Full guide here.