Thermoplastic · Biopolymer
BeginnerPLA
Polylactic Acid · Polylactide
The most popular 3D printing material — easy to print, low warp, huge color selection. Best for visual prints and prototypes.
Print temperatures
Nozzle 190–220 °C Bed 50–60 °C
PLA's roots are 19th-century chemistry — low-molecular-weight PLA was first made by Théophile-Jules Pelouze in 1845 — but it stayed a lab curiosity for over a century, until biomedical engineers adopted it for resorbable sutures and Cargill industrialized corn-derived PLA in the 1990s.
In FDM it became the default beginner material: the RepRap movement printed on unheated beds, and PLA's low warp and low print temperature made it the most forgiving choice. It remains the most-printed filament on Earth.
Strengths & trade-offs
- Easy to print — low temp, minimal warp
- No heated bed strictly required
- Rigid and dimensionally stable
- Excellent detail and surface finish
- Renewable, low-odor
- Low heat resistance — softens around 55–60 °C
- Brittle, poor impact strength
- Creeps under sustained load
- Not UV- or weather-durable
- Only industrially compostable, not home-compostable
Best for
PrototypesDisplay modelsMiniaturesToysLow-stress household parts
Did you know
- PLA was synthesized in 1845 — 144 years before FDM existed.
- The same polymer is used for dissolvable surgical sutures and bone screws.
- “Compostable” PLA needs ~58 °C industrial composting; it persists for years in a backyard pile.
