The best nozzle temperature for PETG is 240 °C as a starting point on a 0.4 mm nozzle, tuned within 230–250 °C for your spool. Go toward 230–235 °C when stringing and cosmetics matter, toward 245–250 °C for layer strength or fast printing, and stay at or below 240 °C on a PTFE-lined hotend.
That 240 °C figure is not a forum guess. It sits inside every major manufacturer window below, it is the main-layer temperature in Prusa’s generic PETG guidance, and it is the temperature Polymaker printed its own test specimens at. The range on the spool label is wide because it has to cover every hotend, speed and nozzle size. Your job is to find the 5 °C slice of it that suits your printer.
What temperature do PETG manufacturers recommend?
Manufacturers put PETG between 230 and 260 °C, and the three most-cited references agree only around 240 °C. Prusa’s Knowledge Base gives 230 °C for the first layer and 240 °C after, Prusament lists 250 ± 10 °C, and Polymaker’s PolyLite PETG sheet lists 230–260 °C.
| Source | Nozzle | Bed | Part-cooling fan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prusa Knowledge Base, generic PETG | 230 °C first layer, 240 °C after | 85 °C first layer, 90 °C after | Off for the first few layers, then half power |
| Prusament PETG | 250 ± 10 °C | 80 ± 10 °C | 50% |
| Polymaker PolyLite PETG | 230–260 °C (test specimens at 240 °C) | 70–80 °C | Off to 20% |
Two details are worth noticing. Prusa’s own documents disagree by 10 °C: the KB article targets 240 °C while the Prusament page centers on 250 °C. Neither is wrong; they describe different filaments and different assumptions about speed. And Polymaker’s fan range tops out at 20%, well below Prusa’s 50%. More fan pulls heat out of the freshly laid bead, so a profile running a strong fan generally needs the nozzle toward the upper side of the window to keep layers fusing. When you copy a temperature from a datasheet, copy the fan value with it.
If you are still deciding whether PETG is the right material for a part, our PLA vs PETG vs ASA breakdown covers where it earns its place.
Which end of the range should you print at?
Print PETG at the low end, 230–235 °C, for cosmetic parts and less stringing; at 240 °C for general use; and at 245–250 °C for parts loaded across layer lines or for high-flow printing. The trade never changes: heat improves layer fusion and melt rate, and costs you stringing, oozing and overhang sharpness.
| Goal | Nozzle target | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Display parts, fine detail, minimal stringing | 230–235 °C | Lower temperature reduces stringing; Prusa pairs it with longer retraction |
| General-purpose prints | 240 °C | Inside every manufacturer window above |
| Brackets, clips, anything loaded in Z | 245–250 °C | Layer adhesion peaked at 245 °C in CNC Kitchen’s PETG test |
| Fast printing, high volumetric flow | Upper end of your tower’s good band | OrcaSlicer’s guidance for higher speeds |
| Clear, translucent parts | As low as 220 °C, printed slowly | CNC Kitchen’s transparency recipe |
The OrcaSlicer temperature calibration page states the logic plainly: lower temperatures typically reduce stringing, higher temperatures generally improve adhesion, and if a range of bands looks good, use the middle of it, leaning to the higher end if you plan to print at higher speeds or flow rates. That last point matters on fast CoreXY machines. The hotend has less time to heat each millimeter of filament, so a temperature that looks perfect at 60 mm/s can leave matte, under-extruded walls at several times that speed.
The clear-parts row is a special case. CNC Kitchen’s transparency experiment found 220 °C best for dasFilament natural PETG, but at 0.12 mm layers, 15 mm/s and a flow multiplier just above 100%. Those settings do not transfer to an everyday production profile.
How much does nozzle temperature change PETG strength?
Nozzle temperature changes PETG layer strength by almost half. In CNC Kitchen’s extrusion-temperature study, upright dasFilament PETG samples went from 18 MPa at 200 °C to a peak of 32 MPa at 245 °C, then fell to 24 MPa at 260 °C. Cold cost the most, but overheating cost a quarter of peak strength too.
| Nozzle | Layer-adhesion strength (standing samples) |
|---|---|
| 200 °C | 18 MPa |
| 215 °C | 22 MPa |
| 230 °C | 30 MPa |
| 245 °C | 32 MPa |
| 260 °C | 24 MPa |
The flat-printed reference reached 55 MPa, so even the best upright result was about 60% of the bulk material. Two lessons carry over to real parts. The jump from 215 to 230 °C is four times larger than the jump from 230 to 245 °C, so strength falls off a cliff below the datasheet window, not in the middle of it. And hotter is not automatically stronger: the 260 °C samples were weaker than the 230 °C ones. Stefan Hermann’s advice in the same piece is to print at the lower end for looks and the upper end, or slightly above, for strength, and to keep the filament dry, which matters more the hotter you print.
Does your hotend limit how hot you can print PETG?
Yes, if a PTFE liner reaches into the hot zone. E3D, which makes both PTFE-lined and all-metal hotends, states that the PTFE liner in its Lite6 hotend sets a temperature limit of 240 °C. On that class of hotend, 240 °C is the ceiling for PETG, not the starting point.
Some budget bowden printers use the same layout, with the tube butting against the top of the nozzle. Check your printer’s documentation. If the hotend is PTFE-lined, cap PETG at 240 °C and recover strength with slower speeds, a gentler fan and an extra wall rather than more heat, and inspect the tube end for discoloration on the schedule in our printer maintenance routine. On an all-metal hotend, the 245–250 °C strength band is open to you.
Is your PETG printing too hot or too cold?
Too hot shows up as stringing, oozing on travel moves, blobs and sagging bridges. Too cold shows up as layers that split when flexed, rough or matte walls, and under-extrusion on fast sections. Before you touch temperature, dry the spool: wet PETG strings and bubbles at any setting and sends you chasing the wrong variable.
| Symptom | Likely cause | First change |
|---|---|---|
| Fine strings between features | Too hot, or wet filament | Dry the spool, then drop 5 °C |
| Blobs and zits on the seam | Ooze during travel | Drop 5 °C, then review retraction |
| Sagging bridges, drooping overhangs | Too hot, too little cooling | Drop 5 °C or add fan |
| Layers split when flexed | Too cold, or too much fan | Raise 5 °C, reduce fan |
| Matte, rough walls at speed | Too cold for the flow rate | Raise 5 °C or slow down |
| Popping, bubbled surface, cloudy clear parts | Moisture | Dry before changing temperature |
Polymaker gives 65 °C for 6 h as the drying setting for PolyLite PETG, and CNC Kitchen attributed the milkiness in its hotter clear prints to microbubbles, probably from moisture. Our filament dryer comparison covers boxes that hold that temperature. If strings persist on a freshly dried spool at 230 °C, temperature is no longer the problem, and blaming the filament is premature too. Work through retraction with the oozing vs stringing diagnosis. Polymaker lists 1–3 mm of retraction at 20–40 mm/s for PolyLite PETG as a starting window.
First-layer trouble is a separate question. Prusa actually runs the first PETG layer 10 °C cooler than the rest, so if lines are not sticking, look at Z-offset and bed prep in our guide to first layers not sticking before reaching for the temperature dial.
How do you find the exact temperature for your spool?
Print a temperature tower from 250 °C down to 230 °C in 5 °C steps, note which bands pass every check, and set the middle of that passing range. It replaces every number in this article with one measured on your printer, your nozzle and your spool.
- Dry the spool first, so moisture is not mistaken for heat.
- Generate the tower in your slicer. OrcaSlicer’s built-in tower is designed around a 0.4 mm nozzle at 0.2 mm layers and can scale itself to other nozzle sizes.
- Keep speed, fan and retraction at the values you actually print with. A tower printed at 50 mm/s says little about a 200 mm/s profile.
- Inspect each band for stringing, bridge sag, overhang curl and surface finish.
- Flex the tower by hand at each band. A band that cracks cleanly along a layer line is too cold for functional parts.
- Take the middle of the passing bands, or the upper end if you print fast.
Success looks like this: light wisps at most that brush off, bridges in the tower without visible droop, and no clean layer-line breaks in the bands you are choosing between. Our temperature tower and flow calibration guide walks through reading the bands, and the Orca Slicer calibration order shows where temperature sits relative to flow ratio and pressure advance. Run temperature first, because flow is measured against plastic at its working temperature. Save the result in a profile named for the brand and color, since a new batch can move the sweet spot.
FAQ
is 260 too hot for petg
260 °C is usable but rarely ideal for PETG. Prusament and Polymaker both list it as the top of their range, yet CNC Kitchen’s PETG lost a quarter of its layer strength at 260 °C compared with 245 °C. It also exceeds the 240 °C limit E3D gives for its PTFE-lined Lite6, so reserve it for all-metal hotends.
can you print petg at 220
You can, but 220 °C is below the minimum of every PETG datasheet cited here and costs strength at normal speeds. CNC Kitchen’s PETG reached 22 MPa at 215 °C against 32 MPa at 245 °C. The exception is clear parts, where the same channel got its best transparency at 220 °C while printing at 15 mm/s.
what bed temperature for petg
Set the bed to 70–90 °C for PETG, depending on the brand. Polymaker lists 70–80 °C for PolyLite PETG, Prusament lists 80 ± 10 °C, and Prusa’s generic guidance runs 85 °C for the first layer and 90 °C after. Use a textured or satin sheet; on smooth PEI, Prusa recommends glue stick because adhesion can be excessive.
should the first layer be hotter for petg
No, PETG usually does not need a hotter first layer. Prusa’s guidance runs the first layer cooler, at 230 °C, then 240 °C for everything above it. PETG bonds aggressively to PEI, so first-layer failures more often trace back to Z-offset, or a nozzle set so close that it drags the line, than to a lack of heat.
Related across the network
- Creality K1 Stringing Fix: Retraction, Heat and Drying — crealityreviews.com
- ABS vs ASA for Printing: Settings, Strength and Fumes — 3dfilamentguide.com
