A safe print speed for most PLA filaments is 40–60 mm/s on outer walls — that's a good starting point before you experiment with higher values. In practice, the answer to "what speed should I use" depends on the material, the printer's construction, and whether you care more about maximum surface quality or the shortest possible print time. In this guide you'll find concrete mm/s values for PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU, nylon and carbon-fiber filaments, plus a method for safely increasing speed without losing quality. If you've already dialed in your PLA print temperature, this article is the natural next step — speed and temperature work together, not separately.
Print speed isn't just about how long you wait for a finished model. It's one of the parameters that most strongly affects surface appearance, layer bonding strength, and the risk of common defects like stringing, ringing or warping. Too high a speed combined with insufficient cooling or too low a nozzle temperature leads to under-extrusion, while too low a speed simply extends print time without any real quality gain. Below we show how to match speed to a specific material and printer configuration, based on widely used, proven ranges rather than random numbers found online.
Starting speed settings — table
The table below is a starting point. Every printer, every nozzle and every batch of filament behaves slightly differently, so treat these values as a safe starting point you can push up or down during your own testing.
| Parameter | Value | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| PLA — outer walls | 40–60 mm/s | Safe starting point on most Cartesian printers |
| PLA — infill and inner walls | 60–100 mm/s | Less critical for surface appearance |
| PETG | 30–50 mm/s | Higher speeds increase the risk of stringing |
| ABS | 40–60 mm/s | Requires a stable temperature and protection from drafts |
| ASA | 40–60 mm/s | Similar to ABS, also sensitive to drafts in the chamber |
| TPU — Bowden feeder | 20–30 mm/s | Higher values cause the filament to buckle in the feeder |
| TPU — Direct Drive feeder | 30–50 mm/s | A shorter feed path allows for higher values |
| Nylon (PA) | 30–50 mm/s | Requires a high nozzle temperature and dry filament |
| Carbon-fiber PLA (PLA-CF) | 40–60 mm/s | Requires a hardened nozzle; speed similar to regular PLA |
| First layer (all materials) | 15–25 mm/s | A lower speed improves adhesion to the bed |
You'll find the full temperature table for individual materials on a separate page: print temperature table. Speed and temperature are two parameters best adjusted together — changing one almost always requires correcting the other.
Why print speed matters
Every extra millimeter per second means less time for the molten filament to properly bond with the layer beneath it. At too high a speed with an unchanged nozzle temperature, the new layer literally "lands" on the previous one too quickly for full material fusion to occur — the result is a weakened structure that can crack under load even though it looks fine from the outside.
The second reason is geometric precision. High speed means higher accelerations and jerk, which in turn translate into vibrations in the printer's frame. The visible effect is wavy patterns on walls (ringing) at points of sudden direction change — usually at corners or lettering on the model. If you've already dealt with a similar issue with the first layer, you know how much small settings can change the outcome — we covered this in more detail in our guide on first layer settings, where speed plays a role just as important as bed temperature.
The third reason is cooling time. When printing small, detailed elements, too high a speed doesn't leave the fan enough time to solidify a freshly printed layer before the next one arrives — the result is blurred detail and "collapsed" thin walls. That's why good speed is always a compromise between print time, model geometry and the properties of the specific material.
Print speed and filament type
Every material reacts differently to increased speed. Below we describe the most important differences between popular filaments, so you know where you have room to push and where it's better to stick to cautious values.
PLA and PLA+
PLA is the most forgiving material in terms of speed — it solidifies quickly and handles higher values well even on standard Cartesian printers. 40–60 mm/s on outer walls is a safe range, and infill can be printed considerably faster. Keep in mind that with filaments that include additives — such as standard PLA or silk-type variants — too high a speed can reduce surface gloss, even though the strength itself stays within normal limits.
PETG and HT-PETG
PETG is more viscous in its molten state than PLA, which means a higher risk of stringing and material "dragging" between parts at high travel speeds. A safe range is 30–50 mm/s, and on your first attempts it's better to stay near the lower end and gradually raise it while watching surface quality.
ABS and ASA
Both materials shrink more than PLA as they cool, so too high a speed combined with drafts around the printer increases the risk of corners lifting. 40–60 mm/s is a reasonable range, provided the printer has at least partial enclosure limiting the flow of cold air around the model.
TPU and flexible materials
Flexible filaments are the most speed-sensitive of all popular materials. With a Bowden feeder, the filament tends to buckle inside the guide tube if the feed speed is too high — which is why 20–30 mm/s is a sensible limit. Direct drive, thanks to its shorter feed path, allows 30–50 mm/s without losing extrusion control.
Nylon (PA) and carbon-fiber composites
Nylon requires a high nozzle temperature and absolutely dry filament — no speed setting will fix a damp filament. The speed range itself, 30–50 mm/s, is similar to PETG. Carbon-fiber-reinforced filaments (e.g. PLA-CF) print at a speed close to the base material, but require a hardened nozzle — a standard brass nozzle wears out very quickly with them, regardless of print speed.
Outer wall speed and surface quality
Not every part of a model has to be printed at the same speed. Most slicers let you set separate values for the outer wall, inner wall, infill, and top/bottom solid layers — and it's worth using that. The outer wall is what you see with the naked eye, so it should get the lowest speed of the entire settings set.
A typical hierarchy looks like this: outer wall slowest, inner wall a bit faster, infill and top/bottom layers fastest. This keeps the model looking good on the outside, while the difference in print time compared to a uniformly low speed is minimal — because most of a typical print's volume is interior and infill, not the visible walls.
Speed versus layer height and line width
Print speed doesn't work in isolation from other settings. A taller layer (e.g. 0.28–0.3 mm instead of the standard 0.2 mm) means more material has to flow through the nozzle in the same amount of time — if you don't lower the speed or raise the temperature, the extruder may not keep up, which shows up as under-extrusion. Similarly, a wider line (a larger extrusion width) requires more material over the same length of travel, so high speeds combined with thick lines are one of the more common causes of flow problems, something we've also covered when discussing printer calibration settings.
Practical rule: if you increase layer height or line width, consider simultaneously lowering speed by 10–20% until you've confirmed that your specific printer and hotend can keep up with material feed.
Print speed and cooling
The part cooling fan and print speed are tightly linked. At high speed, a layer has less time to cool naturally, so cooling needs to be more intense so the freshly printed material has time to solidify before the next layer reaches it. This matters especially for small, narrow model elements — thin columns, thin ribs or lettering.
On the other hand, materials like ABS or ASA generally need limited cooling, because too intense airflow increases the risk of cracking and corners lifting. In their case, high speed without a corresponding adjustment to cooling and chamber temperature is a direct path to warping rather than time savings.
How to gradually increase speed — step-by-step calibration
Instead of guessing, it's best to approach speed methodically. Print a simple test model — for example a calibration cube or a temperature tower — at several different speeds and compare the results visually and in terms of strength.
Start with the values from the table above and increase outer wall speed by 10 mm/s with each subsequent test, watching for the point where under-extrusion, stringing, or a decline in surface finish appears. The value just below that threshold is your target, safe working speed for that material and that specific printer — it can vary even between two units of the same printer model, which is why it's worth running your own test instead of blindly copying someone else's settings.
After changing speed, it's also worth checking flow — too high a speed with unchanged flow shows up as under-extrusion even when temperature is correct. That's a separate calibration topic, but closely tied to the speed settings described in this guide.
Settings for popular configurations
A printer's construction and how it feeds filament have a big impact on what speed you can safely set. The table below shows approximate values for the most popular hardware configurations.
| Configuration | Recommended speed | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bowden (typical Cartesian printers) | 40–60 mm/s | Limit acceleration to avoid ringing at corners |
| Direct Drive | 50–80 mm/s | Better retraction control, especially with flexible filaments |
| CoreXY in an enclosed housing | 80–150 mm/s | A rigid frame and enclosed chamber allow for higher values |
| Automatic filament-change systems (e.g. AMS-CFS) | 40–60 mm/s | Speed limited by the length of the feed path and how often colors change |
Most common mistakes
Ringing and ghosting on walls. Instead of lowering print speed itself, first reduce acceleration and jerk in your slicer settings — these are usually the actual cause of surface waves.
Under-extrusion at high speed. Raise the nozzle temperature by 5–10°C or lower the speed to give the material time to fully melt in the hotend.
Layer delamination. Reduce outer wall speed and check whether cooling is set too aggressively for the material in question.
Filament slips in the feeder when printing TPU. Lower the speed to the bottom of the recommended range and check the tension on the extruder's drive gear.
Poor first-layer quality at a high global speed. Always set the first layer separately and print it noticeably slower than the rest of the model, regardless of the speed used elsewhere.
Stringing with PETG at high speed. Increase retraction distance and speed, and lower the speed of travel moves between printed parts.
Hotend overheating at high speed. Check whether the fan cooling the hotend itself (not the part cooling fan) is working properly and isn't clogged with dust.
Frequently asked questions
What is a safe PLA print speed for beginners?
40–60 mm/s on outer walls is a proven, safe starting point on most printers. Infill can be printed faster, since it doesn't directly affect how the model looks.
Does higher speed always reduce print strength?
Not always, but the risk increases if you raise speed without adjusting temperature and cooling. With properly matched parameters, the difference in strength is often small.
How can you tell a printer is printing too fast?
Typical signs include under-extrusion (visible gaps between lines), wavy walls (ringing), and reduced adhesion between layers, which shows up as a model that cracks easily.
Do you need to raise nozzle temperature along with speed?
Usually yes — the faster the nozzle moves, the less time the material has to melt, so a small temperature increase (5–10°C) often compensates for higher speed.
What's the maximum print speed on a typical Cartesian printer?
In practice, most unmodified Bowden-style printers handle around 60 mm/s on outer walls well — higher values require a stiffer frame or a CoreXY design.
Summary
There's no single universal "best" print speed — there's a safe starting point for a given material and hardware configuration, from which it's worth starting your own tests. The tables in this guide give concrete numbers, but the final value is always worth verifying on your own printer, since differences between units of the same model can be bigger than they seem.
If you're looking for a filament that handles higher speeds well without losing surface quality, check out our technical filaments collection — a good starting point for further experiments with your settings.