What a typical print looks like

MakerWorld counts the prints people log against a model's print profile, the ready-made settings file they print from. The median logged print on the MakerWorld models in our sample takes about 2.0 hours by the slicer's estimate (the slicer is the program that turns a model into printer instructions) and uses 41 grams of filament. White and black are its most likely colors, and there's a good chance it was sliced on the settings Bambu Studio, Bambu Lab's slicer, fills in before you touch anything.

Nothing heroic, in other words. Half of what people print is a small, quick job.

We studied 1,004,137 public models from MakerWorld and Printables, two of the biggest sites for sharing 3D printing files: 327,759 from MakerWorld and 676,378 from Printables. Every number here describes those models, not every model ever posted.

How long

50.3% of logged prints are estimated at under two hours, and 28.0% at under one. Only 6.5% run twelve hours or more.

Counted by profile instead of by print, the long jobs grow a little: 8.3% of profiles run twelve hours or more. Long profiles get printed a bit less often than short ones.

How much filament

The median logged print uses 41 g. 55.2% use less than fifty grams, and 1.0% use a kilogram or more, a full spool for a single job.

What color

White is in 39.7% of MakerWorld print profiles and black is in 28.5%. No other color comes close. 37.2% of profiles use two or more colors.

31.9% of profiles need an AMS, Bambu Lab's add-on that feeds several spools into one print. Those are bigger jobs. Their median print time is 2.9 hours against 1.9 for profiles that don't need one, and their median filament is 55 g against 40 g.

It depends on the printer. 57.0% of H2C profiles need an AMS, the highest share in the chart below, against 24.2% for the A1 mini.

What settings

Bambu Studio names a profile after its settings unless you rename it, so for 57.6% of MakerWorld profiles the name gives away the layer height, wall count and infill. Among the 219,792 of those made for a 0.4 mm nozzle, 72.3% use 0.2 mm layers, 78.8% use 2 walls and 68.0% use 15% infill.

45.5% use all three defaults at once. For a lot of uploaders, the profile is the default with a model loaded.

Printables G-code tells a similar story. 58.6% of the G-code files in our sample are sliced at 0.20 mm layers and 16.4% at 0.15 mm. 94.1% are for a 0.4 mm nozzle.

Those files are small jobs too. The median Printables G-code file runs 1 hour 40 minutes and uses 20 g of filament, and 55.1% finish in under two hours. That's per file, not per print, since Printables doesn't log prints the way MakerWorld does.

If you upload, assume your model gets printed on the defaults. Test it at 0.2 mm, 2 walls and 15% infill before you post, and if it needs something else, put that in the profile name.