Prices barely moved this spring
It is tempting to read the headlines about Bambu Lab stock gaps and PETG High Flow selling out and conclude that filament is getting more expensive across the board. The data does not support that. Tracking the same filaments from early April to early June, every major material stayed within roughly two percent of where it started.
| Material | Early April | Early June | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| PLA | $19.81/kg | $19.48/kg | −1.7% |
| PETG | $17.38/kg | $17.55/kg | +1.0% |
| ABS | $20.28/kg | $20.73/kg | +2.2% |
| ASA | $22.56/kg | $22.27/kg | −1.3% |
| TPU | $24.46/kg | $24.84/kg | +1.6% |
The per-product view says the same thing even more plainly. Of the 3,125 filaments we priced in both periods, 1,275 got cheaper, 1,059 got more expensive, and the rest were flat. The median change was exactly zero. If anything, slightly more spools came down in price than went up.
A quick note on method, because it is the whole story here. If you simply average every listing in the catalog each week, it looks like prices jumped about eight percent over these two months. That number is a mirage. It reflects the mix of listings changing as new and pricier products entered the dataset, not the price of any actual spool moving. The only honest way to measure a trend is to follow the same products over time, which is what the table above does. Stock shortages at a single brand are real, but they did not translate into a market-wide price increase.
PETG is now cheaper than PLA, per kilogram
Here is the finding worth acting on. Measured by true cost per kilogram, PETG is now the cheapest mainstream filament, sitting just under PLA. That runs against the usual assumption that PLA is always the budget default.
| Material | Cost per kg | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PETG | $17.55 | Cheapest, and tougher than PLA |
| PLA | $19.48 | Easiest to print |
| ABS | $20.73 | Heat resistant |
| ASA | $22.27 | UV stable, outdoor |
| TPU | $24.84 | Flexible, priciest |
If your parts are functional rather than decorative, this is a small free upgrade. PETG handles heat, impact, and outdoor use far better than PLA, and at current prices you are no longer paying a premium for it. For a long time PETG cost noticeably more per kilogram; that gap has closed and inverted.
The cheapest filament brands by cost per kg
Across the brands we track most closely, the budget tier clusters tightly around $17/kg, while premium house brands sit well above it.
| Brand | Cost per kg |
|---|---|
| Elegoo | $16.63 |
| Overture | $17.08 |
| SUNLU | $17.60 |
| eSUN | $17.84 |
| Polymaker | $18.60 |
| Inland | $18.83 |
| Creality | $20.75 |
| Anycubic | $20.91 |
| Bambu Lab | $30.92 |
The spread is the headline: Bambu Lab's own filament runs roughly 85 percent more per kilogram than Elegoo or Overture. Third-party PLA and PETG from those budget brands print cleanly on Bambu Lab machines using the built-in generic or vendor profiles, so the premium is largely brand convenience rather than a print-quality requirement.
What this means if you are buying
There is no broad price spike, so there is no reason to panic-buy on a "prices are rising" fear. If you want the lowest cost per kilogram, PETG now beats PLA, and the budget brands (Elegoo, Overture, SUNLU, eSUN) all sit near $17/kg. Buying a printer-maker's house filament will cost you the most per kilogram by a wide margin, for filament that prints on the same machines as the cheaper options.
You can check live numbers any time on the PETG listings page and the PLA listings page, or compare brands directly via the Elegoo and Polymaker pages. The filament brands guide covers the broader tradeoffs.
Methodology: figures cover April 1 to June 7, 2026. Every listing is normalized to cost per kilogram and capped at $40/kg to exclude specialty engineering materials and pricing errors. Trend figures use a same-product cohort (only filaments priced in both the early and recent windows) to control for catalog composition; current prices are the cohort's most recent readings.