With its iconic 3D printer design, Prusa Research defined a new standard for FDM 3D printers. Covering all bases, the company also offers its open-source software (PrusaSlicer), a filament brand (Prusament), plus its well-sorted file repository Printables (formerly prusaprinters.org).

Its free models, which now number over 747,000, can be downloaded as STL files. They are usable on all FDM machines. Some models provide pre-sliced G-code for Prusa machines.

The site was launched in 2019 and is growing fast in size while maintaining a high-quality standard. The website offers topic-centered 3D design contests and official brand accounts from Paramount Pictures, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, World of Warships, etc. Since December 2023, users have also been able to sell their models through the site.

What we like: Printables is a friendly space for the maker community and offers the latest and greatest models. Competitions and designer memberships let the creative potential of the community shine.

What we don’t like: Nothing so far.

Download 3D printer files at: Printables

Operating out of France, Cults is a 3D printer file marketplace where designers sell or share their STL files. The quality of Cults’ 1,700,000-plus 3D printer models is usually high. According to the company, 600,000+ models are free to download. They recently extended their offering by laser cutting and CNC design files, too.

Users can follow their favorite designers and get instant updates when a new creation is posted. Cults also offers curated collections based on popular big-name brands (for example, IKEA hacks, toys, video games, pegboards, memes, or bike accessories). A neat touch: the website supports English, French, Spanish, Russian, and German languages. Recently, Cults started hosting 3D model contests for their users.

What we like: Cults offers a vast selection of exciting models – it’s definitely a go-to site.

What we don’t like: The search result pages look quite messy due to the excessive use of animated GIFs… but that’s just our opinion.

Download 3D printer files at: Cults3D

Bambu Lab’s MakerWorld repository is quickly becoming a go-to destination for 3D printing enthusiasts. Despite being a relative newcomer, the platform already offers a rapidly growing collection of high-quality 3D models, plenty of multi-color models, and a well-balanced set of features. The company hasn’t disclosed performance numbers yet, but according to the URL structure, our guess is around 400,000 models – but that’s just a guess.

MakerWorld’s standout features include a user-friendly interface, allowing easy browsing and downloading of its 3D models.

Like Prusa’s Printables repository, topic-centric contests activate the community’s creative juices. They also offer a rewards system that allows users to earn points that can be redeemed for tangible benefits: for example, users can “boost” other users with “tokens,” which then can be redeemed by the designers. To round things off, “MakerLab” allows users to create and customize specialized 3D models like keychains, vases, signs, and even more open parametric models using a design tool based on OpenSCAD.

The site includes search and filter tools that help users quickly find what they’re looking for. For creators, uploading and sharing models with the community is straightforward and intuitive. Logged-in users can create personalized collections and participate in user groups to connect with fellow makers. These groups provide a collaborative space to share ideas, troubleshoot problems, and inspire new projects. And if you own a Bambu Lab machine and want to have a particular model printed, it’s pretty much a one-click-printing experience, thanks to cloud slicing and common print options (like switching printers, changing materials, copying quantities.)

What we like: MakerWorld has become an excellent source for free and premium 3D printing files, boasting a sleek design and an easy-to-navigate interface. If you own a Bambu Lab machine, you can pick and print a design with just a few clicks. The added monetization options make it a great choice for creators looking to earn from their work.

What we don’t like: Their offering is, and rightly so, closely tied to the Bambu Lab slicer. They are using their own 3MF-file-variant. If you aren’t a Bambu Lab user, be prepared for some file juggling.

Download 3D printer files at: MakerWorld

MyMiniFactory is a community space and sharing site for some 154,000 3D printer files,. It strongly emphasizes gaming, tabletop role-playing, anime, and fan art. MyMiniFactory has close ties with iMakr, an online store that sells 3D printers and accessories.

Established in 2013, the site offers free and paid 3D printer files made by professional designers, guaranteeing that they’ve been quality tested. It also regularly provides challenges for 3D designers and hosts an extensive collection of free STL files of significant cultural importance called “Scan the World.”

Since 2018, creators have been able to promote their work and earn revenue from their talents in MyMiniFactory’s premium store. A new addition is “Tribes,” a Patreon-style subscription service where creators give their supporters access to exclusive content via a tier-based model.

What we like: This is the place to go if you’re into tabletop and roleplaying games. Kudos also awarded for hosting the “Scan the World” cultural artifacts database.

What we don’t like: Even though there are models besides gaming, MyMiniFactory is a bit of a one-trick pony. Also, recently, users reported slow download times.

Download 3D printer files at: MyMiniFactory

Pinshape, founded in 2013 and acquired by professional 3D printer manufacturer Formlabs in 2016, is a 3D marketplace “connecting makers and designers.” You can find plenty of free STL files to download from more than 61,800 designs, but it also functions as a platform to buy and sell premium 3D printer models.

This is a great place if you’re looking for free STL files for toys and games, miniatures, jewelry and fashion, home appliances, gadgets, people and creatures, and art. They also offer a small section for educators.

What we like: If you dig deeper, you can find interesting models…

What we don’t like: The competition offers more, and a better user experience to boot.

Download 3D printer files at: Pinshape

YouMagine is a 3D design storefront and file repository. It was founded by the Ultimaker co-founders.

Although the maker-centric file repository hasn’t changed in years, it still has its fans. YouMagine has some solidly designed items for every FDM machine. You can browse more than 18,730 free 3D printer models and interesting handpicked collections. As a maker, you can sell or share your creations.

What we like: It offers a dedicated storefront section for creators.

What we don’t like: It lacks many features and models the competition offers.

Download 3D printer files at: YouMagine

CGTrader is a marketplace where you can buy and sell 3D designs and textures for gaming, AR/VR, advertising, animation, movies, and 3D printing. The platform also serves as a matchmaking platform to connect 3D designers with potential clients. Of the staggering 2 million 3D models available, only 20,000 models are marked as 3D printable. Many files are freely available for download after creating an account with the site.

What we like: The AI search works fast and reliably, so you should find what you want.

What we don’t like: Not all models tagged as 3D printable can actually be printed.

Download 3D printer files at: CGTrader

GrabCAD wants to “help mechanical engineers build great products faster.” The GrabCAD Community Library offers tools that help users collaborate in developing their 6,190,000 designs, a small portion of which includes 3D printer models. Not necessarily the first port of call for a wide selection of everyday printables, GrabCAD is still handy for complex parts from designers and engineers flexing their modeling muscles.

Besides 10,500 free STL files, the site offers the free 3D printing software GrabCAD Workbench and the professional 3D printing service GrabCAD Print.

What we like: GrabCAD offers plenty of models, tools, and groups for CAD designers.

What we don’t like: Although 15,000 models are tagged as 3D printable, not all of them can be printed.

Download 3D printer files at: GrabCAD.

Free3D is a good entry point if you want royalty-free 3D models you can use in animation or game design. Alongside an extensive collection of more than 600,000 premium models, the website maintains a small collection of (6,800+) STL files tagged as free and 3D printable. That’s not a ton, but you can find some gems there.

What we like: A clearly structured website with a good selection of free 3D models.

What we don’t like: Some models, even though tagged as not printable by the designers, appear in the 3D printing section.

Download 3D printer files at: Free3D

One of the oldest websites to feature on this list, TurboSquid, now owned by Shutterstock, is easy to navigate and offers more than 5,980,000 free and premium 3D models. Geared toward digital content creation rather than 3D printing (think AR, VR, or video games), there is still a small selection of free 3D printable models at TurboSquid. Being able to filter by file type helps in finding them – tick the STL checkbox to show more than 3,500 free 3D printable designs.

What we like: A huge selection of 3D models for all occasions…

What we don’t like: … but only a handful for 3D printing.

Download 3D printer files at: TurboSquid

Instructables is a fantastic, open and vivid community portal where users share their DIY projects, including things made with the help of 3D printing. Featured on the thousands of project pages are the tutorials and instructions on how to build each creation, together with the 3D printer files to download where relevant. Plus, most of the designers are helpful enough to answer questions submitted by the public.

What we like: So many exciting projects! This is a treasure trove for any maker.

What we don’t like: We can’t seem to find any negative thing without being nitpicky. Check it out!

Download 3D printer files at: Instructables

NIH 3D is a fantastic and popular resource for the science community. It’s a platform for sharing, distributing, and downloading 3D printer files that are scientifically accurate or medically applicable.

Collections include roughly 13,200+ free STL files for scientific objects, a “heart library,” and a “molecule of the month.” It also houses a section for free 3D printable prosthetics, a 3D pollen library, and a heart collection.

What we like: It’s a great scientific resource.

What we don’t like: There’s nothing wrong with it.

Download 3D printer files at: NIH 3D Print Exchange

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex. To put that in some perspective, it’s home to more than 142 million exhibits. So far, more than 9,500 have been scanned and made available to the public, and 3,200+ are 3D printable. You can browse or use the many collections to find your desired models.

What we like: It’s a nice service that is easy to use and navigate.

What we don’t like: The topic selection seems a bit random, and there could be more information on the pieces.

Download 3D printer files at: Smithsonian

Toymakr3D is an Indonesian company selling toy models you can 3D print. The designs are detailed and highly articulated, so your robot, Transformer, atomic dragon, or mecha monster can strike a pose if you want them to (great for stop-motion pictures, by the way). The coloring can be done by using different filaments.

So far, the choice of models is limited, but a generous 71 of the 85 models can be downloaded for free.

What we like: Free bot toys to play with, that’s cool.

What we don’t like: Nothing.

Download 3D printer files at: Toymakr3D

Yeggi is a search engine crawling popular 3D printing websites for 5.5 million indexed 3D printer models. You can also access popular searches to get an idea of trends the community is currently interested in, and registered users can add search results to a personalized list.

The user interface isn’t going to win prizes anytime soon, but it’s an incredibly effective tool for finding free STL files. There’s also a section for the newest free 3D printer files.

What we like: If you’re looking for a 3D printing file and know exactly what you’re looking for, you will find it on Yeggi.

What we don’t like: The site looks a bit old-fashioned.

Download 3D printer files at: Yeggi

The name is pretty self-explanatory, right? STLFinder is another search engine for 3D printer files that will crawl the internet, bringing up detailed results for free STL files and 3D printer models. You can also create an account to bookmark your favorite 3D printer files for future reference. After logging in, you can search through the millions of 3D printer models it has indexed.

What we like: Good search results. Also, an app for Android is available.

What we don’t like: It’s just a bare search with just one search filter for paid and unpaid models.

Download 3D printer files at: STLFinder

Thangs may look like just another 3D model search engine, but it has some nice tricks up its sleeve. First of all, it has amassed more than 15 million 3D files. Thanks to a sophisticated AI search algorithm, you can find geometrically related 3D models. And with just a mouse click, any object can be rendered in a chosen position.

You can also invite friends and collaborators to work together on projects. Or you can download their free 3D backup, sharing, and collaboration tool, Thangs Sync. Besides an iOS and Android app, and a Blender plugin, the website offers memberships, so you can support your favorite designers.

What we like: A smart, feature-rich site with plenty of interesting STL files.

What we don’t like: Nothing so far.

Search for 3D printer files at: Thangs