Prusa Steps Into Pellet 3D Printing with Prusament Pellets: Up to 60% Cheaper Than Filament
The company is offering the raw polymer pellets used to make its popular filament, opening up new possibilities for large-format printing and DIY filament experiments.
Prusa Research just announced a new Prusament Pellets line of material intended for large-format 3D printing, material research, and anyone interested in making their own filament.
These are the same polymer pellets Prusa uses to manufacture its own Prusament filament, now available in four uncolored materials: PLA, PETG, ASA, and PC Blend. Prices start at $44.99 for 4 kg of PLA or PETG, while the largest package, 12 kg of PC Blend, costs $199.99.
The savings compared to finished Prusament filament are considerable. . A standard 1-kg spool of Prusament PLA typically costs $29.99, while the new PLA pellets work out to just $11.25 per kilogram in the 4-kg package, or $10.71/kg when purchasing 14 kg. That’s a saving of more than 60% compared to finished filament at its regular price. Of course, anyone planning to turn those pellets into filament must factor in the cost of an extruder, electricity, and potentially wasted material. For large-format printers that can process pellets directly, however, the savings could be particularly attractive.
One particularly useful detail is that the pellets arrive pre-dried. Prusa already dries its raw materials before producing filament, so it packages some of these dried pellets in sealed canisters or bags to minimize moisture absorption. According to the company, they’re ready to use straight out of the package in most cases.
The packages weighing between 3.5 and 14 kg are also much smaller quantities than typically offered by industrial material suppliers.
Make Your Own Filament or Skip It Entirely
Prusa does not make a pellet-fed 3D printer, although we with they would. If you have access to a pellet-fed 3D printer, like the desktop Piocreat G5 Ultra or the large-format Re3D Gigabot X2, the material can be poured directly into your printer. Instead of feeding filament into a hotend, these machines melt and extrude plastic granules with the benefit over filament of depositing more material faster, up to several kilograms of material per hour depending on your printer. That makes the process particularly attractive for large objects such as furniture and lampshades.
For hobbyists, another interesting possibility is producing custom filament. Anyone with a desktop filament extruder could use the pellets to manufacture their own filament, experimenting with colorants, UV stabilizers, or reinforcing additives along the way.
Prusa’s move could make material experimentation more accessible to smaller workshops, educational institutions, and ambitious hobbyists who previously faced large minimum-order quantities when sourcing raw polymers.
The new Prusament Pellets are available now through Prusa’s online store.
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