PLA vs PETG vs ABS vs ASA: Filament Cost & Use Case Guide
When to use PLA, PETG, ABS, or ASA — pricing, print difficulty, strength, UV resistance, and the customer types each is best for.
The four FDM filaments you'll quote 95% of jobs in are PLA, PETG, ABS, and ASA. Knowing which to use — and which to quote — will save you reprints and customer complaints.
PLA
Cost: $15–35/kg
Use for: display models, miniatures, indoor decorative prints, prototypes, gifts, children's toys, props that won't see heat.
Strengths: easiest to print, no warping, sharp detail, low odor, widely available in every color and finish (silk, matte, marble, glow, dual-color).
Weaknesses: softens at 50–60°C (a hot car kills it), brittle under sustained load, biodegrades slowly outdoors.
Quote tip: PLA is your "default" — quote in PLA unless the customer's use case demands otherwise.
PETG
Cost: $20–35/kg
Use for: functional parts, outdoor brackets, water-contact prints, lampshades, anything that needs to flex slightly, food-adjacent containers.
Strengths: tougher than PLA, glycol modification makes it weather-resistant, prints almost as easily as PLA on a modern machine, good layer adhesion.
Weaknesses: stringy if not tuned, can over-adhere to glass beds (use glue stick or PEI), bridges worse than PLA.
Quote tip: PETG should be a +15–25% upcharge over PLA. The material costs slightly more, but the labor cost is real — tuning, slower print speed, more cleanup.
ABS
Cost: $20–35/kg
Use for: automotive parts, parts that need solvent (acetone) smoothing, parts that need to be tapped and threaded, heat-resistant brackets.
Strengths: high heat tolerance (~100°C glass transition), strong, machinable, acetone-smoothable for a glossy finish.
Weaknesses: warps badly without an enclosure, releases styrene fumes (ventilate), needs a heated chamber for large parts, every-job hassle.
Quote tip: ABS demands +30–50% over PLA. Warp failures are real and frequent. Don't quote ABS for a customer who'll see a single visible warp and reject the job.
ASA
Cost: $25–40/kg
Use for: outdoor signage, license plate frames, drone parts, anything UV-exposed for years.
Strengths: the most UV-stable common filament, similar mechanical properties to ABS, prints with less warping than ABS, holds color outdoors for 5+ years.
Weaknesses: needs an enclosure, fumes like ABS, slightly pricier.
Quote tip: ASA is the right answer for "this needs to live outside." Charge +35–60% over PLA. Customers who need it will pay it.
Quick decision matrix
| Customer says... | Quote in |
|---|---|
| "Just a display piece" | PLA |
| "It's going outside" | PETG (mild) or ASA (extreme) |
| "Needs to be strong" | PETG |
| "It'll see heat" | ABS or ASA |
| "Threaded inserts" | ABS, PETG, or PC |
| "Food container" | PETG (with a food-safe sealant) |
| "Cheapest possible" | PLA |
| "It'll flex" | PETG, TPU |
Pricing summary
If PLA is your baseline at 1.0×:
- PLA: 1.0×
- PETG: 1.15–1.25×
- ABS: 1.30–1.50×
- ASA: 1.35–1.60×
The premium covers material cost, longer print times (most of these print slower), failure rate, and the labor delta from cleanup and post-processing.
The Makerate filament catalog handles this automatically — set per-material cost and waste factor once, and every quote reprices itself.
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