The 10 Best 3D Printers Under $300

The Anycubic Kobra is the basic model of Anycubic’s new Kobra series of FDM 3D printers. It comes in a brand new industrial design and is equipped with advanced features to keep it up to date with current 3D printing standards.

Anycubic’s self-developed automatic bed leveling helps you with the initial bed leveling process. It makes sure that you get a smooth first layer and that your prints stick to the bed with ease. The direct extruder gives you increased control over the filaments and lets you print with flexible materials such as TPU and TPE.

Its PEI coated spring steel build platform is designed for improved adhesion and the easy removal of your 3D prints. The large 4.3-inch vertical touch screen lets you easily interact with the 3D printer and makes navigating through the user interface a smooth experience.

For $300, it is an bargain and a step above the Creality Ender 3 V2. It is a good choice for beginners, students, and hobbyists who need a budget FDM 3D printer that delivers good printing quality.

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Being the sixth iteration in the SV series, the Sovol S06 packs a rich set of features that provide excellent utility under $300. It’s strikingly similar to the Prusa i3 printers and follows a similar design philosophy in its offerings.

The dual Z-axis design on the SV06 neatly fits a modest build area of 220 x 220 x 250 mm, which is adequate for printing most 3D printing models with ease. The PEI metal build plate has excellent print adhesion and goes well with the included inductive auto-bed leveling sensor on the SV06.

Sovol has integrated a high-temperature hot end and coupled it with a planetary gear direct extruder. The all-metal hot end can reach temperatures up to 300 °C, while the planetary gear arrangement exerts a high force on the filament, leading to good grip and improved extrusion performance.

However, the machine is not without its faults. In our SV06 review, we found the default part cooling on the printer is slightly weak. Furthermore, the build quality of the SV06 leaves some to be desired.

If you can put aside these minor shortcomings, the Sovol SV06 is one of the best budget 3D printers with many valuable features. It’s capable of delivering good 3D printed parts and, for the price, certainly makes a good choice for beginners, hobbyists, and first-time 3D printer users.

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The cost of resin 3D printers has come down drastically within the last few years and 3D printers like the Anycubic Photon Mono are a testament to this. The Photon Mono is a cheap, entry-level resin 3D printer from Anycubic.

It comes with a sharp 2K resolution monochrome LCD screen, which allows you to reproduce fine details. The Photon Mono has a decent build volume of 130x80x165 mm. This is less than the other options in the 3D printers under $300 segment, but that is to be expected of a printer that uses 3D printer resin instead of filament.

To guarantee precision and stability during the printing process, it comes with a quality linear rail for the Z-axis.

The main advantage of resin 3D printers is the superb print quality that they offer. If you are interested in 3D printing (D&D) minis and figurines, you are best off with a resin 3D printer. If that’s what you’re looking for, and you don’t want to spend too much, the Anycubic Photon Mono is a great choice.

Until the release of the Anycubic Kobra, we considered the Creality Ender 3 V2 to be the best 3D printer under $300. It is a worthy successor to the popular Ender 3 and comes with an updated look and brand new spec sheet that suits the current 3D printing standards.

The Ender V2 has a sturdy aluminum body with a generous heated bed of 220 x 220 mm. It comes with a color screen with an updated UI, which lets you navigate the various functions of this budget 3D printer with ease. The addition of a toolbox, XY belt tensioners, and an extruder knob are some of the neat little things that make the Ender V2 stand out.

The Ender V2 features an updated 32-bit motherboard with TMC 2208 stepper motor drivers. It also comes with a UL-certified power supply for added safety and faster heat times.

On top of that, you can find great community support with tons of tutorials and guides available for upgrading your Ender 3 V2. In short, this printer has everything you would expect from a sub $300 3D printer and then some.

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The Flashforge Finder is a plug-n-play kind of 3D printer. It takes less than maybe 30 minutes to set it up and start 3D printing. The features and ease of use make the Finder a great fit for beginners in 3D printing.

The Finder has a closed frame with a sturdy build, which gives it a nice boxy look. The filament spool is neatly tucked inside the printer body. This makes it an ideal 3D printer to use in a classroom setting and as a printer to carry around anywhere with ease.

This 3D printer under 300 comes with a user-friendly touch screen with a neatly laid out interface. It makes it easy to control the printer and is especially easy for kids and people with disabilities to use.

One limitation of the Flashforge Finder is that it uses its proprietary slicing software – Flashprint – for preparing models. However, this software is finely tuned to the Finder and optimized so that it’s easy to use. In it, you can find preloaded profiles to prepare a file, or you can fine-tune some of the major settings to your needs. Flashforge has optimized the entire user experience of the Finder for people who are just getting started with 3D printing.

Typical 3D printers under $300 have limited material compatibility because of the hotends that they use. These hotends reach relatively low maximum temperatures and limit the 3D printing materials that they are compatible with to PLA and sometimes ABS. The Anycubic Mega S 3D printer’s hotend, on the other hand, can reach a maximum temperature of 260°C.

The higher hotend temperature makes the Anycubic Mega S compatible with PLA, ABS, TPU, HIPS, PETG, and even wood filaments. To complement this, it has a solid metal body with a large build volume of 210 x 210 x 205 mm. You also get an easy-to-use touchscreen and a Titan extruder, which is almost unheard of for 3D printers under $300.

The Titan extruder offers more precise extrusion and allows you to print better with flexible filaments. Overall, when compared to its competitors in terms of filament compatibility, what you get with the Anycubic Mega S is definitely a step above the competition.

While the Ender 3 V2 is still a good contender for the best 3D printer under $300, its predecessor, the Creality Ender 3, is a great budget 3D printer in this price class. Even though it’s several years since it was first released, the Ender 3 remains a popular choice.

The Ender 3 has all the functionalities that you would expect from a basic 3D printer. It comes with a build volume of 220x220x250mm and a heated print bed with a sticky Buildtak-like printing surface. It is beginner-friendly and provides a decent printing quality from the start.

Since it is a popular 3D printer, there are tons of user guides, tutorials, and community forums for the Ender 3. There are many mods and upgrades available for the Ender 3, which makes it a versatile option.

If you’re on a budget, want a good 3D printer, and are open to fiddling a little to get good results, the Ender 3 is a great choice for you.

The Sovol SV01 is probably the 3D printer under 300 that comes with the largest build volume: 280x240x300 mm. This allows you to print large-size objects in one go, without having to split them into multiple parts. For 3D printing things like cosplay props, this is ideal.

The Sovol SV01 has a direct drive Titan-style extruder that makes 3D printing flexible filaments a breeze. It also has a dual Z-axis set up with a sturdy and solid aluminum frame for maximum stability during the 3D printing process. This extra stability is useful on larger 3D printers, which can get unstable. But it also helps you increase the maximum printing speed to get your parts printed more quickly without visual artifacts.

And to top it off, there are some neat safety and quality of life features built in the SV01, like filament detection, a resume printing function for protection against a power outage, and thermal runaway protection.

It comes partially assembled (~95% done), making it fairly easy in terms of getting it up and running. This comes in contrast to some other 3D printers under 300 that come as a kit that needs to be fully assembled.

The large print volume of the Sovol SV01 might not be for everyone. But if you 3D print helmets, 3D print armor, or other cosplay props, the SV01 offers you plenty of build volume at an affordable price.

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The Artillery Genius is arguably the most silent 3D printer under $300. It comes with an MKS Gen L V1.0 motherboard along with a set of proprietary stepper motor drivers. This makes it one of the quietest 3D printers on the market. This means that you can easily use it in your workspace without being disturbed by the constant noise of the stepper motors. For small business owners, this is ideal.

Asides from being offering quiet operation, the Artillery Genius comes with several other neat features. It has a proprietary Z nut coupler that reduces layer artifacts on 3D printed parts. The cable management on the Genius is also unique. Instead of the wires flying around, all cables are neatly tucked inside a flex cable for added safety and aesthetics.

The sturdy aluminum body comes with a solid base that is easy to put together. You get a color TFT touchscreen for easy navigation through the various functions. Although the print quality is not amazing right out of the box, with some fine-tuning you will have a high-quality printing experience on a sub-$300 budget.

It can be tricky to find 3D printers under $300 that offer a high print speed and come with features like automatic leveling of its heated bed, and Wi-Fi connectivity. The Monoprice Mini Delta V2, however, is one of the few options that give you just that. The Mini Delta V2 is the successor to the original Mini Delta and one of the most versatile printers under $300 with a small form factor.

The Delta V2 comes with an updated color touchscreen, with a new look and a neatly designed user interface. This upgraded version offers automatic bed leveling to make your first layers stick perfectly to the build platform. On the connectivity side of things, it has a USB port, SD card slot, and inbuilt Wi-Fi to let you control your 3D printer remotely from your smartphone.

The self-diagnostic features are also unique to see in this category. The Delta mini runs an extruder heat check and checks the movement of all three axes when you turn it on. This helps prevent failed prints and wasting valuable filament.

A major downside of the Delta V2 is the small printing area and slightly reduced print quality because of the higher print speed. This is circumventable by turning the print speed down, but that does mean your 3D prints take longer.

Ultimately, the Delta V2 is an excellent beginner Delta 3D printer in a compact package at an attractive price.