How Long Does a 3D Print Take?
Quick Answer
About 22 minutes for a 20mm cube, around 2 hours for a palm-sized part, over 20 hours for a 100mm cube
All at 0.2mm layers, 20% infill and 50mm/s. Size and layer height dominate: halving the layer height roughly doubles the time.
Typical FDM Print Times by Size
| Layer height | Estimated time | Filament (PLA) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20mm calibration cube | 0.2mm | ~22 min | ~4.4g |
| 20mm calibration cube | 0.1mm | ~42 min | ~4.2g |
| 60 × 40 × 30mm part | 0.2mm | ~2 hours | ~28.5g |
| 60 × 40 × 30mm part | 0.1mm | ~3 h 40 min | ~26.8g |
| 100mm cube | 0.2mm | ~20 h 25 min | ~311g |
All rows assume 20% grid infill, 50mm/s, 3 wall lines, 4 top/bottom layers and a 0.4mm nozzle, calculated with our print time estimator's model (15% travel overhead plus 3 seconds per layer change). The slightly lower filament figure at 0.1mm comes from the thinner top and bottom solid stacks (4 layers each). Real prints vary with acceleration and geometry, so treat these as ballparks.
The Maths Behind the Table
Take the 60 × 40 × 30mm part at 0.2mm layers. The deposited volume is about 22,967 mm³ (7,200 walls + 3,465 top/bottom + 12,302 infill). At 50mm/s with a 0.4mm line and 0.2mm layers the printer lays down 50 × 0.2 × 0.4 = 4 mm³ per second, so extrusion alone takes 22,967 ÷ 4 ≈ 5,742 seconds. Add 15% for travel moves (6,603s) and 3 seconds for each of the 150 layer changes (450s) and the total is about 7,053 seconds, just under 2 hours. Our print time estimator runs this sum for your own dimensions and settings.
What Changes Print Time Most
Layer height has the biggest single impact: halving it from 0.2mm to 0.1mm roughly doubles print time, which you can see in the table (22 to 42 minutes on the cube). Print speed is the next biggest factor, followed by infill percentage. Infill matters most on solid, boxy parts: going from 20% to 100% typically takes 2 to 3 times as long, and on the 60 × 40 × 30mm example above it stretches the estimate from about 2 hours to nearly 6. To print faster, increase layer height, reduce infill, use fewer perimeters, raise speed within your hot end's flow limit, or fit a larger nozzle.
Why Your Slicer Says Something Different
Simple estimators like this one are typically within 20 to 30% for simple shapes; slicer estimates are usually within 10 to 20% of the actual print. The gap comes from acceleration, jerk, retraction count and travel-path optimisation, which slicers model in detail. Complex geometry with many small features adds direction changes and retractions, and Bowden-tube printers have longer retraction moves. For the most accurate figure, slice the actual model; for a quick ballpark before you model anything, the height-and-speed estimator works from just the object height and layer settings.