What Is PCTG Filament? The Complete 3D Printing Guide
I get asked about PCTG more than any other material we make, so I wrote this page to answer the question properly, once.
Here's the short version. PCTG is PETG on steroids. It prints at PETG-like settings with no enclosure, it takes 8-12x the impact that PETG does, it shrugs off the chemicals and sun that make PETG crack and fade, and it comes off the printer glossy or clear. We make it here in Fargo, North Dakota, and we print it every day on the same Bambu, Prusa, Creality and Snapmaker machines you own. Everything below is what we've learned doing that. Where I'm giving you a number, it comes from our data sheets or our own testing. Where we're still testing, I'll say so.
Updated October 2026. If something here doesn't match what you see on your printer, tell us. The page gets better every time a customer teaches us something.
On this page: What PCTG is · Spec sheet · Test data by print orientation · PCTG vs PETG, PLA, ABS and PC · How to print it · Glossy, matte and clear · Heat · Chemicals and UV · Where it falls short · What people make with it · Which spool to buy · FAQ
What PCTG is
PCTG stands for polycyclohexylenedimethylene terephthalate, glycol-modified. Nobody says that out loud. What matters is that it's a copolyester in the same family as PETG, and the two share most of their chemistry.
The difference is one ingredient. PETG is built on ethylene glycol. PCTG swaps most of that out for a bulkier molecule called CHDM (cyclohexanedimethanol). That one change alters how the polymer chains pack together, and you get a plastic that bends instead of cracking, stands up to more chemicals, pulls less moisture out of the air and stays clear. It still melts at about the same temperature as PETG, which is why any printer that can print PETG can print PCTG.
PCTG isn't new. It's been in injection-molded products for years, in the kind of things that get dropped and washed: water bottles, appliance housings, medical device shells. As a 3D printing filament it's newer. We took over making Pro PCTG when Essentium left the filament business, and it's grown into our widest line, with 60 colors and a few fiber-filled versions.
Where it sits: tougher and more chemical-resistant than PETG, far easier to print than ABS, ASA or polycarbonate, and clearer than any of them. If you've ever had a PETG part crack on you, this is the material you were looking for.
Pro PCTG spec sheet
The numbers in one place. The full data sheets are linked under the table.
| Property | Pro PCTG | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Notched Izod impact | 93 kJ/m² (860 J/m) | ISO 180 (ASTM D256) |
| Impact toughness vs PETG | 8-12x | Notched Izod |
| Tensile strength at yield | 44 MPa | ISO 527 |
| Tensile strength at break | 46 MPa | ISO 527 |
| Elongation at break | 220% | ISO 527 |
| Flexural strength | 60 MPa | ISO 178 |
| Flexural modulus | 1,600 MPa | ISO 178 |
| Heat deflection, 0.455 MPa | 76 °C | ISO 75 |
| Heat deflection, 1.82 MPa | 64 °C | ISO 75 |
| Glass transition (Tg) | 84 °C | |
| Light transmittance | 90% | ASTM D1003 |
| Density | 1.23 g/cm³ | ASTM D792 |
| Hardness | Shore 76D, Rockwell R 105 | ASTM D2240, D785 |
| Diameter | 1.75 mm (2.85 mm made to order) | |
| Spool sizes | 1 kg, 4 kg; 50 g sample coils | |
| Nozzle temperature | 250-280 °C | |
| Bed temperature | 80 °C, textured PEI | |
| Enclosure | Not required | |
| Drying | 70 °C for 6-8 h, or 65 °C for 8-12 h | |
| Food contact | Resin approved; printed parts need a food-safe coating | |
| Made in | Fargo, North Dakota, USA |
Data sheets: Pro PCTG TDS · SDS · RoHS letter · Technical library
One number people skip past: density. At 1.23 g/cm³ against about 1.27 for PETG, a 1 kg spool of Pro PCTG has about 3% more filament on it, and your parts weigh about 3% less. Not huge. Still nice.
Test data by print orientation
A data sheet tells you what the plastic can do. It doesn't tell you what your part will do, because every printed part is weaker across the layer lines than along them. So we also test printed specimens in four orientations. XY is printed flat, with the load running along the layers. ZX is printed standing up, with the load pulling the layers apart. 45/45 and YX are in between. Values are the mean, with the standard deviation in parentheses.
| Measurement | Method | XY | 45/45 | YX | ZX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultimate tensile strength, MPa | ISO 527-2 | 44.0 (0.2) | 40.4 (1.1) | 43.5 (0.7) | 45.0 (1.6) |
| Tensile modulus, GPa | ISO 527-2 | 1.81 (0.03) | 1.71 (0.04) | 1.72 (0.02) | 1.86 (0.09) |
| Strain at break, % | ISO 527-2 | 130 (1) | 2.6 (1.6) | 4.9 (0.5) | 3.9 (0.4) |
| Flexural strength, MPa | ISO 178 | 72.7 (0.9) | 70.1 (0.7) | 40.4 (1.1) | 71.5 (1.1) |
| Flexural modulus, GPa | ISO 178 | 1.78 (0.01) | 1.69 (0.02) | 1.57 (0.04) | 1.72 (0.02) |
| Notched Izod impact, kJ/m² | ISO 180/A | 7.5 (0.5) | 5.4 (1.2) | 6.1 (1.4) | 4.7 (0.8) |
Two things I want you to take from that table. First, tensile strength barely moves with orientation. That's unusual, and it's a direct result of how well PCTG layers fuse when you print it hot and slow. Second, strain at break is the exception: a flat XY part stretches 130% before it tears, and a standing ZX part manages about 4%. So if a part needs to flex, print it so the flex runs along the layers. That one decision does more for a part than any slicer setting I can give you.
PCTG vs PETG, PLA, ABS and polycarbonate
Every material is a set of trade-offs, and I'd rather you pick the right one than buy a spool of ours for the wrong job. Here's how PCTG stacks up against the materials people usually choose between. Where I have our own numbers I've used them; for ABS, ASA and PC I've used typical published figures.
| Pro PCTG | PETG | PLA / Tough PLA+ | ABS / ASA | Polycarbonate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Impact toughness | Highest of the group; 8-12x PETG | Moderate; can shatter | Low (PLA); good for Tough Pro PLA+ | Good | Very good |
| Heat deflection (0.455 MPa) | 76 °C | 72 °C (Pro PETG) | 55-60 °C; 75-85 °C annealed | About 90-100 °C | About 130 °C or more |
| Chemical resistance | Broad | Moderate | Limited | Moderate; attacked by acetone | Moderate |
| UV / outdoor | Good; about 2x Pro PETG | Fair | Poor | ASA excellent; ABS fair | Fair unless stabilized |
| Clarity | Exceptional, 90% transmittance | Exceptional | Opaque to translucent | Opaque | Clear, but hard to print clear |
| Enclosure | Not needed | Not needed | Not needed | Needed | Needed, heated |
| Nozzle temperature | 250-280 °C | 230-265 °C | 200-250 °C | 240-270 °C | 280-310 °C |
| Warping | Very low | Low | Very low | High | High |
| Fumes | Low odor | Low odor | Low odor | Styrene; ventilate | Low odor |
| Ease of printing | PETG-like, a bit slower; calibrate pressure advance | Easy | Easiest | Hard | Hardest |
| Annealable for heat | No | No | Tough Pro PLA+ yes | Limited | Limited |
My rule of thumb: PLA for things that sit on a shelf, PCTG for things that get used, ASA for things that sit in the sun for years, and polycarbonate or a fiber-filled grade for things that get hot. If you want the full head-to-head with test data, I wrote PCTG vs PETG: Which Should You Print With? and PCTG vs Tough PLA+.
How to print it
If we have a profile for your printer, use it and skip this section. We keep profiles for more than 30 printers from Bambu Lab, Prusa, Creality, Qidi, Elegoo, Anycubic, FlashForge and Snapmaker, and every one of them was built in-house on the actual machine: Pro PCTG Print Profiles.
If we don't, start with your PETG profile and change these things.
| Setting | Pro PCTG | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Nozzle temperature | 250-280 °C | Below 250 °C it doesn't fully melt at normal speeds. Go toward the top of the range for faster speeds, thicker layers and hardened nozzles. Park it at 280 °C with the print idle and it can cook into buildup. |
| Bed temperature | 80 °C on textured PEI, no glue | Big part warping? Raise 5 °C at a time; 85-90 °C is fine. Stay off bare smooth PEI, which PCTG can damage. On a smooth sheet, glue stick is your release layer. |
| Part cooling | As low as you can: 5% minimum, 30-40% maximum | At least half of what you run for PETG. Fan is what turns a glossy, well-bonded part into a matte, weak one. Minimum layer time about 20 s. |
| Speed | Outer walls and top surfaces 100 mm/s or less (about 50 mm/s for the best finish); nothing over 150 mm/s | PCTG is thicker when it's molten and needs a moment to flow. Older bed-slingers: 80 mm/s or slower. |
| Acceleration | 2,000 mm/s² or less; 1,000 on outer walls and top surfaces | Hard direction changes drag plastic onto the nozzle. Drop to 500 if buildup won't go away. |
| Max volumetric speed | Start at 10 mm³/s on a 0.4 mm nozzle; don't go past about 15 | About 1 mm³/s on a 0.2 mm nozzle. 0.6 mm and up: calibrate. |
| Pressure advance | Calibrate it. Don't reuse your PETG or PLA value | This is the single biggest factor in a clean PCTG print. Redo it per color, after a nozzle change, and after any big temperature or speed change. Here's why and how. |
| Flow ratio | Start at 0.98 | Drop 0.01-0.03 if plastic collects on the nozzle. Above about 1.05 you're overstuffing. |
| Retraction | Wipe while retracting, retract on layer change | On Bambu Studio set Metal Stickiness to High. Our profiles already do this. |
| Infill | Gyroid, cubic or lines; turn on "Avoid crossing walls" | Patterns that cross themselves, like grid, cause nozzle buildup. |
| Enclosure | Not required | If you have one, keep it closed; it keeps the last layer warm so the next one bonds better. Heated chambers about 45 °C, and turn chamber heat off when you're printing PLA support interfaces. |
| Nozzle | Brass is fine for standard colors | Matte Black, CF10 and GF10 have fibers in them and need a hardened nozzle. Hardened nozzles usually want 5-10 °C more. 0.2 mm nozzles: 270 °C or more. |
| Drying | 70 °C for 6-8 hours, or 65 °C for 8-12 | PCTG takes on moisture slower than PETG, but a wet spool still strings and spits onto the nozzle. No PCTG preset on your dryer? Use PETG. Store it sealed with desiccant. |
| Supports | Pro PCTG supports with a Standard PLA+ interface on multi-nozzle printers | PCTG does not stick to PLA, so a PLA interface snaps off clean. Supports at 60 mm/s, interfaces at 50 mm/s. Details. |
The pattern in all of that: hotter, slower, less fan than PETG. The number one reason a first PCTG print disappoints is PETG settings carried over untouched. Number two is skipping pressure advance. For the side-by-side of slicer settings, see Printing Pro PCTG vs. PETG: What's Different. For everything else, including notes for Bambu Lab, Prusa, Creality and Snapmaker, the Pro PCTG wiki is where we put it.
Glossy, matte and clear
Hotter = glossier. I've been saying that since our first PCTG blog post and it's still the best one-line advice I have.
Pro PCTG should come off the printer glossy, and that gloss isn't cosmetic. It means the plastic fully melted and the layers fused. A glossy part is a strong part. If you see matte bands, or a whole part comes out matte in a standard color, it printed too fast, too cold, or with too much fan, and those areas bonded worse. There isn't a magic gloss temperature, because it's about how much heat the plastic gets per cubic millimeter. Slow the outer walls to about 50 mm/s, back the fan down, bump the nozzle 5-10 °C within the 250-280 °C range, and the gloss comes back.
If you want matte on purpose, don't get it by printing cold; you're trading strength for it. Use Pro PCTG Matte Black. It gets its finish from about 4% carbon fiber and prints at full strength. It needs a hardened nozzle and its own profile and pressure advance value, and it's one of our most popular colors for a reason: it hides layer lines like nothing else we make.
For clear parts, Natural and the transparent and translucent colors print clear, not glass-clear, at 90% light transmittance. The settings for clarity are the same as the settings for strength: hot, slow, low fan, dry spool. Moisture is what turns clear filament cloudy. Thicker layers and fewer, wider walls let more light through. The wiki has a full article on getting the best clarity.
Heat: what PCTG can and can't take
Pro PCTG has a glass transition of 84 °C and a heat deflection temperature of 76 °C at 0.455 MPa and 64 °C at 1.82 MPa. In plain terms: a lightly loaded part is fine into the 70s, a part under real load should stay in the 60s, and a closed car in summer, which can pass 70 °C, is the edge. That's a few degrees better than a good PETG and roughly 5-15 °C better than a cheap one. It is not a high-heat material, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
You can't anneal it for more heat. PCTG is amorphous, so an oven doesn't crystallize it the way it does Tough Pro PLA+. It just softens and distorts. It's also not suitable for steam sterilization.
When a part needs more, stay in the family. The fiber-filled grades hold their shape under load at higher temperatures and they're a lot stiffer: heat deflection at 1.82 MPa goes from 64 °C for unfilled Pro PCTG to 73 °C for Pro PCTG-GF10 and 76 °C for Pro PCTG-CF10, and flexural modulus goes up 1.6x and 3.5x. The trade is impact toughness, which drops as fiber goes in (notched Izod 860, 214 and 53 J/m). So: GF10 or CF10 for stiff, hot, dimensionally stable parts, unfilled Pro PCTG for parts that get hit. All three print at the same 250-280 °C; the fiber grades need a hardened nozzle.
Chemical and UV resistance
This is the other big reason to pick PCTG over PETG, and it's the one I hear about most from people who use it for work. In our soak tests Pro PCTG held up to isopropyl alcohol and ethanol without stress cracking, kept its strength in gasoline and mineral spirits, didn't swell in engine oil or hydraulic fluid, stayed stable in bleach and degreasers, handled sodium hydroxide better than PETG, and held together in citric and acetic acid. PETG tends to craze in alcohols and soften in fuels. PCTG doesn't.
A customer named Clark put it better than I can. He races go karts and prints fuel and brake line clips, catch cans and gauge brackets in Pro PCTG: "your filament definitely holds up better to exposure to the chemicals (PAG based oils, petroleum based tire preps, etc.) that we commonly use." Another customer told me the parts he prints in Pro PCTG are surviving on a Top Fuel dragster at over 300 mph. That's a little faster than the parts I print for my Ford Maverick.
On UV, we tested it. After 2,000 hours of accelerated weathering, Pro PCTG held its color about twice as well as our own Pro PETG, and Pro PETG is already a high-grade PETG. For outdoor mounts, garden parts, signage and anything that sees seasons rather than decades, PCTG outlasts PETG. If a part has to hold its color for years in full sun, ASA is still the right call.
Where it falls short
I'd rather you know these before you buy a spool than after.
- It's slower than PETG. It's more viscous, so outer walls want 100 mm/s or less and acceleration wants to stay under 2,000 mm/s². A part that takes an hour in PETG might take 75 minutes in PCTG.
- It wants its own pressure advance value, per printer, per nozzle, per color. Skip it and you get bulging corners and ugly seams. Our profiles have it built in for the printers we support. On anything else it's a ten-minute calibration.
- It sticks hard. Hard enough to pull chunks out of bare smooth PEI. Use textured PEI, or glue stick on smooth sheets, and let the plate cool all the way before you pop parts off.
- You can't anneal it, so the heat resistance you see on the sheet is what you get. For more heat, GF10, CF10 or PET-CF.
- It's not a first material. If you're brand new to 3D printing, learn on Standard PLA+ or Tough Pro PLA+ first.
- It costs a little more than PETG. About a dollar a spool at list price.
And honestly, PETG is fine for a lot of things: storage bins, prototypes, jigs that never take a hit, light outdoor use. If your PETG parts aren't cracking, you don't need to switch. PLA is fine for anything that sits indoors, stays cool and doesn't move.
What people make with it
The parts that come back to us in reviews and support tickets have one thing in common: they get used. Snap-fit enclosures and battery doors that get opened a hundred times. Drone arms and RC chassis parts that take a crash and keep going. Tool holders and bit organizers in shops where things get dropped on them. Garden fittings and outdoor camera mounts. Cosplay armor that has to flex instead of crack. Jigs, part trays and fixtures in small factories, where the chemical resistance matters because everything gets wiped down with IPA every shift.
A few from our customers' reviews:
In our own building we print our fixtures in Pro PCTG: label-application jigs, spool tray handles, device mounts. They live next to extruders and get handled all day.
Which spool to buy
- First spool, or everyday functional parts: Pro PCTG in Midnight Black, Brightest White or Natural. 60 colors and counting, all on a spool that fits the Bambu Lab AMS.
- Tool mounts and shop parts that match your tools: the Toolbox colors.
- Clear and tinted parts, or color mixing: the transparent and translucent colors.
- A true matte finish: Pro PCTG Matte Black. Hardened nozzle.
- Stiffer or hotter parts: Pro PCTG-GF10 for stiffness and dimensional stability with a matte surface, Pro PCTG-CF10 for the most stiffness and strength. Both need a hardened nozzle.
- The lowest price per kg: ReFuel Recycled Pro PCTG. Same material, recycled from our own color-transition spools. Colors vary, and that's the deal.
- Not sure yet: a 50 g sample coil is the cheapest way to find out.
Running a print farm, or just going through a lot of it? 4 kg spools cost less per kg, quantity discounts apply automatically in the cart (no codes, no account, no hoops), and there's volume pricing above that.
About me
I'm John Schneider, founder and CEO of Schneider Enterprises, the company behind 3D-Fuel. Every spool of Pro PCTG is extruded, wound and boxed in our factory in Fargo, North Dakota. I write these guides myself, I print on the same machines you do, and when you call with a technical question, a real person here picks up. If something on this page doesn't match what you're seeing on your printer, tell us. That's how this page gets better.
Happy Printing!
- John
Shop Pro PCTG
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Quick answers
Pro PCTG, in plain words.
These answers come from our support tickets and the Pro PCTG wiki, which covers calibration, troubleshooting and printer-specific notes in full.
Do I need an enclosure to print PCTG?
No. Pro PCTG prints in the open on any printer that handles PETG. If your printer has an enclosure, keep it closed; it keeps the previous layer warm so the next one bonds better. Heated chambers: about 45 °C, and turn chamber heat off when printing PLA support interfaces.
Can I use my PETG settings for PCTG?
For temperatures, mostly. For speed, no. Print 250-280 °C, keep outer walls at 100 mm/s or less, cut the part fan to 5-40%, and calibrate pressure advance. PETG settings carried over unchanged are the top cause of a disappointing first PCTG print.
Why does my PCTG print look worse than PETG on the same settings?
Pressure advance and speed. PCTG is more viscous than PETG, so it needs its own pressure advance value and slower outer walls. Use a Pro PCTG profile for your printer, or calibrate pressure advance and slow down; blobs, bulging corners and messy seams go away.
Can I print Pro PCTG in a Bambu Lab AMS?
Yes. Our 1 kg spool dimensions are compatible with the AMS, AMS 2 Pro and AMS HT, and our Bambu profiles are named "PCTG Pro" so the AMS recognizes the material. For AMS drying, choose PCTG, or PETG if it isn't listed.
My printer has no PCTG material type. What do I pick?
Tell it PETG. Do not select PC; polycarbonate presets run far too hot. Then load our profile or apply the settings from the table above.
Do I need a hardened nozzle?
Not for standard colors, including transparent and translucent; brass is fine. Matte Black, Pro PCTG-CF10 and Pro PCTG-GF10 contain fibers and need a hardened steel nozzle, 0.4 mm or larger. Glow in the Dark is mildly abrasive.
Is PCTG food safe?
The resin is approved for food contact, but a printed part is not automatically food-safe: layer lines trap bacteria. Use a food-safe coating if the part will touch food.
Can I use PCTG outdoors?
Yes. In 2,000 hours of accelerated weathering, Pro PCTG held its color about twice as well as our high-grade Pro PETG, and it resists heat and chemicals better. For parts that must hold their color for years in full sun, ASA is still the right choice.
Does PCTG need to be dried?
It absorbs moisture more slowly than PETG, but a wet spool still strings and builds up on the nozzle. Dry at 70 °C for 6-8 hours, or 65 °C for 8-12 hours; use the PETG preset if your dryer has no PCTG option. Store sealed with desiccant.
Can I anneal PCTG for more heat resistance?
No. Pro PCTG is amorphous, so heating it doesn't raise its heat resistance the way annealing does for Tough Pro PLA+; it just softens and distorts. For more heat, use Pro PCTG-GF10 or Pro PCTG-CF10.
How hot can a PCTG part get?
Glass transition is 84 °C; heat deflection is 76 °C at 0.455 MPa and 64 °C at 1.82 MPa. Lightly loaded parts are fine into the 70s, loaded parts should stay in the 60s. It is not suitable for steam sterilization.
What glue works on PCTG?
Epoxy gives the strongest bond. Cyanoacrylate (super glue) is fast and rigid. PETG 3D-Gloop! gives a welded bond. We don't recommend E6000. Full adhesive guide.
Does PCTG stick to PLA?
No, and that is useful: on multi-nozzle printers you can print Pro PCTG supports with a Standard PLA+ interface that breaks away clean. Never run PLA and PCTG through the same nozzle without purging; PLA leaves a skin that ruins layer bonding.
What does PCTG stand for?
Polycyclohexylenedimethylene terephthalate, glycol-modified. It is a copolyester in the same family as PETG, with cyclohexanedimethanol (CHDM) in place of much of PETG's ethylene glycol.