3D printers under $500, cheapest first

Twenty-two shipping 3D printers in the database launched at $500 or less, from the Creality Ender-3 V3 SE at $199 to the QIDI Q2 and Sovol Zero at $499. The table lists them cheapest first. These are US launch prices for the printer alone, and store prices change after release (see 3D printer price drops).

Nineteen of the 22 launched at $400 or less and are covered in the 3D printers under $400 list. Raising the budget to $500 adds three printers: the Bambu Lab A2L at $469, and the QIDI Q2 and Sovol Zero at $499.

What 3D printers are under $500?

Twenty-two shipping printers launched at $500 or less: eight at $300 or less, 11 between $349 and $399, and three above $400. The cheapest is the $199 Creality Ender-3 V3 SE. The three above $400 are the Bambu Lab A2L ($469), QIDI Q2 ($499) and Sovol Zero ($499). Each has a spec that no printer under $400 matches.

What the three add:

• Bambu Lab A2L, $469: an open-frame bedslinger (the bed moves front to back) with a 330 × 320 × 325 mm build volume, the largest print area under $500. The largest under $400 is the Sovol SV06 Plus ACE at 300 × 300 mm, though it is taller, at 350 mm. The A2L lists a 300 °C hotend and a 500 mm/s top speed. It takes an optional AMS lite or AMS multicolor unit, and the A2L Combo with an AMS lite launched at $569.
• QIDI Q2, $499: an enclosed CoreXY (the bed moves only up and down) with a chamber heater rated to 65 °C and a 270 × 270 × 256 mm build volume. It has a 370 °C hotend and a fitted HEPA, carbon and pre-filter. The Q2 Combo with a QIDI Box multicolor unit launched at $649.
• Sovol Zero, $499: an enclosed CoreXY with the smallest build volume in the table, 152.4 × 152.4 × 152.5 mm. Its claimed 1,200 mm/s top speed is double the 600 mm/s of seven other printers on the list. It has a 350 °C hotend and a carbon filter but no multicolor system.

Motion system, enclosure and multicolor support

Fifteen of the 22 are bedslingers and seven are CoreXY, which have their own CoreXY printers under $500 list. Five are enclosed, all of them CoreXY. The other 17 are open-frame.

Fourteen work with a multicolor system. Two include one in their $399 launch price: the Anycubic Kobra X has a four-spool ACE Gen 2 built into the printhead, and the Creality Ender-3 V4 is sold only as a combo with one Creality CFS unit. The other 12, the A2L and Q2 among them, take a unit sold separately. The cheapest multicolor printers list sorts them by price.

Which 3D printers under $500 have a heated chamber?

Only one shipping printer under $500 has an actively heated chamber: the QIDI Q2, which launched at $499 with a chamber heater rated to 65 °C. It is the cheapest heated-chamber printer in the database. The next shipping one up, the Bambu Lab X2D, launched at $649 and is also rated to 65 °C.

The Q2 shares its 270 × 270 × 256 mm build volume, 370 °C hotend and 600 mm/s claim with the QIDI Q2C at $399. The $100 between them buys the chamber heater and the fitted filters. QIDI sells the Q2C’s air filter and camera as options.

Four other printers under $500 are enclosed but have no chamber heater: the Elegoo Centauri Carbon ($299.99), Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 ($399), QIDI Q2C ($399) and Sovol Zero ($499). Their makers publish no chamber temperature rating, so the chamber column shows a dash for them, as it does for the 17 open-frame printers.

Five more shipping printers with a heated chamber launched between $500 and $1,000, and the 3D printers under $1,000 list includes all five.