
Slant 3D announced they’ve achieved their goal of producing US$10/kg 3D printer filament.
In late 2023, Gabe Bentz of Slant 3D announced a plan to “eventually” achieve US production of 3D printer filament at the rock-bottom price of US$10 per kg. That was quite a statement at the time, when filament tended to cost in the US$20-30/kg range.
Bentz has provided a series of updates over the past year and a half of their project, as they gradually iterated through different approaches. Starting at US$20, they now seem to have achieved a price of US$10 per kg. However, there are some twists to the story.
You might guess that the secret to low-cost filament is about the machinery and materials used to make the filament. Those do indeed have something to do with the final price, but there are larger factors that affect the price. Bentz and team focused on aspects such as packaging, shipping, spool size, and other factors.
For example, they believed that the per kg price could be lowered by using larger spools. They started by working with 2kg spools. However, they discovered that the 2kg format isn’t the optimum format for low-cost production, and then shifted to 3kg spools.
Bentz explains their journey in this video:
One of the key problems that affected the final per kg price was the variability of production. In a typical production situation, the manufacturer has to meet peak demand, without knowing exactly how large that peak might be. Achieving peak production means, for example, ordering sufficient raw materials to meet that need.
However, Bentz explained they realized that having a better idea of each month’s peak production could lower the costs. This would allow them to optimize their material purchases, schedule labor, etc.
To overcome this unknown factor, they’ve introduced a monthly subscription fee for their Tangled Filament service that provides access to the low-cost filament.
This at first may appear to be a way around achieving US$10/kg filament by simply adding more cost from another angle. But there’s more to the story.
A subscription to Tangled Filament costs only US$7 per month, which is pretty low. That membership allows you to order as much material as you want for US$10/kg — although it’s shipped in 3kg spools. The benefit is that there is free shipping within the USA.

There is no limit to the amount you can order, and this means that the subscription fee basically fades away the more you order. For example, if you order only one spool per month, you’re paying US$30 (for a 3kg spool) and the US$7 subscription fee, resulting in a net US$12.33/kg. However, if you ordered seven spools, you’d pay US$210 (7 x US$30) plus the subscription fee of US$7 for a total of US$217, or US$10.33/kg.
So it’s not exactly US$10/kg, but it can be very close.
Tangled Filament would be of most interest to those who require larger amounts of filament, such as small print farms, but even individuals using only 3kg a month could benefit from a US$12.33/kg price.
Via Slant 3D and Tangled Filament