3D printer bed sizes (2026): what fits on every printer, and how many pieces a big part needs

The table: every printer in our engine, and what fits on it

Not in the table yet: Bambu Lab H3C (launched 3 November 2026), Creality Ender-3 V3 Neo (announced 16 October 2026) and Creality K3 (pre-orders from 12 October 2026). The engine has no profile for them yet, so the table gives them no numbers rather than copied ones. They will get rows when the engine does.

Listed bed size vs the area you can print on

Three different numbers get called “bed size”, and they can differ by more than a centimetre:

1. The plate: the sheet of metal or glass you can hold.
2. The maker’s print volume: where the nozzle can put plastic.
3. The slicer’s limit: what the slicer will actually let you place and print.

Plate vs print area: the Ender-3

The original Ender-3’s plate is 235 × 235 mm, but Creality gives its print area as 220 × 220 mm and 250 mm tall; it says the difference goes to the bed clips and a safety margin (Creality). The stock Marlin configuration for that printer still calls the bed 235 mm and sets 250 mm of Z travel (Marlin).

The engine’s row is the Creality Ender-3 V3, whose listed print volume is 220 × 220 × 250 mm (Creality), the same as the original’s print area; the engine stores 220 × 220 × 250 mm. So the row applies to an original Ender-3 too, as long as you read it as print area, not plate. Every figure in the table is a print area in that sense.

Spec vs slicer: Bambu’s 250 mm ceiling and the cut-out corner

Bambu lists the P1 and X1 machines at 256 mm tall, but their Bambu Studio profiles inherit a 250 mm print height from a shared default file, while the A1 and P2S profiles set 256 mm (the shared profile). Bambu staff closed a GitHub report about it as not a bug (issue #2817). The P1S and X1 Carbon profiles also exclude an 18 × 28 mm corner at the front. The engine keeps that corner clear; the table’s heights stay at Bambu’s 256 mm and carry a star.

The corner matters more than it sounds. A 6 × 6 Gridfinity plate, 252 mm square, leaves only 4 mm spare on a 256 mm bed, so it can’t avoid the cut-out: the engine’s largest plate for the P1S is 5 × 6 (210 × 252 mm), against 6 × 6 (252 × 252 mm) on the A1.

Two nozzles, several volumes: H2D and H2C vs H3C

On Bambu’s two-nozzle printers the volume depends on which nozzles a print uses. In the H2C’s Bambu Studio profile the plate is 330 × 320 mm, the left nozzle reaches 325 mm of X, the right nozzle 305 mm, and both together 300 mm; the height is 320 or 325 mm depending on the nozzle (H2C profile, shared H2 profile). The H2D works the same way at 350 mm, which is why some pages list it at 350 mm and others at 325 mm. The engine uses the strip both nozzles reach, 300 × 320 × 325 mm for the H2C. That height is the profile’s overall figure: one of the two nozzles is limited to 320 mm, so a print that uses both gets 320 mm, as the table’s note says.

The H3C, launched on 3 November 2026, is listed at 330 × 320 × 325 mm (Bambu Lab), and its Bambu Studio profile defines no per-nozzle areas. Bambu’s launch post doesn’t say whether every tool reaches the whole volume, so check the plate in Bambu Studio before you plan a part to the edge.

Brims, skirts and purge lines

Additive-X suggests leaving 10–20 mm of clearance on each axis (Additive-X), and SpeakCAD adds 10 mm each way for a brim or skirt (SpeakCAD). Here is what a 10 mm margin on every side costs on the 180 mm and 256 mm beds:

How long a part fits on the diagonal (the width matters)

The usual advice is that the diagonal of a square bed is its side × 1.41: “around 362mm” on a 256 mm bed, says Additive-X, and SpeakCAD and STL Splitter’s printer pages quote the same kind of figure. That is the length of a line with no width. A real part has width, and its corners hit the bed’s edges before its centre line reaches the corners.

On a rectangular bed there is no neat formula: the best angle is no longer 45°, and for wide parts lying straight along the long side can win. The table’s figures for rectangular beds come from trying every angle in steps of 0.05° and refining the best one, and for the P1 and X1 machines the bar is placed along the diagonal that misses the cut-out corner.

Two cautions before you lay a part corner to corner. SpeakCAD points out that the corners are where beds tend to be least level, and nothing else fits on the plate beside a diagonal part. Use the diagonal for one long part, not as a plan for a full plate.

Standing it up

Height is the other long axis, but on every printer in the table even a 40 mm wide part lies longer on the diagonal than the printer is tall. Stand a part up when its shape asks for it, not to gain length. Turning a part also changes which faces hang over air; the guide to overhangs and print orientation covers that side of the choice.

Biggest Gridfinity baseplate and bin on each bed

Gridfinity baseplates come in whole 42 mm cells, so a bed’s size rounds down hard. The table’s Gridfinity column keeps 2 mm free on each side of the plate and stays clear of excluded corners. That is clearance from the bed’s edge, not room for a brim: it suits a flat baseplate printed without one. If you print plates with a brim or skirt, use the right-hand column, which keeps 10 mm free on each side, the margin SpeakCAD gives for a brim or skirt.

• A 5 × 5 plate is 210 mm square, so it doesn’t fit a 180 mm bed in one piece. SpeakCAD reaches the same verdict: split it, or print 4 × 4. The engine’s largest plate for the A1 mini is 4 × 4 (168 × 168 mm).
• 17 of the 19 printers in the table take a plate of 5 × 5 or more in one print.
• Height is rarely the limit for a bin. Gridfinity heights come in 7 mm units, and even the A1 mini’s 180 mm takes 25 of them (175 mm) before the stacking lip. Measure the drawer first; it runs out long before the printer does.

Plates for a big drawer are printed in several pieces that sit side by side; the bins hold them in line. The Gridfinity dimensions guide has the rest of the numbers and how to fit a grid to a drawer.

How many pieces a big part needs, and what the joint costs

When a part is longer than the bed, the question becomes how many pieces. The table counts them the way Loftsmith’s free print splitter plans its cuts: straight cuts, the part turned whichever way needs fewest pieces, and each piece kept short enough for its joint.

So a 600 mm rail needs 4 pieces on the A1 mini, 3 on the A1 and 2 on H2C, H2D, H2D Pro, A2L, H2S and Voron 2.4 (350). These are straight-cut counts; laying the pieces on the diagonal can sometimes save one, at the cost of the cautions above.

Where to put the cuts, how to hide the seams and how to pin the pieces in line is a separate job, covered in the guide on how to split a model that’s too big for your printer.

RC flying wingA wing far bigger than any bed, split into bed-sized panels with filament-pin joints.436 × 994 × 86 mm · 427 g · 21 h 50 min

Which bed size do you need?

Start from what you print, not from the spec sheet. This guide doesn’t rank printers; it tells you which bed holds a given part in one piece.

• Small functional parts. Loftsmith’s storage box at its defaults is 120 × 88 × 52 mm and fits 19 of the 19 printers in one piece. For a part like this, any bed works; check its box against the volume column.
• Gridfinity. A 180 mm bed prints 4 × 4 (168 × 168 mm) plates; the 256 mm class prints up to 6 × 6 (252 × 252 mm). Both fill a drawer, the smaller one with more plates.
• Shelves and wall parts. The keyhole shelf at its defaults is 90 × 180 × 83 mm and fits 19 of the 19 printers in one piece. Longer shelves and rails get split; the piece column shows how many pieces each bed needs.
• Long parts in general. Measure the part’s box (length, width, height), find the width in the table, and compare the length with the longest flat part. If it is longer, the piece column is your answer.

Compact locking-pin boxA box with a seated lid and dividers. Set its size, and the engine checks it against your printer’s build volume.120 × 88 × 52 mm · 91 g · 2 h 17 min

One-piece keyhole shelfA one-piece wall shelf on hidden keyholes. Set its width, and the engine checks it against your printer.90 × 180 × 83 mm · 134 g · 3 h 16 min

On a new printer, print a tolerance ladder first. The ladder and its pegs take about 21 minutes and 4.8 g of filament by the engine’s estimate, and they tell you the gaps your printer makes, which every multi-piece part depends on.

Tolerance testerA ladder of holes and pegs that shows which gaps your printer makes.71 × 35 × 10 mm · 5 g · 21 min

Sources and method

Written by the Loftsmith team. Every number in the tables was computed on 8 November 2026 from the build volumes in the Loftsmith engine’s printer profiles (printer data 68764e68; the code changes that tag whenever any bed changes). The piece counts use the print splitter’s own rule from the engine, and the Gridfinity plates use the plate planner’s placement around excluded corners. The engine’s Bambu profiles point at Bambu Studio commit f977235.

Each build volume was then checked against the maker’s page or, for Bambu, the printer’s profile in Bambu Studio on GitHub, which defines what the slicer lets you print (Bambu’s own website refused our requests). Rows we didn’t check are marked. Pages disagree more than you might expect: one large-format buying list gives the P2S as 400 × 400 × 400 mm in its table and 256 × 256 × 256 mm in its own text (Sovol); Bambu’s profile says 256 mm. STL Splitter’s chart of 70+ build volumes covers more printers than this guide, and links a splitting tool that does the fitting; it doesn’t list part width, Gridfinity or piece counts.

Not done: no test prints and no measured print areas; nothing in this guide was printed. Printers the engine doesn’t hold are left out. The longest-flat-part figures are edge to edge and assume a flat, level plate. A joint test card was considered for the pieces section but its build report wasn’t available, so the guide gives no joint gaps.

Changes: the tables are recomputed from the engine on every build, and the build is pinned to printer data 68764e68. If the engine’s printer data changes, the site won’t build until this page has been re-read, re-dated and the change logged, so new numbers never appear under an old date.