What bed temperature should you use for PLA?

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What bed temperature should you use for PLA?

Set 55 to 60 °C on a smooth or textured PEI (polyetherimide) plate. Bambu Studio defaults PLA (polylactic acid) to 55 °C there, and Prusa recommends 60 °C. On a Bambu Cool Plate, use 35 °C. Makers’ guidance spans 25 to 65 °C, and Creality lists 50 to 70 °C for its coated glass bed.

The number

PLA type Maker data sheet range Bambu Studio default, smooth or textured PEI Bambu Studio default, Cool Plate
PLA Basic Bambu PLA Basic 35 to 45 °C, with glue; Prusament PLA 40 to 60 °C; PolyLite PLA 25 to 60 °C 55 °C 35 °C
PLA Matte Bambu PLA Matte 35 to 45 °C, with PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone) glue; Panchroma Matte 25 to 60 °C 55 °C 35 °C
Silk PLA Bambu PLA Silk+ 35 to 45 °C; Panchroma Silk 25 to 60 °C 55 °C 35 °C
PLA+ (PLA Pro, Tough PLA) PolyLite PLA Pro 30 to 60 °C 55 °C, including the Bambu PLA Tough+ and eSUN PLA+ profiles 35 °C
PLA-CF (carbon-fiber filled) PolyLite PLA-CF 25 to 60 °C; Bambu Filament Guide 45 to 65 °C on smooth PEI, 55 to 65 °C on textured PEI 55 °C 45 °C

Ranges come from the Bambu Lab PLA Basic, PLA Matte and PLA Silk+ data sheets, the Bambu Filament Guide, the Prusament PLA data sheet, and Polymaker’s PolyLite PLA, PolyLite PLA Pro, PolyLite PLA-CF and Panchroma data sheets. The slicer columns are the plate temperatures in Bambu Studio’s PLA base profile. The Basic, Matte, Silk, Silk+, Tough+ and eSUN PLA+ profiles inherit them unchanged, and the PLA-CF profile raises only the Cool Plate figure.

Bambu’s sources disagree with each other. Its single-product data sheets give 35 to 45 °C for every plate type, while its Filament Guide splits PLA by plate: 35 to 55 °C on the Cool Plate and 55 to 65 °C on the smooth and textured PEI plates. The slicer follows the plate-by-plate numbers. Prusa’s knowledge base settles on one value, 60 °C, for smooth PEI and satin sheets.

What bed temperature for PLA on textured PEI, smooth PEI, glass or a cool plate?

Plate Maker guidance for PLA
Smooth PEI (Bambu Smooth or High Temperature PEI Plate, Prusa smooth sheet) Bambu Filament Guide 55 to 65 °C; Bambu Studio 55 °C; Prusa 60 °C
Textured PEI (Bambu Textured PEI Plate, Prusa powder-coated or satin sheet) Bambu Filament Guide 55 to 65 °C; Bambu Studio 55 °C; Bambu Lab Wiki 45 to 60 °C with the top glass cover removed; Prusament data sheet 40 to 60 °C
Coated tempered glass (Creality) 50 to 70 °C
Bambu Cool Plate Bambu Filament Guide 35 to 55 °C; Bambu Studio 35 °C

Creality’s glass figure is for its coated tempered glass bed, not plain glass. Polymaker lists glass among the surfaces for PolyLite PLA Pro, with glue or Magigoo, at its usual 30 to 60 °C.

Why PLA needs so little bed heat

PLA softens at low temperatures. Its glass transition is 60 °C on Bambu’s PLA Basic sheet and 61 °C on Polymaker’s PolyLite PLA sheet. Every data sheet range above tops out at 60 °C, right at that point. Bambu’s guide goes to 65 °C on PEI, and Creality’s coated glass to 70 °C.

The bigger risk with a hot bed is in an enclosed printer. A hot bed warms the chamber, and warm air softens PLA in the hotend’s cold zone before it reaches the nozzle. Bambu Lab calls this heat creep and names PLA as the filament that clogs most often. Its rule is to keep the enclosure at least 10 degrees below the filament’s glass transition.

That is why Bambu ties PLA to the plate:

  • Cool Plate: made to hold PLA at about 35 °C with the door and top cover closed.
  • PEI plates: Bambu says to print PLA with the door open or the top cover removed.
  • P1S on textured PEI: the requirement is 55 °C, and the chamber fan switches on above 50 °C.
An enclosed printer printing PLA on a hot PEI plate, with the door open and the top cover removed so the warm air can escapeA hot bed in a closed printer warms the air around the hotend, so Bambu says to print PLA on a PEI plate with the door open or the top cover off.3Hotend in the warmed air4Hot PEI plate2Door open1Top cover off
  1. Top cover off
  2. Door open
  3. Hotend in the warmed air
  4. Hot PEI plate
A hot bed in a closed printer warms the air around the hotend, so Bambu says to print PLA on a PEI plate with the door open or the top cover off.

How to check it on your own print

  • Check which plate the slicer thinks it has. Bambu Studio stores a separate bed temperature for each plate type in the filament settings, so the wrong plate selection gives you the wrong number. In PrusaSlicer, the bed temperature for the first layer and for other layers sits under Filament Settings.
  • Start at the default. Use 55 °C on Bambu PEI plates, 60 °C on a Prusa sheet, 35 °C on a Bambu Cool Plate, or the middle of your spool’s printed range.
  • If the first layer won’t stick or a corner lifts, clean the plate first (how often to wash a PEI plate). Then raise the bed toward the top of the maker’s range: 60 °C on Prusament’s sheet, 65 °C in Bambu’s guide for PEI. Bambu’s data sheets call for glue on PLA Basic and PVP glue on PLA Matte, and Polymaker adds glue when needed (glue on textured PEI).
  • If an enclosed printer clogs or the extruder clicks partway through, open the front door, take off the top cover, or switch to the Cool Plate at 35 °C. Lower the bed only if you stay inside the plate’s range.
  • In a cold room, Bambu suggests the opposite. At an ambient 5 to 10 °C, close the door and fit the top cover to warm the chamber and stop warping (printing in a cold garage).
  • Let the plate cool before you pull the part. Creality says to wait until a PEI plate is under 30 °C, because removing parts hot is more likely to damage the surface.

Sources

  1. Bambu Filament Technical Data Sheet V3.0, PLA Basic (Bambu Lab) (accessed October 15, 2026)
  2. Bambu Filament Technical Data Sheet V2.0, PLA Matte (Bambu Lab, copy hosted by Additive-X) (accessed October 15, 2026)
  3. Bambu Filament Technical Data Sheet V1.0, PLA Silk+ (Bambu Lab) (accessed October 15, 2026)
  4. Bambu Filament Guide (Bambu Lab) (accessed October 15, 2026)
  5. Bambu Studio PLA filament base profile, fdm_filament_pla.json (Bambu Lab, GitHub) (accessed October 15, 2026)
  6. Bambu Studio Bambu PLA-CF profile, Bambu PLA-CF @base.json (Bambu Lab, GitHub) (accessed October 15, 2026)
  7. Heat creep, Bambu Lab Wiki (accessed October 15, 2026)
  8. Prusament PLA Technical Datasheet, Version 1.1 (Prusa Polymers) (accessed October 15, 2026)
  9. PLA, Prusa Knowledge Base (accessed October 15, 2026)
  10. PolyLite PLA Technical Data Sheet, Polymaker Wiki (accessed October 15, 2026)
  11. PolyLite PLA Pro Technical Data Sheet, Polymaker Wiki (accessed October 15, 2026)
  12. PolyLite PLA-CF Technical Data Sheet, Polymaker Wiki (accessed October 15, 2026)
  13. Panchroma PLA Product Data Sheet V2.1 (Polymaker) (accessed October 15, 2026)
  14. 3D Printer Bed: How to Choose the Right Build Plate (Creality) (accessed October 15, 2026)