The Best 3D Printers for Kids and Teens

It’s never too early to introduce your kids to the wonders of 3D printing. Many of us here at Tom’s Hardware are parents who love 3D printing, and these are the printers we would give our own kids.

Why buy a kid 3D printer? We have many machines on our Best 3D Printer list, but most of them are too advanced for younger kids. This is where “toy” printers come to the rescue. These printers are perfect for young beginners, especially those without a knowledgeable grown-up to help with setup and maintenance. These are simpler 3D printers with fewer parts that can go wrong. Some may not have the best quality or big build volume, but they will amaze and empower a youngster starting their 3D printing journey.

 What is a good age to start 3D printing? With adult guidance, children can begin exploring 3D printing as soon as they can read, operate phone apps, and understand safety measures. Some child-friendly 3D printers are no more complicated than learning to use a microwave, with easy-to-load filament and models that can be brought to life through curated mobile apps. Many of the “just for kids” 3D printers we’ve reviewed have cold build plates and safety doors that shut the machine off when opened.

Elementary-aged kids who can understand three-dimensional drawing concepts are ready for programs like Tinkercad to design their own creations.

All the kid-friendly 3D printers we reviewed also come with basic slicers with locked-in presets that make setting up prints simple. Most “grown-up” slicers can be set to a basic mode that hides advanced features to make the slicing process less overwhelming.

Below are our recommendations for the best 3D printers for kids and teens.

Quick List

Denise Bertacchi

Denise has been using 3D printing as a creative outlet since 2020 when she got her first Creality CR10s. She’s been a freelance newspaper reporter, online columnist and craft blogger with an eye for kid’s STEM activities. She’s added YouTube to her social media skills and has traveled cross county and overseas to talk 3D printing with fellow makers. She’s analyzed nearly 100 different 3D printers, from a tote bag sized delta to a meter wide Elegoo OrangeStorm Giga currently camped out in her living room. When she’s not building 3D printed RC cars or stirring glitter into a batch of resin, you’ll find her at the latest superhero movie with her husband and two sons.

The Best 3D Printers for Kids and Teens

Best 3D Printer for Kids and Teens Overall

The best 3D printer for kids wasn’t even made for children, but that’s exactly why the Bambu Lab A1 Mini tops our list. It’s not a toy but a full-fledged, fast, and affordable powerhouse with buckets of speed to spare. It’s simple enough that an elementary-aged child can operate it with light supervision and robust enough to serve the entire family for years to come. It’s backed by Bambu Lab’s comprehensive website, with a complete catalog of spare parts and maintenance instructions that pop up right on the printer.

The A1 Mini is accompanied by a growing line of RFID-tagged filament that simplifies slicing, allowing the printer to identify the loaded material right down to the color and suggest matching print settings. It can also use any 3rd party filament that fits its spool holder, like PolyMaker or Inland. This is the only youngster-friendly printer on our list that can print in four colors for vibrant prints that don’t need paint.

Though it lacks software tailored for children, it does have Bambu Lab’s beginner-friendly MakerWorld website and the Bambu Handy mobile app. The website contains thousands of free print files, complete with pre-sliced files that can be downloaded to the Bambu Studio Slicer or directly to the printer from the mobile app. MakerWorld also has a growing suite of MakerLab design tools that let anyone design statues and creatures with the help of AI, as well as vases, puzzles, containers, and signs. 

The printer is mostly assembled and only needs a few parts pressed together to get it ready for its first print.

MORE: Bambu Lab A1 Mini Review

Best Printer for Very Young Makers

The most well known of the kid printers, ToyBox was made to teach and entertain elementary aged children with very little need for supervision from parents. The printer is extremely basic, has few buttons and can be operated entirely from a smart device or computer.

What makes the ToyBox outstanding is its top-notch website, with a library of free and paid premium parent-approved models and simple toy designing tools. The website is heavily curated for children and restricts models with “grown up” themes like weapons or nudity. The ToyBox library of files contains many models converted from other websites like Thingiverse or Printables. ToyBox also has exclusive models from brands like Cartoon Network, DC, DreamWorks and Hanna-Barbera. 

Our one problem with the ToyBox is the limited connectivity that relies on your home WiFi. We had trouble getting ours to connect to the internet, which is the only way you can download files to print. ToyBox models also can not be sent or saved for use with other brands of 3D printers, so once your child outgrows the ToyBox you can no longer use the website. 

Another disappointment with the ToyBox is its lack of user serviceable parts. In a baffling move, the company considers nozzles to be covered by warranty. In order to extend the life of the printer, 3rd party filament is viewed as hazardous to the machine. This lead kids and many adults to view a 3D printer as an unserviceable appliance like a microwave, rather than a tool that can easily be fixed by the user.  

We should note that ToyBox is coming out with a new, larger printer dubbed the Comet, with a 180 x 180 mm build plate. We have yet to review the machine, but it looks quite promising.

MORE: ToyBox Review

Best 3D Printer to Grow With Your Kid

The X-Maker is perfect for elementary kids, but has advanced features to allow it to grow with your child’s skill level. It’s the best of both worlds – a fun printer that’s fully functional. It has a safety enclosure, an easy to under graphic interface, a decent sized print volume, a heated bed and a nozzle that can handle PETG or ASA when you’re ready for stronger filaments. 

It comes with a suite of free kid-friendly design software that lets the user create their own toys from scratch and a simple slicer to prepare files for the 3D printer. A full feature slicer is included for advanced users. The X-Maker website also sells kits to add wind up motors or music boxes to models the user can print and build themselves. 

Unlike the ToyBox, X-Maker’s designs can be saved as normal stl files and exported in order to print them on another 3rd party printer. It can also handle full sized spools of nearly any filament. 

The printer comes fully assembled and is practically plug and play.

MORE: AOSeed X-Maker Review

Best Budget Kid Printer

Though a single-color Bambu A1 Mini is cheaper, this is still our favorite budget printer made specifically for children. Once the filament is loaded, a child can operate this printer from a mobile device (or desktop computer) with little supervision. 

The Joy does have one flaw: it has no interface at all. There are no screen, buttons, or media ports. It can only operate with a mobile device and home Wi-Fi. The mobile app is also part of the issue with this 3D printer, as it depends on a WiFi device to operate. I couldn’t get it online without letting it hook up with the mobile app first.

Once that barrier is overcome, the X-Maker Joy is a nice basic printer with average speed, good print quality, and a cold build plate suitable for PLA. Kids will enjoy the monitoring camera that lets you watch the printer lay down plastic from the mobile app. It can handle a full-sized spool if you print an adaptor or table-mounted spool holder. 

It comes with kid-friendly software for basic slicing, a website with curated models, and shares the same apps as the bigger X-Maker to let kids design their own toys. X-Maker sells a line of accessories to turn prints into RC cars, boats, and more.

Best 3D Printer for STEM

An excellent choice for tweens and teens, the Prusa Mini+ can be a STEM project in of itself. Even the semi-assembled version of the Prusa Mini+ requires more assembly than most modern printers, and the kit version will have you clearing the whole weekend. Mechanically minded teens should relish the challenge and will learn a great deal about how the printer works while building it.

Like all Prusa printers, the Mini+ has 24-7 European support should you have any issues. And though Prusa printer comes in kit and semi-assembled  offers quality with a compact size. It’s not made with kids in mind, but its user-friendly features make it accessible. As a semi-assembled printer, it strikes a balance between simplicity and functionality.

MORE: Prusa Mini+ Review

Best 3D Printer for Teens

The AnkerMake M5C is a “full size” 3d printer that’s superfast and easy to use, especially for teens who always have a mobile device in their pocket. The 3D printer has no screen and only one button to start and stop prints. Instead, it runs off your phone or from your computer. Unlike printers built specifically for children, this phone app has a wealth of information and access to all the printer’s features. The app also connects the user to a library of files that can be downloaded directly to the printer without needing to be sliced.

When you download files from other sources, AnkerMake has a custom slicer with an excellent beginner-friendly “easy mode”. Advanced users only need to flip a switch to access the rest of the features. 

The printer is also easy to assemble in a few steps with clear directions. A tween or tween could take this printer from box to first print with very little supervision.

MORE: AnkerMake M5C Review

What projects can kids make with a 3D printer?

Just like adults, kids can make all kinds of things with a 3D printer. The obvious answer is custom toys and collectibles, but they can also make educational tools and practical prints to organize their rooms. Young artists can explore digital sculpture, and science geeks can work on building their own robots — the possibilities are endless.

A great resource for practical 3D printing is Printables, a file library run by Prusa Research. It frequently hosts designer contests based on themes that kids may find interesting, like Educational Tools, Back to School, or Dice Towers.

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