26 Best Sites for Free STL Files & 3D Printer Files/Models

If you already own a 3d printer, the next thing you need is 3d design files (STL, OBJ, AMF, 3MF…) to start 3d printing your desired objects. But what if you don’t know how to create your own 3d design? It may take a lot of time to develop your 3d design skills.

Luckily, there are many 3D modeling websites with millions of 3d STL files for free. If you want to create 3D furniture, a mechanical part, or even a statue of a person or animal, it’s just a few simple mouse clicks, download the file, preview the model with STL viewer software, and print with your 3d printing software.

In this article, you will find the list of 25 best websites to get free STL files, as well as other 3D printer files like OBJ, AMF, 3MF, that can cover almost all of your needs.

For your quick reference, I list all websites in the table below

Type of website

• Repository: This type of site is the database of free 3d files, sorted in various categories
• Marketplace: Marketplace is where seller sell their premium 3d designs, they also provide free 3d design files to gain popularity
• Search engine: This is where you can search for any type of 3d designs, there’re filter that allows you to show results for free STL files only. The 3d files search engine website will look around the internet on many website and show you the most relevant results.

25 best website to get free STL files

1. Thingiverse (largest free repository for SLT files)

> Website: https://www.thingiverse.com/

Thingiverse deserves 1st place in this list, this is the largest 3d printing community in the world. On Thingiverse, users can upload and share their 3d designs. The SLT files are sorted into different categories, you can easily find the things you need.

For example, this is a SLT file owl bear I got from Thingiverse

Other than STL files, there are many communities on Thingiverse and they are super active. You can ask question or join interesting topic related to 3d design here

If you love 3d designs from a specific author, you can follow and explore his collection.

All the interesting above make Thingiverse the best option when looking for website to download free SLT files for 3d printing.

2. CULTS3D (free and paid SLT files)

> Website: https://cults3d.com/

CULTS3D is another popular repository and marketplace dedicated to 3D printing. At Cults3d, you can download free SLT files, or purchase premium 3d design

You can search for 3d designs SLT files, with filter like show only free files

In the model details page, you can see every information about the model such as: file format, publication date.

Also, they provide very helpful information about 3d printing settings.

You can also become an author and share your work for free, or sell them for money on CULTS.

3. Instructables (free SLT file with very detailed instruction)

> Website: https://www.instructables.com/

Unlike other SLT download websites, which only provide SLT files, Instructables provide very detailed step-by-step instructions on how to 3d print and assemble things to make a complete object.

There’s explanation for every step, as well as pdf files which contain download link for 3d stl file, here’s an example:

The designers who share their work on instructable are very helpful to answer questions from users. There’re some premium designs and futures, which are restricted to pro membership users.

4. Printables (previously known as PrusaPrinters)

> Website: https://www.printables.com/

PrusaPrinter was founded by Jo Prusa in 2012, he is also the creator of Prusaa i3 design for 3d printer.

Since 2019, PrusaPrinters was launched and quickly became a high-quality repository for 3d printing files. In March, 2022 Printables.com replaces PrusaPrinters.org and keeps its well-sorted library of high-quality 3D models.

At the moment I write this article, there are 55514 3d print files published on Printables.com, and the number keeps growing rapidly day by day.

At Printables, you can also join groups that match your interest (like group for a specific country). Eg, this is a group for Germany 3d printing lovers

Prusaprinters also offers free slicer software called Prusalslicer. PrusaSlicer is an open-source to export the print files for your Prusa 3D printer.

5. YouMagine

> Website: https://www.youmagine.com/

YouMagine is a project by Erik de Bruijn is a co-founder of Ultimaker. At YouMagine, you can find a wide variety of 3d printing slt files for free. This is a community of 3d printing enthusiasts who wish to share their work to make a better 3D printed things.

There are over 18000 3d designs to download for free on Youmagine, you even don’t need to sign up to download files.

For every 3d design, you can preview design as well as real printed stuff. Everything comes with very detailed instruction and if you created an account on Youmagine, you can add the 3d design to your favorite list.

Scroll down to the comment section, you can see real printed stuff shared by users

6. GrabCad

> Website: https://grabcad.com/library/

GrabCad’s main business is GrabCadShop, a Work Order Management Software for 3D Printing Model Shops. They also offer free 3D Printing Software for Stratasys 3D Printers.

GrabCad website has Library section where users can download over 4,920,000 free CAD, STL and other 3d printing files.

You can view 3d design directly on browser with their 3d viewer

The 3d designs on Grabcad are mainly complex parts from designers and engineers, there are not many everyday printables designs.

7. NIH 3D Print Exchange

> Website: https://3dprint.nih.gov/

NIH 3D Print Exchange is the place where you can find 3D-printable models related to biomedical science. The NIH teams are PHDs and designers from famous universities, led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in collaboration with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development and the National Library of Medicine.

Here’re the types of 3d designs that can be downloaded from NIH 3d Prin Exchange

There are over 10926 ready-to-download models, you can get them by clicking on Download button under thumbnail image and select type of 3d files to save to PC.

If you are looking for Facemask 3d printing files, then this is one of the best place.

8. CGtrader

> Website: https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models

CGtrader is a marketplace for 3d printing files, you can get both paid files and free files on CGtrader. There is a total 1,091,901 items on CGtrader, and ~25% of the items are free models (~254,329 items), which is still a big number.

There are a wide variety of categories on CGtrader

You can filter to show free models only, or select the desired file type to download.

3d model formats are available in many extensions like Autodesk FBX (.fbx), OBJ (.obj, .mtl), Collada (.dae), 3D Studio (.3ds), Sketchup (.skp)

If you are a 3d professional, you can also earn money on CGTrader by selling 3d designs on this marketplace, or joining some freelance projects

9. MyMiniFactory

> Website: https://www.myminifactory.com/

MyMiniFactory is a community space and repository that provides both paid and free 3d model designs. This website is aimed at gaming and geek users.

Here are the 3d model categories on this site

At the moment, there are 173259 designs on MyMiniFactory and over half of them (123215 designs) are free 3d model

It’s easy to download stl files from MyMiniFactory, select your favourite 3d model and click on Download, you will see download option

If you are 3d designers, you can participate in MyMiniFactory competition to get great prize such as an expensive 3d printer

Since 2018, you can also upload your 3d designs to sell on MyMiniFactory marketplace and get 90% of the revenue.

10. Pinshape

> Website: https://pinshape.com/

Pinshape is another 3d marketplace that connects 3d designers and makers. Besides premium 3d models, there are a lot of free 3d designs.

Pinshape models are mainly daily-life stuff like Toys + Games, Miniatures, Home Living, Jewelry + Fashion, Gadgets, Art, People + Creatures.

There are over 90.000 designs on Pinshape and with 2/3 of them are free designs.

11. TurboSquid

> Website: https://www.turbosquid.com/

TurboSquid was founded in 2000, this website is one of the oldest 3d models marketplace. There are over 1038478 models on TurboSquid with 48074 models are free to download.

The 3d model files are sorted into many categories, you can quickly access the desired topic from the menu. Personally, my most favorite part of this website is the vehicle and robot section.

You can filter STL files only from the search bar to show STL models only.

It’s required to log in to download 3d files here.

If you have nice 3d designs and would like to make some online earning, you can list your stuff on Turbosquid and get a 40% commission for every sale.

12. 3DExport

> Website: https://3dexport.com/

Established in 2004, 3DExport is a well-known premium marketplace for 3d designs.

3DExport contains over 344,787 3d designs. The website features both 3d models and printable 3d models, but mainly focus on premium 3d models.

There are more than 9,643 free 3d models on this website. Go to Printable 3d models section and use filter function to show free models only if you want to download free STL files from 3DExport.

Register a free account and you can download as many free stl files as you want.

13. Free3D

> Website: https://free3d.com/

Free3D stores over 7,391 free 3d printable models. Most of the models on this site are animal, Architecture, Vehicles, Characters, Aircraft, Furniture…

There’s no need to register to download free 3d printable designs on Free3d, just hit the download button, and there you go!

The website also offers premium 3d models with price ranged from $5-$99. Of course, these stuff are much better compared to free models.

14. Threeding

> Website: https://www.threeding.com/

Threeding stores over 13,000 free 3d models in various categories from Electronic, art to Science, Toys, Games…

You are required to create a free account to download free 3d printable models on Threeding.

Besides 3d models, Threeding also offers print service for many 3d models on their website, the printed product will be shipped to your address.

15. RedPah

> Website: https://www.redpah.com/

RedPah is an online 3d models store with over 4.826 designs. 1500 are free products and the rest are premium.

On RedPah, you can find Jewelry, Art, Household, DIY, Hobby, Tools, Automotive, Parts, Toys 3d models.

For every 3d design, you will have the options to Download or view 3D render online.

16. XYZ 3D Printing Gallery

> Website: https://3d-gallery.xyzprinting.com/en-US/gallery/

XYZPrinting is a Taiwanese 3D printer manufacturer. Besides selling 3d Printers, they also build a completely free section to download 3d printable designs.

There are around 10,000 printables models that you can download from XYZ3DPRINTING website and all are free. The models categories are Home, Toyland, Gadget, Adult3D, pen stencil

Simply, create a free account on XYZPrinting and then you can download everything you want.

17. Zortrax Library

> Website: https://library.zortrax.com/

Previously, Zortrax Library was a part of Zortrax Z-suite, a software for slicing
and 3D printing farm management. The company decided to separate the software and make the library available online and free for everyone.

The 3d file library on Zortrax contains over 4000 3d models, and all are free to download.

All the files in Zortrax Library are of .stl, .dfx or .obj formats, which means they are ready for 3d printing. The Filament for 3d files on Zortrax is mainly ABS and HIP.

To download stl file on Zortrax, you will need a free account

Although 3d models on Zortrax work best with Zortrax printers like Zortrax M200 or Zortrax M300, you can also use their 3d models on many other popular 3d printers.

This is a sample stl design downloaded from Zortrax

18. Repables

> Website: https://repables.com/

Repables is a 3D printable file repository that contains 840 free STL files. The site is quite simple, most of the 3d designs are everyday items and replacement parts for open-source printers.

For every 3d design, you can download a jpg file and STL file

You can also share your 3d design here by creating an account and upload  your stl file. After moderation, your 3d file will be shared to the community.

19. 3D Orchard

> Website: https://3dorchard.com/

3dOrchad is a 3d community website that allows users to share their 3d designs among the community. You can get advice, feedback, and suggestion from other users on 3d Orchard.

This website works like a social network for 3d enthusiasts.

There is a wide range of items on 3dorchard. You can find tool, parts, toys, fashions, education 3d model on this site. About 30,000 3d models have been uploaded to this site.

You just need a free account to download stl files from 3d orchard

To find printable objects, use the filter function from the menu

20. Yeggi

> Website: https://www.yeggi.com/

Yeggi is a 3d printer design search engine, this website crawls 3d printable models download links from different websites like Thingiverse, CGtrader…  Their index contains 3,003,125 printable 3D Models, with more than 90% are free to download files and they keep updating new stuff daily. More than 1000 new designs are added to the database every day.

The best thing about Yeggi is that it can save your time a lot as you won’t need to visit different websites to find your favorite 3d designs. Also, you can use the search filter to follow the most trending 3d items or the newest 3d items over the 3d community worldwide.

For every item listed on Yeggi, if you hover over the thumbnail of the 3d design, you will see the original source and price of the item.

At the moment I write this article, Genshin Impact is the most popular online game and Yeggi suggests that search term.

If you love the design and you don’t own a 3d printer, you can click on print now to use their 3d printing service.

21. Libre3D

> Website: https://libre3d.com/

Libre3d website is pretty straightforward, you can easily browse for 3d models using the search function. The website has around 500 free 3d printable designs that are available to download.

For each item, you can preview images and download separate STL files in the bundle.

You can also share your 3d designs with the community by signing up for a free account and uploading 3d files to the repository.

22. 3DWAREHOUSE

> Website: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/

3dwarehouse is a free 3d files repository by Sketchup team, the owner of a well-known 3D modeling computer program Sketchup.

There are up to 20.000 free 3d designs on 3DWAREHOUSE, you will need to create a free account to download these files.

Besides downloading premade 3d designs, the website also offers live components. Live components can be edited directly from your browser.

3d designs on 3DWAREHOUSE are not available as SLT extension. These files are made for Sketchup software. However, you can easily convert these files into SLT file using free Sketchup SLT extension.

23. NASA

> Website: https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/models/printable

To contribute to the development of 3d printing community, NASA also provides a free 3d repository where you can download 121 3d models related to Aeronautics.

All the 3d models here are printable and made by professionals. The models are mainly for for educational purposes, so you can find many famous Nasa projects like Curiosity Rover

Inside the 3d zip files, we can find stl file for every component of the object, as well as assembly instructions

24. STLfinder

> Website: https://www.stlfinder.com/

STLfinder is a search engine for free 3d models, the search engine collects data from various website like Thingiverse, Cults3d and returns results based on search keywords.

For example, this is the result when I searched for “car” query. The result page shows many 3d models with source of the file.

Sometimes the thumbnail images do not display properly, but things are fine when we go to the model detail page.

The download link will redirect you to the original source of the 3d design.

Personally, I think STLfinder is a good backup for Yeggi.

25. Embodi3d

> Website: https://www.embodi3d.com/

Embodi3d provides only 3D medical models, most of them are free.

There are around 20,000 3d medical models to download, most of them are free. You can find any kinds of medical 3d objects here: bone, muscles, cardiac and vascular, organs, skin, veterinary… This should be a great website for medical educational purposes.

Embodi3d makes money by offering 3d printing service, the printed items will be shipped to customers.

To download STL file on Embodi3d, you need to create a free account and verify it.

26. 3Dupndown

> Website: http://3dupndown.com

3Dupndown allows users to share, download and discuss the 3d models. You can also get profit for each download of your 3d files, the website share ads revenue with the uploader.

Here you can find 3d models in the following categories: Hobby, Sports/Leisure, Fashion, Home, Physical, Electronics, Educational, Technology.

There are around 15,400 models to download, vast of them are free 3d models.

Create a free account and you will be able to download many items from this website.

Wrapping up

I hope you enjoy the list of 25 best websites to download STL 3d printable files. If you have any other favorite sites that you would like to share, please drop a comment below. I will update the article to include the website if I find it helpful.

Have and question or suggestion? Feel free to drop a line below.