Since 2013, editor Signe Brewster has been discovering, studying, and testing 3D printers—and sometimes 3D pens—for tech publications including Gigaom, TechCrunch, and now Wirecutter.

Staff writer James Austin has been covering hobbies for Wirecutter since 2022. He spent 15 hours researching and testing new 3D pens for this most recent update. In addition, he ran a testing panel with more than 40 kids ages 6 to 13 during a recent take-your-kids-to-work day at the offices of The New York Times.

While researching this guide, Signe interviewed Rachel Goldsmith, a New York–based artist who uses 3D pens prominently in her work, and whom the 3D-pen brand 3Doodler commissioned to do artwork in the past. They discussed the general features that matter the most when you’re using a 3D pen.

A 3D pen is the handheld cousin of a 3D printer. You feed strands of hard plastic, called filament, into the pen, and the pen melts it and extrudes it out of the tip as a string of goo.

By holding the pen like a regular pen and drawing in any direction—including straight up into the air—you can create 3D art, figurines, game pieces, or basic plastic objects like baskets and phone holders. You may even be able to repair broken objects (video) made from ABS plastic by using a 3D pen to “weld” the pieces back together with melted ABS.

3D pens can be useful to people of all ages and ability levels. Manufacturers specify that kids as young as 8 years old can use 3D pens that are specially designed to be safer to work with, but we think that use by a responsible younger child under adult supervision is fine.

These tools tend to appeal to anyone who already likes 3D printers, drawing, or modeling, though they offer less fine-grained control during the creative process than many artists may be used to. Drawing a clean-looking model with a 3D pen takes a lot of practice, which means that beginners should be okay with their initial creations’ looking a little more organic.

If you already own a 3D printer, you might feel like you have enough plastic objects in your life. But working with a 3D pen can be more creative and satisfying because you’re producing something with your hands instead of designing an object with software and letting a printer produce it.

You can also combine 3D printing with 3D drawing by using a 3D pen to fill in mistakes in a printed model or to finish it with colorful details. And 3D pens don’t have a size limit like 3D printers do—you can work at virtually limitless scale.

While searching for 3D pens to test, we consulted existing buying guides from sites such as 3D Insider and Popular Science. We also asked our experts about the most important features to look for and potential flaws to avoid.

You can spend up to $300 on a 3D pen, but not everyone needs the extra features found on high-end pens, such as more-powerful motors (which allow for more precision and additional extrusion options) or the capability to print with unusual materials. You can also find pens for less than $25, but they get poor reviews, and we didn’t come across any worth testing.

The best pens for most people tend to cost between $25 and $100 and have the following features and attributes:

• Comfortable to hold: Because 3D-drawing projects usually take significant time, comfort is important. Although one of our experts said that it’s possible to get used to the shape of any 3D pen, we prefer a pen with a more ergonomic shape that’s comfortable from the start. And the heat from the part of the pen that melts plastic shouldn’t make the grip area uncomfortable to hold.
• Reliable operation: The pen shouldn’t be prone to filament clogs or break easily.
• Steady plastic extrusion: The pen should put out a steady, even strand of plastic at a comfortable speed, adding to your sense of control over the pen.
• Customizable settings: Pens that give you a choice of extrusion speeds make it easier to switch between slower detail work and faster infill work, and multiple temperature settings make it possible to work with a wider range of filament types.
• Continuous extrusion: A continuous-extrude option, where you simply press a button once to start drawing, is easier on your hand during longer drawing projects than a button you have to hold down.
• Easy loading: Whether you want to load in a fresh string of plastic or swap the existing one for a different color, loading and unloading filament should be simple and fast.
• Swappable tips: Pens that come with (or give you the option to buy) multiple tip sizes allow you to draw in different thicknesses, which is useful for switching between details and filler.
• Portability: The pen should be cordless or at least have a cord that’s long enough for use in a variety of work environments. We’ve found that a cord of less than around 6 feet of length still seems a bit too short.
• Good customer service: The company behind the pen should be reachable if something goes wrong. It’s a bonus if the pen has a generous replacement policy or warranty.
• Widely compatible filament: Most 3D pens are compatible with lots of different brands of filament, but some require uniquely designed plastic that has special features—or locks you into buying from the same company. A 3D pen that can work with a range of materials from various brands is better.
• Safe operation: The pen shouldn’t give off dangerous or overly smelly fumes.

To test each pen, we evaluated how comfortably it fit into testers’ hands and took note of whether it felt too hot after extended use. We drew a straight line across a sheet of plastic, constructed a small box that required drawing straight into the air, and built a 10-inch-tall model of the Eiffel Tower using a paper stencil.

We evaluated the settings on each pen, including how easily we could change the temperature and speed. We loaded and unloaded filament and watched for jams. We also made note of how much smell and noise each pen produced.

When we were done testing the pens ourselves, we asked a panel of kids at The Times’s take-your-kids-to-work-day event to use the child-safe pens during the hour-long period they spent with us. We passed out books of stencils but let the kids decide how they wanted to play with the pens.

Some testers used the stencils, while others chose to free-draw. They traced out butterflies, made dreamcatchers, and spruced up their eyeglasses with the colorful plastic, and some worked on their Jackson Pollock impressions. During the testing, we kept track of any issues that the kids had in running the pens, and we interviewed them about their impressions as they worked.

The 3Doodler Flow offers the best overall drawing experience for people ages 12 and older who want to start working with 3D pens. In our testing, it drew clean lines of plastic that solidified quickly, it was the easiest to use, and it was one of the most comfortable pens to hold. It works with multiple tip sizes, too. In addition, 3Doodler's customer service is by far the most responsive we encountered.

It has a beautifully ergonomic shape that’s comfy to hold. 3D-drawing projects can take a while to complete, but the Flow’s well-designed, soft-textured plastic exterior makes the slightly weighty pen easy to hold for however long your drawing takes.

The design allows the index finger to rest naturally within reach of the pen’s two buttons, which start or stop the flow of filament and control its speed. We found that the pen’s shape was ideal for achieving fine control while drawing. The Flow also stays comfortably cool even during long drawing sessions.

It puts out steady, even strands of plastic as you draw. The lines solidified quickly and stayed put when we drew over them; in contrast, most other pens grabbed onto still-soft filament and dragged it along (much like a low-quality hot-glue gun), warping our drawings.

We appreciate that the Flow gives you the option to either press the button once to extrude—which is great when you’re doing fill work or cruising through easier stencils—or “manually” extrude by holding down the button and stopping the extruding when you lift, which gives you finer control over particularly tricky or intricate sections. The Flow’s fast and slow settings are both comfortable for normal drawing.

Loading and unloading filament is easy. The Flow follows the standard 3D-pen filament-loading procedure, which is similar to that of a glue gun. To unload filament, you double-press the speed button, which runs the filament in reverse until the strand is loose enough to tug out. 3Doodler recommends unloading the pen after every use to prevent long-term damage from storing plastic inside it.

It lets you choose between two heat settings. The settings are designed to accommodate ABS plastic (which melts at about 380 degrees Fahrenheit) or PLA plastic (about 360 degrees), the two options in 3Doodler’s filament lineup (more on this topic below).

It doesn’t clog. When 3D pens first appeared, one of the most common problems was that the filament would clog—the melted plastic would harden and get stuck inside the pen. However, none of the 3Doodler pens we’ve tested, including our former top pick, the Create+, and the company’s kid-friendly models, have clogged on us. The Flow is no exception.

It offers more flexibility with tip sizes. The Flow is one of the very few pens we tested with the option to buy additional tip sizes (you can use them with 3Doodler’s Pro pen, too). One of our experts strongly recommends extra tips, as thin tips give you more control over detail work, and thick tips are better for filling in large areas more quickly.

After testing the various tips, we agree. If you want to have more control over detail work or to speed up infilling, the additional tips will help. 3Doodler also sells two ribbon-like shapes that can be useful for adding texture. You don’t have to buy these tips for a good experience with the Flow, but they certainly help.

One word of caution: Make sure the pen is hot when you swap a tip, or you risk permanently breaking your pen.

3Doodler’s customer service is helpful and responsive. As a part of our first round of testing, we sent each 3D-pen company an email asking if it is safe to use third-party filament. 3Doodler responded within minutes—the fastest of any company we queried—and was one of only a handful of companies that responded at all.

We also had a chance to interact with 3Doodler’s customer service when our original Create pen stopped working after being shipped cross-country twice. As before, customer service responded within minutes by email. Within 25 minutes of the first response, the representative helping us had diagnosed an electrical issue and offered to send a replacement.

All 3Doodler pens are covered by a one-year warranty.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• The Flow comes with eight 10-foot-long spools of plastic filament, which is more than you get with most of the pens we tested. However, if you don’t want to void the Flow’s warranty, you’re locked in to using 3Doodler’s plastic. While it’s a bummer that third-party filament isn’t compatible, the price of 3Doodler’s plastic is now within range of the generic plastics, so this limitation is not as big a downside as it once was.
• As was the case with all of the other pens we tried, with the Flow, ABS filament gave off a chemical-like odor, while PLA filament strands smelled more like maple syrup.
• Also like other models, the Flow produces a whiny motor noise while drawing. It’s annoying but not loud enough to bug someone in the next room.
• The Flow has a 5-foot cord, a length that’s fairly standard for a 3D pen, but it will feel short if your table or other work surface is in the middle of a room far from an outlet, as ours was. You should have a lot of slack in the cord so that you don’t feel any tugging from the top of the pen as you work. We recommend using an extension cord if you don’t plan to use the pen directly in front of an outlet.

After testing three kid-safe pens—first individually and then with the help of a panel of about 40 children at a take-your-kids-to-work event at the offices of The New York Times—we’ve concluded that the 3Doodler Start+ is the best 3D pen for anyone under age 12.

It’s safe to touch. We noticed during testing that kids liked to touch and mold the pens’ extruded plastic. Pens with hot tips that use ABS or PLA plastic—including the Flow—are riskier for kids to use. In contrast, the 3Doodler Start+ has a cool-to-the-touch tip and makes use of special plastic that comes out of the pen at a cooler temperature, so kids can draw and mold however they choose.

Its lines aren’t as clean as those of our adult pick, but it performs better than other kids pens. Drawing steady, straight lines with the Start+ is possible, but because this pen’s filament is designed to melt at a lower temperature, it has a more claylike texture and takes longer to dry than the filament in our other picks.

That means it requires more patience to use—in fact, the Start+ is the slowest pen we tested, because you have to move slowly and wait for lines to dry completely before attempting to draw over them.

We also found that drawing a line straight into the air was much harder with all of the kid-friendly pens, as the just-extruded plastic took so long to dry. And none of the child-safe pens we tried had temperature controls.

It’s easy to work with. We didn’t encounter any problems loading or unloading the Start+, which is especially important for a 3D pen designed for kids. It produced virtually no odor in our testing, and it was much quieter than the more advanced pens we tested.

You cannot buy other sizes of tips for this pen. However, you can charge it and use it without a cord—a feature we wish all 3D pens had. And like the Flow, the Start+ benefits from the fastest-responding customer service team of any pen we tested and is backed by a one-year warranty.

It has the same notable flaw as our top pick, plus one of its own. As with the Flow, you’re stuck using 3Doodler’s refill filament in the Start+. And one tester disliked the short, straight pieces of filament, which need to be reloaded more often than the long spools that other pens come with.

If you’re looking for an upgrade and willing to pay for it: The 3Doodler Pro+ is the most comfortable pen we tested, and it gave us the greatest amount of control over our lines. It’s one of the most flexible pens when it comes to materials, too: Whereas the Flow is compatible with just ABS and PLA, the Pro+ adds options such as wood (blended with plastic), copper (also blended with plastic), and nylon. It also allows for precise temperature control, which makes working with unusual third-party materials easier. However, those benefits weren’t enough for us to recommend the Pro+, because it costs more than twice as much as the Flow, and that pricing rules it out for anyone but the most devoted 3D-pen fans.

This is not a comprehensive list of all the 3D pens we’ve tested. We have removed pens that have been discontinued or failed to meet our criteria.

The Mynt3d Printing Pen that the company loaned us was dead on arrival—it loaded filament only a few millimeters at a time and heated up only when we held one of its buttons down, which was not the way it was designed to work. But the squarish shape of the pen would have been enough for us to disqualify it for comfort reasons: Unlike with the other pens, our fingers did not rest naturally on the extruder button. Mynt3d did not respond to our customer service request.

The Mynt3d Junior 2 worked better than the Printing Pen, earned positive comments from our kids testing panel, and offers many of the same benefits as the 3Doodler Start+. It’s cool to the touch and cordless, and most of the kids who tried it were able to hold and use it with little confusion. We liked the Start+ better due to 3Doodler’s history of solid customer support, the Start+’s slightly longer-lasting battery, and the extras that come with it, including much more filament and a bevy of fun stencils for kids to immediately get into.

Although the Scrib3d P1 performed reasonably well in our tests, we found that it wasn’t as pleasant to hold as our top pick. The light plastic shell felt cheap, and while the speed-adjustment slider on the side is a neat idea, it didn’t work as well in practice as the two-speed selector on the Flow. Its power cord is also about a foot shorter than that of the Flow.

This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.