There are various websites where you can get free 3D models. We created a selection from 2022 of the best websites that offer free 3D models. Let’s take a closer look!
Thingiverse is maybe the most popular site to look for free 3D models and a good starting point to find the perfect 3D model for you. MakerBot created this repository to offer a growing community a place to discover and share 3D models. On Thingiverse, there are over 2 million different 3D models available, and more are shared every day.
Like Thingiverse, Instructable provides only free 3D models. However, Instructable is more than just a site where people can share their models. It also acts as a significant community space. Here, creators can work together to create large projects, often involving programming or electronics.
With this community space, you can find a project that suits your level of expertise and find instructions and tutorials of other projects to steepen your learning curve.
Cults, founded in 2014, acts as a marketplace for curious 3D printing enthusiasts, designers, and developers. They provide people who maybe aren’t as advanced in the 3D world or as creating a place where they can find objects for the 3D printing process and laser cutting models and objects for CNC machining. You can find over 530 thousand high-quality 3D models on this site.
On Cults, you can find many free 3D models. However, some also come with a paywall.
Like the marketplace Cults, MyMiniFatory offers free and paid 3D printing models. The London-based company supports a broad community of illustrators, writers, creators, and makers to share their unique designs and content. MyMiniFactory offers over 190 thousand different 3D models and guarantees printability by publication, as every STL file is tested beforehand.
Free3D offers free 3D models and premium designs that need to be paid for. You can browse through over 17,000 free models in various categories like plants, architecture, sport, animals, electronics, automotive, furniture, and many more. On Free3D, you can also build your portfolio.
The website Prusa Printers is especially interesting for 3D enthusiasts who own a Prusa 3D printer. The website acts as a community forum and offers many different subjects such as articles about 3D printing, a community forum, and 3D models. All uploaded models are free, and you can search through over 100 thousand of them.
Thangs offer over 8 million unique and free 3D models on their website and are one of the fastest-growing communities within the 3D world. However, this page distinguishes itself with an imposing feature from other free 3D models site. Their search engine is capable of doing a geometric search. With the help of this engine, it is easier to find 3D models that are similar to the searched geometric. Another great feature of Thangs is the possibility of collaborating with friends and working on the same project while checking the changes they made.
Clara.io provides over 100 thousand different and free 3D models that can be downloaded as various format files, like OBJ, STL, and many more. Additionally to the free 3D designs, Clara.io also offers a learning space where the user can watch tutorials about different 3D printing aspects such as rendering, modeling, and animation.
Pinshape is another marketplace where you can search for free and paywall-protected 3D models. There are more than 100 thousand different and unique designs on the site. It impresses with its easy-to-use platform and wants “to make 3D printing simple and fun”. On Pinshape, you have the opportunity to share, explore or download 3D models with high quality. Within the Pinshape marketplace, creators and makers can meet and exchange ideas.
On YouMagine, there are over 19,000 free 3D models. The site’s goal is to make the creation and adaptions of 3D files easier and the sharing process. Within that goal, they create their online community, which is YouMagine. The website distinguishes itself by supporting primarily open-source designs.
CGTrader provides both free and paid 3D models. The 2011 founded company offers more than 1,4 million 3D models, and their community consists of over 5 million users. Before downloading, a proper file format can be chosen. CGTrader provides formats like OBJ, STL, MAX C4D, and many more. You can download many different models from various automotive, aircraft, architectural, industrial, plants, and space.
CGTrader TurboSquid offers free 3D models from various categories; designs are made for automotive, plants, offices, nature, robots, architecture, airplanes, and many more. The goal of TurboSquid is to save valid customer time by offering existing 3d models. The time can then be used in another part of the production cycle. According to TurboSquid, customers save up to 27 hours. The free 3D models can be downloaded in the file formats: MAX, OBJ, C4D, and MAYA.
On 3dmdb, more than 5,6 million 3D models can be found as it is a website that can search through various sites such as Carla, CGTrader, Cults, Thingiverse, TurboSquid, and many more. It allows you to search across the different areas without visiting each one.