By BitsFromBytes Research · Reviewed by Maya Dalton · Last updated October 31, 2026
Thingiverse reports a library of 6 million-plus designs, yet three outlets gave three sizes for it in 19 days: 2.5 million, just under 3 million and 6 million-plus, a 2.4× spread. That gap, and the fact that the newest primary-source count for each of the six biggest libraries is at least 249 days old, are what BitsFromBytes Research found when it read the sources behind the headline numbers.
Quick Answer: Thingiverse reports the largest model library: 6 million-plus designs (MyMiniFactory, 12 February 2026), ahead of Sketchfab at 5 million models (December 2022). MakerWorld reports 2.6 million models for 2025, Thangs indexed 2.5 million-plus in 2021, Printables neared 1 million files in 2025, and Fab lists 420,000-plus. Units differ.
Dataset: the CSV fact table (65 rows, every figure on this page with its source and retrieval date, CC BY 4.0).
Key Findings
- Thingiverse holds the largest library on primary figures: 6 million-plus designs per MyMiniFactory on February 12, 2026, ahead of Sketchfab’s 5 million models (December 2022).
- BitsFromBytes Research finds Thingiverse’s size reported three ways in 19 days: 2,500,000+ (TechRadar), just under 3,000,000 (China-Gadgets) and 6,000,000+ (the company), a 2.4× spread between the lowest and highest.
- BitsFromBytes Research finds MakerWorld’s 2.6 million carries two labels: “original models uploaded” at 3DPrint.com and “models generated” with MakerLab at 3D Printing Industry. At 7,123 a day, 2.6 million behaves like one year of inflow, not a library total.
- BitsFromBytes Research finds all six newest primary counts are older than six months, from 249 days (MakerWorld) to 1,948 days (Thangs) at October 31, 2026.
- BitsFromBytes Research calculates that makes per download fell 39.5% in Novak’s 30-thing Thingiverse sample, from 2.11 to 1.28 makes per 1,000 downloads.
Which Site Has the Most 3D Models?
Thingiverse leads on the newest primary counts, with Sketchfab second. The table keeps each platform’s own unit, because “designs”, “models”, “files”, “indexed models” and “live listings” are not the same thing. Counts are floors where the source says “more than” or “over”.
| Library | Newest primary count | Unit | As of | Source | Older than 6 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thingiverse | 6 million+ | designs | 2026-02-12 | MyMiniFactory release | Yes |
| Sketchfab | 5 million | models | 2022-12-13 | Sketchfab | Yes |
| MakerWorld | 2.6 million (label disputed) | models | 2025, published 2026-02-24 | Bambu Lab via 3DPrint.com | Yes |
| Thangs | 2.5 million+ | models indexed | 2021-07-01 | Physna release via VCA Online | Yes |
| Printables | about 1 million, not yet reached | files | 2025-04-29 | Prusa Research | Yes |
| Fab | 420,000+ | live listings | 2025-12-31 | Epic Games | Yes |
Do not add these up. Fab’s search combines data from the old Unreal Engine Marketplace and Sketchfab, so those libraries are not independent counts, and Thangs indexes models that live elsewhere. The bars show how each operator describes its own scale, nothing more. The older design history is in our history of 3D printing.
How Big Is Thingiverse?
6 million-plus designs, per MyMiniFactory’s release on its purchase of Thingiverse from Ultimaker. Thingiverse passed 1 million uploads and 200 million downloads on October 29, 2015, per Stratasys. A peer-reviewed study put it above 1.6 million things during 2018 to 2020.
How Big Is Sketchfab?
5 million models and 10 million members on December 13, 2022, with 1 million of the models free to download under Creative Commons licenses. The count was nearly four years old at retrieval.
How Big Is MakerWorld?
Bambu Lab’s 2025 data, relayed by the press, gives about 10 million monthly active users, 2.6 million models, around 280,000 creators and more than 7,000 new models a day. Nearly 4,000 models were downloaded and printed more than 1,000 times. The figures come from 3DPrint.com and 3D Printing Industry; Bambu’s own WeChat posts, which Tom’s Hardware names as the origin, were not fetched.
How Big Is Thangs?
More than 2.5 million models indexed, 250,000 registered users, and 1 million models added in the six weeks before July 1, 2021. “Indexed” means the search engine knows the model, which is a weaker claim than hosting it.
How Big Is Printables?
Prusa Research said on February 12, 2025 it was “pretty much hitting one million uploaded models”, and on April 29, 2025 it expected one million files “in about two weeks”. The site launched April 23, 2019 as PrusaPrinters.org, per Prusa Research.
How Big Is Fab?
Epic Games reported more than 420,000 live listings and more than 20,000 publishers at the end of 2025, per Fab 2025 Year in Review. Listings tripled and publishers doubled during the year, and creators earned more than $24 million.
What Is Thingiverse’s Real Size?
Three outlets reported three sizes within 19 days, and only one is the company’s own. MyMiniFactory’s February 12, 2026 release says “6 million-plus design library”. TechRadar’s February 16 piece says “2.5 million digital designs” and credits Tom’s Hardware, with no attribution of the count. China-Gadgets, on March 3, says “knapp 3 Millionen Modellen” and names no source. The highest is 2.4× the lowest.
The release does not define “design”, and the two lower counts do not say what they count. Over the 3,759 days from 1 million uploads to the 6 million-plus library, the mixed-unit average is at least 1,330 additions a day. A defensible reading is that 6 million-plus is the operator’s figure and the lower numbers are other counts of the same site, but no source fetched here says so. Treat the 6 million-plus as the company-reported number and the others as unexplained.
What Does MakerWorld’s 2.6 Million Actually Count?
Two outlets relay the same 2.6 million with different meanings. 3DPrint.com writes “2.6 million original models uploaded to the platform” alongside 10 million monthly active users. 3D Printing Industry writes that MakerLab, a tool for generating printable models without traditional CAD, “had been used by 310,000 people” who “generated 2.6 million original models”, equal to more than 7,000 designs a day.
Divide 2.6 million by 365 and the result is 7,123 a day, which matches “more than 7,000 a day”. So the figure behaves like one year of inflow, and neither article states the window. Per person, the two readings give 9.3 models per creator and 8.4 per MakerLab user, which cannot tell them apart.
China-Gadgets (March 2026) repeats “2,6 Millionen Modelle” as official February 2026 statistics, and VoxBooster (July 2026) repeats “2.6 million” as uploaded models. Neither adds a definition. Until Bambu Lab publishes one, this page lists 2.6 million as “models, 2025, label unconfirmed” and keeps it out of any cumulative ranking claim.
How Many Models Are Added Per Day?
MakerWorld reports more than 7,000 a day, more than five times the next-highest figure on this page, Thingiverse’s mixed-unit average. The other rates are smaller: Printables stated “over 750” a day in 2023, and BitsFromBytes Research’s estimates for Fab (about 767 in 2025), Printables (about 452 averaged since launch) and Thingiverse (at least 1,330 since 2015) sit between 452 and 1,330.
How the estimates are built:
- Fab: the 420,000+ listings tripled in 2025, so about 280,000 were added, or about 767 a day. Both inputs are rounded, so this is an estimate.
- Printables: one million files from the April 23, 2019 launch to a milestone expected on May 13, 2025 (2,212 days) is 452 a day. The 2023 figure of “over 750” is 1.7× that average, which fits a library whose inflow rose over time.
- Thingiverse: the mixed-unit average above.
The units differ again (uploads, listings, models), so the bars compare scale, not like with like. Printer owners should read a daily rate as a measure of how fast files are being published on that platform, not how many of them print cleanly.
How Current Are These Counts?
Every newest primary count is older than six months at October 31, 2026. The youngest, MakerWorld’s, is 249 days old; Thangs’ is 1,948 days old. The Thingiverse and Printables home pages fetched on the retrieval date showed no model counts, so there was no live counter to read.
Rows older than six months carry older_data = TRUE in the CSV, with one reason for all of them: each is the newest figure the operator published that this research could fetch, and the research did not cover every announcement. A newer official count would replace the row. Platforms rarely publish library totals on a schedule, which is why the review trigger below is event-based.
How Many Downloads Become Prints?
In Novak’s sample of 30 popular Thingiverse things, makes per 1,000 downloads fell from 2.11 to 1.28. The peer-reviewed study tracked the 30 things between August 26, 2018 and January 7, 2020. It reports one make per 474 downloads at the start and one per 784 at the end, a 39.5% drop in makes per download. #3DBenchy was the first thing to reach one million downloads during the study, and the highest documented download rate was 698 a day.
The sample is the most popular things on a library of more than 1.6 million, so it describes the top end, not the average file. Only the abstract was fetched. The pattern matters for the bigger libraries: a larger library adds downloads faster than it adds prints, and no other source here publishes download-to-print ratios. Printer-side context is in our 3D printing advancements and FDM 3D printer pages. Industry-level figures are in our 3D printing statistics.
Methodology
Sources (retrieved October 31, 2026). Epic Games’ Fab 2025 Year in Review; Sketchfab’s December 13, 2022 post; Stratasys’ October 29, 2015 release; Novak (2020) in the Rapid Prototyping Journal; three Prusa Research posts (May 19, 2023, February 12, 2025, April 29, 2025); Physna’s July 1, 2021 release as carried by VCA Online; MyMiniFactory’s February 12, 2026 release as syndicated on GlobeNewswire. Press relays: 3DPrint.com, 3D Printing Industry, Tom’s Hardware, TechRadar, China-Gadgets, VoxBooster. Every URL is in the CSV.
Labels. is_primary = TRUE marks the operator’s own statement or a peer-reviewed paper, including syndicated copies of releases. Bambu Lab’s figures are relayed by the press and are is_primary = FALSE. Prusa’s 2023 traffic figures are credited by Prusa to SimilarWeb, a measurement firm, and are estimates. Rows with bfb_calculated = TRUE are BitsFromBytes Research calculations.
Formulas.
- Makes per 1,000 downloads = 1,000 ÷ downloads per make; decline = (1 − start ÷ end) × 100.
- MakerWorld daily equivalent = 2,600,000 ÷ 365.
- Printables lifetime average = 1,000,000 ÷ days from 2019-04-23 to 2025-05-13.
- Thingiverse mixed-unit average = (6,000,000 − 1,000,000) ÷ days from 2015-10-29 to 2026-02-12.
- Fab implied additions = 420,000 − 420,000 ÷ 3; per day = additions ÷ 365.
- Spread = highest ÷ lowest of the three Thingiverse reports.
- Age = retrieval date − publication date of the cited document.
Limitations. Units differ across libraries and are never summed. Many counts are floors (“over”, “more than”). The Novak figures come from the abstract; the full text is paywalled. The MakerWorld figures are press-relayed and their window and unit are unconfirmed. The Printables 2023 traffic rank rests on SimilarWeb estimates. The 2.6 million “one-year flow” reading is an inference. No measurement-firm dataset was fetched directly, no government series applies, and the research is not exhaustive. Competing statistics pages and Semrush data were not used.
About This Dataset
3d-models-statistics.csv is the fact table behind every number and chart: 65 rows in long format, one observation per row (29 primary, 23 BitsFromBytes calculations). It covers six libraries, from October 2015 to October 2026. The CSV download is being added to the media library.
Columns: metric_id, platform, metric, value, unit, qualifier, as_of_date, published_date, scope, source_org, source_document, source_url, retrieved_date, is_primary, bfb_calculated, method_note, older_data. Values are raw numbers with ISO dates. License: CC BY 4.0, reuse freely with a link to this page.
How to Cite This Page
APA: BitsFromBytes Research. (2026, October 31). 3D models statistics: How big is each model library? Bits From Bytes. https://bitsfrombytes.com/3d-models-statistics/
MLA: BitsFromBytes Research. “3D Models Statistics: How Big Is Each Model Library?” Bits From Bytes, 31 Oct. 2026, bitsfrombytes.com/3d-models-statistics/.
Chicago: BitsFromBytes Research. “3D Models Statistics: How Big Is Each Model Library?” Bits From Bytes, October 31, 2026. https://bitsfrombytes.com/3d-models-statistics/.
FAQ
How many 3D models are on Thingiverse?
MyMiniFactory reports a “6 million-plus design library” (February 12, 2026). TechRadar reported 2.5 million and China-Gadgets just under 3 million, without sources or definitions.
How many models does MakerWorld have?
Bambu Lab’s 2025 data, relayed by the press, gives 2.6 million models, at more than 7,000 new models a day. Outlets disagree on whether that is uploaded or MakerLab-generated models.
Which site has the most 3D models?
On newest primary counts, Thingiverse (6 million-plus designs), then Sketchfab (5 million models, 2022). Units and dates differ, so the order is approximate.
How many 3D models are uploaded every day?
MakerWorld reports more than 7,000 a day (2025); Printables reported over 750 a day (2023). Fab’s implied 2025 rate is about 767 listings a day, an estimate.
Last updated: October 31, 2026. Review trigger: any new official model count from Thingiverse, MakerWorld, Printables, Sketchfab, Thangs or Fab; Bambu Lab defining the 2.6 million figure; Printables’ one-million announcement; or April 30, 2027, whichever comes first. Errors are corrected under our corrections policy. More data pages: statistics hub, Bambu Lab A1, open-source 3D printers.
