Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
So all Prusa filaments are transitioning over to include some NFC tag - even though their printers cannot even read the NFC tag when loading filament (I have the Core One+). I assume Prusa are phasing out all filaments without OpenPrintTag.
A spool of Prusament Orange 1KG without the tag is £23.99 - currently on clearance to exhaust inventory.
The same filament with the tag is now £29.99 (even though a NFC tag is worth practically pennies when purchased elsewhere).
What exactly am I paying an extra £6 for? If I can't use it with my printer in the first instance, it's a useless feature for me. I mean, seriously, why do I want to scan my filament spool with the Prusa app? What exactly is this going to provide me other than the type and colour of filament - both of which I can see at an instant from the physical spool anyways! Yet I'm being forced into paying extra into something that provides me no extra actual functionality?
Am I not seeing something here? Maybe I'm wrong and missing some super extra functionality??
So £29.99 for a single spool of PLA filament, and if I choose the CHEAPEST shipping option, I'm looking at just shy of £50 for a single spool of 1KG filament??
Thats CRAZY!
I can pick up 4 or 5 spools from a competitor in that same price!
What am I missing here?
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
Well, "crazy", people may have reasons and some folks' time is so expensive that the premium is justified.
Otherwise, sadly taking a step back, just "non-competitive", nothing to get excited about.
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
One advantage I suppose is you can weigh the spool, enter in the weight and the app will calculate how much filament is remaining. That's pretty much all you can do with it at the moment. I don't think Prusa is going to have an AMS style feature anytime soon where I can scan the filament and it shows up assigned to the correct tool head (for an INDX). I think that is their intention though. I hope... Otherwise, yeah, it's just a gimmick and a way for them to increase cashflow.
I did create a tool that allows you to import your spools into a database and tie that into PrusaSlicer but for now it's really just for inventory maintenance. I'm struggling to find a utility for it beyond that.
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
To some on here I come across as too cynical... but I'm sure Prusa must have had a plan in mind when they introduced the OpenPrintTag initiative. But I just can't seem to think what that would be. I would expect some sort of NFC readers built into the dry boxes or maybe an AMS style filament storage cabinet (similar to the INBXX)? Maybe when PrusaSlicer 3.0 is released we will see hints of where they are going with this?
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
It's not even so much the functionality - maybe that will come with time (we all know Prusa like to take their time to develop these things!) - I just can't see how to justify that steep price increase for what is, essentially, a relatively cheap NFC tag!
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
As an interesting aside, Bambu Lab filament spools have embedded tags where reading is open but writing is closed since it requires a RSA-2048 encrypted payload. So essentially they cannot be reused.
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
Completely forgot about this: So it seems they'll have this available as part of the spool holders at some point:
https://www.reddit.com/r/prusa3d/comments/1rv9hnt/latest_haul_from_the_office/
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
Hello,
In an INDX presentation video, a printer with this NFC module can be seen under a table.
RE:
So I guess these will be available (hopefully) when Prusa releases their branded version of the INDX. What this implies (I assume) is that PrusaSlicer 3.X will support autoloading and assignment of filaments to nozzles in the slicer
RE:
Prusa are taking a really awkward approach here in my view: Trying to first force the OpenPrintTag spools down our throats (with a significant price hike), and then months later come up with hardware and software tools which make the tags actually useful (probably, maybe, hopefully).
For the time being it looks like an effort to encourage customers to try some other filament brands.
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
As an afterthought: Prusa's approach seems even stranger given the fact that they sell the tags for $0.60 apiece. And they provide the complete infrastructure to generate new tags, either from scratch or based on the OpenPrintTag Material Database.
So why would I pay more than $0.60 extra for NFC-enabled Prusament? Oh, because Prusa expects me to? Then I guess I better buy third-party filament and attach an NFC tag myself, if and when it becomes useful.
RE:
If they're "open" won't I be able to put them onto any Sunlu, eSun, Polymaker, DREMC etc etc spools anyway? It won't be useful to me if not.
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
Hello,
I think the prices of Prusa spools with NFC will drop. This is a way for them to clear out their stock of older spools, because at a similar price, they would just be stuck with the older versions.
And their OpenPrintTag system, unlike the Bambulab chip, will allow the printer to rewrite the NFC chip. You print with a spool, and once the print job is finished, the printer updates the chip with the new remaining weight.
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
One huge advantage of OpenPrintTag is it's entirely open. You can put anything you want on them. Not just filament data. But anything. OK, maybe the geometry is weird and there are cheaper alternatives but you could slap them on the back of your books and inventory them with RFID (not sure why you would want to do this but whatever). The fact is that you can. As @Stef86 points out the Bambu tags can be read but you need their RSA2048 private key to write to them. Good luck getting that. So basically Bambu's spools and tags are meant to be disposable.
The OpenPrintTag was an easy way for Prusa to score some points before they were ready to do so. Now they are scrambling to make use of them. They probably could/should have introduced this with an MMU4 setup a year or two ago but I digress. The cynic in me sees: "Look, we have better spools now and these RFID tags which is why we are jacking up the price of our filament"
RE:
The price of 1kg of Prusament with OpenPrintTag is exactly the same as the prize of the old ones without NFC was.
The old ones are cheaper right now because they are on clearence sale.
Source: my own purchase history
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
The price of 1kg of Prusament with OpenPrintTag is exactly the same as the prize of the old ones without NFC was.
The old ones are cheaper right now because they are on clearence sale.
Source: my own purchase history
That is pretty much true. I think for Americans it is indeed more expensive but it's because a 10% tariff charge has been added to the price and not because of the OpenPrintTags
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
The price of 1kg of Prusament with OpenPrintTag is exactly the same as the prize of the old ones without NFC was.
The old ones are cheaper right now because they are on clearence sale.
Source: my own purchase history
My own purchase history has the most recent pre-discount and pre-NFC order in June 2025. PLA and PETG were 28.49 € per kg then. Now it's 32.99€ list price for the NFC-enabled spool, currently discounted by 5% to 31.34€.
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
Interesting.
In August 2025 I paid 25.90€ for a kg of PETG (not including VAT). That's exactly the price I see in the shop for the new NFC spools.
Maybe there was a price increase between June and August?
RE: Why is OpenPrintTag so expensive?
Maybe there was a price increase. I don't find much about one, but there is one forum thread from July 2025 which discusses a ~10% increase. If that was indeed the case, I missed it and attributed the higher prices to the NFC introduction, which is when I noticed the increase.