Free online CAD for 3D printing in 2026: what each one can and cannot do

Every list of free CAD for 3D printing starts with Tinkercad and ends with Fusion, and tells you nothing about the question you actually have: can I make the part I need, tonight, on the device in my hand, without a course? This one is written for a printer owner, not a mechanical engineer. Facts were checked on 2026-10-04; links to the sources are in the comparison pages.

The seven, in one table

Tinkercad

The easiest to start and the first one people outgrow. You drag boxes and cylinders onto a workplane, set some to "Hole", align, group, export an STL. It is free with no catch and runs in any browser on a computer.

Where it stops: it needs a window at least 864 pixels wide and does not support phones. It has no fillet or chamfer, so rounding a corner means stacking cylinders at the corners and redoing them when the size changes. Sizes are fields on each shape, but they are not linked: lengthen the plate and the holes stay where they were. Forum threads call it a dead end for the same reason people love it: nothing is hidden, so nothing is reusable.

Good for: a first print, a nameplate, a box with a lid you draw by eye.

Onshape Free

The most capable thing in a browser, full stop. Onshape is professional parametric CAD with sketches, constraints, fillets on a chosen edge, assemblies, and it runs on a modern kernel in the cloud. The free plan has everything the paid one has for modelling, with one condition: every document you make is public, and the licence is non-commercial.

Where it stops for a printer owner: the learning curve is real CAD, sketch first, then extrude, then fillet, and the iOS and Android apps get reviews that say "very hard to use" on a phone. The AI advisor open to free users answers questions about the software and the documentation; it cannot see your model or generate geometry, although agents that do have been announced.

Good for: someone who wants to learn real CAD properly and is fine with public files.

SketchUp Free

An architecture and interiors tool that happens to export STL. The browser version is free and quick for a sketchy box, but its model is surfaces, not solids: exports are often not watertight, and faces under about a millimetre are a known problem for printing. No fillets, weak dimensions, no phone.

Good for: a shed, not a bracket.

FreeCAD 1.1

Free, open source, parametric, fillets, everything, and the 1.1 release fixed the long-standing "toponaming" problem where editing a sketch broke features that depended on it. It is a desktop program: no browser, no phone, and a user interface that most hobbyists describe as the hardest part.

Good for: a patient person with a laptop who wants to own the whole toolchain.

SelfCAD

A browser modeller with apps and a mix of mesh and shape tools. The free tier is one project and 100 MB of storage; the paid tier is around $14.99 a month. Fillets and dimensions are partial, reviews report non-manifold exports and hangs, and the layout is for a tablet or a computer.

Good for: trying a middle ground between Tinkercad and real CAD, with the export checked afterwards.

Womp

A browser tool built on soft, blobby shapes (signed distance fields) that blend into each other. Beautiful for characters and toys, and the free core is generous; the paid tier adds AI credits. It has no dimensions to speak of, and its rounded blends are not engineering fillets, so it is the wrong tool for a part that has to fit a screw or a board.

Good for: organic shapes, figurines, anything that does not need to fit something.

SpeakCAD

SpeakCAD is the easiest way to design a part with real dimensions on your phone: shape it with simple tools or describe it to the AI, and download a print-ready STL, 3MF or G-code sliced for your printer.

The hand tools are five: Hole, Cut, Add, Round and Measure, in a rail above the chat. You start from a box, a plate, a cylinder or a tray, tap a face, pick the size (M3 for a screw hole, Through for all the way) and press Apply. Every size is a number you can type later. Round rounds the corners of a part, the vertical corners of a box or plate (a pocket you cut by hand gets its own corner radius); a fillet on a single edge or on the top edges is a sentence to the AI, 2 credits. The part recompiles in the browser, on the phone, usually in under a second.

Where it stops: it is a CAD for printed parts, not a general CAD. There are no sketches, no assemblies, and the files are meshes (STL, 3MF) and G-code, not STEP. The AI is the paid half: each request spends 2 credits (up to 10 on a very large model), a download of a model with AI work in it spends 4 credits, and G-code sliced for your printer is 5 more unless you are on Pro or Unlimited. The hand tools, and the download of a part shaped only by hand, are free with a free account.

Good for: the part you need for your printer, made on your phone, with the dimensions right.

How to choose

• You want to learn CAD as a skill and do not mind public files: Onshape Free.
• You want to own your toolchain and have a laptop and patience: FreeCAD.
• You want a figurine or a soft shape: Womp.
• You want a quick box on a computer and will never need a rounded corner: Tinkercad.
• You want a bracket, a holder, a case or a plate with the holes in the right place, on your phone, printable tonight: SpeakCAD, by hand, and the AI when a sentence is quicker than five taps.

The Tinkercad comparison and the best AI CAD pages go deeper on each. Shaping a part by hand (a hole, a cut, an added tab, an extruded face, rounded corners) and downloading what you shaped are free. Each AI request spends 2 credits, a download of AI work 4 credits, and G-code 5 more.