With the 2025 releases wrapped up, it’s time to talk about what we have lined up next for our ultimate multi-material platform, the Prusa XL! It’s still the largest, fastest and most capable toolchanger you can get. To make it even better, we plan on expanding the XL further with brand-new toolheads in 2026. As a cherry on top, you can now get it for the lowest price ever.
However, you’re probably also interested in where the XL’s heading now and what sets it apart from the recently introduced multi-material INDX upgrade for the CORE One+ and CORE One L printers. So, let’s start with that.
XL vs INDX
Both the XL and INDX are toolchanging systems, but they’re built on fundamentally different principles. Understanding this helps you figure out which approach fits your needs.
Active and Passive Toolchanger
The XL is an active toolchanger. Each of its toolheads is a complete, self-contained print head with its own hotend and nozzle. When switching materials, a mechanical arm picks up the entire toolhead, prints with it, then docks it and grabs the next one. Toolheads can stay heated and ready for quick switches, and automatically power off when they won’t be needed for a while.
INDX, on the other hand, is a passive toolchanger. It uses a single active print head that switches between passive tools, each loaded with a filament and equipped with a nozzle. The print head picks a tool, heats its nozzle, prints, docks it, and repeats the process with the next tool when a material change is needed.
We love the INDX upgrade for its low mass, cost efficiency, and support for up to eight materials. The XL, on the other hand, keeps every nozzle heated and ready to go, which makes material changes faster. The ability to mix different nozzle sizes, materials, and even non-FDM toolheads across five slots gives it real flexibility for complex engineering applications.
And then there’s the sheer build volume. At 360×360×360 mm, the XL offers over 3× the volume of the CORE One+ and still 50% more than the CORE One L. That’s a difference that turns multi-part assembly into a single overnight print.
What about speed?
When comparing different filament changing systems, no doubt the first question that comes to mind is toolchange time. It’s what everyone focuses on first. We’ve intentionally avoided publishing a single headline number, because toolchanges are tricky to measure fairly.
The difference in toolchange time between INDX and XL mainly occurs due to the different heating strategies. Each XL toolhead has its own heating element that keeps the nozzle very close to the target temperature. In most cases, it’s able to heat it to 100% during the toolchange itself. INDX, on the other hand, docks a nozzle, and heats up the following one from scratch. The print head uses induction, so the nozzle heating is super fast, but still slower than pre-heated nozzles on the XL. For this reason, when it comes to pure toolchange speed, the XL will likely stay ahead.
But a single number like that doesn’t say much about how efficiently a printer handles real-world prints day to day.
A fully-fledged Toolchanger has one more extra large advantage. You can completely exchange some (or all!) of the toolheads for something even more exciting than FDM printing.
Platform Ready for Growth
Just like our other printers, we’ve designed the XL to grow. And grow it did! It quickly became the go-to multimaterial platform, supported by countless community upgrades and tweaks. But still, while most of them tweak various parts of the printer, they mostly leave the tool heads as they are.
We want to show you what becomes possible once you start swapping entire XL toolheads. That’s the magic of having a fully-equipped and open Toolchanger system only the XL offers. It pushes well beyond a simple FDM system that mixes melted plastic.
Accessible Silicone Printing
One of the most significant additions announced in 2025 is a plug-and-play, non-FDM toolhead that enables the XL to print liquid materials such as heat-resistant silicone! We’re talking custom silicone gaskets, insertions, or highly durable hinges materializing directly on your desktop printer.
Only industrial, super expensive machines were able to do such a thing. Well, until now. We co-developed the silicone toolhead with the Filament2 startup exclusively for the Prusa XL. Read all about it here.
One Print, Multiple Components: Pick & Place Tool
Some technical prints require additional components, such as magnets, threaded inserts, or bearings, to be placed during the build. Without automation, this typically means you have to pause the print and insert the part(s) by hand. Although PrusaSlicer made this process easier a while ago, The Pick & Place toolhead can do it for you, completely autonomously. This reduces manual intervention and improves placement accuracy.
We’ve co-developed the toolhead with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and it’s designed for models that combine 3D-printed models with off-the-shelf components. We’re currently targeting late 2026 with its implementation.
The Proper Extruder
Since the first printer left our basement office in a pizza box, we’ve encouraged users to modify and rebuild their machines. Jón Shone from Proper Printing took this idea to the extreme. In his project often referred to as “F**k around the XL,” he replaced all five XL toolheads with his own belt-driven Proper Extruders. This setup is especially well suited for extremely soft materials, such as TPU 60A. You’d hardly find a better example of how flexible the XL platform truly is. You can replace one, two, or even all its default toolheads and it still delivers flawless results! Watch Jón’s tinkering journey below.
Big Price Drop
Alongside the printer itself, we’ve also refined XL production. These improvements allow us to manufacture the printer more efficiently, which in turn lets us offer it at a lower price. For example, the Assembled 5-Toolhead XL is now roughly $200 cheaper. The exact price depends on your region and currency, so please check the product page for current details. Please also note that by the end of 2025, we stopped producing the Semi-Assembled version, as announced in our Black Friday article.
XL’s Hidden Gems
There’re some XL features that we don’t talk about all that much, but they can be a real game-changer for your workflow. They might not look flashy on a spec sheet, but they make a real difference once you start relying on the printer day to day. Here are a few XL details that tend to matter more the longer you use the printer.
No waste whatsoever
Not only does the XL not “poop” heaps of scrap plastic, it needs no prime tower at all. You only need properly dried filament. With that loaded, you can print flawless prints with zero waste. Just take a look at this Skoda car our colleague printed with precisely 0g waste. We only tossed out the supports.
Huge volume
On a spec sheet, the XL’s 360×360×360 mm print volume looks like just a higher number. Wait until you actually put it to use! It really shines through once you start printing something huge like this giant Bulbasaur we built. That extra build volume saves you hours of part modelling, cutting, gluing, and sanding. To this day, there’s no other printer that gives you this much room for creativity with a toolchanger at your disposal.
Still the fastest
Even 4 years after its release, the XL is still the fastest way to mix five colors/materials in one print. This proves how timeless the design is. The best bit is that the quality remains perfect even on days-long prints.
Segmented heatbed
The XL uses a modular, segmented heatbed with 16 individually controlled tiles for uniform heating and higher reliability and energetic efficiency. This design reduces heat-related deformation common with large single-piece beds and improves print consistency across the entire surface.
Multiple nozzles
By swapping the default nozzles on some of your XL toolheads, you get several machines in one. A 0.4 mm high-flow nozzle works great for efficient PLA and PETG printing, a standard 0.4 mm is ideal for TPU, 0.25 mm nails miniature models, a 0.8 mm nozzle speeds up prototyping, and a hardened nozzle handles abrasives like PCCF.
Material Management
The five material slots make filament management straightforward. In practice, the first two spoolholders are often taken up by 1 or 2kg PLA and PETG spools; a go-to combo for everyday prints and supports. The third slot is perfect for TPU, whether you’re printing flexible parts or adding a bit of “rubberizing” to a design. The two remaining slots can hold tougher materials like PETG-CF and ASA, or whatever filaments you use most. From there, you simply pick the toolhead your project needs and start printing.
So that’s the XL in 2026! As you can see, it’s still going strong. It keeps on creating unique, complex models, print plate after print plate. We’ll make the best out of its flexibility as a time-proven multi-material platform using the new toolheads. These will open its skillset even wider. If you’re looking for a large machine that can handle any demanding project you throw its way and is ready to grow the XL has your back.
Happy printing!
Great to hear about the efficiencies in production that have allowed you lower the costs of the 5 head XL by ~$200.
Would be good for your existing customers if that could be reflected in the tool head upgrades, which as far as I can see have remained the same since the launch of the XL.
You haven't even included those tool head upgrades in your black Friday sales.