230 to 250 °C at the nozzle, bed at 70 to 85 °C.
Unlike PLA, where the band is a quality preference, PETG's temperature choice is dominated by one behaviour: it strings, and it strings worse the hotter it runs.
Stringing is the governing trade
PETG stays tacky and stretchy across a wide temperature range, so travel moves pull fine threads between features. Every degree above the minimum that works makes this worse.
The method that works is to start at 250 °C, confirm the part extrudes cleanly and bonds properly, then come down in five-degree steps until strings appear. Print one step above that.
Retraction settings matter here as much as temperature, and the two interact — a machine with well-tuned retraction can run PETG hotter and stronger without a web of threads across the plate.
Dry filament changes the answer
PETG absorbs moisture, and wet PETG behaves exactly like PETG printed too hot: stringing, bubbles, a rough surface and a hissing nozzle. People chase this with temperature for days.
If the surface looks foamed or you can hear crackling from the hotend, the problem is water, not heat. Dry it at 65 °C for 4 to 6 hours and start the temperature tuning again.
First-layer height matters more than usual
PETG bonds to a smooth PEI or glass bed hard enough to take chips out of it. The standard advice is to run the first layer slightly less squished than you would for PLA — a fraction higher nozzle, so the first layer is placed rather than pressed.
That single change prevents most of the bed damage people attribute to the material being difficult.
What the heat buys you
The reason to tolerate all this: 68 to 80 °C of heat deflection against PLA's 52 to 60, good UV resistance outdoors, and a material that bends rather than snapping. A PETG part survives a hot car and a winter on a fence post; a PLA one does not.
The bed is a separate decision with its own trap, covered at PETG bed temperature, and every stored figure for the material is on the PETG page.