195 to 225 °C at the nozzle, with the bed anywhere from unheated to 60 °C.
That is an unusually wide window, and PLA's forgiving nature is exactly why: almost anything inside it will produce a part. What changes across the band is which defect you get.
What you buy at each end
Cold, near 195 °C. Crisper overhangs, less stringing, sharper small features, because the plastic sets faster after it leaves the nozzle. The cost is weaker bonding between layers, and at the very bottom of the band, under-extrusion and a clicking extruder.
Hot, near 225 °C. Stronger layer adhesion and a glossier surface, at the price of droop on overhangs, stringing between features, and blobbing at seams.
For a display model, err cold. For a bracket that has to hold something, err hot. Most stock profiles sit around 210 °C because that is where the two curves cross for a general-purpose part.
The blends do not follow base PLA
- PLA+ runs 205 to 230 °C — the toughening additives want more heat
- Silk PLA runs 210 to 235 °C, and the sheen depends on printing at the hot end
- High-speed PLA goes to 250 °C, because at high flow the plastic has less time in the melt zone
- Wood-filled PLA goes the other way, 190 to 220 °C, because the wood particles scorch and clog if you cook them
A spool labelled "PLA" can therefore want a temperature 55 °C different from another spool labelled "PLA". The number on the box beats any general figure, including this one.
Find your own with a tower
Print a temperature tower — a stack of blocks, each a few degrees cooler than the one below, with an overhang and a bridge on every level. Look at it, pick the level that looks best, and use that temperature.
It takes under an hour and it is worth more than any published range, because it tests your hotend's thermistor placement and your spool together.
The number that is not negotiable
PLA softens near 55 °C and its heat deflection band is 52 to 60 °C. No print temperature changes that. If the part will live somewhere warm, the answer is a different material, not a hotter nozzle.
See the full property set on the PLA material page, and the bed side in PLA bed temperature.