ABS and nylon both show up in “tougher than PLA” conversations, and it is easy to treat them as two flavors of the same upgrade. They are not close substitutes. ABS is a fairly forgiving engineering plastic that trades some strength for a print process most people can manage without a drying routine. Nylon is genuinely stronger and far more wear resistant, but that strength only shows up if moisture is actively managed, since nylon pulls water out of the air fast enough to ruin a print within hours of an opened spool sitting out. The choice is less about which material is “better” and more about whether the extra strength is worth the extra handling.
Strength: nylon wins, by a wide margin
Consumer-grade ABS commonly tests around 30 to 36 MPa in tensile strength, occasionally reaching closer to 37 MPa on manufacturer data sheets for specific formulations. Nylon starts ahead of that baseline and climbs from there depending on the grade: PA6 commonly lands in the 60 to 80 MPa range, with one commonly cited test putting it at 68 MPa, while PA12 tests somewhat lower, roughly 45 to 55 MPa. Either nylon grade outperforms ABS on raw tensile strength, and impact testing tells a similar story on toughness, with PA6 showing notably higher notched Izod impact resistance than PA12 in comparative testing, and both nylon grades built around resisting flex and repeated stress rather than snapping under it. Nylon’s low coefficient of friction adds a property ABS does not really compete on: parts that slide or rotate against another surface, gears, bushings, hinges, wear far better in nylon than in ABS over the long run.
Moisture is the real dividing line, not strength
ABS is not especially hygroscopic. It tolerates loose spool storage reasonably well and rarely needs a dedicated drying routine before a normal print. Nylon is the opposite case, and by a wide margin: FirstLayerGuide’s own nylon print settings guide cites manufacturer figures showing nylon can absorb up to 10% of its weight in water, and independent testing has found a spool can pick up enough moisture to affect print quality in as little as two to eight hours at high humidity. Wet nylon does not just string, it forms steam bubbles inside the melt that show up as pockmarks and genuinely weaker layers, not just a cosmetic defect. That means nylon needs a dry box or an active drying setup running during long prints, not just a drying cycle before the spool goes on the printer, a level of ongoing attention ABS simply does not ask for.
Print setup: both want an enclosure, only one wants a dryer too
ABS prints in a fairly well-defined window, 230 to 260°C at the nozzle and 90 to 110°C on the bed, with an enclosure or draft shield to manage warping and a cooling fan kept low or off, covered in the ABS print settings guide. Nylon’s range is wider and depends heavily on which formulation is on the spool: unfilled PA6 and PA12 commonly print somewhere between 230 and 300°C, bed temperatures swing from roughly 50°C to 110°C depending on the surface and brand, and MatterHackers describes nylon as warping “about as much as ABS,” so an enclosure matters just as much here. Where nylon adds a real extra step is drying and moisture control during the print itself, plus a cooling fan that most sources recommend leaving off entirely rather than just turned down, a stricter rule than ABS’s “low or off” guidance. Printing nylon well means treating the enclosure and the dryer as equally non-negotiable, not just picking one.
Cost and where each one actually wins
ABS remains the cheaper option, commonly $20 to $35 per kg, and stays widely available across nearly every filament brand. Nylon costs meaningfully more, roughly $45 to $65 per kg for standard PA6 and PA66 variants, with PA12 and specialty blends often pricing higher still, and that gap widens further once a dry box or filament dryer gets added to the real cost of switching. Pick ABS for enclosures, brackets, and general-purpose functional parts that need moderate heat resistance and toughness without a drying routine attached. Pick nylon for gears, hinges, snap-fit parts, and anything that faces repeated wear or flex, provided the moisture problem gets managed every time the spool comes out of storage. FirstLayerGuide’s own nylon vs PETG comparison and engineering filaments overview cover where nylon sits against the rest of the lineup if neither of these two turns out to be the right fit.