The P1P sits below the X1 Carbon in Bambu Lab’s lineup. It shares the same CoreXY motion system and much of the same electronics, but the frame is open rather than enclosed, and it ships without the Micro Lidar or AI camera that the X1 Carbon uses for first layer inspection and print monitoring. The base P1P also has no AMS out of the box. Filament loads directly from a spool holder mounted on the back of the printer. Buy the P1P Combo instead, and you get a standard AMS unit bundled in, the same one used on the X1 Carbon, not the smaller AMS Lite built for the A1 series.
This guide covers both paths: loading and unloading from the rear spool holder on a bare P1P, and the full AMS workflow if you have a Combo or added an AMS afterward.
Loading filament without an AMS
The direct path uses a PTFE tube that runs from a spool holder on the back of the printer to the extruder. Cut a clean, slightly angled tip on the filament so it feeds smoothly, then insert it into that rear tube and push until you feel it reach the extruder.
On the printer screen, select Load. The hotend will start heating. Bambu’s own instructions have you wait until it reaches 250 degrees Celsius, then manually push the filament in the rest of the way so the extruder gear can catch it and pull it through.
Watch the nozzle tip. If filament comes out in a steady stream, tap Done and you are ready to print. If nothing comes out, or the flow is broken and stringy, tap Retry and repeat the push. This usually means the tip did not seat cleanly in the extruder gear the first time.
Unloading and changing filament without an AMS
Select Unload on the screen instead of pulling the filament out cold. The printer heats the hotend and then cuts the filament automatically as part of the process. Once that happens, pull the remaining filament out by hand promptly, before it has a chance to cool and jam partway through the tube.
One detail worth knowing: if the nozzle temperature holds around 142 degrees Celsius and will not drop, that is the printer telling you filament is still stuck in the extruder and the unload did not finish. Tap Retry and let it try again rather than forcing the tube out.
Once removed, coil the old spool and secure the loose end so it does not unspool in storage, then feed the new filament through the same rear tube and repeat the loading steps above.
Loading and unloading with the AMS
If you have the Combo bundle or added a standalone AMS later, filament management changes considerably. Each AMS unit holds four spools. Open the cover, drop a spool into an empty slot, then gently push the grey feeder tab forward while feeding the tip in for about two centimeters. A sensor at the feeder catches the movement and the AMS pulls the rest of the filament in on its own.
If the spool is genuine Bambu filament, the AMS reads an RFID tag built into the spool and fills in material and color automatically. Third party filament needs to be entered manually on the screen, either by tapping the slot directly or through Bambu Studio. Once a slot has been configured, it will keep showing that information for the next non RFID spool you load into it until you change it.
To unload a spool, tap its slot on the screen and choose Unload. The AMS retracts the filament back out of the toolhead, and you can then push the feeder tab forward and pull the spool free by hand. You can also just start a print job in Bambu Studio or Bambu Handy and pick the filament you want from whichever slot holds it, which loads it into the toolhead as part of starting that print.
A single AMS connects to the P1P through a filament buffer mounted on the back of the printer, no separate hub needed. If you want more than four colors on hand, Bambu sells an AMS Hub that replaces the buffer and lets you chain up to four AMS units together, for sixteen spools total available to one printer.
Multi-color prints work by having the AMS swap which slot feeds the toolhead between color changes. The printer purges the old color into a waste tower next to the print before the new one starts flowing cleanly, which is why multi-color jobs use noticeably more filament than a single-color print of the same size.
What the AMS does and does not do for your filament
It is worth being clear about this, because it trips people up: the stock AMS keeps filament sealed away from room humidity with two desiccant packets and rubber gaskets around the lid, but it does not actively dry anything. If a spool already picked up moisture before it went in, the AMS will not fix that. Drying wet filament requires a separate tool, either a dedicated filament dryer or Bambu’s own AMS 2 Pro, which adds heating hardware the standard AMS does not have.
A note on the nozzle
The P1P uses the same X1/P1 series nozzle family as the X1 Carbon and P1S, rated up to 320 degrees Celsius. Bambu documents the P1S version of this hotend as shipping a stainless steel nozzle standard; since the P1P shares the same part, stainless is the reasonable factory default here too, with a hardened steel upgrade available for abrasive filaments like carbon fiber or glass fiber blends. You can tell the two apart by the heatsink fins: black means hardened steel, grey means stainless. If you are not sure which one is installed, checking the color is faster than guessing from the model name alone.
Where to go next
Getting filament loading right is one piece of getting a new P1P running well. If you have not gone through initial setup yet, or you are chasing down an error code that showed up mid-load, these guides cover the rest of the process: