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The global additive manufacturing market reached $4.5 billion in the second quarter of 2026, a 12% increase from the same period a year earlier, according to quarterly tracking data published by Additive Manufacturing Research (AM Research).
Drawn from AM Research’s 3DP/AM Market Insights: Q2 2026 dataset covering metal, polymer, and ceramic 3D printing across printers, materials, and services, the figures show the total market edging up sequentially from $4.4 billion in Q1 2026.
Scott Dunham, Executive Vice President at AM Research, described the first half of 2026 as a “welcome time” for the industry, noting that growth had been robust “for many” and had tracked as forecasted, and that some capital had started returning to the sector. But he flagged a familiar risk.
“It remains to be seen if we may have a stall out again as capex is pressured due to interest rates, which we have seen before, or if AM will continue to flourish as a manufacturing tool to weather rapidly changing market conditions,” Dunham said.
Polymer Leads as Services Grow
Of the three segments, polymer remains the largest at $2.68 billion for the quarter, up from $2.42 billion in Q2 2025, a Y/Y gain of roughly 10.7% based on the reported figures.
Metal additive manufacturing came in at $1.81 billion, up from $1.59 billion a year ago, growing faster at approximately 13.8%. AM Research did not disclose a standalone figure for ceramics, though the category is included in the total.
AM Research reported combined services revenue at $2.50 billion, up from $2.19 billion in Q2 2025, a gain of roughly 14%. That figure appears to be embedded within the metal and polymer totals rather than additive to them. If that reading is correct, a substantial share of the market’s quarterly value now flows through services, a category the report does not define.
AM Research tracks a broad vendor field that includes 3D Systems, Stratasys, HP, EOS, Formlabs, Bambu Lab, Nikon SLM Solutions, Colibrium Additive, Carbon, Markforged, Farsoon, BLT, Creality, Renishaw, Prodways, ARC Impact, Velo3D, Optomec, BeAM, Eplus, Atlix, and others. The data is segmented by vendor, print technology, geography, and application.
Market Growth Masks Hardware Weakness
The services figure in AM Research’s data tracks a pattern visible in broader industry reporting. The Wohlers Report 2026, published by Wohlers Associates and ASTM International earlier this year, found that printing services grew 15.5% in 2025 and now account for 48% of total AM revenue worldwide, while printer sales grew just 3.6%.
If the same dynamic is driving AM Research’s quarterly numbers, the 12% total market growth may be masking a more specific shift: companies are increasingly buying parts and capacity, not printers. That distinction matters because services revenue tends to be more resilient to the kind of capex pressure Dunham flagged, while hardware purchases are precisely the line items that get deferred when borrowing costs rise.
The stall Dunham warns about is also consistent with recent industry data. AMPOWER reported that the industrial AM market stagnated in 2024 before returning to 5.6% growth in 2025, while CONTEXT reported uneven performance across 3D printer price segments in Q3 2025. This suggests that the 12% total market growth can coexist with weakness in specific segments, particularly in segments where purchases tend to be larger capital commitments.
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Featured image shows total AM market revenue by segment (hardware, materials, services) from Q1 2025 to Q2 2026. Image via Additive Manufacturing Research.
