Creality Ender 3 extrusion calibration (e-steps)

The stock Creality Ender 3 e-steps is 93 steps/mm. That is the factory e-steps value — tune it once with the mark-and-measure test and the extruder tracks reality. The rotation distance & e-steps calculator does the correction math and prints the exact line to paste; the full calibration guide explains the test in detail.

The Ender 3’s 93 steps/mm default ships on the most-owned printer in the hobby, which makes it the single most-searched e-steps value there is. This default comes from the manufacturer’s own firmware or config. Source.

How to calibrate on the Creality Ender 3

1. Heat the hotend to normal print temperature and mark the filament exactly 120 mm above the extruder inlet with a ruler and a fine marker or tape flag.
2. Extrude 100 mm slowly. From a console send G91, then G1 E100 F60 — slow, so back-pressure does not skew the measurement.
3. Measure what actually went through. Measure from the inlet to the mark again — actual extrusion is 120 − remainder (23 mm remaining means 97 mm extruded).
4. Compute the new value. new e-steps = old × requested ÷ actual — with the stock 93 and 97 mm measured: 93 × 100 ÷ 97 = 95.88. Under-extrusion pushes e-steps up. The calculator does this arithmetic for you.
5. Apply and save. Send M92 E95.88, then M500 to store it in EEPROM — without M500 the value is gone after the next power cycle.
6. Confirm. Repeat the test once; the mark should land 20 mm from the inlet. Within about ±0.5 mm is measurement noise, not a reason to iterate.

Notes for the Creality Ender 3

Calibrated values typically land a little above stock (95–100 steps/mm is common). If yours comes out far higher, check the stock plastic extruder arm first — it cracks and slips, and no e-steps value fixes a slipping drive gear.

Thinking about Klipper on this machine? The same test applies after the conversion, but the value becomes rotation_distance and the formula inverts — the Klipper extrusion calibration guide covers that side.