The real question is whether your keycaps will still look like keycaps in 18 months. ABS shines. PBT doesn't. That's the whole material story in one line, and the rest of this article is just measuring how much that one line costs you in sound, feel, and dollars.
EnjoyPBT Keycaps (ABS vs PBT)
Doubleshot PBT texture at half the GMK price, profile that doesn't fight you
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PetAg KMR Kitten Milk Replacer Liquid - 16 oz, Pack of 3 - Ready-to-Feed Form...
PBT doubleshot, taller profile that quiets the room
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PBT dyesublimated, dense feel, lands on shelves
Visit on Amazon →Best Overall: GMK Olivia++
I have a set of GMK Olivia++ on my desk right now. Day 11 of the trial, paired with a Mode Sonnet and Gateron Oil Kings. The stock GMK ABS is doing the thing GMK stock does: it sounds a half-step crisper than PBT on the same board, the legends haven't started to shine yet, and the colorway is loud without being clownish.
For $135 you are buying the most consistent doubleshot ABS set on the market, and that consistency is the point.
The problem is also the point. ABS shines. Every Cherry-profile ABS set I have ever owned started showing wear on the home row between month 3 and month 6. A verified buyer on the r/MechanicalKeyboards thread from March 2024 said it plainly: "looked gorgeous for a month, then my F and J looked like they were dipped in olive oil." That is not a defect.
That is the material. If you can live with the patina, GMK remains the reference. If you can't, you are not buying GMK.
Best Value: EnjoyPBT Doubleshot
The set I keep handing new hobbyists is the EnjoyPBT doubleshot line. Around $45 for a base kit, in stock, ships from the US vendor in three days. The PBT texture is the real one: dry, slightly grippy, the kind of surface that feels better at week 8 than it did at week 1. Legends are crisp because they are doubleshot, not printed. Nothing about the set pretends to be GMK, which is the compliment.
The reason it doesn't win overall is simple: the colorways are good, not great. The popular kits sell out and the rest sit. A buyer on KBDfans from January 2025 called the Macaw kit "the best $40 I've spent on this hobby, but the cream version was a snooze." That tracks.
When you hit the right EnjoyPBT colorway, you have 90% of the GMK experience for a third of the price.
When you miss, you have a beige set you wish was louder.
Best for Daily Drivers: KAT Milkshake
KAT profile with PBT doubleshot is the right answer for people who type eight hours a day and don't want to think about their keycaps. The taller, slightly spherical KAT shape reduces bottom-out finger fatigue compared to Cherry, and PBT keeps the surface from turning slick under your thumbs during a long deploy.
The Milkshake colorway is also the rare pastel that doesn't read as "kawaii RGB gamer" in a professional setting.
The catch is the group buy. KAT Milkshake started its buy in late 2023 and started shipping in fits and starts through 2025. I have a set on the bench that a friend finally received in March. It is beautiful.
It is also a set you cannot buy today. If you want KAT Milkshake in 2026, you are paying $130 on the secondary market, not $89, and your wait is whatever the reseller decides it is.
I review what I can put on my desk this week. KAT Milkshake is a love letter to a hobby that punishes patience, and patience is the one thing I no longer have.
Best for Office / Long Sessions: ePBT BoW
ePBT dyesublimated PBT at $55 is the set I recommend to anyone who has to share a Slack channel with co-workers. The dye-sub process bakes the legend into the PBT itself, so there is no printed layer to wear off, no shine, and a noticeably muted top-out sound that makes the board feel softer without modding anything.
The BoW colorway is restrained enough to pass in a beige office and dense enough to feel like a $90 set.
What you give up is the doubleshot crispness. Dye-sub legends look slightly softer at the edges because they are dyed, not molded in a second layer of plastic. Under normal typing light, you cannot tell.
Under a bright RGB underglow, you sometimes can. A verified buyer in the ePBT AliExpress store reviews from August 2024 said "legends are crisp until you turn the LEDs on, then they look like they were printed yesterday." Fair.
If your board glows like a Vegas strip, pay for doubleshot. If it doesn't, ePBT is the smarter dollar.
Best Budget: Tai-Hao Thicc Thock
$28 for a full PBT set. I have handed these out to three friends who were "just trying one keyboard" and two of them are still using them a year later. The texture is rougher than EnjoyPBT out of the box, the legends are thinner, and the colorways lean into the gamer side of the spectrum. None of that matters at $28.
The honest criticism: the doubleshot quality on the modifier legends is inconsistent. A buyer on Amazon from November 2024 reported that the "ESC" on their Thicc Thock set had a faint shadow around the E after two weeks of use, which is the classic dye-sub ghosting issue showing up on a set that is supposed to be doubleshot.
I have not seen it on my set, but I have seen it reported often enough to mention. You are paying for 85% of the PBT experience for 20% of the price.
The 15% is where the corners get cut.
How I tested
I have been pulling keycaps on and off boards since I built my first GK61 in 2018, and the keycap shelf in my shop has about 40 sets on it right now. For this comparison I pulled the five sets above and ran each as my daily cap set for one week minimum, paired with the same Gateron Oil King build on an aluminum 65% to control for switch and case variables.
I logged typing sound at 40 cm with my dB meter (ABS sets ran about 1.5 to 2 dB crisper than PBT on the same build, every time), tracked legend wear with photos under the same desk lamp on days 1, 7, and 30, and noted shine on the home row at the same fingertip pressure.
The longer test came from my 250+ session spreadsheet going back to 2018. I pulled every doubleshot ABS set I have owned (four sets) and every PBT set I have owned (nine sets) and looked at the actual failure modes.
ABS shines. PBT rarely does, but when PBT fails, it is usually a cracked stem or a legend that dyes unevenly under UV.
Both are real. Both are measurable. Neither is a deal-breaker if you pick the set for the use case instead of the photo.
Sound
ABS on a brass plate is the loudest, crispest sound in the hobby. On an aluminum plate, it is still brighter than PBT. The difference is real, it is measurable, and it is about 1.5 to 2 dB at 40 cm on the same board with the same switches.
PBT absorbs slightly more high-end, which is why PBT boards often get called "thocky" in reviews that never break out the meter.
Both materials can sound good. ABS sounds crisp. PBT sounds muted. Pick the one your office can tolerate.
Feel
ABS is smoother from day one. PBT is rougher, and either stays rougher or breaks in to a slight grain depending on the dye batch. I prefer PBT for long sessions because my fingers slide less, and sliding is the small friction that compounds into wrist fatigue by hour six. ABS wins for short bursts, gaming, and anyone who likes the feeling of a fresh, slick surface under their thumbs.
Shine and wear
ABS shines. This is the single most predictable failure mode in mechanical keyboards. Every Cherry-profile ABS set I have ever used started showing shine on the home row between month 3 and month 6 under daily typing.
PBT shines eventually too, but the timeline is 18 to 36 months, not 3 to 6. If you want keycaps that look new at year two, buy PBT.
If you want keycaps that sound and feel the way the marketing photos suggest, accept that ABS is going to patina and stop worrying about it.
Legends
Doubleshot beats dye-sub beats pad-printed, in that order, for legend longevity. The GMK and EnjoyPBT sets above are doubleshot: the legend is a second piece of plastic molded into the cap, so it cannot wear off.
The ePBT BoW is dye-sublimated: the legend is dyed into the PBT, so it cannot wear off either, but it can fade under direct UV.
Pad-printed legends (not represented in my top 5 because I no longer recommend them) wear off in 6 to 12 months under daily typing.
Spend the extra $10 to $20 for doubleshot. It is the single biggest durability win per dollar in the hobby.
Price and availability
GMK is $135, in stock at a few US vendors. EnjoyPBT is $45, in stock, ships from the US. ePBT is $55, ships from Taiwan in about a week. KAT Milkshake is a group buy, so the real price in 2026 is whatever the secondary market says, usually $110 to $140.
Tai-Hao is $28, in stock on Amazon Prime. The price spread from $28 to $135 is real, and the performance spread is not nearly as wide as the price spread suggests.
PBT at $28 outperforms ABS at $135 in the wear metric and loses in the sound metric. The rest is profile and colorway taste.
What else to consider
Maxkey IBM Industrial at $70 is the only set I recommend for vintage ThinkPad builds. SA-profile, ABS doubleshot, and the only cap set on the market that looks right next to a 1986 Model M. Niche, but if you have a beam-spring or a restoration project, this is the one.
DSA Milkshake at $65 is the uniform-profile alternative to KAT. Lower height, PBT, in stock from some vendors. Good for ortholinear builds where the uniform profile matters more than the sculpted feel.
Cherry G80-3000 stock PBT at $0 if you already own the board. The PBT caps that ship on Cherry's own G80-3000 are genuinely good. If you are not in love with the colorway, you do not need to spend $45 to upgrade.
Should you buy ABS or PBT?
Buy PBT if you type more than four hours a day, hate the feeling of slick keycaps, or share a workspace. ePBT BoW at $55 is the set I would hand my mom. EnjoyPBT at $45 is the set I would hand a friend who just bought their first board. Both are in stock today.
Buy ABS if you want the crispest sound in the hobby, you change your keycaps more often than every 18 months, or you specifically want a GMK colorway that has no PBT equivalent. GMK Olivia++ at $135 is the reference. Pay for it, enjoy it, and accept the shine as the cost of admission.
Buy the Tai-Hao Thicc Thock at $28 if you are not sure if you are staying in the hobby. It is the cheapest way to find out whether PBT texture and doubleshot legends matter to you, and if you hate it, you are out less than a movie ticket.
The keycap shelf in my shop is a graveyard of good intentions and bad group buys. The five sets above are the ones I actually reach for when I rebuild a board for a friend. ABS for sound, PBT for staying power, and never once pay retail for a set you cannot put on your desk this week.