Which printers are cheapest to run? cost per page, ranked from our own catalogue
Every printer has two prices. The one on the box, and the one you pay for years afterward in ink or toner. The second one is usually the bigger number, and it is the one nobody shows you in the shop. We worked out the cost per page for the 259 printers in our catalogue that have full cartridge pricing, using the manufacturer's own cartridge prices and page-yield ratings, then ranked them. The gap is not small. The cheapest machines to run cost about a third of a cent for a black page. The most expensive cost fifteen cents for the same page, which is more than forty times as much.
How we worked out these numbers
The figures here come from one calculation repeated across every printer we track. For each machine we take the cheapest genuine cartridge that fits it per colour, usually the high-yield XL version because it costs less per page, and divide the manufacturer's price by its rated page yield. That gives a cost per black page. For a colour page we add the black cost to the cost of the colour inks, following the same 5 percent per colour coverage that the industry page-yield tests assume.
So these are the OEM, buy-the-official-ink costs. Fit a good compatible cartridge and you can often cut them by half or more, which we cover in a separate guide. Toner drum wear on laser printers is left out, because drums last far longer than a toner cartridge and vary by model. Treat the results as a like-for-like ranking, not a quote to the exact cent for your paper and print settings.
Cost per page by printer type
Group every printer by the technology it uses and a clear pattern falls out. Ink tanks are cheapest, cartridge inkjets are dearest, and laser sits between them for text.
| Printer type | Models tracked | Median black page | Median colour page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ink tank (refillable) | 24 | 0.33c | 1.0c |
| Mono laser | 52 | 2.4c | n/a |
| Colour laser | 28 | 2.6c | 12.1c |
| Cartridge inkjet | 155 | 5.5c | 16.0c |
The numbers are medians across every model of that type in our catalogue, so one unusual printer cannot skew them. A mono laser has no colour figure because it prints black only.
The cheapest printers to run, ranked by family
Here is the same data broken down by printer family, ranked from cheapest black page to most expensive. Only families where we track at least three models are shown, so the medians are stable. Laser families show no colour figure when the line is black and white only.
| Printer family | Type | Models | Black page | Colour page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epson EcoTank | Ink tank | 18 | 0.34c | 0.96c |
| Brother LC406 | Cartridge inkjet | 3 | 0.83c | 4.8c |
| Brother LC3033/LC3035 | Cartridge inkjet | 3 | 1.2c | 5.2c |
| Brother TN-820/TN-850/TN-880 | Laser | 5 | 1.3c | n/a |
| Epson WorkForce Pro | Cartridge inkjet | 5 | 1.8c | 9.9c |
| Brother TN-431/TN-433/TN-436 | Laser | 4 | 1.8c | 6.9c |
| Brother TN-420/TN-450 | Laser | 5 | 2.2c | n/a |
| Brother TN-630/TN-660 | Laser | 6 | 2.2c | n/a |
| Brother TN-331/TN-336 | Laser | 5 | 2.2c | 9.6c |
| HP OfficeJet Pro | Cartridge inkjet | 29 | 2.4c | 9.4c |
| HP LaserJet MFP | Laser | 3 | 2.4c | n/a |
| Brother TN-223/TN-227 | Laser | 7 | 2.6c | 12.1c |
| Brother TN-730/TN-760 | Laser | 4 | 2.8c | n/a |
| HP LaserJet Pro MFP | Laser | 10 | 3.4c | n/a |
| HP LaserJet Pro | Laser | 9 | 3.6c | n/a |
| HP LaserJet | Laser | 3 | 3.8c | n/a |
| Epson WorkForce | Cartridge inkjet | 9 | 3.8c | 18.8c |
| HP Color LaserJet Pro | Laser | 5 | 3.9c | 19.4c |
| HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP | Laser | 5 | 3.9c | 19.4c |
| HP OfficeJet | Cartridge inkjet | 12 | 4.6c | 13.9c |
| Brother LC201/LC203 | Cartridge inkjet | 4 | 5.1c | 16.0c |
| Brother LC3017/LC3019 | Cartridge inkjet | 4 | 5.5c | 18.5c |
| Brother LC3011/LC3013 | Cartridge inkjet | 4 | 5.5c | 19.8c |
| Epson Expression Home | Cartridge inkjet | 5 | 6.0c | 19.3c |
| Epson Expression Premium | Cartridge inkjet | 3 | 6.0c | 18.0c |
| Canon PIXMA TR | Cartridge inkjet | 5 | 6.2c | 15.6c |
| Canon PIXMA TS | Cartridge inkjet | 18 | 6.2c | 15.6c |
| HP ENVY Photo | Cartridge inkjet | 4 | 6.3c | 16.0c |
| Canon PIXMA MG | Cartridge inkjet | 13 | 8.3c | 16.8c |
| Canon PIXMA MX | Cartridge inkjet | 4 | 8.8c | 18.1c |
| HP DeskJet | Cartridge inkjet | 12 | 12.3c | 24.0c |
| HP ENVY | Cartridge inkjet | 9 | 12.3c | 24.0c |
The ten cheapest specific models we track
These are the ten individual models in our catalogue with the lowest running cost. Every one is a refillable tank printer, which is the whole story in one list.
- Canon PIXMA G3270 Ink tank, about 0.22c per black page and 0.68c per colour page.
- Canon PIXMA G7020 Ink tank, about 0.22c per black page and 0.68c per colour page.
- Epson EcoTank ET-2710 Ink tank, about 0.24c per black page and 0.68c per colour page.
- Epson EcoTank ET-2400 Ink tank, about 0.29c per black page and 0.81c per colour page.
- Epson EcoTank ET-2720 Ink tank, about 0.29c per black page and 0.81c per colour page.
- Epson EcoTank ET-2800 Ink tank, about 0.29c per black page and 0.81c per colour page.
- Epson EcoTank ET-2803 Ink tank, about 0.29c per black page and 0.81c per colour page.
- Epson EcoTank ET-4800 Ink tank, about 0.29c per black page and 0.81c per colour page.
- Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500 Ink tank, about 0.30c per black page and 1.3c per colour page.
- Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 Ink tank, about 0.30c per black page and 1.3c per colour page.
The most expensive to run
At the other end are the cartridge inkjets. These are often the cheapest printers to buy, which is not a coincidence. The low sticker price is subsidised by the ink you are expected to keep buying, the classic razor-and-blades model. A black page on one of these costs around fifteen cents, and a full colour page can pass thirty.
- HP DeskJet 1255 Cartridge inkjet, about 15.0c per black page and 32.5c per colour page.
- HP DeskJet 2742e Cartridge inkjet, about 15.0c per black page and 32.5c per colour page.
- HP DeskJet 2755e Cartridge inkjet, about 15.0c per black page and 35.0c per colour page.
- HP DeskJet 4155e Cartridge inkjet, about 15.0c per black page and 32.5c per colour page.
- HP ENVY 6055e Cartridge inkjet, about 15.0c per black page and 35.0c per colour page.
- HP ENVY 6075 Cartridge inkjet, about 15.0c per black page and 32.5c per colour page.
Cheap to run is not the same as cheap to buy
Cheap to run and cheap to buy are almost opposites. A tank printer asks for more money up front, often two hundred dollars or more, and pays you back slowly through cheap ink. A cartridge inkjet is the reverse: little to buy, a lot to feed. Whether the tank printer is worth it comes down to how much you print.
HP's own figures put a Smart Tank at roughly 0.4 cents a black page against about 15 cents on a cartridge model, and at 150 pages a month the tank pays for its higher price in around two months. Print only a handful of pages a month and the sums change completely. LD Products worked through a low-volume case and found the savings only started to show after about five years, by which time many people have replaced the printer anyway. If you print rarely, a cheap cartridge printer or a flat-rate ink subscription can genuinely work out better, and you avoid ink drying in tanks you never empty.
How to cut your own cost per page
You do not have to buy a new printer to spend less per page. A few things move the needle. Buy the XL or XXL version of your cartridge rather than the standard size, because the ink inside costs less per page even though the box costs more. Fit a reputable compatible or remanufactured cartridge, which typically halves the OEM figures above. Print in draft or greyscale for everyday documents so you drain the expensive colour tanks less often. And before you buy any HP printer, check the firmware-DRM tracker to see whether it can lock out third-party ink through a firmware update, because that quietly removes the cheaper-ink escape route.
Common questions
Which type of printer is cheapest to run?
Refillable ink-tank printers, such as the Epson EcoTank and Canon PIXMA G series. In our catalogue they print a black page for around a third of a cent, roughly fifteen times less than a typical cartridge inkjet and well under a mono laser. They cost more to buy, so the saving is real only if you print enough to earn back the higher price.
Are laser printers cheaper to run than inkjets?
For black text, usually yes. Mono laser printers in our data run at about two to three cents a page, against five cents or more for most cartridge inkjets. Refillable ink tanks still beat both. For colour, a colour laser is not cheap, so heavy colour users are better served by an ink tank.
Why are cheap printers the most expensive to run?
Because the low price is a loss leader. Manufacturers sell the hardware cheaply and make their money on the cartridges, the razor-and-blades model. A budget cartridge inkjet can cost fifteen cents a black page and thirty or more for colour, so it overtakes a dearer tank printer on total cost within a year of steady use.
Does compatible ink change these numbers?
Yes, downward. The figures here use genuine manufacturer ink at list price. A good compatible or remanufactured cartridge usually cuts the cost per page by half or more, which shifts a cartridge inkjet much closer to laser territory. The exception is HP models with Dynamic Security, which can refuse non-HP cartridges after a firmware update.
How do I work out the cost per page for a printer I am looking at?
Take the price of its highest-yield black cartridge and divide by the rated page yield printed on the box. That gives the black cost per page. Do the same for each colour and add them for a colour page. Every printer page on this site already shows the cartridges it uses and their yields, so you can run the sum in a minute.
Keep reading
- OEM vs compatible vs remanufactured cartridges the real cost and quality breakdown behind the ink half of your running cost.
- Are refillable ink-tank printers worth it the break-even maths on that higher sticker price.
- Printer firmware-DRM tracker check whether an HP model can block the cheaper third-party ink.
- Find the exact cartridge your printer uses and its yield, so you can run the cost per page yourself.
- HP ink cartridge compatibility chart the same cost per page maths broken down by HP cartridge family.
- What a page yield number really means where the yields behind every one of these sums come from, and what they leave out.
- Drum unit vs toner the drum surcharge this ranking does not include.
- HP LaserJet toner compatibility chart the same cost per page maths broken down by HP toner family.
- Is the print head in your cartridge or your printer the design reason behind roughly half of the gap in these tables.
- Setup cartridges and what the first refill costs the first refill priced for every machine we list, before the running cost starts.
- Waste ink pads and maintenance boxes the cost per page sum leaves out the part that stops the machine for good.
- Is your cartridge number being discontinued? cost per page assumes the cartridge is still on sale in five years.
- Your cartridge is being discontinued: what to do about it how long a cheaper machine takes to earn back its price at your volume.
- Is the XL cartridge actually cheaper? the smaller lever: what picking the right size inside one family is worth.
Sources
- HP Tech Takes, HP Smart Tank vs. Ink Cartridge: Real Cost Per Page Breakdown (per-page cost ranges and break-even by monthly volume). hp.com
- LD Products Help Center, Breaking Down the Cost of the Epson EcoTank (when the upfront cost does and does not pay off for low-volume users). support.ldproducts.com
- ISO/IEC 24711:2021, method for the determination of ink cartridge yield for colour inkjet printers (the page-yield test the ratings are based on). iso.org
Last updated . This guide is general information, not a repair warranty. Printer menus and HP's model lists change, so confirm the exact steps for your model on the manufacturer's support site before you make changes.