Advanced options
The GBP 40 inkjet is the most expensive printer money can buy: the cartridges cost more than the machine within a year at modest volumes. Occasional printers have a special problem: inkjets clean their own heads with YOUR ink, so rare printing costs almost as much as regular printing. Laser toner never dries up: the mono laser is the right answer for most homes that print a little.
What The Printer Ink Cost Calculator Works Out
- Ink/toner per year: pages per month x 12 x the cost per page for your printer type. Standard inkjet cartridges work out at 6-10p a mono page, XL cartridges around 5p, mono laser toner 2-3p and ink-tank bottles under half a penny.
- 3-year cost of ownership: the printer price plus three years of consumables. At 50 pages a month the GBP 40 inkjet totals GBP 200+, while the dearer ink tank or laser finishes far ahead: the sticker price is the least informative number on the box.
- Custom cost per page (advanced): override the dropdown with your own figure, worked out as cartridge price divided by its rated page yield. Third-party and refilled cartridges run 30-70% below originals.
- Colour pages (advanced): the share of pages in colour and what they cost. Colour inkjet pages typically run 15-25p each and photo prints far more; at modest volumes the supermarket photo counter is cheaper than any home colour system.
- Head-cleaning and wasted ink (advanced): inkjets flush their nozzles with your ink whether or not you print, so an occasional printer can lose 20-50% of cartridges to maintenance. Laser toner is dry and indifferent to months of silence.
- Paper and years of ownership (advanced): add the paper (about 1p a sheet for 80gsm copier paper) and change the three-year horizon; printers often last five years or more if the heads do not clog.
- True cost per page (advanced): the whole ownership cost divided by every page printed over the period, including the printer itself. At low volumes the machine's price dominates, which is why near-zero printing points to no printer at all.
- Other printer, same period and verdict (advanced): the same pages run through a different printer type and price, showing the total saving and how many months the dearer machine takes to repay its price out of cheaper pages. Ink tanks typically cost GBP 180-300 and repay themselves within a year or two for a family printing homework.
- No printer at all (advanced): every page bought at a library or print shop (usually 10-20p a sheet for mono). For a household printing a few pages a month this often beats owning anything.