Printer cost calculator: cost per page and total cost over the years

Cost per page is the price of the ink or toner divided by how many pages it prints (its page yield). A $30 cartridge rated for 300 pages is 10 cents a page. The page yield is on the cartridge or toner box and is measured on a standard test page, so real results vary.

Black and white laser toner is usually the cheapest cartridge-based way to print text, and ink tank printers are usually cheaper per page than either because the ink comes in refillable bottles. Inkjets with cartridges are usually the most expensive per page. The calculator lets you enter your own cost per page and shows the printer price plus running cost over the years you choose.

Over several years, the printer with the lowest price is rarely the cheapest to run. If you print a lot, a printer with cheap pages wins even when it costs more to buy. If you print a few pages a month, the purchase price decides it, and an inkjet's ink can dry out unused. Set your pages a month above to see where the lines cross.

Purchase price plus pages printed times cost per page, over the years you plan to keep it. The calculator does this for laser, inkjet and ink tank, using the lowest-priced new listings we track as the purchase price.

They are starting assumptions you can edit, not measurements. We track printer prices, not cartridge prices or yields, so use the price and yield for the exact model you are considering.

Our printer price table ranks every listing we track from lowest price, with filters for laser, inkjet, ink tank and all-in-one.