Printers are sold cheap so the maker can sell you ink forever. This ranks them by what they actually cost to run: the cost per page, and the real 2-year cost once you add ink to the purchase price. Spoiler, a $200 EcoTank often costs less over two years than an $85 inkjet.
We costed 40 printers on two years of ownership, purchase price plus ink for 1,500 black and 500 colour pages. It is a different list from the price list: only 2 of 40 printers hold the same position in both. The HP DeskJet 2755e is the cheapest to buy at $85 and comes 34 of 40 over two years at $491, while the Brother HL-L2405W costs $120 to buy and $166 to own. That is $35 more at the till and $324 less by the end of it. The split is absolute on this list: every ink-tank printer costs less per black page than every cartridge one, 0.4c at worst against 1.4c at best.
Method: purchase price plus ink or toner for 1,500 black and 500 colour pages over two years, which is the model the table above sorts by. Counts by type: Mono-Laser 9, Ink-Tank 11, Inkjet 15, Color-Laser 5. Heavy printers shift the answer further towards laser and tank; light ones towards the cheap machine. Cite this: "usefulHQ Printer Running Cost Study 2026", usefulhq.com/printer-running-cost/.
Prices and ink costs reviewed 29 August 2026 . Cost per page is worked out from a real cartridge, one printer at a time: the maker's stated ISO yield divided into what a genuine cartridge sells for. Where a machine takes both a standard and a high-yield cartridge the figure uses whichever works out cheaper per page, which is nearly always the high-yield one, so these are the kindest honest numbers rather than the worst case. Compatible cartridges are not used anywhere here. Two things the figure still cannot capture: a cartridge bought on offer beats it, and a printer bought and then barely used is dominated by its sticker price rather than by anything in this column. Nine of these are HP+ printers, the ones whose names end in e: the LaserJet M110we and M209dwe, DeskJet 2755e and 4155e, Envy 6055e and Envy Inspire 7955e, OfficeJet Pro 8135e and 9125e, and Smart 4001e. HP+ requires original HP cartridges for the life of the printer and the firmware refuses third-party ones, so on those nine there is no cheaper cartridge to fall back on and the figure above is the floor rather than an indication.
Two numbers, and they disagree. The sticker price is what you hand over once. The two-year figure adds ink for 1,500 black and 500 colour pages, which is what the table below sorts by. Figures in USD.
| Type | To buy | Over two years |
|---|---|---|
| Mono laser | $100 to $220 | $166 to $289 |
| Ink tank | $200 to $500 | $210 to $508 |
| Cartridge inkjet | $85 to $250 | $206 to $536 |
| Colour laser | $250 to $500 | $386 to $648 |
The cheapest printer here is the HP DeskJet 2755e at $85, and the cheapest to own is the Brother HL-L2405W at $120. Two years in, the $85 one has cost $491 and the $120 one $166. That is not an odd case: of the 38 printers on this page, 22 are beaten over two years by a model that costs more to buy.
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| Printer | Type | Black /page | Colour /page | Printer price | Used on eBay | 2-yr real cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brother HL-L2405WCheapest to run | Mono Laser | 3.1¢ | Mono | $120 | – | $167 | Check price |
| Brother HL-L2350DW | Mono Laser | 2.9¢ | Mono | $130 | $7255% | $174 | Check price |
| Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w | Mono Laser | 4.9¢ | Mono | $100 | – | $174 | Check price |
| Epson EcoTank ET-2400 | Ink Tank | 0.4¢ | 0.7¢ | $180 | – | $190 | Check price |
| Brother HL-L2400D | Mono Laser | 3.3¢ | Mono | $140 | – | $190 | Check price |
| HP LaserJet M110we | Mono Laser | 4.7¢ | Mono | $130 | – | $201 | Check price |
| Brother MFC-J4335DW | Inkjet | 1.4¢ | 5¢ | $160 | $5534% | $206 | Check price |
| Brother HL-L2460DW | Mono Laser | 3.1¢ | Mono | $160 | – | $207 | Check price |
| Epson EcoTank ET-2800 | Ink Tank | 0.4¢ | 0.7¢ | $200 | $8944% | $210 | Check price |
| Canon MegaTank G3270 | Ink Tank | 0.4¢ | 0.6¢ | $230 | – | $239 | Check price |
| HP LaserJet M209dwe | Mono Laser | 6¢ | Mono | $150 | – | $240 | Check price |
| Brother MFC-L2710DW | Mono Laser | 2.9¢ | Mono | $200 | $8542% | $244 | Check price |
| Epson EcoTank ET-2850 | Ink Tank | 0.3¢ | 0.8¢ | $280 | – | $289 | Check price |
| Lexmark MB2236adw | Mono Laser | 4.6¢ | Mono | $220 | $11050% | $289 | Check price |
| HP Smart Tank 6001 | Ink Tank | 0.4¢ | 0.8¢ | $280 | – | $290 | Check price |
| Epson WorkForce Pro WF-3820 | Inkjet | 4.4¢ | 10.1¢ | $180 | – | $297 | Check price |
| Canon PIXMA TS6420a | Inkjet | 10.5¢ | 10¢ | $100 | – | $308 | Check price |
| Epson EcoTank ET-4800 | Ink Tank | 0.4¢ | 0.7¢ | $300 | $12542% | $310 | Check price |
| Brother MFC-J1010DW | Inkjet | 8.8¢ | 12.2¢ | $130 | – | $323 | Check price |
| Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4830 | Inkjet | 4.4¢ | 10.1¢ | $230 | – | $347 | Check price |
| Epson WorkForce WF-2960 | Inkjet | 7.3¢ | 17.8¢ | $150 | – | $349 | Check price |
| Canon MegaTank G6020 | Ink Tank | 0.4¢ | 0.6¢ | $350 | – | $359 | Check price |
| HP Smart Tank 7301 | Ink Tank | 0.4¢ | 0.8¢ | $350 | – | $360 | Check price |
| HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e | Inkjet | 4.3¢ | 12.3¢ | $250 | – | $376 | Check price |
| Canon Color imageCLASS LBP622Cdw | Color Laser | 3.2¢ | 17.6¢ | $250 | – | $386 | Check price |
| Canon PIXMA TR8620a | Inkjet | 7.8¢ | 17.9¢ | $180 | – | $387 | Check price |
| Epson EcoTank ET-3850 | Ink Tank | 0.3¢ | 0.8¢ | $400 | $13032% | $409 | Check price |
| Canon MegaTank G7020 | Ink Tank | 0.4¢ | 0.6¢ | $400 | – | $409 | Check price |
| HP OfficeJet Pro 8135e | Inkjet | 8.6¢ | 16.9¢ | $200 | – | $414 | Check price |
| Canon PIXMA TR4720 | Inkjet | 15.4¢ | 18.8¢ | $90 | – | $415 | Check price |
| HP Envy Inspire 7955e | Inkjet | 9.3¢ | 18¢ | $200 | – | $430 | Check price |
| Brother HL-L3270CDW | Color Laser | 2.6¢ | 14.2¢ | $350 | $11031% | $460 | Check price |
| HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw | Color Laser | 2.1¢ | 16.9¢ | $350 | $15043% | $466 | Check price |
| HP DeskJet 2755e | Inkjet | 19.1¢ | 23.9¢ | $85 | – | $491 | Check price |
| HP DeskJet 4155e | Inkjet | 19.1¢ | 23.9¢ | $100 | – | $506 | Check price |
| Epson EcoTank ET-15000 | Ink Tank | 0.3¢ | 0.8¢ | $500 | – | $509 | Check price |
| HP Envy 6055e | Inkjet | 19.1¢ | 23.9¢ | $130 | – | $536 | Check price |
| HP Smart 4001e | Inkjet | 19.1¢ | 23.9¢ | $130 | – | $536 | Check price |
| Brother MFC-L3750CDW | Color Laser | 2.6¢ | 14.2¢ | $450 | – | $560 | Check price |
| HP Color LaserJet MFP 3301fdw | Color Laser | 3.8¢ | 18.1¢ | $500 | – | $648 | Check price |
Once you know which model is cheapest to run, the next question is what one costs: live used printer prices, where office lasers turn up with most of their life left.
Between $85 and $500 for the 38 models ranked here, with a median of $200. Mono lasers run $100 to $220, cartridge inkjets $85 to $250, ink tanks $200 to $500 and colour lasers $250 to $500. Ink changes the order: over two years the cheapest inkjet reaches $491 while a $120 mono laser is still at $166.
Ink-tank printers (EcoTank, MegaTank, Smart Tank) at well under 1¢ per black page. A cartridge inkjet costs 5-20¢/page, so it can cost more over two years than a pricier ink-tank. Mono laser is very cheap for text.
The printer is cheap; the money is in the ink. A $50-100 inkjet at 8-20¢/page burns more in ink than a $200 EcoTank that prints for a fraction of a cent. The 2-year cost column shows the truth.
Mono laser is cheapest for black text and never dries out. Ink-tank inkjet is cheapest for colour and photos. Colour laser is cheap for black but pricey per colour page. Match to what you print.
Printer price plus ink for ~1,500 black + 500 colour pages over two years, a like-for-like real cost where cheap cartridge printers lose to ink-tanks.