When a business buys a laser printer, the price on the box is the number everyone remembers. A year or two later, the number that matters is different: what it costs, every month, to keep that printer producing clean pages. Most offices never add it up, because the costs arrive as separate small purchases on different cards and invoices.
This post breaks those costs down, shows how to work out your own cost per page, and covers the habits that keep the number down.
What you pay for over the life of a printer
The printer itself
The purchase price, or the lease payment if you lease. Business laser printers cost more up front than consumer models because they’re built for heavier use, with bigger trays, larger toner cartridges and parts designed to be replaced rather than the whole printer.
Toner
The cost everyone knows about. Toner cartridges cost more than ink cartridges but print many more pages, which is why laser printers usually win on cost per page for text-heavy office work. High-yield cartridges cost more each but usually less per page.
The drum
The drum carries the image onto the paper. On many HP LaserJet models it’s built into the toner cartridge, so you replace it every time you change toner and the cost is already in the cartridge price. On many Brother models it’s a separate unit that outlasts several toner cartridges. Neither is automatically cheaper. Compare the two together, per page.
The maintenance kit
The parts that wear with every sheet: usually the fuser and the rollers that feed paper, sometimes the transfer roller. Busy printers need a kit every year or two; quieter ones much less often. It’s the cost people forget, because it doesn’t arrive until the printer asks for it. Our maintenance kit guide explains what’s in one and when it’s due.
Repairs and labor
Anything the kit doesn’t cover, plus someone’s time to fit it. If you don’t have a service agreement, a technician visit is billed when it happens.
Your staff’s time
Ordering toner, clearing jams, and the twenty minutes someone spends on hold with a supplier. It rarely shows up on a budget, but it’s a real cost.
Most offices never add it up, because the costs arrive as separate small purchases on different cards and invoices.
How to work out your cost per page
You don’t need anyone’s averages for this. You need your own printer’s numbers, which are on the supplier’s website or the box.
- Take the price of a toner cartridge and divide it by its rated page yield.
- Do the same for the drum, if it’s separate.
- Do the same for the maintenance kit, using the page count the manufacturer gives for it.
- Add the three together.
A worked example, with round numbers chosen only to show the math: a $150 toner cartridge rated for 6,000 pages is 2.5 cents a page. A $120 drum rated for 30,000 pages adds 0.4 cents. A $300 maintenance kit rated for 150,000 pages adds 0.2 cents. That printer costs about 3.1 cents a page in supplies before paper, repairs or anyone’s time.
Two cautions. Rated yields are measured at a light, standard page coverage (Brother, for example, rates its maintenance parts at 5 percent coverage on letter paper), so pages heavy with graphics or solid color will get fewer. And color pages draw on four cartridges instead of one, so expect them to cost several times as much as black.
What pushes the cost up
- Volume. More pages means more toner and earlier kits. That’s expected; the cost per page should stay about the same.
- A printer that’s too small for the job. A desktop printer doing a workgroup’s printing goes through small cartridges quickly and wears out early. Bigger printers often cost less per page.
- Color by default. Internal drafts printed in color cost far more than they need to.
- Cheap toner that leaks. Some compatible cartridges are fine and some aren’t. A leak inside the printer can ruin a drum or a fuser, which costs more than the toner saved. Our post on choosing a compatible toner cartridge covers what to check.
- Ignored warnings. Running past a maintenance message, or a worn roller, tends to turn a planned part into an unplanned repair.
Habits that keep it down
- Set the default to black and white and double-sided, and let people choose color when they need it.
- Use the toner-saving or draft mode for internal pages.
- Keep paper sealed in its ream until it goes in the tray. Damp paper causes jams, and jams wear parts.
- Do the short weekly and monthly checks on our laser printer maintenance checklist.
- Buy the right size of printer for the work, even if it costs more up front.
Questions people ask
What does a laser printer cost per page?
It depends entirely on the model and its supplies. Work it out with the method above using your printer’s own cartridge, drum and kit prices. Then compare that number, not the price of the printer, when you shop.
How often does toner need replacing?
When the rated pages are used up, which depends on how much you print and how much of each page is covered. The printer’s configuration page shows the page count, and most business printers warn you before the cartridge is empty.
Is it worth repairing a laser printer?
Often, yes, if the printer is a few years old, parts are still available and the repair is well short of the price of a new one. A common rule of thumb is to think hard once a repair approaches half the cost of a comparable new printer. Our post on the true cost of keeping an office printer running looks at that decision from the budget side.
Turning it into one number
A managed print agreement replaces most of those separate costs with one charge based on the pages you print. Toner, drums, developer and maintenance supplies are included, as are parts and labor, and the printers report their own toner levels so supplies ship before they run out. You still buy the paper and staples. If you’d like your current cost per page worked out properly, our print assessment does that for every printer and copier you have.