Cost & Pricing
Cost Per Page Calculator
The cents-per-page number every printer shopper compares.
Enter values to see your estimate.
Estimates only, not a quote.
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Cost per page is the single most useful number in printing: it turns a $89 cartridge and a yield rating into the cents it costs to print one page. Once you have it, you can compare any two printers, sanity-check a lease's click charge, and project your real monthly toner spend.
How it works
Cost per page is just the cartridge price divided by its rated page yield (the number of pages the manufacturer says it prints at 5% coverage). Add an optional paper-per-sheet cost for the all-in figure. Real-world yield varies with coverage, see the toner coverage calculator to adjust for heavy pages.
What drives cost per page
Two numbers set your cost per page: the cartridge price and its rated yield. Yield is the lever people miss, a cartridge that costs twice as much but yields three times the pages is cheaper to run. That's why high-yield (XL) cartridges almost always win on cost per page despite the bigger upfront price, and why bargain-bin printers with tiny cartridges are so expensive to feed.
Cost per page benchmarks
Typical toner-only cost per page by device type, as a sanity check on your number:
| Device type | Mono ¢/page |
|---|---|
| Business mono MFP (high-yield) | 0.8–1.5¢ |
| Office mono printer | 1.5–3¢ |
| Budget desktop (retail cartridges) | 4–8¢ |
If your mono page costs more than about 3¢, you're probably on retail cartridges or an undersized device, see the true cost of a cheap printer calculator for what that adds up to.
Further reading How to Cut Office Printing Costs — Find the waste and remove it, in the order that pays off fastest.
Common questions
What's a good mono cost per page?
Roughly 1–3¢ per page for a business mono device. Much above that and you're likely on retail cartridges or an undersized machine.
Why is my real cost higher than rated?
Rated yield assumes 5% coverage. Heavier pages use more toner and lower the yield, raising your true cost per page.
How do I lower my cost per page?
Use high-yield cartridges (the cost per page almost always drops as yield rises), buy program toner instead of retail, and right-size the device to your volume. A faster office machine usually has a far lower cost per page than a cheap desktop printer.
Does cost per page include the printer?
No, this is the consumable cost of printing one page (toner, plus paper if you add it). To fold in the hardware and service, use the total cost of ownership calculator, which gives an all-in cost per page over the device's life.
Should I include paper?
It depends what you're comparing. Toner-only cost per page is the standard number for comparing cartridges and devices. Add paper when you want the true all-in cost of putting a page out the machine.