The model: the number the printer does not tell you

The printer is cheap; it is the ink that writes the real bill. This calculator takes four numbers — the cartridge price, the declared yield on the label, the real coverage of your pages and the pages per month — and returns what no box prints: the cost per page in cents, the true yield, the monthly bill and how many months the cartridge really lasts.

The count is parametric and currency-neutral: prices in cents, results in your units. It works for the home inkjet, the office toner and the tank printer — the mathematics of the consumable is the same on every shelf in the world.

The four knobs: cartridge, label, coverage and volume

The price goes from 5 to 100 units in steps of one: from the cheap compatible to the original toner. The declared yield goes from 100 to 1000 pages: the ISO number printed on the box. The real coverage has five values: 5 the standard's plain text, 10 the document with logos and bold, 15 dense tables, 20-25 pages with images. The pages per month go from 20 to 500: from occasional printing to the small office.

The price scale: five cartridges, five bills

Declared yield of 300 pages, plain text, one hundred pages a month; only the cartridge price changes:

The middle row is the factory recipe: the 25-unit cartridge with a 300-page yield is worth 8.33 cents a page — and at one hundred pages a month, by built-in coincidence, the monthly bill in units mirrors the cost per page in cents. The scale states the naked proportion: at equal yield, cost per page is price divided by three hundred — the 70 toner costs seven times the 10 compatible, no more, no less.

The ISO trap: the label is only worth five percent

The number on the box carries a fine-print clause: the yield is measured at the ISO standard with 5 percent coverage — a business letter with wide margins, not your real page. The model rescales the label to the coverage you declare: at 10 percent the 300 pages become 150, at 25 they become 60. It is the same family as the apparent-hydration trap: the label does not lie, but it speaks of another page — and whoever prints documents with images pays double or quadruple what they believed.

The bill that squares: the cartridge identity

The model rests on an exact identity: cost per page times real yield equals cartridge price, to the cent. No hidden estimate: 8.33 cents times 300 pages make exactly the 25 units paid at the shop. And the same squaring holds on the clock: lifespan times pages per month equals real yield — the 300-real-page cartridge at one hundred a month lasts three months sharp. Two identities the site's harness verifies at every release.

The four readings: from the tank to the luxury

The verdict reads the cost per page. Below five cents it is the tank printing: the territory of refillables and high-capacity toners. Between five and ten it is the office printing: you feel it, it does not bite. Between ten and twenty it is the pricey printing: the ink costs more than the paper it covers. Beyond twenty it is the luxury printing: printing costs like developing photos — legitimate for photos, a bloodletting for drafts.

The ten-ten row: border and threshold on the same cartridge

One combination of the grid carries a double destiny: a 10-unit cartridge, 200-page yield, coverage at 10, one hundred pages a month. The cost per page comes out at exactly 10.00 cents — the border between office and pricey, which the strict guard assigns to the upper band — and the monthly bill comes out at exactly 10.00 units, the threshold that switches on the verdict's warning. Band border and alarm threshold touched to the cent by the same row: the model's calibration, all in round numbers.

The price per page does not know how much you print

The cost per page has its declared immobility: it does not depend on the pages per month. Twenty pages or five hundred, the 8.33 cents stay 8.33 — volume moves the monthly bill and the cartridge's lifespan, never the unit price. It is the separation that orders decisions: the cost per page drops by changing cartridge or coverage; the monthly bill drops also by printing better — duplex, drafts on screen, eco mode.

The limits of the model: what the bill does not cover

The perimeter is declared: the count measures the consumable alone. Paper — half a cent a sheet — the printer's amortization, the power and the cleaning cycles that drink ink while the printer sits idle stay out. The coverage is the one you declare: the model rescales it linearly, as the physics of deposited ink dictates. The number that comes out is the base for comparing cartridges, formats and printers: the true price of the page, before any habit.

The coverage scale: the same cartridge, five yields

The factory cartridge of 25 units and 300 ISO pages, one hundred pages a month; only what sits on your pages changes:

The proportion is merciless and linear: double the coverage, halve the yield — the label's 300 pages become 60 when the page is a quarter full. And the cost scales inversely: the same cartridge that lives in office printing on plain text climbs to photo-lab prices with pictures. It is the table to consult before blaming the manufacturer: the label spoke of another page — yours you declare here.

The volume scale: the price still, the bill that runs

Same cartridge, plain text; only what leaves the tray changes:

The cost-per-page column is a flat line: 8.33 from occasional to small office — the unit price does not know how much you print. But the monthly bill runs twelvefold and the cartridge goes from seven and a half months to eighteen days: it is volume that decides whether the cost per page is a detail or a budget line — and from which row of this table it pays to start thinking about a tank.

The format comparison: the XL read to the cent

The most frequent shelf choice is between the standard cartridge and the XL, and the calculator settles it in two steps. The factory standard: 25 units for 300 pages, 8.33 cents. The typical XL: 40 units for 600 declared pages — 6.67 cents, a fifth less per page, at the same coverage. The rule that follows holds for every brand: the cartridge price is the bait, the cost per page is the real price — and the XL wins nearly always, except when the printer is used so little that the ink dries before it runs out.

The tank: when the printer repays itself

Below one cent a page — tank printer territory — the bill changes nature. The gap with the typical cartridge is seven cents a page: at one hundred pages a month that is seven units, at three hundred twenty-one. A 250-unit tank printer repays itself in three years in the first case, barely one in the second. The practical threshold the verdict flags — ten monthly units — is exactly the point where the payback drops under two years: from there up, staying on cartridges is a choice of convenience, not of economics.

The extremes of the grid: from half a cent to five units

The model's minimum is nearly free printing: the 5-unit budget cartridge with a thousand-page yield on plain text — 0.50 cents a page, the territory of tanks where paper costs more than ink. The maximum is the declared opposite: the 100-unit toner with a yield of one hundred, squeezed by quarter-coverage pages — 500 cents a page, five units per sheet. Between the two extremes runs a factor of one thousand: no other household consumable has a range this wide — and that is why the cost per page is always calculated before buying the printer, not after.

The two-track strategy: the right page with the right means

The count suggests the two-track strategy. Drafts and internal documents travel on the economy track: draft mode, greyscale, duplex, compatible — coverage and cost at their minimum. The pages that matter — contracts, photos, presentations — travel on the original at full quality, where the extra cents are the fair price of the result. The costly mistake is a single one: printing everything the same way — because then the most demanding page dictates the cost of all the others.

Frequently asked questions

What does printing a page really cost?

Cartridge price divided by real yield: the typical 25-unit original with 300 text pages is worth 8.33 cents a page. With images the yield collapses and the cost doubles or quadruples: the real range goes from the tank's half cent to the twenty-plus of small cartridges.

What does the ISO yield on the box mean?

It is the page count measured with the ISO/IEC standard: a text page with 5 percent coverage — a business letter, not a real document. It serves to compare cartridges with each other, not to predict your pages: for that it must be rescaled to the real coverage.

What coverage do my pages really have?

Plain text sits at 5 percent, a document with headers and bold at 10, dense tables at 15, pages with charts or photos at 20-25. The practical rule: if the page «looks full» at a glance, it is no longer at 5 — and the label should at least be halved.

Why does the cartridge run out before the promise?

Almost never a defect: it is the coverage. The declared 300 pages hold at 5 percent; with real documents at 10 they become 150, with photos 60. Add the inkjet cleaning cycles, which drink ink even while the printer sits still.

Is the XL cartridge worth it?

Almost always: the XL costs 50-80 percent more but holds double or triple the ink — the cost per page drops by a third or a half. The rule: never compare cartridge prices, always costs per page — which is exactly this calculator's number.

Are compatible cartridges really worth it?

On pure cost per page yes, often by half or two thirds. The risks are variable print quality and, rarely, dirty nozzles. The classic compromise: originals for photos and documents that matter, compatibles for drafts and daily use.

Laser or inkjet: who wins on cost per page?

In black and white the laser nearly always: toners of thousands of pages and no cleaning cycles — 2-5 cents against the inkjet's 5-15 on cartridges. The inkjet wins on photo colour and with refillable tanks, which drop under one cent.

What are tank printers and why do they cost less per page?

They have refillable tanks fed by bottles of loose ink: you pay for the ink, not the chipped cartridge. The cost per page drops under one cent — the printer costs more upfront, but above a hundred pages a month it repays itself in one or two years.

Does the bill include paper and power?

No, by declared perimeter: it measures the consumable alone. Paper is worth about half a cent a sheet, power a few cents a month: real lines but small and equal for every printer — keeping them out keeps the cartridge comparison clean.

Why does the cost per page not change if I print more?

Because it is a unit price: cartridge divided by pages. Volume moves the monthly bill and the change frequency, not the price of the single page. To lower that one you need better cartridges or lower coverage — to lower the monthly, printing less also works.

How do I cut coverage without sacrificing documents?

Draft mode for internal prints, no full-page backgrounds and logos, greyscale instead of colour, and images only when they truly serve. Moving a page from 15 to 10 percent cuts the cost by a third — for free.

When is changing printer better than changing cartridge?

When the monthly bill stays above ten units: at that pace a tank printer or a laser repays itself in months. Under five units a month, the switch is almost always a whim: better to optimize cartridge and coverage.

Updated July 2026