What Is The Average Cost Of Printing Per Page?

Virtually every business has some kind of printer. Even as scanning technology evolves and more and more businesses are transitioning to limited paper options, businesses simply have to print out. If the volume is sufficiently high, they turn to multifunction copiers that have enough durability to work much harder than their cousins at the desktop.

But even those companies have desktop printers, and if you’ve ever had to buy an ink or toner cartridge, you might have noticed the page yield on the box (or perhaps you never knew how to look at it). Have you ever wondered what page coverage actually means by 5%? More importantly, how much does printer ink cost per page, and when is upgrading more cost-effective?

What Does 5% Page Coverage Look Like?

You’ve realized that cartridges can be very expensive if you own an inkjet or toner printing press. But who thinks about looking at what each cartridge will cost to buy a printer? You may not be an individual customer but such costs may add up dramatically in a business environment.

What did coverage of 5% of the page mean? A quick search shows an average number of pages that can be printed when 5 percent of a standard 8.5 x 11-inch piece of paper is covered with ink.

The results had been quite shocking. Below you can see what 5 percent, 10 percent, and 22 percent page coverage looked like:

How Much Does It Cost Per Page?

Let you figure that out with some simple math. Using this formula and search one of your documents into the above calculator for ink and toner coverage to find out what your average cost per page is:

Cost per page = Cartridge $ Total / [(Page Yield x (1-Actual coverage)]

Cartridge $ Total – the amount that you spent on your new cartridge at the store or online

Page Yield – the total amount of page yield claimed on the cartridge box (aka number of pages that can be printed at 5% coverage)

Actual Coverage – average ink coverage percentage (written in the form of a decimal – 10% = 0.1) from your documents after running them through the APFill Calculator.

Note: if you find that your page coverage is actually 5%, then use this formula:

Cost per page = Cartridge $ Total / Page Yield

How Can I Get a Better Deal?

Now that you’re aware of the realities of printing (and how expensive it can truly be), you might be asking yourself, “Is there a way to get a better deal?”

The answer – – it depends.

If you’re only running a single desktop printer at home, then you’ll probably have to accept the fact that your costs are your own. However, if you have any type of volume (like a business), then using a local printer dealer’s services would be of great benefit.

You can get better computer pricing with a local dealer, great support for when they fail (because at some stage they’ll), better rates on your cost per request, and most importantly-less downtime!