Guide

Tank vs cartridge: the break-even table

A tank printer costs more to buy and vastly less to feed. The question is how many pages it takes for that to pay off, and the answer is usually far fewer than people expect. This list puts every printer with a sourced consumable in one column: what it costs to buy, plus what five thousand pages of ink or toner costs on top.

43 printers · Ordered by total cost to own at 5,000 pages, lowest first.

Printer	Price	Mono page	Colour page	5,000 pages	Speed
Epson EcoTank ET-2800	~$249	0.40¢	1.1¢	~$276	10 ppm
Canon PIXMA G3270	~$249	0.38¢	1.3¢	~$277	11 ppm
HP Smart Tank 5103	~$269	0.40¢	1.2¢	~$297	12 ppm
HP Smart Tank 6001	~$269	0.40¢	1.2¢	~$297	12 ppm
Brother HL-L2400D	~$134	3.3¢	—	~$298	32 ppm
Brother HL-L2405W	~$139	3.3¢	—	~$303	30 ppm
Epson EcoTank ET-2850	~$299	0.33¢	1.2¢	~$324	10.5 ppm
Epson EcoTank ET-4800	~$299	0.40¢	1.1¢	~$326	10 ppm
Canon PIXMA G4270	~$299	0.38¢	1.3¢	~$327	11 ppm
Brother HL-L2460DW	~$179	3.3¢	—	~$343	36 ppm
Brother DCP-L2640DW	~$209	3.3¢	—	~$373	36 ppm
Canon PIXMA G6020	~$379	0.38¢	0.95¢	~$404	13 ppm
HP Smart Tank 7301	~$379	0.40¢	1.2¢	~$407	15 ppm
Epson EcoTank ET-3850	~$399	0.33¢	1.2¢	~$424	15.5 ppm
Brother MFC-L2820DW	~$269	3.3¢	—	~$433	34 ppm
HP LaserJet Pro M209dwe	~$229	4.4¢	—	~$448	30 ppm
Canon PIXMA G7020	~$429	0.38¢	0.95¢	~$454	13 ppm
HP LaserJet M110we	~$129	6.5¢	—	~$455	21 ppm
HP Smart Tank 7602	~$449	0.40¢	1.2¢	~$477	15 ppm
Xerox B235	~$299	3.6¢	—	~$479	36 ppm
HP LaserJet MFP M140we	~$179	6.5¢	—	~$505	21 ppm
Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820	~$199	4.4¢	14¢	~$518	25 ppm
Epson EcoTank ET-4850	~$499	0.33¢	1.2¢	~$524	15.5 ppm
HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e	~$229	3.8¢	15¢	~$533	22 ppm
Canon MAXIFY GX6020	~$549	0.52¢	1.3¢	~$583	24 ppm
HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e	~$279	3.8¢	15¢	~$583	25 ppm
Brother HL-L3220CDW	~$299	3.2¢	19¢	~$621	19 ppm
Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500	~$599	0.30¢	1.1¢	~$622	16 ppm
Brother HL-L3280CDW	~$344	3.2¢	19¢	~$666	27 ppm
HP OfficeJet Pro 8135e	~$179	7.3¢	22¢	~$686	20 ppm
Canon PIXMA TR8620a	~$199	7.2¢	21¢	~$691	15 ppm
Epson EcoTank ET-15000	~$699	0.33¢	1.2¢	~$724	17 ppm
Canon MAXIFY GX7020	~$699	0.52¢	1.3¢	~$733	24 ppm
HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw	~$379	4.1¢	21¢	~$756	22 ppm
Canon PIXMA TS9520a	~$299	7.2¢	21¢	~$791	15 ppm
Epson WorkForce WF-2950	~$129	9.7¢	30¢	~$815	10 ppm
Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550	~$799	0.30¢	1.1¢	~$822	16 ppm
Canon PIXMA TS3520	~$79	13¢	27¢	~$872	7.7 ppm
Xerox C235	~$399	5.7¢	25¢	~$876	24 ppm
Brother MFC-L3780CDW	~$569	3.2¢	19¢	~$891	31 ppm
Canon PIXMA TR4720	~$99	13¢	27¢	~$892	8.8 ppm
HP DeskJet 2855e	~$84	15¢	33¢	~$1,016	7.5 ppm
HP DeskJet 4255e	~$119	15¢	33¢	~$1,051	8.5 ppm

Cost figures are estimates computed from each consumable’s ISO page yield and list price. A dash means we could not source one of those two numbers.

Cost to own · 5,000 pages

Epson EcoTank ET-2800~$276
~$249 printer + ~$27 supplies
Canon PIXMA G3270~$277
~$249 printer + ~$28 supplies
HP Smart Tank 5103~$297
~$269 printer + ~$28 supplies
HP Smart Tank 6001~$297
~$269 printer + ~$28 supplies
Brother HL-L2400D~$298
~$134 printer + ~$164 supplies
Brother HL-L2405W~$303
~$139 printer + ~$164 supplies
Epson EcoTank ET-2850~$324
~$299 printer + ~$25 supplies
Epson EcoTank ET-4800~$326
~$299 printer + ~$27 supplies

purchase priceink or toner. An estimate: purchase price plus 5,000 pages at each printer’s computed cost per page, assuming 4 mono pages for every colour page. Printers whose consumable price we could not source are left out.

EpsonET-2800

Epson

Epson EcoTank ET-2800

Mono page: 0.40¢
Colour page: 1.1¢

Ink tank

10 ppm~$249