The True Cost of Office Printing: What Your IT Department Isn't Telling You
I've been on both sides of this conversation. For twelve years I've helped small businesses evaluate copier contracts, printer purchases, and managed print services. And in that time I've watched the same thing happen over and over: a business owner signs a printing contract thinking they understand their costs, then spends the next three years getting nickel-and-dimed in ways they never saw coming. Let me walk you through what printing actually costs — and where the money quietly disappears. The Sticker Price Is Irrelevant Whether you're buying a printer outright or leasing a copier, the hardware cost is almost never the largest expense over the life of the equipment. The real costs are:
Toner and ink cartridges Paper Maintenance and service calls Overage charges on lease agreements Energy consumption Staff time managing printing issues
I've analyzed print environments for businesses spending $200 a month on what they thought was a reasonable printer setup — only to find their actual all-in print cost was closer to $600 once you factored in cartridge replacement cycles, paper waste, and the two hours per month the office manager spent dealing with paper jams and ordering supplies. Cost Per Page: The Only Number That Actually Matters Before any printing decision, you need to know your cost per page. Everything else is noise. Here's how to calculate it: Take your cartridge cost and divide by the manufacturer's stated page yield. A $45 cartridge rated for 2,000 pages = $0.0225 per page in toner alone. Add paper ($0.01-0.015 per sheet for standard office paper), maintenance allocation, and energy costs, and your true cost per page emerges. Standard office inkjet printer: typically $0.05-0.12 per page all-in Entry-level laser printer: typically $0.03-0.06 per page all-in Departmental laser or copier: typically $0.01-0.03 per page all-in Managed print services contract: typically $0.008-0.015 per page all-in The gap between inkjet and managed print services at scale is significant. For a business printing 5,000 pages per month, the difference between $0.08/page and $0.012/page is $340 per month — $4,080 per year. The Cartridge Conversation Nobody Wants to Have OEM cartridges — the ones made by your printer manufacturer — are consistently priced at a significant premium over compatible alternatives. This is intentional. Printer manufacturers frequently sell hardware at or below cost and make their margins on consumables. Compatible cartridges from reputable third-party manufacturers typically cost 40-60% less than OEM equivalents. The quality gap, for standard office documents, is minimal with established brands. The caveats: compatible cartridges void most printer warranties. For a printer under warranty this is a real consideration. For out-of-warranty equipment it's a straightforward cost decision. High-yield cartridges — the XL versions of standard cartridges — almost always offer a lower cost per page than standard yield versions. If your printer supports high-yield options and you print with any regularity, you should be using them. Where Managed Print Services Makes Sense I'm not here to sell managed print services — I've seen them implemented well and implemented terribly. But for the right business profile, they genuinely reduce cost and administrative overhead. MPS typically makes sense when:
You have 10 or more employees printing regularly Your monthly print volume exceeds 3,000-5,000 pages You're currently managing multiple printer models with different cartridges Print-related IT support is consuming meaningful staff time
MPS typically does NOT make sense when:
You have minimal print volume — you'll pay for capacity you don't use Your current setup is already optimized You're willing to manage consumables yourself
The contracts require careful reading — specifically the overage structure and auto-renewal terms. I've seen businesses locked into MPS contracts with painful overage charges because their volume was higher than projected. Quick Answer: Should small businesses lease or buy a copier? For most small businesses printing under 3,000 pages per month — buy. Leasing makes financial sense when the monthly payment is lower than ownership cost including maintenance, which typically requires volume to justify. Below that threshold, purchase an entry-level laser printer outright and manage your own consumables. You'll spend less and have more control. The Waste Nobody Tracks Here's the cost category that surprises every client I've worked with: wasted prints. Studies consistently show that 20-30% of printed pages are never used. They're printed, picked up off the tray, glanced at, and recycled. Or worse — never picked up at all. Follow-me printing — where a print job only releases when the user physically authenticates at the printer — consistently reduces print volume by 15-25% in organizations that implement it. For a business spending $500/month on printing, that's $75-125 in monthly savings from one configuration change. What I Tell Every New Client Before we discuss any equipment or contract, I want to see three months of printing invoices. Not what you think you spend — what you actually spend, across every device, every cartridge purchase, every service call. Most businesses are genuinely surprised by the number. And that surprise is the starting point for making better decisions. What does your current print setup look like — owned equipment, leased, or managed service? And do you actually know your cost per page?