Cheapest Printer to Run UK 2026 — Real Cost-per-Page Compared
By Seb Clark, Editor, UniDoc Solutions·Updated
The cheapest printer to buy is almost never the cheapest printer to run. The big costs are ink or toner (recurring) and lock-in (printers that refuse third-party supplies, or subscriptions that punish you for under-using them).
This guide ranks current UK printers by real pence-per-page across three workloads — low (300 pages/year), medium (200 pages/month) and heavy (1500 pages/month). Mono and colour separated because the maths is completely different.
At a glance — the shortlist
| # | Model | Best for | Speed | Price band | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brother HL-L2400DW | Cheapest brand-name mono — ~1-2p per page | 30 ppm | £85-£110 | Amazon |
| 2 | Pantum P3300DW | Cheapest mono outright — ~1p per page with caveats | 33 ppm | £130-£170 | Amazon |
| 3 | Epson EcoTank ET-2850 | Cheapest colour to run — ~0.5p per page | 10.5 ppm | £240-£300 | Amazon |
| 4 | Epson EcoTank ET-2950 | Current-gen EcoTank — same maths | 10 ppm | £280-£340 | Amazon |
| 5 | Canon i-SENSYS LBP243dw II | Honest Canon answer for mono | 36 ppm | £190-£240 | Amazon |
| 6 | HP LaserJet M110we (HP+) | Cheapest on paper, expensive in reality | 20 ppm | £75-£95 | Amazon |
| 7 | HP OfficeJet Pro 9120e | Mid-tier colour with subscription — only OK if your usage matches the tier | 22 ppm mono / 18 ppm colour | £170-£230 | Amazon |
Brother · 30 ppm · £85-£110
Cheapest brand-name mono — ~1-2p per page
The Brother HL-L2400DW at £85 plus £15 third-party TN-2510 toner (3000 pages) works out at roughly 1-2p per black-and-white page including printer amortisation over 3000 pages. Toner has a 2-year+ shelf life (lasers don't dry out). Auto duplex halves your paper costs too.
Honest answer: this is the cheapest serious printer to run if you only ever print black text.
Pantum · 33 ppm · £130-£170
Cheapest mono outright — ~1p per page with caveats
Pantum P3300DW + £10 third-party TL-410 toner (1500 pages) lands at roughly 1p per page. Cheaper than Brother on consumables.
Caveats: Pantum support is patchy, the Windows driver is less polished than Brother, and the UK third-party toner market for Pantum is thinner. Worth it if you're price-sensitive and technically confident. Not worth it if you want plug-and-forget.
Epson · 10.5 ppm · £240-£300
Cheapest colour to run — ~0.5p per page
EcoTank is the cheapest way to print in colour, full stop. £240-300 up front, but the in-box ink lasts ~14,000 mono pages or ~5,200 colour pages — about 2-3 years of normal home use. Refill bottles £10-15. You're looking at well under 1p per page for both mono and colour at typical home volumes.
The catch: ink can dry in the tubes if you don't print at all for months. EcoTank wins for mixed colour/mono home use; loses to a mono laser if you only ever print black text.
Epson · 10 ppm · £280-£340
Current-gen EcoTank — same maths
Identical running-cost numbers to the ET-2850 (same ink system). Buy whichever is cheaper at the moment you're shopping.
Canon · 36 ppm · £190-£240
Honest Canon answer for mono
The Canon LBP243dw II at £190-240 runs at roughly 2-3p per page on third-party CRG-070H compatible toner (~£20 / 10,200 pages). More expensive printer up front than the Brother L2400DW, but a much higher-yield toner means lower per-page cost on heavier volumes.
HP · 20 ppm · £75-£95
Cheapest on paper, expensive in reality
£75 buys the M110we — but the price assumes you sign up to HP+ Instant Ink (£3.49/month for 100 pages). That's 3.5p per page minimum, plus rollover only goes so far. Unused pages don't refund. Unsubscribed M110we genuine toner is over £60 a cartridge.
Real-world running cost: typically 3-6p per page, often worse than a Brother. Don't buy this for low cost-per-page — buy a Brother L2400DW instead.
HP · 22 ppm mono / 18 ppm colour · £170-£230
Mid-tier colour with subscription — only OK if your usage matches the tier
The HP OfficeJet Pro 9120e + Instant Ink subscription is genuinely cheap if your monthly volume matches a tier. From around 2.5p per colour page on the right tier. But cartridges without Instant Ink are catastrophically expensive.
Honest take: if you can't predict your monthly print volume to within +/-50%, an EcoTank is cheaper because it doesn't punish underuse.
How we work out cost-per-page
Pence-per-page = (toner / ink cost) / (page yield at 5% coverage). Yields are manufacturer numbers, so real-world use can be 30% lower with heavy graphics. Printer amortisation (the up-front cost spread over the printer's reasonable life) typically adds 1-3p per page for low-volume users and disappears for heavy users.
The honest cheap-printing matrix
- Mono, any volume: Brother HL-L2400DW. Just buy it.
- Colour, low volume: EcoTank ET-2850 if you'll use it; phone camera if you won't.
- Colour, high volume: EcoTank ET-3850 or ET-4850, or a colour laser if you print mostly text.
- Avoid: any printer where the only cheap way to run it is a subscription you can cancel. Maths only works if you print exactly the right amount.