If you’re looking for a laser printer that’s going to save you money, the
The
You’ll never have to replace your toner cartridge again—it has an auto-reset feature that tells it when the cartridge needs to be replaced, so there’s nothing on your end!
You can print on both sides of the paper without having to flip it over manually or wasting any time or money.
You can print directly from any device using its built-in wireless capability.
Color Laser With Cheapest Toner
If you’re looking to buy a laser printer, you’ve probably been told that your best bet is to go with a laser printer whose toner cartridges are expensive. Why? Well, the answer is simple: because the printer companies make more money that way.
But before you give up on finding a cheap toner cartridge for your new laser printer, think about this: there are some great companies out there that produce not only high-quality toner cartridges, but also affordable ones! We’ll tell you more about them in just a moment.
color laser with cheap toner
When it comes to printing, for some the economics takes precedence over functionality or style.
Sometimes you’re looking for the biggest bang for your buck; you’re looking for which laser printer has the cheapest toner.
Low price printers look great on paper. However, further research/calculation is often needed as printer price is not the only factor forming your total printing costs.
Some relatively inexpensive printers may require quite expensive cartridges.
So, you want to focus on finding a laser printer with cheap toner that will save you money.
This could be in the long run with printers that offer the cheapest cost per page. Or in the short term by finding the cheapest toner cartridges on the market.
In this blog we’ll take you through both the cheapest toner cost per page and the cheapest toner cartridge regardless of how many pages it can produce.
It is important to consider that there is a large range in the price per print out.
A cheap laser printer to run can get down to 2 cents a page (black and white).
Compare this to typical costs of around 8 cents per page for black and white and 13+ cents per page for color.
That’s a 6 and 11 cents difference per page, respectively.
And this transforms into $60 or more for every 1000 pages.
Choosing the inexpensive printer may save money initially, but pretty soon, the price of the toner (if more expensive than expected) can add up, and you’ll be in the red, losing money
So, let’s see what cost-effective printer models are out there on the market and how exactly they can help you to save money on your printing costs.
Laser Printer with the Cheapest Toner
Interestingly, the laser printer with the cheapest toner is not a single printer, it’s a group of printers.
More specifically, these are the printers compatible with the most-cost effective toner out there – Brother TN-660 – a high-yield black toner cartridge from Brother.
The original Brother high yield TN-660 black cartridges cost $55 and provide a yield of 2,600 pages. That is a toner price of only 2.1 cents per page.
Here is the list of printers compatible with Brother TN-660:
- HL-L2340DW
- HL-L2360DW
- HL-L2305W
- HL-L2315DW
- HL-L2380DW
- HL-L2320D
- MFC-L2705DW
- MFC-L2685DW
- MFC-L2740DW
- MFC-L2707DW
- MFC-L2680W
- MFC-L2720DW
- MFC-L2700DW
- DCP-L2540DW
- DCP-L2520
Each of these printers is actually a laser printer with the cheapest toner as all of them work with Brother TN-660.
Color Laser Printer with the Cheapest Toner
The color laser printers with the cheapest toner are compatible with the original HP 206X high yield color toner cartridges.
These include:
- HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283cdw
- HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283fdn
- HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw
- HP Color LaserJet Pro M282nw
- HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283fdw
To produce color printouts you need to purchase four cartridges:
- Black
- Cyan
- Magenta
- Yellow
HP206X high yield color toner cartridges are priced at $99.95 each, or you can buy all four together for $389.
With a black cartridge yield of 3,150 pages, and color cartridge yield of 2,450 pages, the HP206X cartridge offers a great price of only 3.2 cents a page for monochrome and 12.7 cents a page for color.
You won’t find cheaper color toner costs per page.
Cheap Laser Printers to Run
There are other laser printers with cheap toner available that offer potential benefits.
Maybe your small business needs a higher monthly duty cycle and print speed; perhaps you’re willing to pay a bit more for the convenience of wireless connectivity or want higher quality printouts.
A table of cheap laser printer options to run is below:
| Model | Brother HL-L2300D* | HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw** | HP LaserJet Pro M404dn | Canon imageClass MF236n All-in-One | Brother HL-L3210CW |
| Output | Monochrome | Color | Monochrome | Monochrome | Color |
| Cartridge Cost | $55 | $99.95 x 4or $389 combined | $215 | $77.66 | $85.78 (Black),$95.53 x 3 (Color) |
| Page Yield | 2,600 | 3,150 (Monochrome) / 2,450 (Color) | 10,000 | 2,400 | 3,000 (Monochrome) / 2,300 (Color) |
| Toner Cost per page (cents) | 2.1 | 3.2 (Monochrome) / 12.7 (Color) | 2.2 | 3.2 | 2.9 (Monochrome) / 15.3 (Color) |
| Monthly Duty Cycle (pages) | 10,000 | 40,000 | 80,000 | 15,000 | 30,000 |
| Print Speed | 27 | 22 | 40 | 24 | 19 |
| Resolution (DPI) | 2400×600 | 600×600 | 1200×1200 | 600×600 | 2400×600 |
| Wi-Fi | X | Y | Y | N | Y |
*Laser printer with the cheapest toner
**Color laser printer with the cheapest toner
All cartridge prices are from Toner Buzz. To find out how to calculate the toner cost per page check out our post here.
Cheapest Laser Printer Cartridges
The laser printers with the cheapest toner discussed above take into the page yield of the cartridges to find the best cost per page.
However, many people are just looking for the lowest cartridge price. Below is a list of the cheapest laser printer cartridges out there.
All cartridge prices are from Toner Buzz.
Buying a Laser Printer That Fits Your Needs
When buying a laser printer, you need to search around and find one that fits your needs while also having low toner costs.
A laser printer with cheap toner is great, but if it doesn’t cover all your needs, the money saved can’t help you.
Essential factors to consider include:
- How much printing do you perform? What monthly duty cycle do you need to cover your requirements?
- Do you want color printing? Or will monochrome suffice?
- How dense are your printouts? How much information do they contain, and how much toner does that require? (Keep in mind the cost per page and page yields listed above are based on 5% page coverage, roughly a third of a page of double spaced text)
- What quality and type of printout do you use? (Reducing the image resolution can reduce toner costs)
- Are you happy with a simple printer? Or do you want an All-in-One device with added functionality?
- What size and speed of printout are you planning to use?
Check out our blog on accurately calculating your printing costs once you find your chosen printer.
Compatible and Remanufactured Toner Cartridges
The information provided above is all based on OEM toner cartridges. However, there are also compatible and remanufactured toner cartridges that promise a similar performance at lower prices.
In our experience, however, choosing OEM toner cartridges is always the best option.
Compatible and remanufactured toner cartridges lead to:
- Inconsistent performance across different compatible models
- Reduced page yields
- Worse image quality
- A higher risk of malfunctioning
If you want more information check out our blog, where we go deeper into the subject.
Tips for Reducing Toner Spend
You can find a laser printer with cheap toner that matches all your needs. But there are also tips that can increase page yield and reduce your toner costs even further.
Cartridge Tips
- Shaking the cartridge – Toner is a powder, and with time it can clump together in the cartridge. Giving the cartridge a good shake loosens the toner within, getting a few more pages out before you get uneven or streaky printouts and have to change the cartridge.
- Unclogging the nozzle – Toner cartridge nozzles that are all clogged up produce inconsistent printouts or stop working entirely. Keeping your toner cartridge nozzles clean and in good shape leads to better performance for longer.
- Stock up – Toner lasts a long time, so when you spot an excellent deal, you can stock up without worrying about the toner going bad. As long as you store your extra cartridges properly, they will perform great long after purchasing.
Printer Setting Tips
- Print modes – You can reduce the DPI/resolution and use less toner by changing print mode. This does come at the expense of print quality, though. Modes like “draft,” “fast,” and “toner-saver” all increase page yield.
- Use grayscale – Standard printouts utilize additional toner to produce deep-toned blacks. By changing to grayscale printouts, you can get more out of each cartridge.
- Change printout style – you can even adjust your printout style to save on toner. At Toner Buzz we recently did some tests to find which fonts are the most cost effective and use the least toner.
Summary
Whatever your requirements, you can find a laser printer with cheap toner that will save you money in the long run.
If you’re looking for a basic monochrome home printer, the laser printer with the cheapest toner would be any printer compatible with Brother TN-660. The color laser printer with the cheapest toner would be any printer compatible with HP 206x cartridges.