HP Instant Ink vs. Canon vs. Epson: Are ink subscriptions worth it?

(Image credit: HP)

The want to salvage money on printing is naught new. Replacing a printer'due south ink cartridges gets expensive in the long run. To ease the pain, some printer models offering loftier-yield cartridges, which offer some savings. A new strategy to reduce ongoing ink costs is with an ink cartridge subscription plan. All the major printer manufacturers now offer some variation of this.

When the ink in your printer is running depression, these services automatically lodge and ship ink cartridges to you. This is undoubtedly convenient, saving you lot a trip to the office supply store.

Convenience aside, the big question is, will an ink subscription actually save you coin? That's what we fix out to determine for this story.

We compared plans from the 4 biggest inkjet printer brands: Brother, Canon, Epson and HP. The plans vary and offer different terms, so yous'll want to match your printing needs to the correct plan in order to maximize your savings.

What are ink subscription plans?

These days, every printer manufacturer offers some sort of ink subscription plan. For a small recurring fee, you go to skip the inconvenience of running out of ink in the center of a printing projection, and save yourself a trip to the store, all while giving printer companies a new style to encourage make loyalty and keep more dollars from going to 3rd-party budget ink sellers.

Some plans take a monthly fee that includes a set number of printed pages, and the pick to buy extra pages. Other plans merely offer a discount on the automatically triggered ink purchases, or just complimentary shipping.

When the ink in your printer is running low, these services automatically social club and ship ink cartridges to you. This is undoubtedly convenient, saving you a trip to the office supply store. In nigh cases, the shipping volition be gratuitous, and you will receive an email notification that the gild has been placed. Generally, you lot will have 24 hours to cancel the order, just in case you don't really need it. The printer needs to be connected to the internet for these subscription services to work.

All of these plans automatically ship ink cartridges to you when your printer is running depression. The printer must exist continued to the internet to initiate the order. And, of course, the printer must be eligible for the subscription programme. In our research, we found that most inkjet printers and all-in-ones we have tested are eligible for the manufacturer'due south ink subscription plan—but non all of them.

What types of subscription plans are available?

There are 2 types of ink subscriptions. Those with a monthly fee allow you a set number of printed pages. You pay merely the monthly fee, not for the ink cartridges themselves when they are shipped to you.

An ink subscription with a monthly folio count may be all-time suited to users with a consequent print book. If your print needs vary widely, you may have to monitor your ink subscription programme in order to avert excessive purchases of extra pages, or to avert losing excessive pages that have been rolled over from previous months when you printed less than your plan allows.

The 2d plan type has no monthly fee—you just pay for the ink cartridges, sometimes at a disbelieve price. There is no set number of monthly pages, or a monthly subscription fee, just free shipping and in some cases a discount on your order.

Regardless of the type of plan, the ink shipment is triggered automatically, and you are sent a observe, which gives you the pick to cancel.

In some cases, third-political party ink ordering programs are washed in partnership with the printer makers. For example, Amazon Smart Ordering is offered by Brother.

If you lot already ain a printer by HP, Brother or Epson, yous accept only 1 type of programme to choose from. Interestingly, Canon offers both types of ink subscription plans—only at press fourth dimension but a couple models were eligible for its Pixma Print plan, which comes with a monthly fee and a ready number of pages.

What makes a good ink subscription programme?

For this story, we evaluated ink subscription services for personal/small office inkjet printers. The majority of inkjet printers tested by Tom'southward Guide take a standard black ink cartridge that volition print an estimated 1,000 pages or less. For these models, the average costs per page are seven.7 cents (text) and 20.vii cents (color). When using high-yield cartridges, these averages go downwardly to 5.9 cents and xiv.9 cents per folio, respectively.

Both Catechism and HP offer this blazon of plan, with page-count tiers. Both plans offer extra pages for x cents each, and a express number of rollover pages. We have calculated the toll per page for the plans, assuming y'all printed exactly the monthly limit.

For these models, the average costs per folio are 7.7 cents (text) and xx.7 cents (color). When using high-yield cartridges, these averages go down to 5.nine cents and 14.ix cents per page, respectively.

Basic cartridge replacement plans mostly offer a set disbelieve over retail pricing, but the amount varies by manufacturer. Even on those plans without special savings, you'll become gratuitous aircraft and the added convenience of one less trip to the store when you run out of ink.

HP Instant Ink

Arguably the virtually popular and widely known ink subscription plan is HP Instant Ink, which offers a monthly fee-type program that lets users selection the plan that matches their regular printing needs, and sends cartridges in the mail just when you demand a refill.

HP Instant Ink offers five subscription tiers, ranging from xv to 300 pages per month for the bulk of abode and business users. HP offers Instant Ink subscriptions on many models. You lot can observe a complete list of eligible printers on the HP Instant Ink webpage. And different virtually ink subscription plans, HP offers toner for laser printers, as well.

Plan	Pages Per Month	Monthly Cost	Cost of Extra Pages	Rollover Pages Allowed	Cost of Extra Pages
Bones	15	$0.99	$ane for 10 pages	45	$1 for 10 pages
Occasional	50	$2.99	$1 for x pages	150	$1 for 10 pages
Moderate	100	$4.99	$1 for 10 pages	300	$i for 10 pages
Frequent	300	$11.99	$1 for x pages	900	$1 for ten pages
Business	700	$24.99	$1 for 10 pages	2100	$ane for ten pages

If you use all of your pages, your cost per page volition be anywhere from 4 cents to vii cents. Actress pages price $i for 10, or x cents each. You are immune to curlicue over upward to three times the number of pages in your monthly plan.

Past comparison, the Green-eyed 7855 has costs per page of seven.one cents (text) and 18 cents (color) when using high-yield cartridges. The printer uses two cartridges: black and tri-color.

Plan	Cost per Page (if all used)	Cost per Page (if 75% used)
Basic	0.07	0.09
Occasional	0.06	0.08
Moderate	0.05	0.07
Frequent	0.04	0.05
Business	0.04	0.05

If you used all your pages in the Occasional plan that comes with 50 pages per month, your cost per folio would be six cents, regardless of how much colour you printed. At that charge per unit, Instant Ink looks like a pretty adept deal. Upping your plan to 100 pages per calendar month would drib your cost per page to 5 cents.

Verdict: If you lot don't permit rollover pages expire, it'due south a pretty good bet yous'd salve money with HP Instant Ink.

Catechism Pixma Print

Canon Pixma Print is one of two ink subscription plans offered for Catechism printers, and uses the monthly page count approach, charging a monthly fee for an allotted number of pages, and and so aircraft fresh ink whenever the printer is running low.

Canon offers four tiers for its Pixma Print ink subscription plan, outset at $3.99 per month. The plans' page limits range from 30 pages to 200 pages monthly.

Programme	Pages Per Month	Monthly Cost	Price of Extra Pages	Rollover Pages Allowed	Price of Extra Pages
Pay As Yous Print	30	$4.99	Due north/A	None. Expires at terminate of billing cycle.	N/A
Bones	xxx	$three.99	10 cents each	Up to twenty total	ten cents each
Moderate	100	$5.99	10 cents each	Upwards to 100 full	10 cents each
Frequent	200	$nine.99	10 cents each	Up to 200 total	ten cents each

One program, Pay As You Print, limits you to 30 pages and does not offer extra page purchases or allow you to rollover unused pages. The other Catechism plan tiers offer extra pages for x cents each, also as rollover pages. Aircraft is complimentary.

Plan	Cost per Page (if all used)	Cost per Page (if 75% used)
Pay As You Print	0.17	0.22
Basic	0.13	0.18
Moderate	0.06	0.08
Frequent	0.05	0.07

Costs per folio range from v cents to 17 cents, if you were to use all your pages. Nonetheless, at press time, only two models were eligible for this program: the Pixma TS6420 ($100) and Pixma TR7020 ($130). (To cheque the list of eligible models, see Canon's website.) Both models use two ink cartridges: one black, and one tri-color.

One important particular is rollover pages. Comparing each visitor's 100-page plan, HP allows customers to roll over up to 300 pages, while Canon limits you to 100 rollover pages. However, Catechism does include 100 free pages in its plan, which are adept for 6 months.

Without this program, printing 4-by-6-inch color photos with the ii eligible models costs 37.1 cents using standard cartridges, and 28.ix cents with high-yield cartridges. If you print photos almost exclusively, fifty-fifty the entry-level plan would relieve y'all a chunk of change, at 17 cents per print. At the highest volume, the 200-pages-per-month Frequent program drops cost per print to just v cents. This assumes, of course, that you are able to apply all your pages, and never lose any pages you roll over. It also assumes you lot never go over and take to pay 10 cents per extra print.

Verdict: The Canon Pixma Impress program tin certainly relieve yous coin if yous proceed up with the plan'south page count. However, only two models are currently eligible.

Brother Refresh

Brother Refresh offers a 5 percent discount on ink cartridges. There is no monthly fee, and y'all tin abolish at any fourth dimension without penalisation. To enroll, y'all select either Brother or Amazon Smart Guild equally the fulfillment provider. You tin can use the Blood brother PrinterProPlus app to enroll in Refresh, check ink levels, and manage your account.

Ink Subscription Discount Plan	Discount on ink purchases	Note	Providers
Blood brother Refresh	5 percent	Complimentary aircraft on $20 or more	Blood brother, Amazon

When you enroll, you lot select whether you want standard, high-yield, or super high-yield cartridges to be ordered. Standard shipping is free to the continental U.S., for orders over $20. Aircraft on smaller orders costs $v.75. After an order is placed automatically, the customer receives an email notification. You have 24 hours to abolish the order.

Unlike previously mentioned printers, the Brother MFC-J995DW that nosotros tested already offers very low costs per page. Using loftier-yield cartridges, the MFC-J995DW offers low costs per folio of 1 cent (text) and 5 cents (color). These cartridges print an estimated 6,000 and five,000 pages each, respectively. Signing up for this automatic ordering will save you five percent, and the aircraft will always be gratis because even one standard yield ink cartridge for this model costs more than than the minimum for free shipping.

You tin can find a list of eligible printers on the Brother Refresh website, and it includes both inkjet and laser printers.

Verdict: Brother's loftier-yield printers are known for low costs per page already. Saving another 5 pct is a no-brainer.

Canon Auto Replenishment

Canon's Auto Replenishment service offers gratis enrollment and free standard shipping on ink purchases. When your printer displays a low ink message, replacement cartridges will be ordered and an lodge confirmation email will be sent. Gratuitous standard shipping takes 3 to seven days, according to Canon.

Ink Subscription Disbelieve Plan	Discount on ink purchases	Note	Providers
Catechism Car Replenishment	No standard disbelieve. Promotional discounts applied automatically.	Gratis standard shipping	Canon

Canon does non offering a set disbelieve with its plan, which is disappointing. However, you will receive a discount if a promotional discount is being offered when your guild is placed.

Of the Catechism printers we've tested in this category, they averaged costs per page of 8.9 cents (text) and 22.1 cents (colour) with standard cartridges, and 7 cents (text) and sixteen cents (color) when using high-yield cartridges.

You tin can find a listing of eligible printers on the Canon website.

Verdict: Canon's Auto Replenishment subscription does non offer a set up discount, and then the do good is more for convenience than cost savings.

Epson ReadyInk

Epson does not offer an ink cartridge subscription directly. Rather, its ReadyInk program directs customers to enroll via a 3rd-party ink subscription plan from Amazon or Staples. Both companies offer automated ordering of ink cartridges, triggered by an eligible printer. (See the list of eligible printers on the Epson ReadyInk website.)

Ink Subscription Discount Plan	Discount on ink purchases	Notation	Providers
Epson ReadyInk	10 percent	Free aircraft on every society (Staples)	Amazon, Staples

Both Amazon Dash and Staples Smart Ordering offer a 10 per centum discount on ink purchases. Amazon Nuance does non crave an Amazon Prime membership. For Prime number members, using Amazon Smart Ordering adds Alexa functionality with the printer. As with previously discussed plans, ink cartridge orders are triggered when the printer detects it is low on ink.

Amazon Dash offers gratuitous shipping if the production is eligible for gratuitous shipping. Staples Smart Ordering offers free shipping on every club.

If yous don't yet need more ink, with Staples Smart Ordering you can non cancel the club, but must intermission your subscription. You lot also are allowed to abolish your subscription without penalty.

For comparison, the Epson WorkForce WF-2760, which we reviewed, offers costs per page of 6 cents (text) and 17.3 cents (color), when using its high-yield ink cartridges. Getting a 10 percent discount and free shipping knocks that downwards to v.4 cents and 15.vi cents, respectively.

Verdict: Epson's ReadyInk subscription will salvage you lot x percent on ink purchases, and Amazon Prime members tin can take reward of Alexa integration on compatible printers.

Which ink subscription plan is correct for you?

Which type of ink subscription is right for you depends on how consistent your print volume is. Whether yous take the tum for managing an ink subscription with a monthly page count, to make certain y'all don't leave money on the table, is a largely personal decision. If managed well, a page count program can certainly relieve you money.

On the other mitt, a subscription plan that offers a set up discount on ink sounds similar a no-brainer. With a set discount on ink purchases, which arrive automatically as with the page count plans, you know you're saving coin without having to have any activeness whatsoever.

Whichever type of plan y'all choose, information technology appears the printer makers are offer a off-white amount of flexibility. In one course or another, these plans permit yous to modify your folio count, purchase extra pages, carry over unused pages, pause the subscription, abolish an unneeded order, or cancel the service without penalization. No matter which diversity you determine on, it's pretty certain you'll be able to lower your printing costs.

Eric Butterfield is a freelance writer and musician from California. His piece of work has appeared in PC World magazine, CNET, Taproot, and Change Activity — plus Tom'south Guide, of course — while his music has appeared in more 260 Tv set prove episodes for major networks such every bit NBC, Hulu, BBC America, and more. Y'all tin cheque out his work on Spotify.