A Practical List of Laser Printers with Cheapest Toner

Posted by Rob Errera on 12/28/2021

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.

The most cost-effective toner out there - Brother high yield TN-660 black cartridge

Here is the list of printers compatible with Brother TN-660:

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:

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 4 or $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)	2400x600	600x600	1200x1200	600x600	2400x600
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.

Cartridge	Cost	Compatible Printers
CF248A HP Black	$49.75	HP LaserJet Pro M15w HP LaserJet Pro MFP M29w HP LaserJet Pro MFP M28w
W2310A HP Black	$48	HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M182nw HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M183fw HP Color LaserJet Pro M182n
DXC40NTB Sharp Black	$38	Sharp DX-C310 FX Sharp DX-C401 FX Sharp DX-C400 FX Sharp DX-C310 Sharp DX-C400 Sharp DX-C311 FX Sharp DX-C401 Sharp DX-C401 FX
MXC40NTB Sharp Black	$38	Sharp MX-C402 SC Sharp MX-C311 Sharp MX-C401 Sharp MX-C400P
TN250 Brother Black	$34	Brother MFC-9180 Brother IntelliFax 2900 Brother MFC-9030 Brother FAX-9070 Brother FAX-8070P Brother FAX-2850 Brother MFC-6800 Brother MFC-9070 Brother MFC-9680 Brother IntelliFax 2800 Brother MFC-9160 Brother MFC-4800 Brother IntelliFax 3800 Brother DCP-1000
52111701 Okidata Black	$34	OkiPage 8iM OkiFax 4550 OkiOffice 84 OkiPage 8z OkiPage 8p OkiFax 4580 OkiOffice 87 OkiPage 8w OkiOffice 86 OkiPage 8p Plus OkiPage 6w
400963 Ricoh Black	$44	Ricoh Aficio CL2000 Ricoh Aficio CL2000N Ricoh Aficio CL3000 Ricoh Aficio CL3000e
885531 Ricoh Black	$29	Ricoh Aficio 1515 Ricoh Aficio MP 161 Ricoh Aficio MP 171 SPF Ricoh Aficio MP 161 SPF Ricoh Aficio 1515 PS Ricoh Aficio MP 201 spf Ricoh Aficio 1515 MF Ricoh Aficio 1515 F Ricoh Aficio MP 161 F Ricoh Aficio MP 171 F Ricoh Aficio MP 171 Ricoh Aficio MP 201 F
889613 Ricoh Black	$24	Ricoh Aficio 250
GG577 Dell Black	$42.34	Dell 5100 cn

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.

Rob Errera

Rob Errera is an award-winning journalist embedded in the world of printers and printing supplies. Rob has nearly two decades of experience writing about cutting edge technology, business trends, and the ever-evolving industry of printing.