Want to know something wild? The ink in your home printer costs more per gallon than champagne. We’re talking somewhere between $1,664 and $9,600 per gallon, depending on the brand. That’s more expensive than premium perfume, vintage wine, or even human blood.

But here’s the thing nobody talks about: if you only print occasionally, you’re paying even more than that eye-watering per-gallon price suggests. Let’s break down the real cost of owning a printer when you’re not printing every day.

Person looking shocked at printer with calculator showing high costs

The Real Cost Per Page (Spoiler: It’s Not What You Think)

When you look at printer specs, they’ll tell you the “cost per page.” For black and white printing, it’s usually quoted as 5 to 15 cents. For color, 20 to 30 cents. Photos and graphics? That can jump to 90 cents per page.

Those numbers sound reasonable, right? Just a few cents per page.

But here’s the catch: those calculations assume you’re printing regularly and using up your ink cartridges before they dry out. They also assume your page coverage is exactly 5%—that’s about one-third of a page of double-spaced text. Any more than that and your actual cost skyrockets.

Why Occasional Printing Costs Even More

If you’re like most people, you probably print something once a month. Maybe you need to print a contract. Or a boarding pass. Or that form that absolutely refuses to be filled out digitally.

Here’s where occasional printers get hit hardest:

Close-up of dried ink cartridge being removed from printer

Your Ink Dries Out Before You Use It

Inkjet cartridges aren’t designed to sit idle. The tiny nozzles that spray ink onto paper are engineered to fire thousands of drops per second with tremendous precision. When they sit unused for weeks, the ink starts to dry and clog.

Your printer knows this. That’s why it runs “maintenance cycles” every few days—even when you’re not printing anything. These cycles blast ink through the nozzles to keep them clear.

According to laboratory testing, many printers waste more than half of the ink you buy on these maintenance cycles. That’s right: over 50% of your expensive ink never touches a page. It just gets sprayed into an absorbent pad inside your printer to prevent clogs.

You’re Paying for Page Yield You’ll Never Reach

When a manufacturer says a cartridge prints “200 pages,” they’re basing that on ideal conditions: regular printing, 5% page coverage, and no maintenance waste.

But for occasional users, you’ll likely replace your cartridges because they dried out, not because you ran out of ink. You might get 50 or 100 pages before the cartridge becomes unreliable, even though there’s still ink inside.

That officially advertised 15 cents per page? For you, it might be 30, 40, or even 50 cents per page.

Shopping cart filled with expensive ink cartridges at store

The Business Model Working Against You

Here’s something printer companies don’t want you to think about too hard: they’re not really in the printer business. They’re in the ink business.

This is called the “razor-and-blades” business model. Sell the razor (printer) cheap or even at a loss, then make all the profit on the blades (ink cartridges) that customers need to keep buying.

That $79 printer you bought? The manufacturer probably lost money on that sale. They’re counting on you buying $40 cartridges every few months for the next five years. That’s where they make their money back—and then some.

For regular, high-volume printers, this model sort of makes sense. But for occasional users? You’re subsidizing a business model that wasn’t designed for how you actually use the product.

When a New Printer Costs Less Than Ink

Here’s the most absurd part of printer economics: sometimes it’s literally cheaper to buy a whole new printer than to replace the ink cartridges.

Think about that for a second. The device containing motors, circuit boards, print heads, sensors, and sophisticated engineering can cost less than two small plastic cartridges of colored liquid.

Person holding printer box next to expensive ink cartridges on store shelf

This creates a perverse incentive. Some people buy a new printer, use the starter cartridges that come with it, and then abandon the printer when those run out. It’s wasteful, environmentally irresponsible, and completely ridiculous—but it’s a rational response to irrational pricing.

The Lock-In Gets Worse

As if expensive ink wasn’t enough, printer manufacturers have doubled down with technology specifically designed to keep you locked in:

Proprietary cartridge chips: Your printer won’t accept perfectly good third-party ink because it can’t detect the manufacturer’s proprietary chip. Some companies push “security updates” that deliberately disable cheaper alternatives.

Subscription pressure: Companies are increasingly pushing ink subscription plans. Miss a payment and your cartridges remotely disable themselves—even if they’re full of ink.

Always-online requirements: Some newer printers require constant internet connection, ostensibly for convenience features, but really to enforce subscriptions and prevent third-party ink use.

For occasional users, these restrictions add insult to injury. You’re already paying premium prices for ink you’ll barely use before it dries out. Now you can’t even shop around for better deals.

What’s an Occasional Printer to Do?

If you print occasionally—maybe 10 or 20 pages per month—the math just doesn’t work in favor of printer ownership.

Person easily submitting print order from phone on couch

Let’s say you spend $80 on a printer and $40 every six months on ink cartridges (being optimistic that they’ll last that long). Over two years, you’ve spent $240. If you printed 15 pages per month during that time, you’ve printed 360 pages.

That’s 67 cents per page. And that’s before factoring in the paper you bought, the desk space it takes up, or the frustration when it doesn’t work right before an important deadline.

There’s a better approach: don’t own the printer at all.

For occasional printing needs, using a print-on-demand service like Inktoss makes way more sense economically.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Upload your document from your phone or computer
  2. Choose how you want it printed
  3. We print it professionally and mail it to you
  4. You pay only for what you actually print

No printer to buy. No ink to waste. No maintenance cycles eating your expensive cartridges while you sleep. No dried-out nozzles. No firmware updates locking you into brand-name supplies.

You just print what you need, when you need it, and pay a straightforward price for the actual service.

Comparison of cluttered desk with printer problems vs clean desk with laptop

The Math That Makes Sense

For occasional users, print-on-demand isn’t just more convenient—it’s actually cheaper.

You’re paying for professional-quality printing without subsidizing an expensive machine that sits idle 99% of the time. You’re not throwing away dried-out cartridges with ink still in them. You’re not dealing with paper jams at midnight before an early morning flight.

You’re just getting your documents printed and delivered, usually for less than what you’d pay per page once you factor in the true cost of printer ownership.

The Bottom Line

Home printers made sense in an era when printing was something you did every day. But for most of us in 2025, printing is occasional. We live in our email inboxes and cloud storage. When we do need something on paper, it’s the exception, not the rule.

The printer industry hasn’t adjusted to this reality. They’re still selling you hardware designed for high-volume use and charging ink prices that only make sense if you’re actually using it regularly.

For occasional users, printer ownership isn’t economical—it’s expensive. When you add up the real costs, factor in the waste, and calculate your actual cost per page, that home printer isn’t saving you money. It’s costing you a fortune, one dried-out cartridge at a time.

Ready to Stop Wasting Money on Ink?

If you’re tired of expensive cartridges, maintenance headaches, and paying for a printer you barely use, there’s a simpler way.

Inktoss offers professional printing and mailing for occasional users who are done subsidizing the printer industry’s broken business model. Upload your documents, we’ll print and mail them, and you’ll actually save money compared to the true cost of printer ownership.

No subscriptions. No proprietary cartridges. No waste. Just printing that makes sense.

Print smarter, not more expensively. See how much you can save with Inktoss’s straightforward printing and mailing service. Learn more.