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Free calculator

Copier cost per page calculator

Add up the lease, click charges, toner and paper to see what each mono and colour page really costs your office. Compare your current deal with a new quote, side by side.

Free, no sign-up. Figures stay in your browser. All amounts ex VAT.

Your figures (ex VAT)

Current set-up

Equipment
How is the machine paid for?
Paid
Service contract

If clicks come to less, you pay this.

Any flat charge on top of clicks.

Is toner included in the click charge?

Click charges are what the dealer bills per page. Leave a field at 0 if your contract doesn’t have it.

Paper

Two pages on one sheet.

Monthly volume

Results

Current, a month

£220.00

5.50p a page on average

Proposed, a month

£194.00

4.85p a page on average

Proposed saves

£26.00 a month

£312.00 a year

Cost breakdown, current and proposed set-up, ex VAT
Ex VATCurrentProposedDifference
Equipment a month£100.00£90.00−£10.00
Service (clicks and fees) a month£84.00£68.00−£16.00
Toner bought separately a month£0.00£0.00£0.00
Paper a month£36.00£36.00£0.00
Total a month£220.00£194.00−£26.00
Total a year£2,640.00£2,328.00−£312.00
Cost per mono page4.20p3.75p−0.45p
Cost per colour page9.40p8.15p−1.25p
Average cost per page5.50p4.85p−0.65p

How it’s calculated

The click charge on your service contract is only part of the cost of a page. The machine itself, the paper, any fixed fee and any minimum billing are paid whether you print one page or ten thousand.

The calculator adds every cost for a month, then spreads the costs that don’t depend on the page type evenly over all the pages you print. Mono and colour pages each carry their own click charge and toner.

Equipment a month
lease payment (÷ 3 if quarterly) or purchase price ÷ months you’ll keep it
Clicks a month
mono pages × mono click + colour pages × colour click
Service a month
the higher of clicks and minimum billing + fixed service fee
Toner a month (if not included)
mono pages × toner per mono page + colour pages × toner per colour page
Paper per page
ream price ÷ 500 × (1 − double-sided % ÷ 200)
Total a month
equipment + service + toner + paper per page × all pages
Shared cost per page
(equipment + fixed fee + unused minimum) ÷ all pages
Cost per mono page
mono click + mono toner + paper per page + shared cost per page
Cost per colour page
colour click + colour toner + paper per page + shared cost per page
Average cost per page
total a month ÷ all pages; a year = total a month × 12

Assumptions

  • All figures are ex VAT. Enter prices without VAT.
  • Equipment, fixed fees and unused minimum billing are shared equally by every page, mono or colour.
  • A double-sided page uses half a sheet of paper. One ream is 500 sheets.
  • Purchase price is spread evenly over the months you expect to keep the machine, with no resale value, interest or depreciation rules.
  • Volumes stay the same each month. If they change with the seasons, use an average. Not sure of your toner cost per page? Use the toner cost calculator.
  • Electricity, staff time and break-down downtime are left out.

Worked example

An office leases a colour copier for £300 a quarter. Its all-inclusive service contract charges 0.8p a mono page and 6p a colour page, with no minimum. Paper is £4.50 a ream, printed single-sided. It prints 3,000 mono and 1,000 colour pages a month. These are the figures the calculator opens with.

  1. Step 1 · Equipment

    £300 ÷ 3 = £100.00 a month

  2. Step 2 · Clicks

    3,000 × 0.8p + 1,000 × 6p = £24.00 + £60.00 = £84.00

  3. Step 3 · Paper

    £4.50 ÷ 500 = 0.90p a sheet × 4,000 pages = £36.00

  4. Step 4 · Total

    £100 + £84 + £36 = £220.00 a month, £2,640.00 a year

  5. Step 5 · Shared cost per page

    £100 ÷ 4,000 pages = 2.50p

  6. Step 6 · Per page

    Mono 0.8p + 0.9p + 2.5p = 4.20p. Colour 6p + 0.9p + 2.5p = 9.40p

So the 0.8p mono click is really 4.20p a page, more than five times the click charge. A new quote at £270 a quarter with 0.6p and 5p clicks comes to £194.00 a month: £26.00 a month or £312.00 a year less, at the same volumes.

Add this calculator to your website

Dealers, trade bodies and bloggers can put this cost per copy calculator on their own page for free. Paste the code into your page’s HTML: the calculator keeps its own height, works on phones and keeps the figures in the visitor’s browser.

Free to use. Please keep the credit line.

Questions

What is a good cost per page for an office copier?
It depends mostly on volume, because the lease is a fixed cost spread over every page. As a rough guide for a UK office A3 colour copier, click charges alone are often under 1p for mono and 4p to 8p for colour; once the lease and paper are added, the true cost is usually several pence a page. A machine that prints very little can cost far more per page than its click charges suggest.
Why is my real cost per page higher than the click charge?
The click charge only covers service and, on an all-inclusive contract, toner. The lease or purchase price, paper, any fixed service fee and any minimum billing you don’t use all add to the cost of each page. This calculator spreads those over the pages you actually print.
What is minimum monthly billing?
Some service contracts charge a minimum each month, or a minimum number of pages, even if you print less. If your clicks come to less than the minimum you still pay the minimum, so the unused part is a real cost. The calculator adds it and spreads it over every page.
Should I compare quotes on click charges or on the total?
On the total. A lower click charge can come with a higher lease, a longer term or a higher minimum. Put your current deal in one column and the new quote in the other, with the same volumes, and compare the total a month and a year.
Are the figures with or without VAT?
Enter everything without VAT and the results are without VAT. VAT-registered businesses normally reclaim the VAT on leases, service and supplies; if you can’t, add 20% to the totals.
Does the calculator store my numbers?
No. Everything is worked out in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. The copy link button puts your numbers in the web address so you can share or bookmark them.

From the team behind SubClik

Know your real volumes, not just an estimate.

The cost per page depends on how much you actually print. SubClik Monitor reads every printer’s meters each day and sends a monthly readings report, with the first 10 printers free. The agent’s print audit also finds desktop printers that aren’t on a contract, with their monthly volume and an estimated cost per page.

See SubClik MonitorHow monitoring works

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