How much more does color printing cost than black and white?

On a typical office copier, a color click costs roughly five to ten times a black one — commonly four to eight cents against half a cent to one and a half cents. Any page containing any color is normally billed at the full color rate.

What is tiered color billing?

A billing structure that charges pages with light color coverage — a logo or a colored heading — at a lower rate than full-coverage color pages. It is not offered by default on most agreements and generally has to be asked for.

Is color printing worth what we're paying for it?

What's actually going on

A color click typically costs five to ten times a black one. On a page that is 95 percent text with one colored logo, you pay the full color rate.

Most devices bill any page containing any color at the color rate, unless the agreement includes tiered color billing.

A large share of color volume in most offices is accidental — email signatures, letterheads, web page printouts.

What to do in the next 48 hours

1Pull the black and color page split from the device's meter readings. Color is usually a small fraction of pages and a large fraction of cost.
2Set black-and-white as the driver default so color is a deliberate choice rather than the fallback.
3Ask your provider whether tiered color billing is available, which charges low-coverage pages at a reduced rate.
4For genuinely color-heavy work such as marketing collateral, compare in-house cost per page against a print shop. Above a certain volume, in-house wins clearly.

The honest tradeoffs

Making black-and-white the default saves the most money for the least friction, and someone will always find the exception that matters.
Blocking color outright pushes marketing work outside, where the cost is higher and less visible.

Your next step

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Questions people ask next

How much more does color printing cost than black and white?: On a typical office copier, a color click costs roughly five to ten times a black one — commonly four to eight cents against half a cent to one and a half cents. Any page containing any color is normally billed at the full color rate.
What is tiered color billing?: A billing structure that charges pages with light color coverage — a logo or a colored heading — at a lower rate than full-coverage color pages. It is not offered by default on most agreements and generally has to be asked for.

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