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

On a typical office copier, a colour 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 colour is normally billed at the full colour rate.

What is tiered colour billing?

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

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

What's actually going on

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

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

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

What to do in the next 48 hours

1Pull the black and colour page split from the device's meter readings. Colour is usually a small fraction of pages and a large fraction of cost.
2Set black-and-white as the driver default so colour is a deliberate choice rather than the fallback.
3Ask your provider whether tiered colour billing is available, which charges low-coverage pages at a reduced rate.
4For genuinely colour-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 colour outright pushes marketing work outside, where the cost is higher and less visible.

Your next step

Rather just talk it through with someone local?

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Questions people ask next

How much more does colour printing cost than black and white?: On a typical office copier, a colour 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 colour is normally billed at the full colour rate.
What is tiered colour billing?: A billing structure that charges pages with light colour coverage — a logo or a coloured heading — at a lower rate than full-coverage colour pages. It is not offered by default on most agreements and generally has to be asked for.

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