What is a good cost per page for an office copier?

As an all-in figure including equipment, service and toner, most mid-volume offices land between two and four cents per black page and between eight and fifteen cents per colour page. Higher volume pushes both figures down.

What should be included in a copier cost per page?

The equipment payment, the service and click charges, toner and consumables, and any overage or escalator. A quoted click rate that excludes the equipment payment is not a cost per page and cannot be compared between vendors.

How much should a copy actually cost?

What's actually going on

Cost per page is the only number that lets you compare two copier deals honestly, and it is the number that almost never appears on a proposal.

The rate you are quoted covers clicks. The rate you actually pay includes the equipment payment, the clicks, the overages and the annual escalator.

What to do in the next 48 hours

1Add twelve months of everything you paid for the copier: lease payments, service invoices, toner if billed separately, overages.
2Divide by twelve months of pages from your meter readings. That is your real all-in cost per page.
3Compare it against your contracted click rate. The gap is what the equipment and the escalators are costing you.
4Ask any new quote for the total cost of operation, not the click rate, and make sure it includes the escalator.

The honest tradeoffs

A low click rate with a high equipment payment can be worse than the reverse. Only the combined figure tells you anything.
Very low all-inclusive rates usually come with a high monthly minimum volume. If you do not hit it, you pay for pages you never printed.

Your next step

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Questions people ask next

What is a good cost per page for an office copier?: As an all-in figure including equipment, service and toner, most mid-volume offices land between two and four cents per black page and between eight and fifteen cents per colour page. Higher volume pushes both figures down.
What should be included in a copier cost per page?: The equipment payment, the service and click charges, toner and consumables, and any overage or escalator. A quoted click rate that excludes the equipment payment is not a cost per page and cannot be compared between vendors.

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