What a copier really costs per month

When people compare copier proposals they compare lease payments. That is the one number almost guaranteed to be misleading, because it describes only part of what you will actually pay.

A. Machine cost

The lease or purchase cost of the hardware and any accessories — finishers, extra trays, fax. This is the number on the front of most proposals.

B. Service cost

Toner, parts, labor and preventive maintenance, billed as a cost per page. Mono pages and color pages are priced separately, and color is typically several times the mono rate. Service cost scales with how much you actually print, so it is an estimate until you have real meter reads.

A + B = your total cost of operations

This is the number worth comparing between vendors. A proposal with a low lease payment and a high click rate can easily cost more over five years than one with a higher payment and a lower rate — particularly if you print a lot of color.

The things that quietly inflate the total

• Annual escalators, often 5 to 10 percent, applied to the click rates.
• Minimum monthly volume commitments you pay for whether you print or not.
• Delivery, install and network-setup fees added at signing.
• Overage rates that differ from the base rates.

Our quote engine shows equipment, service and total cost of operations side by side, with the per-page rates visible, so nothing is hidden in a single blended number.