# What Is Cost per Page? > Ever wonder how much it costs to run your printer cartridge? You can find out by calculating the cartridge cost per page. Cost per page, or the c... Source: https://support.ldproducts.com/en_us/what-is-cost-per-page-S1wp7FyID Last updated: 2021-12-16T18:09:24.526Z Ever wonder how much it costs to run your printer cartridge?  You can find out by calculating the cartridge cost per page.  Cost per page, or the cost of printing a single page with print cartridge, is an easy way to manage your printing expenses.  The higher the cost per page, the bigger the monthly printing bill. Two main factors determine cost per page, page yield and printer cartridge cost: ### **Page Yield** Page yield is the approximate number of pages you can print with a cartridge.  All printer brands base their yields on a 5% page coverage, where only 5% of the page is imprinted with ink.  This standard is equivalent to printing a short paragraph or email, allowing customers to easily compare cost efficiency across products.  Yield varies greatly from cartridge to cartridge and some cartridges will print significantly more pages than others.  To get the best value, look for a printer that offers a high yield cartridge at a low cost.  You can usually find page yield information on the printer cartridge box, in your printer manual or on the printer manufacturer’s website.  LD Products also lists the page yield in the “specs” table of their cartridge pages on the website.  Let’s look at the HP 64XL black ink cartridge as a quick example.  This cartridge has a yield of 600 pages, which means it can print approximately 600 short emails or paragraphs (based off the 5% page coverage).  Since everyone’s printing habits are different, the actual number of prints you get from a cartridge changes from user to user. If you print something a bit more substantial like a legal document or business proposal, you will not be able to print as many pages. ### **Printer Cartridge Cost** Cartridge cost can vary just as much as page yield.  Some ink cartridges can run for less than ten dollars and some toner cartridges can be priced in the hundreds of dollars.  Two printer cartridges can even offer the same exact page yield but differ greatly in price.  Each manufacturer has their own reasons for charging a particular price, including technology and development costs that help determine the value.  For example, an original HP 64XL black ink cartridge and a Brother LC103 black ink cartridge both print 600 pages.  The HP cartridge sells for $37.99 and the Brother cartridge sells for $16.79.  As such, the Brother cartridge offers a much better overall value.  Even slight variations in page yield and cartridge cost can mean a drastically different printing bill at the end of the day depending on what printer you own. ### **Calculating Cost per Page** Now that you are familiar with page yield and printer cartridge cost, you can use that information to calculate the cost per page.  All you need to do is divide the cartridge page yield by the cost of the printer cartridge… **_Printer cartridge price / Page yield = Cost per Page_** We’ll start by calculating cost per page for our HP 64XL black ink cartridge example: $37.99 / 600=6.3 cents  If we use the same formula for the Brother cartridge, we get: $16.79 / 600 = 2.7 cents Further confirming that the Brother cartridge is a better deal! Calculating the cost per page for color cartridges is slightly different.  Since all of the cartridges work together to produce the colors in your prints, the quoted page yield takes all of the involved cartridges into consideration.  To get the cost for your color cartridges, first calculate the cost per page for each individual cartridge using the same formula.  Then, add up the cost per page of all of the cartridges. Keep in mind, most cyan, magenta and yellow cartridges have the same page yield and the black cartridge usually has a slightly higher page yield.  If your printer uses four individual ink cartridges, you would add up the cost per page of all four cartridges: (Black cartridge price / page yield) + ((Color cartridge price / page yield) x 3) = Color cartridge cost per page We’ll use the original HP 204A toner cartridges for our example.  The black 204A toner cartridge sells for $50.99 and prints 1,100 pages.  Original cyan, magenta and yellow toner cartridges go for $56.99 and print 900 pages each.  ($50.99 / 1,100) + (($56.99 / 900) x 3) = 23.5 cents per page Reduce Your Cost per Page Even More with Compatible Cartridges! You can bring your costs down further when you switch to LD brand compatible cartridges.   Compatible cartridges offer the same print quality and page yield as a name brand cartridge for a fraction of the cost.  To demonstrate, let’s compare the compatible cost per page of all three cartridge series we mentioned previously: LD Brand Compatible HP 64XL Black Ink Cartridge $18.99 / 600 pages = 3.1 cents per page LD  Brand Compatible Brother LC103 Black Ink Cartridge $5.99 / 600 pages = .99 cents per page LD Brand Compatible HP 204A Black Toner Cartridge $29.99 / 1,100 pages = 2.7 cents per page LD Brand Compatible HP 204A Color Toner Cartridges ($29.99 / 1,100 pages) + (($34.99 / 900) x 3) = 14.1 cents per page \*Savings based on price comparison between remanufactured/compatible cartridge prices on www.LDProducts.com and OEM cartridge and printer prices from Staples. All prices effective as of April 27, 2018.  OEM names are registered trademarks of their respective owners and are not affiliated with, and do not endorse LD Products.