#ad — buy links are affiliate links and we may earn a commission at no cost to you. How this site is funded. We do not display live prices, so every button sends you to Amazon’s own page for the current one. Cost-per-page figures are arithmetic on supply prices we read on 27 September 2026 — here is the method.
Is an EcoTank cheaper than a laser printer?
Per page, yes, by roughly a factor of eight: about 0.4 of a cent against 3.3 cents on high-yield toner. Overall it depends on volume. Below about forty pages a month the laser’s lower purchase price wins the three-year total; above it the EcoTank pulls ahead, and color settles it outright.
This is the comparison this site was built to make properly, and the honest version of it has two answers rather than one. Which answer applies to you depends on a number only you know.
How we decided this
We priced both supplies from the manufacturers’ own stores, took their rated page yields, and computed three-year totals at five monthly volumes, adding each printer’s published list price. Where a spec was not published we say so rather than assuming.
We deliberately compared a duplexing laser against both a duplexing and a non-duplexing EcoTank, because paper is a larger cost than ink on a tank printer and omitting it would tilt the result.
The numbers
Three years of supplies and the printer, mono printing only
Pages a month
EcoTank ET-2800 total
Brother HL-L2460DW total
10
about $241
about $192
25
about $244
about $209
50
about $247
about $239
100
about $254
about $298
250
about $276
about $475
Printer list price plus three years of supplies, mono pages, at the rated yields and prices we read on 27 September 2026. Paper is excluded and is the same for both — except that the Brother duplexes and the ET-2800 does not, which favors the Brother.
The crossover is visible: the laser leads at low volumes because of its purchase price, the two converge in the middle, and the EcoTank pulls away as volume climbs. And none of that accounts for color, which the laser cannot do at all.
The things cost does not capture
The EcoTank’s advantages
Color, cheaply. 1.1 of a cent a page. The single biggest difference between these machines.
Photographs. An EcoTank prints them; a laser cannot.
Nobody rationing printing. At these prices the question “does it need to be in color?” disappears.
Smaller and quieter. No fuser to house or heat.
The laser’s advantages
It cannot dry out. The decisive advantage for unpredictable printing.
Speed. 36 pages a minute turns a long document from a wait into a moment.
Crisper small text and much better water resistance, because toner is fused rather than absorbed.
Lower purchase price, which is the term that wins the low-volume total.
The obligation an EcoTank comes with
Print something every couple of weeks. A color page, so every channel moves. It costs a fraction of a cent and it prevents nearly every clogged-print-head story in this category.
If you cannot honestly promise that — and plenty of households cannot — the laser is the right purchase even though this site’s whole argument favors the EcoTank. That is not a hedge; it is the recommendation.
Specifications and running costs side by side, for the printers discussed on this page.
Cost-per-page figures are our own arithmetic: supply price divided by the manufacturer’s rated page yield, using prices read on 27 September 2026 and yields rated at the ISO 5% coverage standard. They are not measured by us and they are not current prices. Every input, and the working · run the numbers for your own printing
The picks in detail
The EcoTank case
Epson EcoTank ET-2800
The cheapest way to get genuinely low-cost color printing at home, as long as you can live without an auto duplexer or a document feeder.
Illustrative photograph of this kind of printer. We do not have this model in hand and this is not a photograph of the unit.
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~0.4¢ per mono page · ~1.1¢ per color page
Based on a Epson 522 black ink bottle rated at 4,500 pages at $17.99, priced on 27 September 2026.
The color figure adds one per-page cost for each of the three color channels, because an ISO color page draws from all of them.
Epson 522 black ink bottle — rated 4,500 pages (ISO/IEC 24712), $17.99 at Epson US, checked 27 September 2026
Epson 522 color ink bottle — rated 7,500 pages (ISO/IEC 24712), $17.99 at Epson US, checked 27 September 2026
Yields are manufacturer-rated at the ISO 5% page-coverage standard, not measured by us, and real-world cost runs higher. Prices are not live: this is arithmetic on a price we read on the date shown, not a current price. How we calculate cost per page.
Among the lowest cost per page of any printer sold for home use
Refillable bottles, so no chipped cartridge can be locked out by firmware
Comes with enough ink in the box to last most households a long time
What you give up
No automatic two-sided printing, so paper costs twice what it needs to
Flatbed scanner only - no document feeder for multi-page scans
Inkjets still need to be used occasionally or the print head can clog
Choose the EcoTank if you print color, or more than about forty pages a month of anything. At 0.4 of a cent a black page and 1.1 of a cent in color, its supply cost is negligible in a way a laser’s never is.
The condition attached is regular use. This is an inkjet, and an inkjet left untouched for a season is the one failure a laser does not have.
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~3.3¢ per mono page
Based on a Brother TN830XL high-yield toner cartridge rated at 3,000 pages at $98.29, priced on 27 September 2026.
Brother TN830XL high-yield toner cartridge — rated 3,000 pages (ISO/IEC 19752), $98.29 at Brother USA, checked 27 September 2026
Yields are manufacturer-rated at the ISO 5% page-coverage standard, not measured by us, and real-world cost runs higher. Prices are not live: this is arithmetic on a price we read on the date shown, not a current price. How we calculate cost per page.
Dual-band wireless (2.4 GHz / 5 GHz), Ethernet or USB
Subscription
None required
What we like
Toner does not dry out, so it is ideal if you print in occasional bursts
Automatic two-sided printing at 36 pages per minute
Brother has publicly denied blocking third-party toner with firmware
What you give up
Black only - no color at all
Cost per page is roughly ten times a tank printer's
The 700-page starter cartridge runs out fast; budget for a TN830XL
Choose the laser if your printing is black text and unpredictable. $60 cheaper at list, 36 pages a minute, and completely unaffected by the four months you did not print anything.
About 3.3 cents a page, which at low volumes is a few dollars a year — genuinely less than the difference in purchase price.
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~0.3¢ per mono page · ~1.2¢ per color page
Based on a Epson 502 black ink bottle rated at 7,500 pages at $24.99, priced on 27 September 2026.
The color figure adds one per-page cost for each of the three color channels, because an ISO color page draws from all of them.
Epson 502 black ink bottle — rated 7,500 pages (ISO/IEC 24712), $24.99 at Epson US, checked 27 September 2026
Epson 502 color ink bottle — rated 6,000 pages (ISO/IEC 24712), $16.99 at Epson US, checked 27 September 2026
Yields are manufacturer-rated at the ISO 5% page-coverage standard, not measured by us, and real-world cost runs higher. Prices are not live: this is arithmetic on a price we read on the date shown, not a current price. How we calculate cost per page.
Automatic two-sided printing, which the ET-2800 and ET-2400 lack
Uses 502 ink, whose black bottle is rated higher than the 522 black
Lowest cost per mono page of the EcoTanks we cover
What you give up
Noticeably dearer than the ET-2800 at list price
Still no document feeder
502 color bottles are rated lower than 522 color, so heavy color use narrows the gap
Worth adding because it changes the comparison. On an EcoTank, paper costs several times what the ink does, so a duplexer saves more than the ink advantage over any other EcoTank.
Against a laser, it also closes a gap: both Brother models duplex as standard, and comparing a duplexing laser against a non-duplexing EcoTank flatters the laser on paper cost.
Per page, yes — about 0.4 of a cent against 3.3 cents on high-yield toner, roughly an eightfold difference. Overall the laser wins below about forty pages a month because it costs less to buy.
+−Which is more reliable, an EcoTank or a laser?
A laser, for a printer that sits unused. Toner is a dry powder with nothing to evaporate and no print head to clog. An EcoTank is reliable if used every couple of weeks and can develop a blocked nozzle if left for months.
+−Can a laser printer print photos?
Not to any photographic standard. Toner on glossy paper cannot produce the tonal depth of a dye-based inkjet. For photographs an EcoTank is the right tool and a laser is the wrong one.
+−How many pages do I need to print for an EcoTank to pay off?
Roughly forty a month against a comparably specified mono laser, on the prices we read. If any of your printing is color, it pays off immediately, because the laser cannot do it at all.
+−Do EcoTanks need a subscription and lasers not?
Neither does. EcoTanks are filled from bottles bought outright, and no laser requires a plan either. Both manufacturers sell optional supply subscriptions, and both printers work entirely normally without one.
