Do printers come with ink?
Yes, every printer ships with ink or toner. The useful question is how much: entry-level lasers often include a starter cartridge rated at 700 pages where the replacement is rated at 3,000, while ink tank printers arrive with bottles instead. The starter yield is published on the spec sheet and is worth checking before you buy.
“Comes with ink” is marketed as a feature and is in fact universal. What varies, by a factor of four or more, is how much printing is included — and that difference is rarely on the box front. Below are the published starter yields for every model we cover that states one.
What is actually in the box
| Printer | What ships with it | Replacement supply | Per page after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brother HL-L2460DW | Starter black toner rated at 700 pages | TN830XL, 3,000 pages | ~3.3¢ |
| Brother DCP-L2640DW | Starter black toner rated at 700 pages | TN830XL, 3,000 pages | ~3.3¢ |
| Brother MFC-L2820DW | Starter black toner rated at 700 pages | TN830XL, 3,000 pages | ~3.3¢ |
| Brother HL-L3220CDW | Four starter cartridges, 1,000 pages each | TN229XL black, 3,000 pages | ~3.2¢ |
| Brother HL-L5210DW | Included TN920 rated at 3,000 pages | TN920XXL, 11,000 pages | ~1.9¢ |
| Brother HL-L6210DW | Included TN920 rated at 3,000 pages | TN920UXXL, 18,000 pages | ~1.3¢ |
| Epson EcoTank range | Ink bottles - page figure not published on the pages we read | 522 or 502 bottles | ~0.4¢ to 0.3¢ |
| Canon PIXMA MegaTank G3270 | Ink bottles - page figure not published on the page we read | GI-21 bottles | ~0.3¢ |
Starter yields as published by Brother USA on each model's specification page. For the tank printers we deliberately publish no in-box page figure: the manufacturers did not state one on the pages we read, and we do not estimate. Cost per page is our arithmetic on rated yields and prices we read.
The pattern is worth internalising. The three cheapest Brother lasers include 700 pages; the two business models include 3,000. That is not a small difference — at 50 pages a month it is the gap between buying toner after a year and buying it after five.
Why a starter cartridge makes a cheap printer look cheaper
A printer sold on price has an incentive to include the smallest cartridge that will get you through setup and a few weeks of use. That is not deceptive — the yield is published — but it does mean the first replacement arrives sooner than a buyer comparing cartridge prices would expect.
Factor it in like this. A $179.99 printer with a 700-page starter and a $98.29 replacement costs you about $278 before you have printed 3,700 pages. A $349.99 printer with a 3,000-page starter and a $241.49 replacement costs you $591 and takes you to 21,000. Per page, the second is far cheaper.
Tank printers: bottles instead of a cartridge
A tank printer arrives with sealed bottles that you pour into reservoirs during setup. Epson and Canon both supply ink in the box and both market the quantity heavily. We do not repeat a page figure for it, because neither manufacturer stated one on the product pages we read, and an estimate presented as a fact is exactly what this site exists not to do.
What we can say is that the bottles are large — the Epson 522 black bottle alone is rated at 4,500 pages at 65 mL — and that the replacement cost is well under a cent a page either way. For most households the in-box fill lasts long enough that the question stops mattering. The fuller case: are ink tank printers worth it.
What about printers that come with free ink for a year?
That offer is usually a subscription trial, not ink in the box. It means the first few months of a supply plan are included, after which a monthly charge begins and a page allowance applies. That is a different thing from a cartridge you own, and it is reversible only by canceling.
Two things to know before accepting one. Plan cartridges are tied to the plan, and owners who canceled have been left with a printer that would not accept cartridges they already had: what happens and how to fix it. And the arithmetic rarely favors the plan at household volumes: the alternatives, costed.
What to do with this
Before buying, find three numbers on the specification page: the starter supply yield, the replacement supply yield, and the replacement price. Divide the last two and you have the cost per page the printer will actually settle at. Then check the starter yield to know when that cost starts applying.
If you would rather not do it by hand, the calculator does it in about thirty seconds, and every printer we cover is already ranked by cost per page.