Every laser printer is a box with a cartridge in it, so there is a floor on how small one can get. These are the four that come closest, and what each one sacrifices.
#ad — buy links are affiliate links and we may earn a commission at no cost to you. How this site is funded. Prices as shown on Amazon as of November 12, 2026; Amazon’s own page is the price of record. Cost-per-page figures are arithmetic on supply prices we read on 27 September 2026 — here is the method.
The compact laser to buy is the Brother HL-L2460DW, for anyone with a small space and real printing to do: a single-tray print-only body, 36 pages a minute, automatic duplex and about 3.3 cents a page at $179.99. The budget pick, and the physically smallest machine we recommend, is the Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w — cheaper to buy, about 6.1 cents a page to run, and the right answer only for light use.
What is the smallest laser printer worth buying?
The Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w is the smallest we recommend: a print-only wireless mono laser with no scanner, feeder or second tray. The Brother HL-L2460DW is a little larger and the better buy for most people, because it adds automatic two-sided printing, 36 pages a minute and roughly half the cost per page.
How we picked
“Compact” is not a specification manufacturers publish consistently, so we ranked on the structural features that decide how big a laser printer has to be.
Is it print-only? A scanner adds a lid and a feeder adds a tower. The smallest laser in any range is always the one that does nothing but print.
How many paper inputs? One. A second tray or a multi-purpose tray is the single biggest addition to a printer’s height and depth.
Mono or color? Four cartridges and a transfer mechanism take room, so a color laser is never as small as a mono one.
What does it cost per page anyway? A small printer you cannot afford to feed is not a good small printer. Every figure here is our arithmetic on dated published cartridge prices.
Why there is a floor on how small a laser gets
A laser printer has to contain a toner cartridge, a drum, a fuser that reaches a working temperature, and a paper path straight enough not to jam. Those four things set a minimum size that no amount of design gets under, which is why the smallest laser is still much larger than the smallest inkjet. If what you need is genuinely tiny — a bag, a shelf in a van — a laser is the wrong technology and a thermal or portable printer is the right one. Laser against thermal.
What each machine gives up to stay small
Printer
Scanner
Paper inputs
Color
Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w
None
One
No
Brother HL-L2460DW
None
One
No
Brother HL-L3220CDW
None
One
Yes
Brother DCP-L2640DW
Flatbed + 50-page feeder
One + manual slot
No
Read from each manufacturer’s own specification page on 27 September 2026. Measure your space before ordering — and leave clearance behind the machine for the rear paper path and above it for the lid, which published dimensions do not include.
Small is not the same as cheap to own
The trap on this page is that the smallest machine is also the dearest to run. The Canon’s cartridge is rated at 1,600 pages against 3,000 for the Brother’s high-yield cartridge, so over three years at 50 pages a month the Canon spends about $109 on toner against about $59. At genuinely light use that gap is small enough to ignore, which is the only situation in which we would pick the smaller machine.
Put your own volume in and the answer resolves quickly: the footprint is worth paying for below roughly 30 pages a month, and almost never above it. The calculator · the budget laser roundup.
Where small laser printers actually go wrong
Two practical things, neither of which appears on a specification sheet. Lasers need air: a fuser gets hot, and a machine squeezed into a closed cupboard or a tight shelf with no clearance will run hotter than it was designed to. And every one of these printers needs room behind it for paper to travel and above it to open, so the published width and depth are the smallest part of the space you have to find.
Specifications and running costs side by side, for the printers discussed on this page.
#ad — the price buttons are affiliate links and we may earn a commission at no cost to you. How this site is funded. Prices as shown on Amazon as of November 12, 2026; Amazon’s own page is the price of record.
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
Smallest laser we recommend
Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w
A small, long-serving mono laser, and a useful warning: its cheap body is paired with the dearest cost per page of any printer we cover.
Product photograph supplied by Amazon for this listing. We do not have this model in hand and have not photographed it ourselves.
#ad — we may earn a commission. How this site is funded. Prices as shown on Amazon as of November 12, 2026; Amazon’s own page is the price of record.
~6.1¢ per mono page
Based on a Canon 125 black toner cartridge rated at 1,600 pages at $96.95, priced on 27 September 2026.
Canon 125 black toner cartridge — rated 1,600 pages (ISO/IEC 19752), $96.95 at Precision Roller, 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.
List price
Not published where we checked on 27 September 2026
Supply type
Toner cartridge
Two-sided printing
Manual only
Document feeder
None
Connectivity
Wireless
Subscription
None required
What we like
Compact and long established, so toner is easy to find
Laser, so nothing dries out between jobs
Frequently sold well below the price of a Brother equivalent
What you give up
Highest cost per page on this site once you buy genuine toner
No automatic two-sided printing, so paper costs double
Canon's own store would not show us a printer price on the date we checked
Who it is for: a dorm desk, a shelf or a cupboard, with light printing and no scanning.
This is as small as a laser printer gets without becoming a different category of device. It is a print-only wireless mono laser: no scanner lid, no feeder tower, no second tray, no Ethernet port. Every one of those omissions is why it is small, and for a shelf that is the right trade.
Honest cons. The Canon 125 cartridge is rated at only 1,600 pages, so at about 6.1 cents a page this is the dearest machine here to run — roughly double the Brother. No duplexer. Buy it for the footprint and the low entry price, not for volume. What it costs to run.
#ad — we may earn a commission. How this site is funded. Prices as shown on Amazon as of November 12, 2026; Amazon’s own page is the price of record.
~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
Who it is for: almost anyone who wants a small laser and will print more than a handful of pages a month.
A single-tray print-only mono laser, which is the compact shape, but without the compromises that usually come with it: 36 pages a minute, automatic two-sided printing, dual-band Wi-Fi, Ethernet and USB, and the high-yield TN830XL at about 3.3 cents a page — roughly half the Canon. For $179.99 this is the small laser to buy unless the Canon’s footprint is genuinely the binding constraint.
Honest cons. Larger than the Canon, black only, no scanner, 700-page starter cartridge, and the DR830 drum is a separate purchase rated at about 15,000 pages. The full breakdown.
A color laser that will not dry out between jobs. Buy it for occasional color that has to be crisp, not for cheap color - a tank printer wins on cost by a wide margin.
Product photograph supplied by Amazon for this listing. We do not have this model in hand and have not photographed it ourselves.
#ad — we may earn a commission. How this site is funded. Prices as shown on Amazon as of November 12, 2026; Amazon’s own page is the price of record.
~3.2¢ per mono page
Based on a Brother TN229XL black high-yield toner cartridge rated at 3,000 pages at $96.29, priced on 27 September 2026.
Brother TN229XL black high-yield toner cartridge — rated 3,000 pages (ISO/IEC 19798), $96.29 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.
Color laser output does not dry out during long idle spells
Auto duplex printing
Four separate cartridges, so one exhausted color does not mean replacing the set
What you give up
Color toner is expensive per page next to any ink tank printer
Four cartridges to replace instead of one
Slower than the mono lasers at 19 pages per minute
Who it is for: someone who needs color laser output in a space that will not take an office machine.
Color lasers are usually the largest machines in any range, because four cartridges and a transfer belt need room. This is Brother’s smallest, in a single-tray print-only body with automatic two-sided printing and 19 pages a minute in black and in color, at $284.99.
Honest cons. It is still clearly bigger and heavier than the mono machines, and it is noticeably the most expensive here to run: the TN229XL black is about 3.2 cents a page and a color page costs considerably more, with four cartridges plus a drum. No scanner. Whether you need color laser.
#ad — we may earn a commission. How this site is funded. Prices as shown on Amazon as of November 12, 2026; Amazon’s own page is the price of record.
~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.
50-page document feeder, so scanning a stack is one action
Auto duplex printing at 36 pages per minute
Same TN830 toner family as the HL-L2460DW, with the same cost per page
What you give up
Mono only
Thirty dollars more than the print-only model for hardware you may not need
Toner is far dearer per page than bottle ink
Who it is for: a small home office that needs to scan and has only one surface to put a printer on.
Adding a scanner adds a lid, and adding a feeder adds a second one, so an all-in-one can never be as small as a print-only machine. This is the cheapest and most compact one we would recommend: a flatbed with a 50-page automatic document feeder, 36 pages a minute, automatic duplex, Ethernet and dual-band wireless, for $209.99.
Honest cons. Taller than everything else here because of the feeder. Mono only, no fax, and the feeder scans one side at a time. 250-sheet tray. What it costs to run.
+−What is the best compact laser printer for home use?
The Brother HL-L2460DW at $179.99: a single-tray print-only body, 36 pages a minute, automatic two-sided printing and about 3.3 cents a page. The Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w is smaller still if footprint outranks everything else.
+−Is there a compact laser printer with a scanner?
The Brother DCP-L2640DW at $209.99 is the smallest we would recommend that also scans, with a flatbed and a 50-page automatic document feeder. A scanner lid and a feeder both add height, so no all-in-one is as small as a print-only machine.
+−Are small laser printers slower?
Not necessarily. The compact Brother prints 36 pages a minute, which is faster than several larger all-in-ones. What small machines give up is paper capacity, second trays and scanning, not usually speed.
+−Is there a compact color laser printer?
The Brother HL-L3220CDW at $284.99 is the smallest we cover, in a single-tray print-only body. It is still larger and heavier than the mono machines, because four cartridges need the room.
+−Can a laser printer go in a cupboard?
With clearance, yes — but a fuser generates heat and the paper path needs room behind the machine, so a sealed cupboard is a bad idea. Leave air at the back and space above for the lid and output tray.
