High volume changes which number matters. Below a couple of hundred pages a month the purchase price dominates; above it, the cartridge yield does, and the gap compounds every month. These four are ranked on cost per page, with paper capacity as the tiebreaker, because at this volume the second-biggest cost is somebody walking to the tray.
How we picked
Three criteria in order. Cost per page from the cartridge the printer actually takes, which at high volume is the whole argument. Standard paper capacity, because a 150-sheet tray refilled six times a month is a real cost that no spec comparison prices. And published print speed, which only starts to matter once jobs run to dozens of pages.
Everything on this page is a mono laser. That is not an oversight: at high volume, color multiplies the supply cost by four cartridges, and if you need cheap color at volume the answer is an ink tank rather than any laser — worked through here.
The cartridge is the whole decision
At 1,000 pages a month you will print 36,000 pages in three years. That is two TN920UXXL cartridges, or twelve TN830XLs. The printers cost $349.99 and $179.99 respectively; the supplies cost $483 and $1179. The cheap printer is the expensive choice by several hundred dollars.
| Cartridge | Rated yield | Per page | 200/month | 500/month | 1,000/month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TN920UXXL | 18,000 | ~1.3¢ | $97 | $241 | $483 |
| TN920XXL | 11,000 | ~1.9¢ | $134 | $334 | $669 |
| TN830XL | 3,000 | ~3.3¢ | $236 | $590 | $1179 |
| Canon 125 | 1,600 | ~6.1¢ | $436 | $1091 | $2181 |
Three years of pages at our cost per page: supply price divided by manufacturer-rated ISO 19752 yield, on prices read on the dates in our supply registry. A spend figure rather than a cartridge count - toner is bought in whole units.
Paper capacity, the cost nobody prices
A thousand pages a month into a 150-sheet tray is seven refills. Into the HL-L6210DW’s 620-sheet standard capacity it is fewer than two. That is not a money cost, it is an attention cost, and it is the practical reason business lasers have large trays rather than a marketing reason.
| Printer | Standard capacity | Expandable to | Speed published |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brother HL-L6210DW | 620 sheets (520 + 100 multi-purpose) | 1,660 sheets | Up to 50 ppm |
| Brother HL-L5210DW | 350 sheets (250 + 100 multi-purpose) | 1,390 sheets | Up to 48 ppm |
| Brother DCP-L2640DW | Not published on the page we read | Not published | Up to 36 ppm |
| Brother HL-L2460DW | Not published on the page we read | Not published | Up to 36 ppm |
Capacities as published on the Brother USA specification pages recorded in our registry. 'Not published' means Brother did not state the figure on the page we read, which is not the same as the printer having a small tray.
Duplexing matters more here than anywhere
Every printer on this page publishes automatic two-sided printing, and at high volume that is the largest single saving available after the cartridge. At a cent a sheet, 1,000 pages a month is $120 of paper a year; duplexing halves it, which on the cheapest-to-run machine here is more than the toner costs.
It also halves the trips to the tray, which compounds the capacity point above. Our duplex laser picks and the two-tray machines both go further on this.
Why laser, and not a tank printer, at volume
On cost per page alone an ink tank beats every laser here: about 0.4 of a cent a mono page on Epson 522 bottles against 1.3 cents at best on toner. That is a real argument and we make it elsewhere. At high volume there are three reasons it usually loses anyway.
- Speed. The tank printers we cover publish up to 18 ISO pages a minute at best. A high-volume laser publishes 50. On a 200-page job that is the difference between four minutes and eleven.
- Paper capacity. Tank printers in this price range do not offer 620-sheet trays or optional expansion.
- Duty tolerance. A business laser is built around sustained runs in a way a home inkjet is not.
What to buy
Above 400 pages a month in black, buy the HL-L6210DW and stop optimising: the cartridge is rated at 18,000 pages and nothing we cover is cheaper per page. Between 200 and 400, the HL-L5210DW saves $20 at purchase and costs a little more per page — either is defensible. If you need scanning in the same box, the DCP-L2640DW is the compromise, and the toner premium is the price of it.
Below 200 pages a month, none of this is high volume and you should read best laser printers for home use instead. The honest test is a single number: how much paper do you buy a year?