For an Epson with no subscription, the EcoTank ET-2800 at $239.99 is the pick: bottled 522 ink bought outright at roughly 0.4 of a cent a mono page and about 1.1 cents an ISO color page. The ET-2400 at $189.99 is the same ink in cheaper hardware. Epson’s whole EcoTank range is cartridge-free by design, which is why this is the easiest brand on which to refuse a plan.
How we picked
The question behind this page is narrow, so the criteria are too: does the printer need any ongoing payment to keep working, is the supply sold outright, and what does a page cost. We ranked the Epson range on those three and used hardware only to break ties.
Every figure is our own arithmetic on Epson’s published bottle prices and rated yields, read on 27 September 2026. We have no units in hand and no lab.
Why Epson is the easy brand for this
EcoTank exists because Epson decided to sell the printer dearer and the ink cheaper. There are no cartridges to chip, meter or lock: you buy bottles, you pour them in, and the printer does not care where they came from or whether you have an account. That is a structural answer to the subscription question rather than a policy that could change next quarter.
The practical consequence is in the numbers. A 522 black bottle is rated at 4,500 pages for $17.99 and a color bottle at 7,500 pages for $17.99, which is where the sub-cent page comes from. For context, Toner Buzz puts inkjet printing generally at about 7.5 cents a page mono and about 20 cents a page color — their figures, not ours, and they describe the cartridge market this range exists to undercut.
| Bottle | Rated yield | Price we read | Per page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Epson 522 black ink bottle | 4,500 pages | $17.99 | ~0.4¢ |
| Epson 522 color ink bottle | 7,500 pages | $17.99 | ~1.1¢ a full ISO color page |
| Epson 502 black ink bottle | 7,500 pages | $24.99 | ~0.3¢ |
| Epson 552 black ink bottle | 6,700 pages | $23.99 | ~0.4¢ |
Our arithmetic: bottle price divided by Epson's rated ISO/IEC 24712 yield, using prices read from Epson US on 27 September 2026. Color per-page figures add one black plus three color channels. Rated yields assume standard test coverage, so real cost will be higher.
The one Epson box to leave unticked
Epson does operate a subscription programme of its own for some cartridge printers, and it is offered during setup and at the point of purchase rather than required. On the EcoTank range there is nothing to subscribe to in the first place, because there are no cartridges to deliver — which is the cleanest version of the answer.
Two practical rules. First, if a printer you are looking at is an Epson that takes cartridges rather than bottles, you are looking at the wrong model for this page. Second, decline anything offered during setup; nothing stops working, and you can refill from bottles bought anywhere. How to run any printer without a plan.
What to know before you buy an EcoTank
- It is an inkjet. The ink is liquid and the nozzles are tiny, so a machine left for months can clog. Print something every week or two. What that actually means.
- The duplexer is a real upgrade. Epson charges roughly $110 at list between the ET-2800 without automatic two-sided printing and the ET-2850 with it. Buy it for convenience, not as a saving.
- Check for Ethernet if setup matters. The ET-4800 publishes a wired port; the ET-2800 and ET-2400 do not, which makes an app-free setup harder.
- Mono-only printing is cheaper on a laser. If you print black text almost exclusively, a Brother mono laser at about 3.3 cents a page needs no exercising at all. Our laser picks with no plan.
Three years, with no plan to pay
At 150 pages a month, two thirds mono, our arithmetic puts three years of 522 ink in the low tens of dollars — against a subscription that bills every month whether or not you print. That is the entire argument, and it is why the dearer printer is the cheaper decision: the ET-2400 at $189.99 costs more than a cartridge all-in-one on the shelf and less than one by the end of the first year. Run it on your own volume.