Most UK business owners know what a ream of paper costs. Very few know what a single printed page costs their organisation. Cost per page is the most important metric in print management and once you calculate it, you will almost certainly wish you had done it sooner.
In our previous article, Why Most Organisations Underestimate Their Printing Costs, we showed how the true cost of printing is typically 50 to 100 percent higher than the figure that appears on a supplier invoice. One of the central reasons for that gap is that most SMEs have never calculated their cost per page (CPP), the single metric that ties every element of print spend together.
This article walks you through exactly how to calculate CPP, from the basic formula that takes five minutes, through to the more comprehensive true-cost calculation that reveals what printing actually costs your organisation once hardware, service, and energy are factored in. We also provide UK benchmarks so you can see how your number compares, and a clear set of actions to take if it is higher than it should be.
What Is Cost Per Page and Why Does It Matter?
Cost per page (CPP) is the average cost of producing one printed page. At its most basic, it covers toner or ink and paper. In its full form, it incorporates a share of hardware costs, maintenance, service, and energy consumption, everything that contributes to the true cost of getting ink onto a sheet of paper.
For SMEs, CPP matters for several distinct reasons:
It reveals which devices are expensive to run versus which merely appear expensive upfront, the relationship between purchase price and running cost is frequently counterintuitive
- It provides a like-for-like comparison metric across different manufacturers, models, and device types
- It forms the essential baseline for any meaningful print audit without a CPP figure, there is nothing to benchmark against or improve
- It is the number managed print providers use when calculating potential savings for your fleet
The most important thing to understand:
A device with a low purchase price and a high CPP will almost always cost more over its lifetime than a device with a higher purchase price and a lower CPP. Running costs dwarf upfront costs in virtually every print environment.
The Formula: How to Calculate Cost Per Page
CPP calculation moves through four stages, each building on the last. Start with Step 1 and work through as far as your available data allows.
Step 1: The Basic Formula: Consumables Only
The starting point for any CPP calculation is the toner or ink cartridge cost divided by the cartridge’s page yield.
| CPP = Cartridge Price ÷ Page Yield The fundamental cost per page formula |
Two variables are required:
- Cartridge price – the price you pay for a replacement toner or ink cartridge, including VAT. Use the actual price you pay, not the manufacturer’s RRP
- Page yield – the manufacturer’s stated number of pages per cartridge. Find this on the cartridge box or the manufacturer’s website
Page yields are determined under standardised testing conditions set by the ISO/IEC 19752, 19798 and 24711 standards (for mono laser, colour laser, and inkjet cartridges respectively). This standardisation means you can compare cartridge yields between different brands on a like-for-like basis.
Worked Example
A mono toner cartridge costs £28.00 and has a stated page yield of 3,500 pages.
CPP = £28.00 ÷ 3,500 = 0.8p per page This is the consumables-only cost for mono printing on that device.
Step 2: Add Paper Cost
Toner alone does not produce a printed page, paper is a direct and often overlooked cost. Adding it takes ten seconds.
| CPP = (Cartridge Price ÷ Page Yield) + Paper Cost Per Sheet Paper cost per sheet = ream price ÷ 500 |
Paper cost per sheet is simply the price of a ream (500 sheets) divided by 500. Standard 80gsm A4 copy paper typically costs between £4.50 and £6.00 per ream through most UK office suppliers.
Worked Example
A ream of 80gsm A4 paper costs £5.00.
Paper cost per sheet = £5.00 ÷ 500 = 1.0pTotal mono CPP = 0.8p (toner) + 1.0p (paper) = 1.8p per page
Step 3: Calculating Colour Cost Per Page
Colour CPP is more involved because most colour laser devices use four separate cartridges: black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. Each has its own price and its own page yield. The formula becomes:
| Colour CPP = (Black ÷ Yield) + (Cyan ÷ Yield) + (Magenta ÷ Yield) + (Yellow ÷ Yield) + Paper Add together the CPP from each individual cartridge, then add paper cost |
Using typical mid-range colour laser cartridge pricing from UK suppliers:
Worked Example
Black toner: £30.00 ÷ 3,000 pages = 1.0p
Cyan toner: £45.00 ÷ 2,500 pages = 1.8p
Magenta toner: £45.00 ÷ 2,500 pages = 1.8p
Yellow toner: £45.00 ÷ 2,500 pages = 1.8p
Paper: £5.00 ÷ 500 sheets = 1.0p
Total colour CPP = 7.4p per page. This is over four times the cost of the equivalent mono page on the same device.
This 4:1 ratio between colour and mono is one of the most powerful arguments for default mono settings and departmental colour controls, two of the simplest and cheapest interventions available to any SME.
Step 4: True CPP: Adding Hardware, Service, and Energy
The consumables-plus-paper formula gives you a useful working figure, but it understates the real cost of printing by ignoring three significant cost categories that every device incurs:
- Hardware cost – the purchase price or monthly lease payment, amortised across the expected page output over the device’s life
- Service and maintenance – whether through a separate contract, an engineer call-out rate, or the cost of managed print support
- Energy consumption – based on device wattage, hours of operation, and your unit rate per kWh
Why this matters:
A cheap desktop inkjet printer with a low purchase price may have a consumables CPP of 8p. Once hardware amortisation and energy are added, the true CPP rises to 15p or more. A well-managed multifunction device with a higher upfront cost may have a true CPP of 5p. The inkjet costs three times as much to run.
Calculating true CPP precisely requires access to your device’s page counter (usually available in the printer’s status menu or management software) and your service contract costs. A managed print provider will calculate this comprehensively for your entire fleet as part of a print audit. This is typically where the most significant savings opportunities are uncovered.
The 5% Page Coverage Rule and Why It Makes Your Real CPP Higher
This is the most widely misunderstood variable in print cost calculation, and it affects every CPP figure you calculate from manufacturer yield data.
All cartridge page yields are based on 5% page coverage per the ISO standard. Five percent coverage means only one-twentieth of an A4 page is covered in ink or toner, roughly equivalent to a brief email, a short memo, or a page containing a few lines of text. It is the most conservative possible baseline for a business document.
Most real business printing has substantially higher coverage than this. A dense invoice, a report with tables and headers, a letter with a company letterhead, a marketing one-pager, all of these will consume significantly more toner or ink per page than the manufacturer’s test document. The practical consequence is that your actual page yield will be lower than the stated figure, and your real-world CPP will be higher than your calculated CPP.
| Document Type | Estimated Page Coverage | Effect on Stated Yield |
| Short email / brief memo | ~5% | Full stated yield achieved |
| Standard business letter | ~10% | Approximately 50% of stated yield |
| Invoice with logo and borders | ~15% | Approximately 33% of stated yield |
| Dense report or data table | ~20% | Approximately 25% of stated yield |
| Marketing collateral / brochure | 40%+ | Significantly less than stated yiel |
Practical implication:
If your standard documents average 10% page coverage (common in most business environments) your real-world CPP is approximately double the figure produced by the basic formula. For accurate budgeting, track your actual cartridge page counts over time and use those figures rather than manufacturer yield data.
UK Cost Per Page Benchmarks: How Does Your Fleet Compare?
Once you have calculated your CPP, the natural next question is whether it is reasonable. The table below provides indicative benchmarks for UK business printing environments, covering both the consumables-only figure and an estimated true CPP when hardware and service costs are included.
| Device Type | Mono CPP (consumables) | Colour CPP (consumables) | Estimated True CPP |
| Desktop inkjet | 3p – 7p | 10p – 20p | 12p – 25p+ |
| Entry-level personal laser | 1.5p – 3p | 6p – 10p | 8p – 14p |
| Mid-range laser MFD | 0.8p – 1.5p | 5p – 8p | 6p – 10p |
| Enterprise MFD (managed) | 0.5p – 1p | 3p – 6p | 4p – 7p |
The gap between a desktop inkjet and a well-managed enterprise multifunction device is stark. At scale, the difference between a 15p true CPP and a 5p true CPP (across a fleet of devices printing tens of thousands of pages per month) represents a very large sum of money leaving the business every year, invisibly.
If your calculated CPP sits above the top of the range for your device type, your print environment has a cost efficiency problem. If it sits in the middle of the range, there is still likely an improvement available. If you are at or below the bottom of the range, your fleet is performing well. A managed print service can help you lock that performance in and protect it over time.
Common Reasons SME Cost Per Page Is Higher Than It Should Be
When CPP comes in above benchmark, there is almost always a clear cause. These are the five most common culprits in UK SME environments.
Using the Wrong Device for the Print Volume
Desktop inkjet printers are designed for light home use, typically a few dozen pages per week at most. Running them in an office environment that demands hundreds of pages per day pushes them well beyond their design parameters. Cartridge yield drops, replacements become frequent, and the cost per page climbs rapidly. The lower purchase price creates a false economy that compounds over time.
Using Standard-Yield Rather Than High-Yield Cartridges
Most printer manufacturers offer standard-yield and high-yield (XL or high-capacity) versions of their cartridges. High-yield cartridges cost more upfront but deliver a substantially lower CPP because their cost-per-page efficiency is considerably better. An SME consistently purchasing standard-yield cartridges when high-yield equivalents are available is paying a premium for no practical reason.
As a rule of thumb: If you are replacing a cartridge more than once a month on a given device, the high-yield equivalent will almost certainly reduce your CPP and reduce the disruption of frequent changes.
Uncontrolled Colour Usage
Colour printing at 7p or more per page versus mono at under 2p is a CPP multiplier with enormous cumulative impact. Without default settings configured to mono, and without departmental policies governing colour usage, colour creep inflates the blended CPP across the entire fleet. Staff printing internal documents, meeting agendas, and draft reports in colour are spending three to four times more per page than necessary.
Older Devices With Higher Running Costs
Printer technology has improved significantly over the past five years. A device purchased in 2019 will typically have a higher consumables CPP than a current equivalent, due to improvements in toner efficiency, cartridge yield, and energy consumption. In some cases, the running cost saving from replacing an ageing device will recover the cost of the new hardware within eighteen months. CPP calculation makes this calculation straightforward and objective.
No Fleet-Wide Visibility
Without print management software, CPP is calculated device by device, if it is calculated at all. The expensive outliers continue unchecked because nobody is aggregating the data. A fleet of ten devices might contain two that are performing efficiently, four at mid-range, and four that are dramatically above benchmark. Without visibility, all ten look the same on the monthly invoice.
What to Do Once You Know Your Cost Per Page
Calculating CPP transforms print from an unmanaged overhead into a measurable, improvable metric. Here is what to do with the number once you have it.
Benchmark Every Device Against the Table Above
Run the calculation for each device in your fleet individually. Flag any device whose CPP sits above the top of the benchmark range for its category. These are your priority targets, the devices that are disproportionately driving your overall print costs.
Switch to High-Yield Consumables Immediately
If any device is running on standard-yield cartridges and a high-yield equivalent exists, switch now. This is the single fastest CPP reduction available with no hardware change, no workflow disruption and immediate impact on the next order.
Set Mono and Duplex as Fleet Defaults
Changing the default print settings on every networked device from colour to mono, and from single-sided to double-sided, reduces your blended CPP across the fleet at a stroke. Users retain the ability to override where genuinely needed. The cost of implementing this change is minimal; the ongoing saving is material.
Investigate Fleet Rationalisation
If the exercise reveals desktop printers with high CPP sitting alongside multifunction devices with low CPP, the case for consolidation is likely already made. The CPP differential, multiplied by the page volume those desktop devices produce, gives you the annual saving available from removing them. That figure will typically justify a hardware investment with a payback period of one to two years.
Request a Professional Print Audit
A free print audit from a managed print provider takes the calculation further than most SMEs can do internally. It covers true CPP across every device in the fleet (including hardware amortisation, service costs, and energy) and benchmarks the results against current market alternatives. Most businesses that have never had an audit are surprised by both what the numbers reveal and how quickly the savings become apparent.
How a Managed Print Service Locks In a Known Cost Per Page
For SMEs that want to move beyond calculation and into consistent, contracted cost control, a Managed Print Service fundamentally changes the CPP equation.
Under a managed print contract, the cost per page is typically fixed as a single pence-per-page rate that covers all consumables, maintenance, support, and in many cases hardware. Rather than calculating CPP retrospectively from invoices and cartridge receipts, you know the number in advance and your provider is contractually accountable for keeping it there.
The additional benefit is visibility. Managed print environments include reporting software that shows CPP by device, by department, and across time. This transforms CPP from a figure you calculate occasionally into a live operational metric you can monitor and act on continuously.
To understand exactly what a managed print contract covers and how it compares to print leasing or self-managed print, see our guide: What Is a Managed Print Service?
The Bottom Line
Cost per page is not a complex calculation. It requires two pieces of information readily available to any business, and five minutes of arithmetic. Yet the overwhelming majority of UK SMEs have never done it, and as a result, they are making hardware decisions, approving consumables invoices, and budgeting for print spend with no real understanding of what their printing actually costs.
Once you have the number, the path forward is clear. Benchmark it, identify the outliers, make the quick wins, and consider whether a more structured approach to print management would lock in the savings long term. The businesses that treat CPP as a routine metric (rather than an occasional exercise) consistently spend less on print, with less effort, year after year.