Epson EcoTank ET-4950 Ink Cost Per Page and How It Stacks Up
The Epson EcoTank ET-4950 is an ink tank multifunction that prints, copies, scans, and faxes, with automatic duplex printing, Wi-Fi, and a touchscreen. It sells for $500. Running costs are sharp: $0.29 per 100 pages in black and $1.08 per 100 pages in color.
The black rate comes from the $25 EP-502-BK cartridge, rated for 8,500 pages. That $0.29 per 100 pages ties for 1st among the 30 ink tank printers InkTax tracks, a mark three of its own EcoTank siblings match. The $1.08 per 100 pages color rate sits further back, tied for 6th of 30 ink tank printers, also matched by three siblings. Across all 97 printers InkTax tracks, the ET-4950 ranks 4th on black-and-white cost per page.
Stepping down Epson's own EcoTank line to the ET-2980 ($330), ET-3930 ($390), or ET-3950 ($400) keeps those same ink rates, but drops fax, and only the ET-2980 lacks Ethernet; none of them has a touchscreen.
Outside Epson, the Canon PIXMA G3270 ranks as the cheapest ink tank printer to run in the class, at $249 up front. Its color rate of $0.97 per 100 pages undercuts the ET-4950's $1.08, even though its $0.38 per 100 pages black rate runs higher than the ET-4950's $0.29. It skips duplex printing and a touchscreen, and prints at 11 ppm, slower than the ET-4950's 18 ppm.
For someone who never needs color, the HP LaserJet Pro 4006dw offers a mono laser alternative at $400, print-only with none of the ET-4950's copying, scanning, or faxing. Its toner runs $2.23 per 100 pages in black, far above the ET-4950's $0.29, though it prints far faster, at 47 ppm to the ET-4950's 18 ppm.