Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820 Cost Per Page: Price and Ink Cost Rarely Match
The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820 is an inkjet printer that prints, copies, scans and faxes, with Wi-Fi and a touchscreen, selling for $250. It runs at $4.36 per 100 pages in black and $14.45 in color. The black rate comes from Epson's EP-822XL-BK cartridge, $48 for 1,100 pages.
Within Epson's own WorkForce Pro line, the WF-7310 undercuts it on ink: $280 buys a print-only machine with no touchscreen, but the rate drops to $3.95 per 100 pages black and $14.04 color. The WF-7820, at $330, keeps every function the WF-4820 has — copy, scan, fax, touchscreen — and matches that same lower rate, a figure shared by two Epson siblings.
The WF-4820 itself ties for 7th of 31 inkjet printers on black cost per page and 5th of 31 on color. The Canon MAXIFY MB2720 sets the running-cost floor among inkjets at $4.17 black and $13.16 color, matches the WF-4820 on every function including fax and the touchscreen, and still costs less to buy, at $216.
For a reader willing to give up fax, auto-duplex, the touchscreen and Ethernet, the Canon PIXMA G3270 tank printer costs almost the same up front, at $249, but runs on bottles at $0.38 per 100 pages black and $0.97 color. It prints at 11 ppm, well behind the WF-4820's 25 ppm.
For all-black printing, the HP LaserJet Pro 4006dw drops copy, scan and fax but keeps a touchscreen, running at $2.23 per 100 pages in toner. It prints at 47 ppm, far ahead of the WF-4820's 25 ppm, though it costs $400 to buy.