The Best Budget Inkjet Printers in 2026, Once You Price the Cartridge Tax

Updated June 18, 2026

A budget inkjet printer is the easiest purchase to get wrong. The price you see is not the price you pay: these machines are sold cheap so the cartridges can be expensive, and the gap between sticker and true cost is the cartridge tax. We rank budget printers the way the bill actually arrives — by real cost per page, by how hard each brand locks you into its own ink, and by whether the thing survives a year of light use. The cheapest one to buy is rarely the cheapest one to own.

Our top pick is the cheap all-in-one that costs the least to live with — the Canon TS6520. But the right budget printer depends on how little you print, whether you need photos, and how allergic you are to ink subscriptions. One pick here is an outright trap. Here is the shortlist, ranked.

1. Canon PIXMA TS6520 — best overall: dual-band Wi-Fi and duplex make it the most capable budget all-in-one.
2. HP DeskJet 2855e — cheapest entry: the honest floor for a household that prints a few times a month.
3. Epson Expression Home XP-5200 — the trap: a nice 150-sheet machine that firmware can lock to pricey ink.
4. HP Envy 6555e — budget photos: an ADF and color leaning, undercut by HP ink costs.
5. Canon PIXMA TS7720 — step-up Canon: faster with a touchscreen, but a candid reliability question mark.

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1

Canon PIXMA TS6520 Wireless Color Inkjet Printer Duplex Printing

4.4 Low-to-moderate-volume homes wanting a no-drama all-in-one

2

HP DeskJet 2855e

3.7 Light-use homes printing mostly black text and school worksheets from a Windows PC or Android phone, and willing to live with HP's setup app and an Instant Ink account.

3

Epson Expression Home XP-5200 Wireless All-in-One Printer - Scan

3.7 Specific buyer fit

4

HP Envy 6555e Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer

3.7 Specific buyer fit

5

Canon PIXMA TS7720 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer – Print

4.1 Specific buyer fit

Quick Picks at a Glance

1. Canon PIXMA TS6520 — Best Budget All-in-One

The TS6520 is the budget cartridge printer we would actually buy. It out-features the cheap DeskJet class in the two places that matter day to day: it has Reliable Wireless Connectivity - Enjoy stable and consistent connections with dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz or 5GHz), and it does automatic two-sided printing the bare-bones machines skip. It prints, scans, and copies from a small OLED panel, and owners call setup easy. The honest catch is the one every cartridge printer carries — Canon's own community tells volume printers that You'd save an incredible amount of money if you go for a tank. If you print weekly rather than daily, the TS6520 hits the sweet spot between cheap to buy and not-ruinous to feed.

Check Price on Amazon Read our full Canon TS6520 review →

2. HP DeskJet 2855e — Cheapest Honest Entry

The DeskJet 2855e is the floor: the least you can spend on a wireless all-in-one and still get a printer worth owning. It suits one buyer well — the household that prints a few pages a month and wants scan and copy without a second machine. Owners with light needs are happy with it. Two caveats keep it at number two, not number one. Its wireless is This printer is only 2.4 ghz capable., which trips up modern mesh routers, and it ships with a three-month Instant Ink trial where After 3 months, monthly fee applies unless cancelled. If you want a touch more — duplex, a faster engine, a bigger tray — the step-up HP DeskJet 4255e and the wider HP inkjet line are worth a look, and we put the two head to head in our DeskJet 2855e vs 4255e comparison.

Check Price on Amazon Read our full DeskJet 2855e review →

3. Epson Expression Home XP-5200 — The Trap

On paper the XP-5200 is the best-equipped printer on this list. Epson markets it as its Our Fastest Expression Home Printer and pairs it with a 150-sheet tray, duplex, and a proper color screen. So why is it the trap? Because of what happens after you buy. One owner reports that the printer accepted cheaper third-party ink at first, then a firmware update changed that. — and once locked to genuine cartridges, Now it will only take Epsom cartridges which are running about $70 every six weeks. That is the cartridge tax with the mask off. Buy the XP-5200 only if you are content to pay Epson's ink prices for the tray and the speed. If keeping running cost down is the entire reason you want a budget printer, this is the one to avoid. The same firmware-lock pattern runs across the brand, which we lay out in our Epson inkjet printers guide.

Check Price on Amazon How cartridge costs add up →

4. HP Envy 6555e — Budget With a Photo Lean

The Envy 6555e is the pick for a home that wants the occasional decent photo without leaving the budget tier. It earns its place over the bare DeskJet on hardware: Color print, copy and scan, plus auto 2-sided printing, a 35-sheet auto document feeder and a 100-sheet input tray. The output is quiet and clean, and the dual-band Wi-Fi is steadier than the DeskJet's. The problem is the same HP problem in a nicer shell — the ink. A r/printers owner is blunt that the HP Envy 6555e is a cheap cartridge printer, will cost you a kidney in ink replacement, and like other HP "e" models it is built to refuse non-HP cartridges. Worth it for the ADF and photo lean if you accept HP's ink economics; a poor choice if you print high volume.

Check Price on Amazon More on HP's ink lock-in →

5. Canon PIXMA TS7720 — Step-Up Canon

The TS7720 is the budget Canon for someone who prints more and wants a nicer panel. It is faster than the entry machines — Canon rates it to Print approximately 15 (black) / 10 (color) images per minute. — adds a 2.7-inch touchscreen, and carries dual 100-sheet trays. Owners who got a good unit are pleased: one says The printer has excellent print quality, and generally uses ink economically. for a two-cartridge machine. We rank it last for one honest reason: the reliability record is uneven. A buyer whose drive motor failed within days left a flat verdict — DO NOT BUY BUDGET CANON PRINTERS. A good TS7720 is a strong budget step-up; a bad one is a fast return. Buy from a seller with an easy return window.

Check Price on Amazon More on Canon's budget line →

One more we tracked but left off the ranked five: the HP DeskJet 2827e, a near-twin of our cheapest pick that ships with the same Instant Ink trial — read the subscription terms before you buy it.

Also on the radar: more budget all-in-ones we tracked

Six more cartridge all-in-ones earned a place on our radar without making the ranked five. We list them honestly: each is a budget cartridge machine like the picks above, but the owner record on every one is still thin, so we point you at the brand guides rather than pretend to a verdict the reviews cannot back. Most are HP and Canon variants that sit close to a printer already on the list — useful if one fits a need the ranked picks miss, but for most buyers the Canon or HP higher up the page is the safer call. Whichever you pick, price the cartridge before the printer.

• Canon PIXMA MG3620 — the cheapest Canon all-in-one we tracked and an older budget model, the kind of bargain-shelf PIXMA that shows up in pairwise "is it worth it" threads. It prints, scans, and copies on a two-cartridge setup, but the owner record here is thin, so we send you to Canon's guide before any ranking. Worth a look if you want the lowest Canon sticker and accept an aging design. Check Price on Amazon · More on Canon's budget line →
• Canon PIXMA TS6420a — a Canon all-in-one that sits right next to our ranked TS6520, a close sibling for the buyer who finds this model number on the shelf instead. Canon lists a one-year warranty on it. The review base stays shallow, so treat it as a near-equivalent to our top pick rather than a separately proven contender. Check Price on Amazon · How Canon's PIXMAs compare →
• HP DeskJet 2755e — another near-twin of our cheapest pick from HP's entry DeskJet line, shipping with the same Instant Ink trial that turns into a monthly fee unless cancelled. The owner record is thin, so read the subscription terms before you buy and treat it as interchangeable with the ranked DeskJet entry. Check Price on Amazon · More on HP's DeskJet line →
• HP DeskJet 4255e — the step-up DeskJet we name in our cheapest-pick write-up above: a fuller all-in-one a notch over the bare entry machine, still inside HP's ink-lock ecosystem. The review base is shallow, so we send you to HP's guide rather than rank it, but it is the natural upgrade if the 2855e feels too bare. Check Price on Amazon · How HP's DeskJets compare →
• HP Envy 6155e — a sibling of our ranked Envy 6555e, a step down in HP's Envy line for the buyer who wants the photo-leaning Envy at a lower sticker. It carries the same HP ink economics, and the owner record is thin, so we keep it on the radar rather than the ranked list. A fit for the HP household that wants Envy color without the 6555e's price. Check Price on Amazon · More on HP's ink lock-in →
• HP Envy 6155 — the non-"e" variant of the Envy 6155, a budget HP all-in-one with the thinnest review base of this radar group. Like the rest of HP's budget line it leans on HP ink, so we point you at the brand guide before any verdict. Worth a glance only if you specifically want this exact Envy variant. Check Price on Amazon · How HP's Envy line compares →

How We Chose

Here's the thing: the cheap sticker is the easiest number to find and the worst one to buy on. We do not run a print lab. We read the owner record closely — the verified Amazon reviews, the community threads — and we price the cost of ownership the box leaves off. For budget cartridge printers specifically, that meant scoring three things the cheap sticker hides: the real cost per page once the tiny starter cartridges run dry, how aggressively each brand locks you to its own ink, and whether the machine holds together under a year of light use.

That second factor reshuffled the ranking. Two of these printers print fine and still landed lower because the ink math is hostile — the Epson can have its cheaper ink revoked by firmware, and the HP "e" models refuse third-party cartridges outright. Independent testing backs the running-cost case: RTINGS' lab-tested inkjet printers and Consumer Reports' inkjet printer ratings both score cost-per-print as a first-class number, and both rate cartridge machines far costlier per page than tanks. We grade every model against the full owner record in our inkjet printers evidence hub, and the cost case carries straight into our Canon TS6520 review.

The result is one clear winner and one clear trap.

Buying Guide: What to Look For

Three numbers decide a budget printer, and none of them is the price you pay at checkout. Read them in this order.

Cost per page, not sticker price. This is the whole game. A cheap printer with expensive cartridges costs more over a year than a dearer printer with cheap ink. Watch the starter cartridge: many budget machines ship half-full carts that empty in weeks, and Epson's inkjet printer specifications rate standard Expression cartridges at a fraction of an XL's yield. Before you buy, look up the replacement cartridge price and divide by its page yield — that cents-per-page figure is the only number that predicts what the printer costs to own.

Ink lock-in and subscriptions. Budget printers are where ink politics bite hardest. HP's cheap models push Instant Ink and block non-HP cartridges; Epson can revoke third-party ink through a firmware update; Canon is the most relaxed of the three but still steers you to genuine carts. Canon's PIXMA inkjet printers generally leave more room for aftermarket ink than the HP "e" line. If freedom from ink lock-in matters to you, it should outweigh a slightly lower sticker.

How much you actually print. Budget cartridge printers earn their place only at low volume. Print a handful of pages a month and a cheap all-in-one is the right call. Print every week and the cartridge tax compounds until a refillable supertank is cheaper to own within a year — the crossover we map in our inkjet printer buyer problem guide and weigh in our comparison criteria. Be honest about your volume before you buy cheap.

Features you will actually use. Duplex, an automatic document feeder, and a color screen are worth paying a little more for if you use them — the Canon TS6520 and HP Envy 6555e have them, the bare DeskJet does not. They raise the sticker without raising the cost per page, so pay for the ones you need and skip the rest.

Price the ink first, then the printer. Our guide to inkjet cartridge costs shows how to run that math before you buy.