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The Fine Print

THE INK TRAP

Why printer ink costs more than champagne

HP 64XL cartridge ink runs $93 an ounce — over $3,000 a litre. Dom Pérignon runs about $330 a litre.

Sources
2 sources
Figures on the record
5 figures checked
Running time
1:00 min
Languages
DE · EN · ES · FR · JA
Published
10 August 2026

The film is not public yet. The research below is final.

The research

Cartridge ink is one of the most expensive liquids sold to households. Consumer Reports measured HP 64XL ink at about $93 an ounce, which works out at more than $3,000 a litre against roughly $330 a litre for Dom Pérignon. The printer itself is the loss leader: hardware is sold cheap, sometimes below cost, and the margin is recovered through refills that authentication chips and firmware reserve for the manufacturer. Consumer Reports also found that on some models only 20 to 30 percent of the ink ever reached paper, the rest going into self-cleaning cycles — one Epson model cost $278 a year in ink, $158 of it maintenance, against $27 a year for a comparable Brother. The same fluid poured into a refillable tank costs about $4 an ounce.

On the record

The figures the film rests on, and how far each one can be pushed.

  1. 01

    Cartridge ink reaches about $93 per ounce, equivalent to more than $3,000 per litre.

    $93/oz (HP 64XL)

    One sourceConsumer Reports cost-per-ounce testing, repeated in industry cost comparisons
  2. 02

    Champagne is roughly a tenth the price of cartridge ink by volume.

    ~$330 per litre (Dom Pérignon) vs >$3,000 per litre

    One sourceRetail champagne pricing set against the Consumer Reports ink figure
  3. 03

    On some printers only a fifth to a third of the ink ends up on paper; the rest is consumed by self-cleaning cycles.

    20–30% of ink printed

    One sourceConsumer Reports printer testing
  4. 04

    Annual ink cost differs by an order of magnitude between models, driven mostly by maintenance consumption.

    $278/year (of which $158 maintenance) vs $27/year

    One sourceConsumer Reports comparison of an Epson XP-8500 against a Brother model
  5. 05

    Ink bought for a refillable tank instead of a chipped cartridge costs about a twenty-third as much.

    ~$4/oz vs ~$93/oz

    One sourceTank-ink pricing set against cartridge cost per ounce

Sources

Grouped by what kind of record each one is. Links open at the publisher.

Primary1

  1. Consumer Reports printer ink cost and efficiency testingConsumer Reports · no public linkSource of the $93-per-ounce figure and of the finding that some printers put only 20–30% of their ink on paper.

Reported1

  1. Industry guides to cartridge pricing and authentication chips (2026)mycartridge / Castle Ink · no public linkTrade descriptions of the razor-and-blades model and of firmware checks that verify original cartridges.
  • printer ink
  • razor and blades
  • consumer pricing
  • hardware subsidy

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