Is HP Instant Ink a Good Deal?

We recently purchased a new all-in-one printer, and signed up for HP's new Instant Ink program. They claim that it can save users as much as 50% on ink. But will it really? .



First off, a look at the new printer. It's an HP Envy 4500 all-in-one.

Its major selling point - It fits inside our Pottery Barn Bedford cabinet. (BARELY.)

A minor selling point - apparently, HP will sell you ink cheaply if you sign up for a subscription.

OK, fine. I'm game. But is this really a good deal?

The HP Envy 4500

This is a good-looking printer/scanner. It's very slim, and it has a paper cartridge that slides underneath the printer's "closed up" footprint.

Many printers claim to be compact and small in their specifications, but their "in use" size is much larger, with paper trays that stick out 4-5 inches at all times. Not the Envy - it's as small as advertised.

A Canon PIXMA, with trays extended

While I'd really wanted a laser printer, and we definitely wanted to add AirPrint capabilities, Ms. AAAD wanted to keep color printing capabilities, and wanted to keep a scanner just in case.

Our Canon PIXMA MX410 had one major advantage - a automatic feeding document scanner.

That came in handy a few times over the years, like when we copied the decs and bylaws for our condo building.

But the PIXMA was pretty huge, and it sort of dominated our office. We needed something that could be tucked away in a cabinet.

Enter the Envy. In the early going, it appears to be a perfectly adequate, boring printer. Install on our iMac was dead simple, and wireless connectivity with Bonjour worked great.

So... about that ink situation.

HP Instant Ink

I'll admit that I was VERY reticent to sign up for yet another subscription service. But we did it anyway.

The plan works like this -- you don't buy ink cartridges. Ever.

Instead of paying $30 for new cartridges, you sign up for a subscription at a certain page limit.

I signed up for the cheapest level, at 50 pages per month for $2.99.

(The higher tiers are 100 prints for $4.99, and 300 prints for $9,99.)

If you go over your limit, there's a $1 charge for an additional 15 prints.

Unused pages roll over month-to-month - but only up to an amount equal to your plan page limit.

I think it's likely that we're going to have that 50-page max in our rollover account before too long, giving us 100 pages available at any time if we need them.

One major selling point - the entire process is automated. HP monitors your printer usage, and your ink levels, over the internet. Then they send you new ink cartridges before you run out.

They even include a postage-paid return package to recycle your old cartridges!

HP claims that if I used my entire 600-page annual allowance, I'd be spending as much $132 on ink.

With this plan, I'll be spending $36 per year.

I doubt that I'll come anywhere near 600 prints per year or $96 in savings - there's no way I've ever spent $132 on ink in a single year.

But a new set of cartridges (one color, one black) typically runs us at least $45, and we run out more than once per year.

HP estimates that the "break even" is at around 13 prints per month. 

Print at least that much, and Instant Ink is a good deal. Print less, and you may as well buy cartridges directly.

Frankly, even at the breakeven point, it's worth joining Instant Ink just to save the hassle of going out to buy ink cartridges, and trying to remember which cartridge fits your printer.

Finally, the subscription can be cancelled at any time. So we'll give it a shot.

The HP Instant Ink program really seems to make sense at these prices. I'll report back, once we have a few months worth of usage stats to verify that assumption.

UPDATE: One year later, we ran the numbers - Was it a Good Deal?