Photo printer ads lead with the price of ink. That’s only part of what a print costs, and for small prints it isn’t even the biggest part. Here’s what a 4x6 and an 8x10 really cost at home and at the lab, using prices we checked on October 12, 2026, and when buying a printer actually saves money.

The short answer

  • At 4x6, home printing rarely beats the cheapest labs. Walmart charges 18¢ a print with free pickup. Even an ink-tank printer costs about 24 to 28¢ a print, mostly because photo paper alone costs 20 to 25¢ a sheet.
  • At 8x10 and larger, home printing wins quickly. An 8x10 costs about $1 at home on an ink-tank printer, against $2.65 to $4.79 at labs.
  • The real reasons to print at home are control, speed and the joy of it: you choose the paper, see the result immediately, and reprint until it’s right.

What a 4x6 costs at home

Here’s the cost of one 4x6, combining ink with the printer maker’s own glossy paper at regular price:

Printer Ink Paper Total per 4x6
Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 (ink tank) about 4¢ 20¢ about 24¢
Canon PIXMA G620 (ink tank) about 3¢ 25¢ about 28¢
Canon SELPHY CP1500 (dye-sub kit) included included 37–39¢
Canon PIXMA PRO-200S (cartridges) about 20¢ 25¢ about 45¢
Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 (cartridges) about 34¢ 25¢ about 59¢

How we got these numbers:

  • Epson ET-8550: Epson says replacement bottles print a 4x6 for about 4¢ of ink, based on 2023 ink prices. Its Premium Photo Paper Glossy costs $19.79 for 100 sheets.
  • Canon G620: Canon rates a full set of six GI-23 bottles at about 3,800 4x6 photos. At today’s $17.99 a bottle, that’s $107.94 ÷ 3,800 = 2.8¢. Canon’s Photo Paper Plus Glossy II is $24.99 for 100 sheets at regular price, and often on sale for much less.
  • SELPHY CP1500: ink and paper come together. A 108-print KP-108IN kit is $41.99 at Canon (39¢ a print) and the RP-108 kit $39.99 (37¢).
  • Canon PRO-200S and PRO-310: neither Canon nor independent labs publish a cost per 4x6, so we used Red River Paper’s ink-usage measurements, recalculated at today’s cartridge prices. Red River tests near-full-coverage images, so treat these as worst cases.

Cartridge-based pro printers cost more per print because their ink costs four to five times as much per milliliter as ink-tank bottles. You pay that for wider color ranges and archival pigment inks, which matter more at large sizes. See our photo paper guide for why.

What a 4x6 costs at a lab

Lab prices for a single 4x6, checked October 12, 2026:

Lab 4x6 8x10 Notes
Walmart 18¢ $2.94 Free same-day pickup
Costco (via Shutterfly) about 19¢ about $2.18 Members get 51% off Shutterfly prices; free shipping over $30
Printique 32¢ $2.65 Free shipping over $100
Mpix 30¢ (11+ prints) $3.30 (11+) Shipping from $4.99
Shutterfly 39¢ $4.44 App deal: 10¢ prints plus $5.99 shipping
Walgreens 39¢ (29¢ for 100+) $4.49 Free same-day pickup
CVS 42¢ (32¢ for 98+) $4.79 Free same-day pickup
Nations Photo Lab 59¢ (lustre) $3.75 Shipping from $7.50

Shipping changes the math for small orders. Mpix’s 30¢ print becomes about 50¢ each once you add $4.99 shipping to an order of 24, and Shutterfly’s 10¢ app prints work out to 35¢ each for 24 prints but 16¢ each for 100. Drugstores also run frequent promotions, sometimes halving these prices.

Instant and pocket printers

Small-format printers trade cost for fun and portability. Their prints are also smaller than a 4x6.

Format Print size Cost per print
Instax Mini film 2.1 x 3.4 in about 90¢
Instax Wide film 3.9 x 3.4 in about $1.00
Instax Square film 2.4 x 2.8 in about $1.10
Zink paper (Canon IVY 2, Kodak) 2 x 3 in about 35–60¢

Prices are for 20-shot film packs and Zink packs from Glazer’s, Canon and Kodak. Bigger packs cost less per print, and small specialty packs (colored borders, monochrome) cost more. Our portable photo printer guide compares the printers themselves.

When does a printer pay for itself?

Divide the printer’s price by what you save on each print compared with your usual lab.

For 4x6 prints:

  • Against Walmart’s 18¢, no home printer we looked at ever breaks even. Paper alone costs about as much as the print.
  • Against Walgreens at 39¢, a $300 Canon G620 pays off after about 2,700 prints, and a $750 Epson ET-8550 after about 4,900.
  • A SELPHY CP1500 saves money only against small mail-order lab orders, where shipping pushes the per-print price up.

For 8x10 prints, the picture flips. At about $1 for an 8x10 on an ink-tank printer (our estimate, scaling the 4x6 ink figure by area plus about 82¢ to 90¢ for paper):

  • The G620 pays for itself after about 150 prints against Walmart, or about 86 against Walgreens.
  • The ET-8550 needs about 380 against Walmart, or about 210 against Walgreens.

If you print 8x10s or larger regularly, a home photo printer is worth it on cost alone. If you mostly print 4x6 snapshots, it’s worth it for convenience, not savings.

The costs ads leave out

  • Cleaning cycles. Inkjets use ink to prime and clean their printheads, especially when they sit unused. In Consumer Reports’ tests of occasional printing, many all-in-ones put half or less of their ink on paper. Print regularly, and leave the printer on.
  • Setup ink. The first bottles or cartridges partly go into filling the printhead, so they yield fewer prints than replacements. Canon and Epson both say so.
  • Maintenance boxes. Waste ink collects in a replaceable box, about $12 for the Canon G620 and $24 for the Epson ET-8550. The printer stops when it’s full.
  • Small packs cost more. A 36-print SELPHY kit costs about 53¢ a print, against 37 to 39¢ for the 108-print kits. Single Instax packs cost far more per shot than twin or value packs.
  • Mistakes. Test prints and reprints add up, especially while you’re learning a new printer and paper.

Ready to choose? Our guide to the best photo printers matches printers to the prints you want to make.

Sources

Keep exploring