The best inkjet printers offer reliable printing, capable of crisp prints and realistic photos at a fair price. And thanks to brands like HP, Epson, Canon and Brother, there are plenty to choose from.
As TechRadar Pro’s resident printer specialist, I’ve tested over a hundred of the best printers, around half of which are inkjets. So, I’ve compiled this shortlist of the ten best inkjet printers to help you.
Unlike laser printers, with their dry toner powder, inkjets apply liquid ink through a moving printhead to achieve higher resolution images on a wider range of paper, which includes coated photo paper. Being generally smaller and cheaper than laser printers, most home printers are inkjets, but many of the best office printers are also inkjets. The downside is the cost of their disposable inkjet cartridges, which can cost more than the printer itself. But don’t worry, I always consider the TCO (total cost of ownership) and an increasing number of inkjets now use bottled ink. You’ll find these supertank printers with their refillable ink tanks dominating my top recommendations.
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The quick list
Best inkjet printer overall
With strong print quality and high-yield cartridges, the Brother MFC-1205W impresses with great value for money.
Best refillable inkjet printer
The Epson EcoTank ET-4850 is an affordable ink tank model that's economical to run and produces great quality prints.
Best inkjet printer for running costs
The initial outlay may be high, but the Epson EcoTank ET-M1170 offers low long-term running costs.
Best inkjet printer on a budget
The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820DWF is an ideal choice if you need reliable inkjet printing at an affordable cost.
Best A3 inkjet printer
For wide-format printing, we're big fans of the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7310 professional A3 printer with superb print quality.
Best inkjet printer for photos
The Canon Pixma G620 (also known as the Pixma G650) may lack features, but it impressed us for its image quality on photo print-outs.
The best inkjet printers of 2024 in full:
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Best inkjet printer overall
If the value for money is important to your business, this plain, pale grey box could be the all-in-one printer you are looking for. It has few features to keep the purchase price down, so there’s no auto-duplex mode, multipurpose tray, fax, or display of any kind. There’s just a scanner bed for copying documents one side at a time and a paper tray that can hold 150 sheets of A4.
What it does have is the ability to accommodate unusually large inkjet cartridges, which is why the bodywork bulges on the right-hand side. Brother calls this an INKvestment Tank printer, which is its answer to rival supertank printers. These high-capacity carts have higher yields, making them more economical to run than most cartridge-based inkjets. It also prints to a consistently high standard on both plain and photo paper.
Read our full Brother DCP-J1200W review.
Best inkjet printer with refillable tank
The Epson EcoTank ET-4850 is a mid-range ink tank printer that, in our experience, offered good performance at a great price. If you're looking for an inkjet for your home office, this one has all the essential features you'd expect, including scan, copy, fax, automatic document feeder, and auto-duplex printing.
Paper tray capacity tops out at 250 sheets, and while we would've liked to see a multimedia tray included, the rest of this package more than makes up for it. Print quality here is exceptional - except when printing photos, as we found the colors weren't faithfully reproduced.
Elsewhere, the printer is easy to use, with a touchscreen that puts you firmly in control of all print jobs. But what really sets the Epson EcoTank ET-4850 apart is the ability to refill the ink tanks, rather than using expensive ink cartridges, lowering on-going running costs. In box, there's even five bottles, yielding approximately 20,000 pages.
Read our full Epson EcoTank ET-4850 review
Best inkjet printer for running costs
It might seem like a lot to pay for such a basic mono print-only device, but that £266 (around US$350) includes enough ink to print up to 6,000 pages. Epson’s EcoTank system allows you to top up with black ink from affordable refill bottles that can be recycled more easily than cartridges. The printer is equipped with Wi-Fi and duplex printing, and it can manage a reasonable speed of 15 crisp and consistent pages per minute.
Best inkjet printer on a budget
The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820DWF is a fine example of how much you can get out of a mid-priced office-oriented inkjet all-in-one these days. This is a full-color printer with an auto duplex, an automatic document feed, a high-res flatbed scanner, and a fax modem. It can print faster than some laser printers in its fastest monochrome mode, but being an inkjet, it can also print decent-quality photos onto glossy paper. The ink cartridges cost should be considered as they are not the cheapest. However, this model is still competitive, especially if you sign up for Epson’s ReadyPrint subscription ink service, which mails replacement cartridges to your door.
Best A3 inkjet printer
The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7310 is a capable, high-capacity business printer designed for the home or small office. It’s a wide-format inkjet device so it can print on a broad variety of media up to size A3+. It looks a little bulky, but it’s actually quite compact considering it can hold a whole ream (500 sheets) of Tabloid/A3 paper in its two paper trays. And while the Brother MFC-J6959DW is our pick for A3 printing overall, this Epson inkjet unit is a stellar pick that's great value for money.
A multifunction tray at the rear expands the media compatibility still further by allowing you to print on quite thick card. There’s no touchscreen on this model, but it’s easy enough to operate using the tilting control panel with its 6.1cm LCD. Wi-Fi and AirPrint connectivity are built in, while the motorized output tray is a nice touch. It prints pretty quickly for an inkjet and its all-pigment inks make for fast-drying, durable and vivid printouts. The only real catch is the cost of the DURABrite cartridges, which push the CPP (cost per page) over 12 cents (or 10 pence) for color pages. If you need to produce large professional-looking brochures regularly, this printer could be worth the expense.
Read our full Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7310 review
Best inkjet printer for photos
The Canon Pixma G620 (known as the G650 in the UK) may not be the best inkjet printer we've ever tested. Features are light. There's no touchscreen, few ports, and only manual duplex mode. But it delivers outstanding value for money and for printing photos, it absolutely excels. For a more feature-filled A3+ inkjet printer for photos, check out our Epson EcoTank ET-18100 review.
The printer accepts a wide range of paper types and thicknesses - ideal for printing images onto glossy photo paper or even printable fabrics. And the quality of the print-outs impressed us. The unit's six color dyes produce excellent color fidelity. Better still, this is an ink tank model, which lets you refill via ink bottles, making it cheaper in the long run compared to traditional cartridge-based printers.
Read our full Canon Pixma G620 review
We've also tested the best 3D printers.
Best inkjet printers: FAQs
Which is best - inkjet printer or laser?
Whether it's the best small business printer for your office or one for home use, when it comes to inkjet vs laser, there are some clear differences.
The best Inkjet printers are fairly inexpensive to buy, but they're slower to print and use ink cartridges that can be expensive in the long term.
Laster printers, on the other hand, are typically very expensive to buy - and are often aimed at professionals and business. However, they have excellent printing speeds and toners are cheaper to buy in the long run.
How to choose the best inkjet printer
When choosing which inkjet printer is best for you these are the top considerations:
Print-only or multifunction?
If you only need to print, and don't need scan, copy, and fax capabilities, you can generally save some money compared to a multifunction printer (MFP), also known as an all-in-one (AIO). However, you may also miss out on key features like automatic document feeders by opting for a print-only device. We tested out the best all-in-one printers.
Home or office?
Printers for the home tend to be cheaper, smaller, and less robustly built - and in most cases, home printers will be inkjets. For businesses, printers are typically focused on high-speed, high-volume print jobs conducted by multiple users. In many cases, businesses opt for laser printers, as they produce better quality documents.
Should I sign up to a subscription plan?
Subscription services like HP Instant Ink offer cheap ink cartridges mailed to your door before you run out. If you're printing a lot and regularly, it can make sense to set up a subscription, but it's generally not necessary for most general users.
What features do I need?
Most printers print on any size paper up to Letter, or A4. And that's fine for most people. However, the best large format printers and the best A3 printers we've reviewed are best for bigger prints. You'll also want to check for ADF and auto-duplex printing (and scanning, too, if you need it). These features help you stay more productive, letting the printer do the work for you, although expect to pay for these.
What’s my budget?
In our experience, most of the best cheap printers are inkjet printers. These models are affordable to buy, with companies making money on more expensive ink cartridges. Initial outlay on laser printers is more expensive, but toners cost less. However, for the most economical on-going costs, we recommend ink tank printers, letting you refill the printer with bottled ink. We've also seen a lot of great Prime Day printer deals and Black Friday printer deals when the sales are live, so keep your eyes peeled around that time.
How we test the best inkjet printers
As the senior printer editor at TechRadar Pro, I’ve tested hundreds of products, from the best small business printers, and the best printers for Mac, and I’m always improving my methodology. The process starts right from the unboxing and initial set-up, which is timed. If there’s a problem with unsustainable packaging or a baffling user manual, I’ll call it. If it’s a pleasure to use, that’ll be reflected in the final score too. I always test both wired and wireless connections and explore the various remote printing companion apps offered by brands such as HP and Epson as these often enhance the user experience.
For the performance tests, I have a folder of test cards, photos and text documents designed to assess detail resolution, contrast, color accuracy and gamut. Some test images are particularly good for spotting feathering and smearing among inkjets. A ten-page text document is useful for measuring print rates because I never take manufacturer's claims at face value. Having said that, the quoted print and scan speeds are usually accurate enough that I rarely contradict them.
I print each test page on a range of standard paper stock from cheap 75gsm sheets to 600gsm card, as every printer has its limits and preferences when it comes to paper quality. And if the manual claims you can print on envelopes, labels or t-shirts, I test that too.
Features such as auto-duplex scanning or copying multi-page documents via an ADF (automatic document feed) are evaluated, and an assessment of build quality and design contributes to the overall rating. I pay particular attention to the COO (cost of ownership) because cheap printers can often give lower value for money when you calculate the ongoing consumables cost.
Find out more about how we test, review, and rate printers on TechRadar Pro.
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