If you’re looking for a way to save on printing costs, HP Instant Ink might be the answer. With this program, you pay a monthly fee and then get a certain amount of ink cartridges delivered to your door. The best part is that you don’t have to worry about running out of ink, HP will send you new cartridges when they sense that you’re running low. This is the Hp instant ink review, here we will share all the relevant aspects you should know about the program.
Who can use HP instant ink program?
To subscribe to the program first you’ll need to know if your printer model supports this service. On this link, you can find the list of models that support this function, which usually are models released after 2013 when HP Instant Ink was launched. If you don’t have a printer yet, and you just heard about the instant ink program, here you can buy the models that support the subscription. You can also check our article “What to Look for in a Printer” where we provide the best advice to make a good decision when buying your printer.
HP Instant Ink subscription
To start using the service you will need to buy a subscription. HP offers two printing plans for home or small businesses and five subscription options for each one. The first one is the Ink plan, which starts with 10 pages per month for $0.99, then 50 pages for $3.99, 100 pages for $5.99 which is recommended for homes, 300 pages for $11.99, and finally 700 pages for $24.99; this last one is the HP recommended for small business with inkjet printers. The second plan is the toner plan, which starts at 50 pages per month for $1.99, then 100 pages for $3.99, 400 pages for $13.99, 800 pages for, $19.99 which is recommended for small businesses with laser printers, and finally, 1500 pages for $25.999.
You can choose a plan that is convenient for you, as you could see in this case, working with a laser printer is more rentable than an inkjet one, of course, it always depends on your necessities, but if you have a laser printer and you are considering subscript to the HP Instant Ink program, you might save a good amount of money.
There is also a Business instant ink plan, specifically for businesses that have the HP LaserJet Pro 3000/4000 series or the HP LaserJet Pro MFP 3100/4100 series printer. The subscription options start at 200 pages per month for $7.99, then 400 pages for $13.99, 800 pages for $19.99 which is recommended for business, 1500 pages for $25.99, and finally, 3000 pages for $39.99.
This plan has a few benefits that can save a lot of money for your company. If your business has offices in different locations, HP will manage to deliver your supplies to each one of them. Keep in mind these plans are for B&W laser toner printers, which in any case, can be changed for one of the plans we previously listed here.
Let’s take a look at the main ones in detail
Page price
Let us look at the usability of this service from this point of view. Would 50 pages for three dollars be enough for you? Not to mention ten pages for one dollar. The HP Company writes about the possibility of saving up to 70 percent on inkjet cartridges and 50 percent on toner. Is it so? It is good if you do not use your printer much and this amount of printing is enough for you. This subscription plan can only be used at your home. For the office, you will need a larger tariff plan. However, will this be enough? Based on users’ feedback, we can’t say so. By the way, if you do not pay your monthly subscription or have arrears, you will not be able to use your HP printer at all.
Additional pages
If you exceed the page limit provided to you, you can order additional packs of pages on your HP Instant Ink account. These additional packs come in sets of 10 or 15 pages, and each one costs $1, this is a fixed price for all subscription items. Once you are subscripted, you can see the exact price of additional papers on the Hp Instant ink website. In that way, you can see how many pages you usually use, so if you are using more than you pay, you can easily change your printing plan to a more suitable one.
Roll-over pages
If you do not print the number of pages you paid for through subscription during the month, they are stored for the next month. you can save up to two times your monthly service plan pages on Toner and three times your monthly service plan pages on Ink plans. In addition, if you do not use the printer, the ink may dry out. HP’s Instant Ink program monitors and prevents the ink from drying out.
Images vs text
Images or text are equal in value. This also applies to using colored instant ink cartridges or only black ink cartridges. This is very beneficial when you print many images, it will be cheaper than spending money on buying new cartridges, and it is also cheaper than using printing services. However, there is another side to this. The number of used pages is calculated from the moment the pages left the printer. It does not matter how much ink is used on that page. You can print tickets, and in addition, you received unnecessary advertising. It will still count.
What else is there?
The HP Instant Ink program is an affordable way to print your photos and documents without running out of ink or paper. But what else is in the program? Here are some benefits you may not know about.
Free shipping
The subscription price includes free delivery of new cartridges to you. You do not have to go to the store to get a new cartridge. HP Instant Ink program itself reports that the ink level has decreased to a critical level. The HP Company delivers new cartridges to you within ten days. It is really convenient because it makes you work non-stop.
Internet connection
For the program to read usage data correctly, it must always be connected to the Internet, otherwise, the program will not be able to notify you about the ink running out. having in mind that without proper notification to HP, the company will not be able to deliver new cartridges to you on time. If you are thinking in replace the cartridge on your own, you should consider the already printed or rolled-over pages before.
Eco-friendly
As the HP company claims, their printer ink cartridges are made from recycled ocean plastic, which makes them easy to utilize. Also, the replacement of cartridges through the HP Instant Ink service speeds up their recycling. HP Instant Ink cartridges are larger than regular ink or toner cartridges, but fewer resources are spent on their packaging. This allows reducing production waste.
Reviews
On the HP website, you can find reviews of this service, or google it and find many different, sometimes contradictory, reviews. We consider this the most honest way to understand whether HP Instant Ink will help you or not.
Once we have listed all the things you should know about the program, we consider HP Instant Ink is worth it when you have relatively medium-high printing needs for your home or your business; in general, we can recommend subscribing to HP Instant Ink, considering the price-benefit relation it comes with.