As of 13 August 2026, AI can compare office printer running costs in the UK.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, power-user skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. List the printer model numbers you are considering and define the comparison period, expected monthly black-and-white pages, expected monthly colour pages and your main buying priority.
   2. Open the UK manufacturer pages and supplier pages for each model, then gather the consumable prices, stated page yields, replacement-part costs, energy information and warranty or service terms.
   3. Paste the gathered data and its source links into the prompt, including whether each price includes VAT and which page-yield standard the manufacturer uses.
   4. Ask the model to produce the input table and resolve missing information only by asking you questions, not by filling gaps with estimates.
   5. Paste the confirmed inputs into a spreadsheet or Julius AI and reproduce the page-cost, monthly-cost and annual-cost calculations from the response.
   6. Open each cited source and compare its current price, yield and specification with the draft, then amend the comparison and send the checked table to the colleague responsible for the purchase.

   Prompt

   Compare the UK office printers listed below for total running cost. Use only the information I provide or the source links I provide, and do not invent prices, page yields, electricity use, VAT treatment or service costs. First extract the inputs into a table and flag anything missing, ambiguous or based on a manufacturer estimate. Then calculate separately: cost per black-and-white page, cost per colour page, consumables cost at [monthly page volume] pages per month, and an annual total including [electricity assumptions] and [service cost assumptions]. Show the formula for each calculation and state whether VAT is included or excluded. Produce a comparison table, a sensitivity analysis for [low volume] and [high volume], and a short recommendation based on [priority, such as lowest cost, colour quality, speed or reliability]. Cite the exact source beside every price, yield and specification. Do not recommend a model if a required input is missing. Printer data: [paste model numbers, manufacturer specifications, consumable prices, page yields, energy data and service terms]. Source links: [paste UK manufacturer or supplier links].

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.