Is It Cheaper to Print My Own Flyers?

Let’s settle this once and for all.

You need 500 flyers for your band’s gig, your bakery’s grand opening, or your real-estate open house. You open Canva, spend two hours designing something gorgeous, and now you’re staring at your home inkjet wondering: “Should I just print these myself and save a ton of money?”

Spoiler: 90 % of the time… you absolutely should NOT print your own flyers.

But the other 10 % of the time? You can save hundreds — sometimes thousands — and look like a genius. Here’s the brutally honest breakdown nobody else will give you, with 2025 pricing, real-world tests, and the hidden costs most “DIY vs Pro” articles conveniently forget.

The Hard Costs: Ink, Paper, and Electricity (2026 Pricing)

Scenario: 500 full-color, double-sided 8.5×11 flyers on standard 80 lb text gloss paper.

Option A: Print at Home (Canon PIXMA PRO-200 — a “prosumer” inkjet loved by designers)

• Ink cost (genuine Canon CLI-65 8-color set): $189 for roughly 400–450 full-bleed pages at 100 % coverage → You’ll burn through almost two full sets = $360–$380 in ink alone
• Paper: 80 lb gloss text, 500 sheets (Red River or Red River equivalent) ≈ $85
• Electricity: ~2 kWh total (negligible, $0.40)

Total hard cost: ~$445–$465 Cost per flyer: 89–93 ¢ each

Option B: Print at Home on a Cheap Inkjet (Epson EcoTank ET-8550 — the “unlimited ink” darling)

• Ink: Supplied bottles last ~7,500 black + 6,000 color pages. Refill cost ~$70 for a full set → 500 flyers uses roughly 7–8 % of the tanks = $5–$6 ink
• Same paper: $85
• Total hard cost: ~$91 Cost per flyer: 18 ¢ each

Whoa. Hold up. The EcoTank just murdered the prosumer inkjet.

Option C: Laser Printer (Brother HL-L8360CDW — the small-business workhorse)

• Toner: High-yield cartridges $450/set for ~9,000 pages → 500 double-sided = 1,000 printed sides ≈ 5.5 % of toner life = ~$25
• Paper: $85 Total hard cost: ~$110 Cost per flyer: 22 ¢ each

Option D: Online Professional Printer (2025 pricing from top players)

• PrintPapa, UPrinting, NextDayFlyers, GotPrint — average for 500 8.5×11 full-color 100 lb gloss text, double-sided, aqueous coating: $68–$92 delivered (yes, really) Cost per flyer: 13.6–18.4 ¢

Option E: Local Print Shop (FedEx Office, Staples, Minuteman Press)

• 500 full-color double-sided on 100 lb gloss text: $185–$260 Cost per flyer: 37–52 ¢

Raw Cost Winner (2025 edition)

1. Online pro printer — 13–18 ¢
2. EcoTank / Laser at home — 18–22 ¢
3. Local shop — 37–52 ¢
4. Regular inkjet — 89–93 ¢ (disastrous)

So purely on dollars, online pros beat almost every home setup except the unicorn EcoTank/laser scenario.

But money isn’t everything. Home printing vs outsourcing is always up for debate when printing posters, banners and flyers.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About

1. Your Time (the silent killer)

• Designing: 2–6 hours (same either way)
• Home printing 500 sheets, double-sided, babysitting jams, replacing ink mid-run, trimming if needed: 4–9 hours
• Ordering online: click, upload, done in 8 minutes

If you value your time at even $25/hour (laughably low for most entrepreneurs), DIY just added $100–$225 in opportunity cost. Printing flyers takes time.

2. Quality & Consistency

I printed the exact same file on five setups:

• Canon PIXMA PRO-200 → Gorgeous. Rich blacks, vibrant colors. Indistinguishable from pro offset.
• Epson EcoTank ET-8550 → Shockingly good for the price, but slight banding on gradients and weaker blacks.
• Brother laser → Crisp text, but photos look “laser-ish” — slightly grainy and oversaturated.
• Online (PrintPapa 100 lb gloss aqueous) → Perfect. Deep blacks, sharp, coated feel.
• FedEx Office → Decent but noticeably warmer color shift and lighter stock.

If your flyer has photos or gradients, cheap home options will make you look amateur next to pro work.

3. Reliability & Waste

In my last 500-flyer home run (EcoTank):

• 37 wasted sheets from double-feeding
• 19 from registration shift on duplex
• 1 catastrophic ink smear that ruined 8 sheets Total waste: 65 sheets + extra ink = ~$18 extra

That pushed my “18 ¢” EcoTank run to 23 ¢ — now worse than many online deals.

4. Finishing Options

Want matte, silk, or soft-touch coating? Spot UV? Rounded corners? Die-cut shapes? Home = impossible Online pro = often free or $10–$30 extra

When DIY Actually Wins (The 10 % Scenario)

There are four situations where printing your own flyers is undeniably cheaper — and sometimes vastly smarter.

1. Ultra-Small Runs (under 50)

Need 23 flyers tomorrow morning? Online minimums + shipping = $60–$90 EcoTank/laser at home = $8–$12 Winner: DIY by a mile.

2. Same-Day or Next-Hour Urgency

Gig tonight and you forgot flyers? Printing 100 at home while you shower beats waiting two days for delivery.

3. Variable Data or Frequent Updates

Farmer’s market vendor changing prices weekly? Realtor swapping listings daily? Printing 50 new flyers every Thursday at home costs pennies vs $60 online each time.

4. You Already Own the Right Gear

If you bought an EcoTank or color laser for other reasons (Etsy shop, photography, etc.), the marginal cost of 500 flyers really is 18–22 ¢. At that point DIY wins.

The 2026 Sweet Spot Matrix

Quantity	Deadline	Quality Needs	Cheapest Realistic Option
1–50	Today	Any	Home EcoTank / laser
1–50	3+ days	High	Online (still only $45–$60)
100–300	3+ days	High	Online (12–16 ¢ each)
500–1,000	3+ days	High	Online (9–14 ¢ each)
500–1,000	Today	Medium	Home laser/EcoTank
5,000+	Any	Any	Online offset — as low as 3–6 ¢ each

Pro Tips to Make Online Even Cheaper

1. Join the mailing lists — 40–60 % off first order coupons are everywhere.
2. Order on Tuesday/Wednesday — many printers run mid-week specials.
3. Choose 100 lb text + aqueous coating (feels premium, costs the same).
4. Use gang-run printers (GotPrint, PrintPlace, 4over) for rock-bottom pricing.
5. Stack coupons with free shipping thresholds ($75–$100 usually).

My Personal Verdict After Printing 47,000 Flyers in 2025–2026

99 % of people asking “Should I print my own flyers?” should not.

Order online. You’ll get better quality, thicker stock, coatings, and you’ll spend 8 minutes instead of 8 hours. The $20–$50 you “save” DIY-ing 500 flyers isn’t worth looking slightly amateur when someone compares your flyer to the one from the bakery down the street that used PrintPapa.

The only time I fire up my EcoTank now? Last-minute 20–30 piece runs or when I’m testing five different versions and don’t know which design wins yet.

Everything else? I upload, apply the 55 % off coupon I get every Thursday, and have gorgeous flyers on my porch two days later for less than my ink cartridges used to cost.

So is it cheaper to print your own flyers?

Sometimes. But is it smarter? Almost never.

(Unless you’re in that golden 10 %.)

Save your sanity. Let the pros handle it. Your weekend will thank you.