If you find yourself looking for the best printer under $100, you may notice that your options are quite slim. And when you finally do find a model, you may wonder what features or capabilities you're missing out on. While models at this price point still generally produce excellent quality prints, you often lose out on some advanced features like an ADF, duplex scanner, and especially things like supertank ink systems to reduce long-term costs.
But where the hardest-to-spot disadvantage of cheap printers often hides is in the overall cost over time. While you may spend less upfront, almost all cheap printers are much more expensive to print in the long-run, due to things like the cost of the ink cartridges. Also, with all inkjet printers, the ink can clog if you don't print every month or so, requiring you to purchase new cartridges. For those reasons, if you don't print often, it may be worth it to look into a cheap laser printer if you don't need to print photos or in color, though unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder to find those under $100.
We reviewed over 180 printers, and below are our recommendations for the best printers under $100. If you're more interested in better value printers, even if they may cost a bit more up-front, check out our picks for the best cheap and budget printers. Or if you just want to see some of our favorite printers altogether, take a look at our recommendations for the best home printers and the best black-and-white printers.
We've tested over 170 printers since 2020 with one goal in mind: to give you reliable, unbiased reviews that help you choose the right printer for your needs. To keep things fair, we purchase every product ourselves from major retailers, just like you would. Each printer then goes through a thorough, standardized testing process that evaluates all the key factors you should consider when buying a new model. From build quality and cost per print to color accuracy and overall performance, we provide as much detail as possible to guide your decision.
Want to learn more about our methods? Look at our How We Test Printers article for a deep dive into our testing procedures.
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Best Printer Under $100
HomeSmall OfficeSet-And-ForgetArts, Crafts, & StickersCost-Per-PrintEstimated Black Page YieldprintsEstimated Color Page YieldprintsBlack-Only Printing CostUS$/printColor Printing CostUS$/printSee all our test resultsPrint TechnologyInkjetThe best printer under $100 that we've tested is the Brother MFC-J1360DW, even though it often retails above that price point. Still, when it's on sale, it's a solid value. You'll immediately notice that it looks much more like an "office" printer than its price might suggest, and it backs up that impression. Despite its all-plastic construction, it feels surprisingly solid, while its full scanner includes both a flatbed and a 20-sheet ADF for working through multi-page documents. Its control panel combines a 1.8-inch display with plenty of options, letting you adjust settings, scan, or make black-and-white and color copies without reaching for your phone or computer. Scan quality is outstanding, with small text and fine graph lines coming through clearly. It can even print double-sided automatically, another feature you won't find on every printer this cheap.
More importantly, it delivers where it counts. Both its color and black-and-white documents look excellent, and photos look good overall. Its cost per print is outstanding, which is especially impressive at this price. The standard cartridges don't last particularly long, but replacement ink is affordable, each color has its own cartridge, and high-yield versions are available. It isn't especially fast, particularly when printing in color, but few printers this cheap combine such excellent output quality, a complete feature set, and such low running costs.
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Best Color Printer Under $100
HomeSmall OfficeSet-And-ForgetArts, Crafts, & StickersCost-Per-PrintEstimated Black Page YieldprintsEstimated Color Page YieldprintsBlack-Only Printing CostUS$/printColor Printing CostUS$/printSee all our test resultsPrint TechnologyInkjetIf color and photo printing are your priorities, consider the Canon PIXMA TS4320, a variant of the Canon PIXMA TR7120 that we reviewed. While its regular price is slightly over $100, it often sells for around $65 USD, making it noticeably cheaper than the Brother MFC-J1360DW above. The main differences between the TS4320 and the variant we tested are that it lacks an ADF scanner, has no display, and is physically a bit smaller. However, they use the same ink cartridges, so choosing the lower-priced variant saves you money upfront without changing its long-term running costs. There's also another variant, the TS6520, that has a display and costs about $10 more. Overall, the actual printing specs are the same between all the variants, so we expect their performance to be identical to what we experienced in our standardized hands-on testing.
While the Brother is slightly better in most ways, the Canon produces slightly better color documents, and its photos look a bit more colorful and true to life. It also supports borderless printing in most common photo sizes from 4" x 6" to 8.5" x 11", with presets for matte, semi-gloss, glossy, and luster paper. The tradeoff is its running costs. Its cartridges only yield around 250 pages, and black-and-white prints cost almost twice as much as they do on the Brother, while color prints are also noticeably more expensive. It's still good overall for a printer at its price point, but the Brother is noticeably cheaper to run. If you print regularly, those higher costs can quickly eat into what you saved upfront.
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Best Laser Printer Under $100
HomeSmall OfficeSet-And-ForgetArts, Crafts, & StickersCost-Per-PrintEstimated Black Page YieldprintsEstimated Color Page YieldN/ABlack-Only Printing CostUS$/printColor Printing CostN/ASee all our test resultsPrint TechnologyLaserIf you only need black-and-white printing and want to spend as little as possible over time, consider the Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w, the best laser printer under $100. Just like the other printers on this list, its regular price is above $100, but it sometimes drops below that. This monochrome laser model is easily the best Set-And-Forget option here, as its toner can't clog if the printer sits unused, and a single cartridge yields nearly 3,000 pages, so you can buy it, set it up, and mostly forget about it until you need to print. Its exceptionally low cost per print is even lower than the Brother MFC-J1360DW's, making it particularly appealing if you want to keep long-term expenses to a minimum.
The Canon is also extremely compact, has a respectable 150-sheet input tray, and prints at a decent pace once it gets going. However, it's much less versatile than the Brother or Canon PIXMA TS4320. It can't print in color or scan, doesn't support automatic duplex printing, and has fewer connectivity options. Its black-and-white print quality is terrible, too: text looks faint, while graphs lose a lot of fine detail. Still, if you only need basic monochrome pages and want a laser printer that requires almost no attention between jobs, the LBP6030w is a solid choice.
Notable Mentions
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Canon PIXMA TR4720/TR4722:
The Canon PIXMA TR4720 is a decent alternative to the Canon PIXMA TS4320 if you want features like an ADF scanner and a screen. However, it feels a lot cheaper, and its cost-per-print is way lower, meaning you'll pay much more over time, eliminating the money you save upfront.
See our review -
Epson Expression Home XP-5200:
The Epson Expression Home XP-5200 is a good alternative to the Canon PIXMA TS4320 if you want sharper black-and-white documents and higher-quality scans. However, the Canon remains slightly better for most people due to its sturdier build, better color output, and higher page yield.
See our review
Recent Updates
Aug 11, 2026:
Recent price fluctuations have shifted the value offered by several printers in this price range, so we've reordered our picks and added the Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w as the 'Best Laser Printer Under $100.'
Jun 11, 2026:
We completely overhauled the article to better reflect the current market and only recommend printers that are actually available for under $100. We rewrote the introduction to better explain the disadvantages of printers in this price bracket, and changed the filters of the table tool to better showcase printers under $100.
Mar 05, 2026:
We added a reference to the Brother MFC-J1360DW in the main pick's text; this is the Brother MFC-J1010DW's successor, and presents an excellent alternative. Other picks are still relevant and available.
Oct 28, 2025:
Confirmed that all picks are relevant and available. These are still our best picks for printers around the $100 price mark.
Apr 28, 2025:
Minor text changes for clarity and conciseness. No change in recommendations.
All Reviews
Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best printers for under $100 for most people. In addition to the test results, we factor in the price, feedback from our visitors, and availability.
If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here's the list of our cheap printer reviews, sorted from least to most expensive. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no printer is perfect for every use, most are good enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.