Top 7 Best Colour Photocopiers For Business: 2026 UK
Colour is where copier bills quietly get out of hand. The machine itself might lease for not much more than a mono model, but every colour page costs several times as much as a black and white one, and nobody in the office looks at the meter until the quarterly invoice lands.
So before the list, a bit of honesty: the best colour photocopier for your business is the one sized to how much colour you really print, on a contract with a colour rate you've actually negotiated. The seven machines below are all strong choices in 2026. Which one wins for you depends on the next two sections as much as the spec sheet.
Colour vs mono costs
On a typical UK service contract you pay a separate rate for every mono and every colour page. Published UK ranges, checked October 2026:
| Page | Typical range | Typical small business rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| A4 mono | 0.35p to 1.5p | 0.5p to 1.0p | Digital Office; ExpertSure |
| A4 colour | 3.5p to 10p | 6p to 10p | Digital Office; ExpertSure |
| A3 colour | 7p to 20p+ | 12p to 20p | ExpertSure |
Put simply, a colour page usually costs somewhere between 6 and 15 times a mono page. That ratio is the single most important number for a colour buyer.
Here's what it means for a 20 person office printing 4,000 pages a month. If a quarter of those pages are colour, at 0.8p mono and 7p colour:
- 3,000 mono pages at 0.8p = £24
- 1,000 colour pages at 7p = £70
- clicks per month = £94, or £1,128 a year
Colour is a quarter of the pages but three quarters of the click bill. Bring the colour rate down to 5p and the annual click bill falls by £240. Persuade staff to print internal drafts in mono and you save more again.
One more trap: many colour machines count a page as colour if it has any colour on it at all, such as a blue logo in an email footer. Some manufacturers offer tiered colour billing that charges less for pages with only a little colour. Kyocera, for example, describes a Tiered Color System on its TASKalfa range "so that you only pay for what you use" (checked October 2026). If your output is mostly text with coloured logos, ask every dealer whether they can offer tiered or low coverage colour pricing.
The top 7
1. Canon imageFORCE C3100 series
Canon's C3100 series is the new mainstream A3 colour family, replacing the imageRUNNER ADVANCE DX C3900 series. Four models, the C3126, C3130, C3135 and C3150, run at up to 26, 30, 35 and 50 pages per minute in colour and mono. Canon quotes 4800 x 2400 dpi print resolution and a 270 image per minute single pass scanner as standard (checked October 2026).
For colour work the resolution figure is the one to note. It helps with fine text inside coloured boxes and photos in reports. The range sits in the middle of the market, which is where most colour buyers land.
Best for: general offices printing a healthy mix of colour and mono.
2. Xerox AltaLink C8100 series
Xerox has a long reputation in colour, and the AltaLink C8100 range carries that on. Xerox UK lists the C8130, C8135, C8145, C8155 and C8170 at up to 30, 35, 45, 55 and 70 pages per minute, and describes the series as offering "superior colour consistency" for critical office colour users (checked October 2026).
Colour consistency sounds like marketing until you print a brochure in two batches a week apart and the brand colour shifts. If your colour output goes to customers, this matters.
Best for: offices where colour quality is customer facing.
3. Konica Minolta bizhub C301i / C361i / C451i
Konica Minolta's colour i-Series covers 25 to 70 pages per minute in seven models. The three in the middle, at 30, 36 and 45 pages per minute, are the ones most colour buyers should look at (Konica Minolta listing, checked October 2026).
Konica Minolta has deep roots in imaging, and its production printers (the AccurioPress line) share colour know how with the office range. In practice the bizhub machines give good, even colour on plain office paper.
Best for: offices that want a well supported mid range colour machine with lots of dealers to compete for the deal.
4. Kyocera TASKalfa MZ series
Kyocera's MZ series runs from the MZ2501ci at 25 pages per minute to the MZ7001ci at 70. Kyocera states that BLI named it the 2024 to 2026 Most Color Consistent A3 Brand, and it offers the tiered colour billing mentioned above (checked October 2026).
That combination makes Kyocera a strong option for offices that print a lot of "light" colour: documents with logos, highlighted cells or coloured headings, but few full page images.
Best for: offices printing lots of low coverage colour who want to stop paying full colour rates for it.
5. Ricoh IM C3011 / C3511 / C4511
Ricoh's IM C range is one of the widest, from 20 to 80 pages per minute. The C3011, C3511 and C4511 cover 30, 35 and 45 pages per minute, the core of a typical office (Ricoh listing, checked October 2026).
Ricoh's strength is fleet consistency. If you need colour machines across several sites, a single Ricoh family gives everyone the same panel and drivers.
Best for: multi site businesses standardising on one colour family.
6. Sharp BP-70C55
The BP-70C55 is quoted at up to 55 pages per minute in colour and mono, and Sharp highlights the ability to replace toner and paper without stopping the job. Sharp UK's A3 colour range spans engine speeds from 25 to 65 pages per minute (checked October 2026).
A 55 page colour machine is serious kit, so this is for colour heavy teams: marketing, education or sales offices that print packs every day.
Best for: busy colour departments that can't afford the machine stopping for a toner change.
7. Canon imageFORCE C7165
At up to 65 pages per minute, the C7165 is the most production minded machine on this list. Canon positions it for producing "high quality marketing materials from your own office" (checked October 2026).
It only makes sense if your colour volume is high. For most small offices it's the wrong answer, but if you currently send thousands of colour pages a month to a print shop, it's worth running the numbers.
Best for: offices bringing outsourced colour print back in house.
Click charge table
Here's how the click bill changes with volume and colour share, using mid range published rates of 0.8p mono and 7p colour. Your actual quote will vary.
| Pages per month | Colour share | Mono cost | Colour cost | Monthly clicks | Yearly clicks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,000 | 10% | £14.40 | £14.00 | £28.40 | £340.80 |
| 2,000 | 30% | £11.20 | £42.00 | £53.20 | £638.40 |
| 5,000 | 10% | £36.00 | £35.00 | £71.00 | £852.00 |
| 5,000 | 30% | £28.00 | £105.00 | £133.00 | £1,596.00 |
| 10,000 | 20% | £64.00 | £140.00 | £204.00 | £2,448.00 |
Notice how the colour share moves the bill far more than the total volume. Going from 10% to 30% colour at 5,000 pages nearly doubles the cost.
Remember the lease comes on top. As a published guide, Midshire puts a new mid sized floor standing A3 colour machine at roughly £49 a month and a desktop A4 colour machine at roughly £22 (checked October 2026).
Who needs colour
Be honest about this one. You probably need colour if:
- you print customer facing material such as proposals, brochures or price lists
- you're a school, nursery or training provider printing learning materials
- you produce property particulars, menus or event material
- your reports rely on colour charts that don't work in greyscale
You might not need colour if:
- most of what you print is internal: invoices, forms, drafts, emails
- you outsource your marketing print already
- colour pages are under about 5% of your total and could go to a print shop
If you're in the second group, a mono machine plus the occasional print shop order is often cheaper. If you're unsure, check your current machine's meter (our colour copier guide explains the basics): most copiers show separate mono and colour counts in the settings menu, and that tells you your real colour share.
How to keep colour costs down
A few steps that work in almost every office:
- Set mono as the default in every print driver. Staff can still choose colour; they just have to mean it.
- Use print management or user codes so you can see who prints colour. Behaviour changes quickly once people know it's visible.
- Negotiate the colour rate separately. Dealers often have more room on colour than on mono.
- Ask about low coverage or tiered colour billing, especially if you print lots of logos and highlights.
- Check the escalator. A contract that lets the colour rate rise each year can wipe out a good opening price.
FAQs
How much does a colour page cost on a photocopier?
Published UK ranges put A4 colour at roughly 3.5p to 10p a page, with 6p to 10p typical for small businesses (checked October 2026). High volume contracts can go lower.
Is a colour photocopier much more expensive to lease than mono?
The lease difference is often modest. The bigger difference is in running costs, because colour clicks cost several times more than mono.
Can I lock colour printing on a copier?
Most current office machines let you restrict colour by user, department or PIN. Ask your dealer to set it up at installation.
Will a colour copier print mono at the mono rate?
Yes. A mono page on a colour machine is normally billed at the mono rate. The catch is that any colour on the page can push it into the colour band, which is why default settings matter.
What size colour copier do I need?
For most small offices, 20 to 30 pages per minute. For offices of 20 to 50 people, 30 to 45. Our best photocopiers list covers the wider range, and our A3 guide explains when A3 is worth it.
Get colour quotes
Colour rates vary more between suppliers than mono rates do, so comparing quotes is worth the effort. Tell us your monthly volume and roughly how much is colour using the form on this page, and we'll match you with suppliers who can quote. See our price guide for more on what businesses pay.