UK Photocopier Lease Price Index 2026
Copier pricing is famously opaque. Manufacturers don't publish lease prices, dealers quote case by case, and the same machine can be offered at very different prices to two businesses on the same street. That makes it hard to know whether a quote is fair.
This index brings together the UK copier lease and click charge figures that suppliers and public bodies have actually published, in one place, with every source named and the date we checked it. It's a baseline: we'll update it as new figures are published and as we gather more data.
Headline figures
All figures are excluding VAT unless stated, and were checked October 2026.
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| New desktop A4 colour lease | about £22 a month | Midshire |
| New mid sized floor standing A3 colour lease | about £49 a month | Midshire |
| MPS device lease range (SME) | £22 to £150 a month | ExpertSure |
| A4 mono click charge, typical SME | 0.5p to 1.0p | ExpertSure |
| A4 colour click charge, typical SME | 6p to 10p | ExpertSure |
| A4 mono click charge, published range | 0.35p to 1.5p | Digital Office |
| A4 colour click charge, published range | 3.5p to 10p | Digital Office |
| Large public sector benchmark | 0.37p mono, 2.85p colour | Ricoh agreement on Contracts Finder |
What this tells you in one line: a typical small business leasing a new mid sized A3 colour copier should expect a lease in the region of £49 a month, with clicks of roughly 0.5p to 1.0p mono and 6p to 10p colour on top.
By size
Machine size is the biggest driver of lease price. Here's how the published figures line up.
| Machine size | Typical use | Published lease guide | Click charges |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop A4 colour | Small offices, under about 5,000 pages a month | about £22 a month (Midshire) | Published A4 ranges apply |
| Mid sized A3 colour, floor standing | Most offices, about 5,000 to 20,000 pages a month | about £49 a month (Midshire) | Published A4 ranges apply; A3 usually double |
| Larger devices | High volume, light production | Up to about £150 a month and beyond (ExpertSure MPS range) | Lower rates usually available at higher volume |
A3 page pricing
ExpertSure notes that A3 pages are conventionally charged at double the A4 rate and publishes these A3 ranges:
| A3 page | Market low | Typical SME | Market high |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mono | 0.4p | 1.0p to 2.0p | 3.0p |
| Colour | 7p | 12p to 20p | 20p+ |
Subscription plans
ExpertSure also reports that Printerland's published subscription plans range from roughly 0.8p to 3.1p per mono page and 7.7p to 18.3p per colour page, excluding VAT, depending on the device. Subscription plans bundle the device and supplies and often suit smaller offices, but their per page cost is usually higher than a negotiated click rate at volume.
By brand
This is where the honest answer is: there isn't reliable published data. None of the main manufacturers (Canon, Ricoh, Xerox, Konica Minolta, Sharp, Kyocera, Toshiba) publishes UK lease prices for office copiers. Pricing is set by dealers and direct sales teams for each deal.
The only brand specific figure in the public domain that we can verify is the Ricoh agreement published on the government's Contracts Finder site. It was let to an NHS trust under the Crown Commercial Service RM6174 framework, with a contract start date of 1 April 2022, and shows:
- mono click: 0.37p
- colour click: 2.85p
- quarterly rental billed in advance
That's a large public sector agreement, and it would be wrong to read it as what a small business should expect from Ricoh. It's useful as a floor: it shows how low rates can go with scale and framework buying.
What we can say about brands, from manufacturers' own information:
- Kyocera offers tiered colour billing on its TASKalfa range, which can lower the effective colour rate for low coverage pages.
- Ricoh and Canon both sell direct and through dealers, so prices for the same machine can differ by route.
- Konica Minolta and Sharp have large dealer networks, which tends to mean more competing quotes.
If you want brand comparisons, the most reliable approach is to get quotes for equivalent machines from several brands at once. Our brand guides for Canon, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Xerox and Sharp cover the current models.
Trend
We don't yet have a run of comparable published figures over several years, so we can't honestly chart a price trend. Different sources measure different things in different ways, and putting old and new figures on the same chart would suggest a precision that isn't there.
What we can point to:
- Framework change. The government's RM6174 framework for multifunction devices expired on 12 September 2025 and was replaced by RM6361, which runs to August 2029 (Government Commercial Agency, checked October 2026). Framework pricing often sets the floor for the wider market.
- Range turnover. Several manufacturers have refreshed their ranges recently. Canon's imageFORCE has replaced much of the imageRUNNER ADVANCE DX line, and Kyocera's TASKalfa MZ series follows its Evolution series. New ranges can bring older models down in price, especially refurbished stock.
This index is our baseline for 2026. Each time we update it, we'll keep the earlier figures so a genuine trend can build up over time.
Charts and CSV
The data behind this page, in a simple form you can copy into a spreadsheet:
| measure | low | high | unit | source | checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lease_desktop_a4_colour | 22 | 22 | GBP per month | Midshire | Oct 2026 |
| lease_mid_a3_colour | 49 | 49 | GBP per month | Midshire | Oct 2026 |
| mps_device_lease | 22 | 150 | GBP per month | ExpertSure | Oct 2026 |
| click_a4_mono_sme | 0.5 | 1.0 | pence per page | ExpertSure | Oct 2026 |
| click_a4_colour_sme | 6 | 10 | pence per page | ExpertSure | Oct 2026 |
| click_a4_mono_range | 0.35 | 1.5 | pence per page | Digital Office | Oct 2026 |
| click_a4_colour_range | 3.5 | 10 | pence per page | Digital Office | Oct 2026 |
| click_a3_mono_sme | 1.0 | 2.0 | pence per page | ExpertSure | Oct 2026 |
| click_a3_colour_sme | 12 | 20 | pence per page | ExpertSure | Oct 2026 |
| click_public_sector_mono | 0.37 | 0.37 | pence per page | Contracts Finder (Ricoh, RM6174) | Oct 2026 |
| click_public_sector_colour | 2.85 | 2.85 | pence per page | Contracts Finder (Ricoh, RM6174) | Oct 2026 |
You're welcome to use these figures with a link back to this page. Please cite the original source alongside them.
What a typical deal adds up to
To turn the index into something practical, here's what the headline figures mean for an office printing 4,000 mono and 600 colour pages a month on a mid sized A3 colour machine:
- lease: £49 a month
- mono at 0.75p (mid point of 0.5p to 1.0p): £30
- colour at 8p (mid point of 6p to 10p): £48
- total: about £127 a month, or around £1,524 a year
If your quote is well above that for a similar volume and machine, it's worth asking why.
Using the index against a quote
When a quote arrives, check it in this order:
- Convert the lease to a monthly figure. Most copier leases are quoted quarterly, so divide by three.
- Match the machine size. Compare a desktop A4 quote with the desktop figure and a floor standing A3 quote with the mid sized figure. Add a margin for finishing options.
- Compare each click rate on its own. Mono against the mono range, colour against the colour range, A3 against the A3 range.
- Look for what the index can't show. Minimum volumes, annual increases and automatic renewal can make a quote with good headline rates more expensive than one with slightly higher rates and fairer terms.
A quote sitting within the published ranges isn't automatically a good deal, and one outside them isn't automatically a bad one. But a figure well outside the ranges is always worth a question.
Methodology
What we include. Lease and click charge figures that a UK supplier, comparison publisher or public body has published openly, where we can see the figure and its context. We record the figure, the source and the date we checked it.
What we exclude. Figures we can't trace to a named source, figures without a clear date, and figures for very different products (such as production presses) that would distort office copier ranges.
How we present ranges. Where a source gives a range, we show it as published. Where a source gives a single guide figure, we show that figure. We don't average across sources, because they measure different things.
Limitations. Published figures are guides, not quotes. Real prices depend on machine specification, finishing, term, credit, volume and negotiation. Suppliers who publish prices may not be representative of the whole market. Public sector figures reflect large volumes and framework terms.
Updates. We'll review the index regularly, add new published figures and quote data as we gather it, and keep earlier figures so changes over time are visible.
FAQs
How much does it cost to lease a photocopier in the UK?
Published guides put a new mid sized A3 colour machine at about £49 a month and a desktop A4 colour machine at about £22 a month, plus click charges (Midshire, checked October 2026).
What are typical click charges?
For small businesses, roughly 0.5p to 1.0p mono and 6p to 10p colour (ExpertSure, checked October 2026).
Why don't manufacturers publish lease prices?
Copiers are sold through dealers and direct teams who price each deal individually, depending on specification, term and volume.
Can I use this data?
Yes, with a link to this page and a citation of the original source.
Benchmark your quote
The best way to know if a quote is fair is to compare it with others for the same specification. Get quotes from suppliers, then check them against this index. Our price guide and cost guide explain how copier pricing works.