Want to print a lot more? Try Instant Ink!

First, a disclaimer – this post is in no way sponsored (I wish!). I am simply a HUGE fan of Instant Ink and I’ve been telling everyone about it who might get benefit from it.

So hey, I need to pass on the info here, too! :)

What is Instant Ink?

Instant Ink is a program by HP that provides you with literally unending printer ink, delivered directly to you, for a small monthly fee! If you like to print a lot, it’s *absolutely* worth the price – only a few bucks a month.

HP? Wait, that means…

Yes, it means you have to have an HP printer. And one that’s relatively new enough to take advantage of Instant Ink cartridges – my old HP definitely did not, so I got a newer model (about $80 or so) specifically to be able to use Instant Ink.

So how does it work?

When you sign up for the service, they send you your first set of cartridges. You have to use the specific “Instant Ink” ones for the system to work; hold onto any non-Instant Ink ones you have, though, because if you start the program, then stop subscribing, your printer won’t print! But just swap out normal cartridges instead & you’ll be good to go once more.

So you get the Instant Ink cartridges, load them in, set things up in your HP account online, and then print away!

When you get low on either black ink or color ink, your printer will ping the mothership – er, I mean, it will communicate to HP that you’re running low – and new cartridges will be shipped to you (usually before you actually DO run out, but that can vary depending on how much you’re printing each day). Replace them, and keep printing!

Different plans allow for different number of pages printed each month, and you can raise & lower your tier any time.

What I love about this system is that I NEVER HAVE TO THINK TWICE ABOUT PRINTING FULL COLOR SHEETS – or an entire digital planner! As someone who designs digital papers & creative journaling pages, this is just an incredible freedom to have. I can test, retest, retest again…or even better, print items over & over & use them for all kinds of things & never worry about wasting ink.

Digital journal full of photos & digital stickers? No problem. I can print it all.

(I gushed awhile back on my blog about how awesome digital stickers are to me because I can use & reuse them without ruining them – “real” stickers were hard for me to use becasue I didn’t want to waste them in case I changed my mind where they’d be stuck, lol – and I feel that Instant Ink is almost the same kind of thing…I can not only use favorite stickers & over & over in all my digital planners & journals, I can also PRINT them as much as I want now, too.)

So what’s it cost each month?

Here’s the current pricing as of January 2022, for inkjet ink (there are also plans for toner, but since most people use inkjet for their craft printing, I’m showing these prices):

Light 15 pages/month$.99/month
Occasional50 pages/month$2.99/month
Moderate100 pages/month$4.99/month
Frequent300 pages/month$11.99/month
Business700 pages/month$24.99/month

If you use less pages than are in your plan, the unused ones roll over for a bit longer; how many & for how long various by printer model. And if you use more than in your plan, you can buy extra pages in sets of 10 for $1 (or just up your plan for a month, then reduce it back down).

Also a nice bonus: When you finish a cartridge, hang on to it – they send you a prepaid mailer bag to use to send the empty cartridge back to them, but it can fit several cartridges, so wait to fill it…then you can send them back for recycling!

It’s really a great program, and if you like to buy a lot of digital papers & ephemera, it’s the perfect solution to letting you actually USE all the papers & ephemera as much as you want to without needing to worry about how much ink they use! Woohoo!

I’m off to do more printing now… :)