🖋️ Ink Cost Per Page Calculator
See what your ink really costs to write with — per page and per thousand pages — whether you fill from a bottle or slot in cartridges.
🖋️ Cost of writing
A planning estimate at 0.005 mL of ink per page. Real ink use swings widely with nib width, how wet the pen writes, your paper, and how much you actually put on the page.
Why fountain pens win on the page
A disposable pen throws away its barrel when the ink runs out; a fountain pen keeps going for decades on refills. The interesting number isn’t the price on the shelf — it’s the cost of the ink alone to fill a page, which is usually a fraction of a cent once you fill from a bottle.
The two big levers are how much a page costs to ink and how many pages a fill or bottle covers. Change the nib, the ink, or the paper and the figure moves — so treat this as a way to compare your options, not an exact receipt.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How do I work out the cost of ink per page?
Two ways. If you buy cartridges, divide the price of a cartridge by how many pages it writes. If you buy bottled ink, divide the bottle price by the pages the bottle covers — which is the bottle volume divided by how much ink each page uses. This calculator does both and also gives you the cost per 1,000 pages.
How much ink does one page actually use?
It varies a lot with nib width and how wet the pen writes, but a fine nib doing everyday note-taking uses roughly 0.005 mL per page. Broad, wet, or flex nibs can use several times more. If you know your real figure, enter it; otherwise the fine-nib default is a reasonable starting point.
Is bottled ink cheaper than cartridges?
Almost always, per page. A 30–50 mL bottle holds the equivalent of many cartridges and usually costs less than the cartridges that hold the same volume, so the cost per page drops sharply once you switch to a converter or a piston filler. Enter both to see the gap for your specific inks.
Does this include the cost of the pen or paper?
No — it only prices the ink. The pen is a one-off, and paper is a separate line item. This tool answers the narrow question of how much the ink alone costs to put words on a page, which is where fountain pens quietly save money over disposable pens.