Should you buy a laser printer if you print once a month?

A laser printer is often a very good choice if you print only once a month, especially if most of what you print is text or basic documents. Laser printers use toner, which is a dry powder, so they avoid the ink-drying and clogged-nozzle problems that can affect inkjets after long periods of inactivity.

That said, I wouldn’t call it the universal best choice. For occasional use, laser printers and ink tank printers are usually the two strongest options, and which is better depends on what you print. If you mainly want low-maintenance document printing, laser is a solid pick.

A used or refurbished laser can be a great value too: older maintained models can sometimes be found around $60–$100, and replacement toner can be inexpensive, with some remanufactured cartridges running under $15 for roughly 2,000–6,000 pages.

One caveat: while lasers generally avoid the ink-drying issues of inkjets, they are not completely maintenance-free or guaranteed to print perfectly after long periods sitting idle, and some printers may still do small startup or maintenance routines. If you care about photos or glossy color printing, an inkjet or ink tank printer may make more sense.