Print pricing in India is quoted per page, and the per-page number is only part of what you pay. Understanding the rest is the difference between a quote that surprises you and one that does not.
What moves the price
Six things, in roughly the order they matter:
- Colour or black and white. Colour is several times the cost of black and white on the same machine, because it uses four cartridges instead of one.
- Single or double sided. Double sided roughly halves your paper cost, and most places charge per printed side, so a 40-page document printed double sided uses 20 sheets.
- Paper. Ordinary 70 or 75 GSM copier paper is the cheap default. Heavier paper for a CV, matte or glossy photo paper, and card all cost more per sheet.
- Size. A4 is standard and cheapest. A3 costs more and not every machine can do it.
- Quantity. Almost every shop has a lower rate above a few hundred pages, because the setup cost is the same whether you print 5 pages or 500.
- Finishing. Binding, lamination and cutting are charged per job, not per page — which is why a 10-page bound report can cost more than a 50-page loose one.
The costs that are not per page
An online or delivered order usually adds a delivery charge and sometimes a small platform fee, and GST applies. None of these are hidden charges as long as they are shown before you pay — the test of a fair price is whether the total on screen matches the total you are asked for.
Be wary of any quote that only shows the per-page rate and works out the rest at the counter. That is the version you cannot compare.
How to compare two prices honestly
Compare the total for your actual job, not the headline per-page rate. A shop at a slightly lower rate per page but a 3 km round trip is more expensive than a delivered order once you count the auto fare, and much more expensive once you count the hour.
For a small job — under about 30 pages — the trip is almost always the largest real cost. For a large job, the per-page rate dominates and it is worth asking about a bulk rate.
Where to see a live rate
Rates vary by city, by shop and by machine, so any number written in an article is out of date by the time you read it. Tezzkart shows the current per-page rate for your own society on its price list, with the delivery and platform fee and the tax added up before you order rather than after.