How Fast a Printer Your Team Actually Needs
A printer that is too slow for the team leaves people queuing at the tray during the busiest part of the day.
Last updated: September 2026
Printer speed is measured in pages per minute, and the right band follows headcount and how much of the printing lands at the same time.
Most small offices are well served between 25 and 35 pages per minute.
Enquired on Monday and had a printer installed by Friday. Fast, easy, and exactly what we needed.
We have been using Global Document Solutions for about eight years now and would not go anywhere else.
Tell us what you print and we will size the machine
Quick formSensible bands by team size
- One to five people: around 25 to 30 pages per minute is normally comfortable, and the constraint is rarely speed.
- Five to twenty people: roughly 30 to 40 pages per minute, because more of the printing overlaps.
- Twenty to fifty people: roughly 40 to 55 pages per minute, usually with more than one paper tray.
- Fifty or more, or several teams on one floor: 55 pages per minute and above, and often more than one device rather than one faster one.
Peak matters more than average
Office printing is not evenly spread. It clusters before meetings, at month end, and around deadlines.
A device sized on the monthly average will be a queue on exactly the mornings it matters.
The useful question is how many pages hit the machine in the busiest ten minutes of a normal week.
Extra speed stops helping
Past a point the bottleneck moves from the engine to everything around it: the network, the file, the finishing, and the person collecting the job.
First page out time, meaning how long from pressing print to the first sheet landing, often matters more than the rated speed for short jobs.
Colour pages typically run slower than mono on the same device, so a colour heavy office feels a lower effective speed than the specification suggests.
Two mid speed devices in different corners usually beat one fast device at the far end of the floor.
Common questions
How many pages per minute does a small office printer need?
For one to five people, around 25 to 30 pages per minute is normally comfortable.
Speed is rarely the constraint at that size, and paper handling or A3 capability usually matters more.
Does a faster printer save time?
Only up to a point.
Past a certain speed the bottleneck moves to the network, the file, the finishing and the person collecting the job.
For short jobs, how quickly the first page appears often matters more than the rated speed.
Is colour printing slower than mono?
Typically yes on the same device.
A colour heavy office therefore experiences a lower effective speed than the headline specification suggests, so allow for it when choosing a band.
Is one fast printer better than two slower ones?
Not usually, once a floor gets large.
Two mid speed devices placed near the people using them normally beat one fast device at the far end, because walking time is part of the real wait.
Related reading
Once you know roughly what the office prints each month, the next step is to get a printer lease quote sized to that volume.