What You Don’t Know About HP Instant Ink Until It’s Too Late

On January 17, 2020, Ryan Sullivan’s tweet regarding HP and its Instant Ink subscription went viral.

In his tweet, Ryan Sullivan cancelled Instant Ink from his printer as he sees it as a random charge of $4.99 monthly. He has no idea what it was for. Until HP disabled his still usable ink cartridges because he had cancelled his subscription.

What is Instant Ink?

Instant Ink is HP’s printer ink subscription to buy HP ink for customer convenience. The printer records ink levels by the amount of pages printed, sends it to HP via Wifi and HP delivers ink after it receives a notification of the printer’s low ink levels. Delivery can take up to 10 days.

Most HP models today are Instant Ink ready. This means they can be enrolled to Instant Ink subscription.

Some Instant Ink ready printers also come with 8 months of ink delivered to the buyer monthly through the Instant Ink subscription. This means that the ink doesn’t come free. But instead has 8 months of ink to be delivered monthly with a fee charged after every month. After that, the buyer can decide whether to continue the subscription or not.

Is HP Allowed to Disable Instant Ink Cartridges?

Yes, as they have informed so in their Terms of Service for Instant Ink under Section 5.d.v:

“When Your Instant Ink Service is cancelled for any reason, HP will remotely disable the Instant Ink Program Cartridges and You will no longer be able to print with the Instant Ink Program Cartridges.”

They also require people who have cancelled their subscription to return the disabled ink cartridges to them as reflected in Section 5.e.:

“You agree to return to HP all used Instant Ink Program Cartridges by following instructions for return provided to You by HP. Without limiting the foregoing, You must return to HP the Instant Ink Program Cartridges when (i) You have used all of the ink in the cartridges or You otherwise cease using them, (ii) Your Instant Ink Service is cancelled for any reason, or (iii) HP otherwise directs You to return the cartridges to HP….”

Instant Ink: A Physical Product or A Subscription?

According to their TOS, the user will be charged one month after first use. This means that if the user prints on January 1, he will be charged on February 1. So when the user cancels his subscription in the middle of the month, HP cuts its losses by disabling the cartridges. Provided that the user will return them as stated upon the agreement in the TOS.

But with this strategy, they would rather potentially waste good ink than for it to be used by a consumer.

When you subscribe to Instant Ink, you don’t own your ink cartridges. This was made clear in the HP Support Knowledge Base:

“HP Instant Ink cartridges are the property of HP and must be returned when empty, or when your service is cancelled.”

So even if you have a physical product in your hands, HP will treat it as a subscription. If Instant Ink is a magazine subscription, your most recent magazine would be clamped so that you can never read it as soon as you unsubscribe.

When to Subscribe to Instant Ink

HP Instant Ink isn’t for everyone. It’s perfect for people who fit into their subscription plans.

• Free Printing Plan allows 15 printed pages a month.
• Occasional Printing Plan allows 50 pages a month for $2.99.
• Moderate Printing Plan allows 100 pages a month for $4.99.
• Frequent Printing Plan allows 300 pages a month for $9.99.
• Business Printing Plan allows 700 pages a month for $19.99.

With Instant Ink, you pay by print load not per bottle. This subscription allows you to save a lot on ink, especially if you print more in color than in black. If you haven’t printed for a month in your subscription, those pages can be rolled over to the next month.

This subscription must always be monitored in order that you don’t exceed past your plan or else you’ll be charged for the additional pages. You will always have to check if you are still within your subscription plan’s page limit. One user said, “It’s like asking HP for permission to use my printer.”

Some people may not also be comfortable to what Instant Ink is monitoring and what they do with their data.

In Section 1.c., the user’s personal data (name, shipping address, email address, printer model and serial number and others) are shared with the retailers whom you have purchased your printer and your Instant Ink Service enrollment key.

Upon your printer being enrolled to Instant Ink, its activities are monitored by Instant ink such as types of document printed, devices that was used to initiate print jobs and other types of metrics that may be added by HP from time to time. This can be seen in Section 1.b.

What Are My Alternatives?

If you don’t agree with HP’s terms of service and you have already bought an HP printer, the best thing you can do is buy a third-party compatible printer ink from a reputable source. It is still the cheaper alternative to Epson Ecotank Printers.

Using third-party ink cartridges will not void your printer’s warranty according to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

There are a lot of competing businesses on compatible ink cartridges. The cheaper the ink, the less reliable are their quality. A good rule of thumb is to choose a compatible ink that has a price somewhere between brand ink and the cheapest compatible ink. Quality third party ink cartridges are usually produced by well-funded manufacturers with better quality parts.

CompAndSave has been in business selling compatible ink cartridges since 2003. By selling exclusively through the internet, they can cut costs for their customers and sell ink at affordable prices. They have ink cartridges available that are compatible with HP Instant Ink ready Printers, if the user opted not to subscribe to Instant Ink.