How much ink is in my Canon cartridge? What is the difference between PG-243 CL-244 and PG-245 CL-246 for Canon Pixma Printer?

Canon is about the only remaining company who is still frank about how much ink it puts into a cartridge.  Companies such as HP and Epson use “page yield,” which is the estimated number of pages printed with their ink.  There are two kinds of integrated Canon cartridges: short and tall.  The measurement is from the top to the base of a cartridge (see video below).  If your model is not listed (international models), you can measure the cartridge and decide.  

For the color cartridge, the volume magenta is a little different than the other two colors, but it doesn’t matter too much.  Therefore, we divided the total volume of color cartridges by three.

A spongeless cartridge can utilize the entire inside of a cartridge.  For example, if we have a PG-210 (9.0 ml), we will estimate it can print 225 pages of documents (25 x 9).  If we convert it into a spongeless cartridge, it will be able to print 562 pages (25 x 22.5).  Detailed instructions on how to make spongeless cartridge can be found here [link].

 

Short
(3.5 cm from top cover to nozzle)

Tall
(4 cm from top cover to nozzle)

 

PG-210, PG-243, PG-245

CL-211, CL-244, CL-246

PG-40, PG-240, PG-260

CL-41, CL-241

Ink Type

Pigment Black

Dye Color (each color)

Pigment Black

Dye Color (each color)

Volume

non-XL:

  • PG-210: 9.0 ml
  • PG-243: 5.6 ml *
  • PG-245: 8.0 ml

XL:

  • PG-210XL: 15.0 ml
  • PG-245XL: 12.0 ml

Spongeless: 22.5 ml

non-XL:

  • CL-211: 3 ml
  • CL-244: 2 ml *
  • CL-245: 3 ml

XL:

  • CL-210XL: 4 ml
  • CL-245XL: 4 ml

Spongeless: 6.5 ml

non-XL:

  • PG-40: 8 ml
  • PG-240: 8 ml
  • PG-260: 7.5 m

XL:

  • PG-40XL: 11 ml
  • PG-240XL: 11 ml
  • PG-240XXL: 21 ml
  • PG-260XL: 14.3 ml

Spongeless: 33.5 ml

non-XL:

  • CL-41: 3 ml
  • CL-241: 3 ml
  • CL-261: 3 ml (8.3 total)

XL:

  • CL-41XL: 5 ml
  • CL-241XL: 5 ml
  • CL-261XL: 4 ml (12.2 ml total)

Spongeless: 9 ml

Volume without Sponge

22.5 ml

6.5 ml (each)

33.5 ml

Magenta: 9 ml

Cyan/Yellow: 9.5 ml

Suggest Refill Volume

8.0 ml for non-XL *

10 ml for XL

20 ml for Spongeless

3 ml for non-XL *

4 ml for XL

6.5 ml for Spongeless

 8 ml for non-XL*

10 ml for XL

33 ml for Spongeless

3 ml for non-XL*

5 ml for XL

9 ml for Spongeless

 

* PG-243/CL-244’s are the starter cartridges, and each comes with a new printer.  They have the same physical shape as 245/246.  Refill them the same way as 245/246.

 

** The non-XL cartridges will have a thinner sponge.  You cannot overfill them and make them into XL cartridges.  If you overfill them, the ink will run out.

Pages printed with 1 ml of ink

Black: 25  (Document)  130 (Photo)
Color: 67 (Document)  25 (Color)
Document mode is tested with ISO/IEC 24711.

Mar 16th 2018 BCH Technologies

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