Best A3 printers for 2024

Here, we reveal the best A3 printers. Our top recommendations are fast and have low running costs. The same can't be said of any A3 printer – we've also identified three duds to watch out for to avoid an expensive mistake.

An A3 printer lets you super-charge your print sizes for posters and for A3 photo printing. But they can easily cost more than £200,  so it's important to pick a model that produces great-looking prints. 

Only the very best A3 printers score well in our comprehensive, independent lab tests. So you can be confident the ones we recommend below are worth your money.

Don't need A3? Buy a cheaper, A4 model instead - find out which best home printers have impressed us in our lab tests

Only logged-in Which? members can view our recommendations below. If you’re not yet a member, join Which? to get instant access and to unlock all of our online reviews - including laptops, cheap printer ink and electric cars.

Best inkjet A3 printers

Pricing, recommendations and test scores correct as of May 2024.

Best A3 photo printers

These A3 printers are good at photo printing. All of the best A3 photo printers we've highlighted here score at least four stars out of five for printing photos in our professional lab tests.

Not found the printer for you? Browse all of our independent printer reviews.

A3 printers to avoid

Choosing the wrong A3 printer can be a costly mistake. Buying an A3 printer can set you back more than £600, and poor quality models will thirstily churn through your ink like it's water.

Worst of all, at extra-large sizes, there's no hiding from poor print quality. Pick a poor A3 printer and you won’t want to show off your favourite photos at poster size.

A bad A3 printer can be slow at turning out text, photos and graphics pages, and you'll usually find the quality wasn’t worth waiting for when the prints finally arrive.

Only logged-in Which? members can view the printers below. If you’re not yet a member, you can join Which?.

Tech tips you can trust - get our free Tech newsletter for advice, news, deals and stuff the manuals don’t tell you

Why you should trust our A3 printer reviews

Oliver Trebilcock, Which? printers expert, says:

The Which? print quality tests are extensive. We assess printing across all categories: letters, photos, graphics pages containing charts and graphs, as well as those made up of text and images.

Our expert panel carefully examine prints for colour accuracy, sharpness and overall print quality. We also take into account practical considerations, such as if printing will smudge from a highlighter pen or smear if they rub up against your bag. 

These comprehensive tests mean you won’t get caught out. This includes print costs, speed, scanning and copying (where relevant), plus security and privacy considerations of any accompanying apps.

To find the perfect printer for your budget, head on over to our printer reviews.

Why are A3 printers so expensive?

A3 printers are much larger than standard printers to accommodate the larger paper. They're also a more specialist market, so you don't get the very cheap mass-market inkjet models that are available with A4 printers.

Most people who print in A3 are usually doing so for presentation purposes, such as for posters or some form of desktop publishing. This means the printing needs to be pretty high quality, and the designs and features of A3 printers reflect this – as does the price.

If you don't need an A3 printer, save your money and buy one of the best home printers instead.

How you can cut your A3 printing costs

As well as the upfront cost of an A3 printer, you should also consider the cost of ink. For A3 printing you can get a tank or standard inkjet printer. A tank printer doesn't require cartridges – you refill the reservoirs with bottles of ink – and is far cheaper to run than a cartridge printer. The scores of our printer reviews take running costs into account, so you'll find our highest-scoring A3 inkjet printers we recommend are tank printers.

If you only print A3 once in a blue moon, consider using a high street or online printing service. You can find out more about online photo printing services.

Unless your A3 printouts need to be professional, you could just stick two A4 printed sheets together. This would seriously cut your costs down as you can use one of our best cheap printers. 

See the ink and toner brands matching high quality with low prices - go to the best cheap ink cartridges and where to buy them.

A3 laser printers

A3 laser printers are rare – we haven't tested any recently. You may need to use a professional printer aimed at businesses rather than consumers if you're specifically looking for A3 laser printing. 

For most uses, we'd recommend an A3 inkjet printer – see our best A3 inket printer recommendations. 

A3 printer scanner

You can still buy dedicated scanners, but we don't test them any more. This is because all-in-one/multifunction printers that can scan and copy as well are  widely available.

However, while they can print up to A3, many A3 printers for home users that come with the scanning function can only scan A4.

Generally, if you want to scan up to A3 size, you'll need to up your budget for a small office model. But do bear in mind that spending more money doesn't automatically guarantee getting a higher quality printer or scanner.

Where to buy an A3 printer

When we checked to see which retailers were the most popular when people were searching for A3 printers, these are the retailers we found. 

• Canon – There aren't many models you can buy direct from Canon, but they all have free delivery and some have financing available. You can get an A3 printer for £175-£700, and some models have student discounts, too.
• Currys – Starting from just over £150, it stocks a variety of A3 printers from HP, Brother, Canon and Epson. You can click collect from select stores depending on stock, or you can get free standard delivery on most models. If you want it sooner, you can pay £6-£7 for express delivery. You can also get extras such as A3 paper and ink, too.
• Epson – Buying direct from Epson can get you a discount on select models, and most printers come with free shipping. They start from £250, and Epson has dozens of models to choose from. If you can't buy it direct, you can use the Where to Buy tool and enter your postcode to find a local retailer.

Not sure which printer brand to choose? We surveyed printer owners so we can reveal the best printer brands.

Most recently reviewed A3 printers

Here are the A3 printers we've tested most recently. 

Tech tips you can trust - get our free Tech newsletter for advice, news, deals and stuff the manuals don’t tell you