How much does a paper shredder cost?

The average price of a reliable personal paper shredder for home use is about 50 dollars. This price is based on the average price of 20 popular personal shredders on Amazon. The price varies between different brands and models and is based on features, security levels, and specifications.

The price of a paper shredder machine can be really cheap, or really expensive. It is all about your preferences and needs.

You can get a really cheap shredder for occasionally shredding at home. Or you can invest in an expensive powerful shredding machine for shredding high volumes of confidential documents at the office.

A general rule of thumb is that paper shredders get more expensive when the machine can shred high volumes of documents, can hold high volumes of shredded paper in a large capacity bin, can shred continuously and can shred at a high-security level.

Average shredder prices:

• 6-sheet cross-cut shredder (paper) – Approx. $30
• 8-sheet cross-cut shredder (paper & credit cards) – Approx. $40
• 12-sheet cross-cut shredder (paper & credit cards & CDs) – Approx. $70
• Basic strip-cut shredder (P-2) – Around $35
• Basic cross-cut shredder (P-3) – Around $50
• Basic micro-cut shredder (P-5) – Around $100
• Shredder for home office (P-3) – $50 – $150
• Shredder for small office (P-3) – $150 – $400
• Shredder for heavy-duty shredding (P-3) – $750+
• Auto feed shredder (P-3) – $750 to $1,500
• Industrial shredder (P-3) – $10,000 – $50,000

Check out more about shredders in our paper shredder guide.

Cost of maintenance

Also, keep in mind that you don’t only spend money on buying the shredder. You also need to consider the cost of maintenance, a shredded needs oil or lubrication to run properly.

Shredder oil

To keep your shredder running smoothly and to prevent the shredder from jamming all the time it is recommended to lubricate your shredder often with official paper shredder oil. This oil comes in a liquid form or in oil sheets, called lubricant sheets.

On average the price of a bottle of shredder oil (12 oz.) or a pack of 12 lubricant sheets costs around 10 – 15 dollars.

The shredder oil makes sure the cutting blades of the shredder will run as smoothly as possible. Due to paper shredding, a lot of dust gets stuck in between the blades, the oil will take care of it.

We advise oiling your shredder every time you need to empty the bin of the shredder or after intensive usage of the shredder. Besides oil, you can also make use of paper shredder lubricant sheets.

Shredder bags

Besides oil you might want to use shredder bags. You can use these bags to put inside the wastebasket of the shredder.

It makes it easy to empty the bin, you just remove the full shredder bag. A benefit of shredder bags is that it makes emptying the bin also less messy.

The price of paper shredder bags is around 15 dollars for one roll of 100 bags.

How long does a shredder last?

A shredder can last for years without any problems, but only when you use it properly and maintain it regularly. We recommend always following the instructions and guidelines of the manufacturer from your shredder.
This means for instance that you don’t exceed the maximum sheet capacity per pass and don’t shred materials the shredder can’t handle, such as thick cardboard or plastic sheets.