Canon PIXMA G6020 MegaTank Review: Worth It? (November 2026)
The Canon PIXMA G5020 MegaTank is the printer to buy if you print a lot of black-and-white documents and want ink that lasts months, not weeks. Skip it if you need to scan or copy, since it only prints.
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The Canon PIXMA G5020 MegaTank is the printer to buy if you print a lot of black-and-white documents and want ink that lasts months, not weeks. It only prints, so skip it if you need to scan or copy.
This review covers what the Canon PIXMA G6020 MegaTank reviews keep circling back to: ink cost per page, print speed and whether a print-only tank printer makes sense in a home office. We compared specs and features rather than running a unit ourselves.
The Canon PIXMA G5020 MegaTank at a glance
The G5020 sits in Canon's MegaTank family, where refillable ink tanks replace cartridges. It's a single-function MegaTank with the GI-20 bottle system, auto duplex and very high yields.
Canon PIXMA G5020 Wireless MegaTank Single Function: Best for high-volume document printing
- Print only
- 13 pages per minute black and white
- Auto duplex
- Up to 6,000 black or 7,700 color pages per ink set
A single-function MegaTank with auto duplex, huge ink yields and the GI-20 bottle system.
Pros
- Very high page yields per ink set
- Auto two-sided printing saves paper
- Bottles pour without spills
Cons
- No scanner or copier
- No touchscreen
If your main worry is ink bills, this is the design to look at. The bottles pour without spills, and a full set is rated for thousands of pages rather than hundreds.
Our score of 7.9 weighs those yields against the lack of a scanner.
The printer's own numbers explain the value argument in concrete terms. Canon says the ink bottles included in the box represent an ink savings of 1,175, and the G5020 ships with two extra black bottles on top of the full set.
In Canon's comparison, a full bottle set holds over 30 times the ink of an equivalent standard cartridge set.
That is the whole pitch of the MegaTank line in one sentence. You pay more at the counter and spend far less on ink over the months that follow.
For a desk that prints documents week after week, the maths tilts toward the tank. For a desk that prints a handful of pages, it does not.
The body is compact enough for a shelf or a corner of a home office. It measures 14.6 in deep, 15.9 in wide and 6.6 in high, and weighs 20.7 lb, so one person can lift it into place.
It arrives in black and looks plain, which suits an office corner better than a living room.
Who should buy a print-only MegaTank?
Buy it if your printing is mostly documents and rarely needs a scanner. A home office that prints invoices, school packets and shipping labels every week fits this printer well.
Skip it if you regularly copy IDs or scan signed forms, since those jobs need a flatbed. The Canon PIXMA TR8620a review covers an all-in-one that scans, copies and prints for the same kind of desk.
Skip it too if you print a few pages a month. MegaTank savings build with volume, and a cheap cartridge printer costs less to start, as the Canon PIXMA TR4720 review shows.
One more group should pay attention: people who already own a scanner. If a flatbed is on the desk from an old printer, the scan gap disappears and the G5020 is a straightforward upgrade.
Households that mix documents and color pages also fit. The tank set covers black text and color in one machine, so homework, recipes and the odd photo all come off the same printer.
The specs that matter in daily use
Page yield and speed decide whether a tank printer feels cheap or slow. The G5020 is rated for up to 6,000 black text pages or 7,700 color pages per full ink set, at 13 pages per minute in black and 6.8 in color.
Those yields come from Canon's GI-20 bottles. Each has a nozzle shaped to pour without spills or messes, so refilling is a quick job you do a few times a year instead of swapping cartridges every few weeks.
Auto duplex is the other spec that changes daily use. It flips each sheet for two-sided printing, which halves paper use on long reports, contracts and study notes.
The combined 350-sheet plain paper capacity means fewer refill trips during a long job. It splits across a main tray and a second feed, so you can keep two paper stocks loaded.
Color depth is 24-bit, which is normal for documents and casual photos. Print resolution reaches up to 4800 x 1200 dpi, but for black text at normal size, speed and ink cost matter more than that number.
What the specs do not tell you
The specs list print speed in pages per minute, but those figures come from Canon's own test conditions. In a home office, a full page of dense text or a photo-heavy page takes longer than the headline number suggests.
The first page after the printer has been idle also takes longer while it wakes up. Treat 13 pages per minute as the best case for straightforward black text, not a promise for every job.
The page yields work the same way. Canon rates 6,000 black pages or 7,700 color pages per bottle set, and real counts depend on how much ink each page uses.
A page of ordinary text uses far less ink than a full-page photo or a graphic-heavy flyer. If your printing leans toward photos and color graphics, expect the color yield to run out first and the black bottles to last longer.
That is exactly why the two bonus black bottles in the box are useful for document-heavy desks.
Setting up a MegaTank printer
Setup is fill the tanks, run the alignment, join the Wi-Fi. The ink bottles are keyed by color, so each one only fits its tank, and the nozzle design keeps the pour clean.
A full set of ink bottles comes in the box along with a black print head and a color print head.
Fill each tank to the line, close the caps and let the printer prime itself. Canon includes a setup CD and manual in the box along with a full set of ink bottles.
If your computer lacks a disc drive, the setup app does the same job. The manual is worth keeping near the printer for the first refill.
Then run the print head alignment. It takes one sheet and fixes the slight banding you might see on the first test page.
After that, connect over Wi-Fi from the Canon app on a phone or from the desktop driver. The printer also has a USB port, so a desktop without reliable Wi-Fi can connect by cable.
The G5020 works with smartphones, and it supports voice control through Amazon Alexa and IFTTT. If you share the printer across a household, add each device once during setup and skip the reconnect later.
The control method is app-based, so the phone app is the main way to check ink levels and start jobs remotely.
Filling the tanks without making a mess
The bottles are the part people worry about, and the design is built to prevent the usual accidents. Each GI-20 bottle has a specialized nozzle that pours easily without spills or messes.
The bottle tips fit the tank opening, so you tilt and squeeze rather than aim and hope.
The tanks are transparent, so you can see the ink level from the front without opening anything. Refill when a tank nears its lower line, not when the printer stops.
Topping up early takes a minute and avoids a half-finished print job.
Keep the caps on spare bottles and stand them upright. A bottle left on its side can leak into its cap and make the next refill messy.
When you finish a bottle, screw the cap back on before you set it down, even if you plan to recycle it that day.
Ink, care and keeping costs low
Care comes down to refilling when a tank runs low, running a nozzle check if a color drops out, and keeping the printer in regular use. Ink tank printers dislike long idle stretches more than heavy use.
The GI-20 bottles are pigment black for text and dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow for color. Keep spares on hand so a low tank never stops a job.
Canon bundles two extra black bottles with the G5020, which stretches the black ink further. For a document-heavy desk, those are the most useful part of the box.
If you print lightly, run a nozzle check every few weeks. It uses a little ink but catches a clogged channel before it ruins a document, and a head cleaning cycle fixes most gaps.
Store bottles upright and capped, away from heat and direct sun. When you refill, wipe any drips before closing the tank cap so ink doesn't transfer to the next sheet.
If the printer sits unused for weeks, run one test page when you return to it. It costs a sheet of paper and a trace of ink, and it saves a longer cleaning cycle later.
For a broader look at running costs across brands, our guide to ink costs and fixes explains when tank printers beat cartridges.
The trade-offs before you commit
The main trade-off is no scanner or copier, followed by a higher upfront price than a cartridge printer. If either one bothers you, a different model fits better.
A single-function printer saves desk space and money on hardware you may not need. But every copy job then goes through your phone camera or a separate machine, so count last month's copy jobs before you buy.
Print speed is fine for documents but not fast by office standards. For a home desk, 13 pages per minute in black is plenty, though color pages run slower, and a job with color on every page takes noticeably longer.
Color photos print well on glossy paper, but the four-ink system won't match a photo printer with extra colors. School projects and family photos look good enough, while prints you plan to frame need a photo printer.
There is also no touchscreen. Ink levels and jobs go through the app or desktop software, so if you like buttons on the machine itself, the GX1020 is the friendlier design.
Finally, MegaTank value depends on volume. If your monthly page count is low, the ink savings won't repay the higher price quickly, so buy it when you print steadily.
Alternatives worth a look
Two options cover the jobs the G5020 can't do. One adds scanning and copying to a tank printer, and one keeps the single-function design in a more compact all-in-one body.
Canon MegaTank GX1020 for scan and copy work
The GX1020 adds a flatbed scanner and copier to the MegaTank idea. It prints, copies and scans, and the 2.7-inch color touchscreen makes those jobs easy to start.
The screen also shows ink levels and copy settings without going through a phone.
Canon rates it for up to 3,000 black and 3,000 color pages per ink set. That's less than the G5020's yield, but you get the scanner and faster print speeds: 15 pages per minute in black and 10 in color.
It also uses auto duplex and a 250-sheet paper capacity. The touchscreen handles copy runs of up to 100 pages at a time, which suits a shared desk copying documents in batches.
It uses GI-25 pigment-based ink bottles in black, cyan, magenta and yellow. Pick it if scan jobs are part of your week.
A cartridge all-in-one for light printing
If you print a few pages a week, a cartridge all-in-one costs less to buy and still scans. You trade cheap ink for a low entry price.
The Canon MegaTank G3270 vs G3290 comparison shows how the smaller tank models stack up against each other.
For a wider brand comparison, our roundup of the best Epson printers for home use covers models with similar tank designs and different running costs. Read it if you want to weigh Canon against Epson before choosing a brand.
Verdict: buy or skip the G5020 MegaTank?
Buy it if you print documents in volume and don't need a scanner. The Canon PIXMA G6020 MegaTank reviews that matter most agree on the same point: the ink yields are the reason to choose it.
Auto duplex and a 350-sheet capacity make it a solid home office workhorse.
Skip it if copying and scanning are part of your routine. Pick the GX1020 instead and keep the cheap tank ink.
If you print only occasionally, a budget cartridge printer is the lower-risk buy.
Then set a realistic monthly page count: if it's steady, the MegaTank design pays you back.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Canon PIXMA G6020 MegaTank worth it?
It is worth it for a household or office that prints documents in volume and rarely needs to scan. The ink tanks last far longer than cartridge sets, so the higher upfront cost pays back over months of steady printing.
Buy a print-only model only if you already own a scanner.
How many pages can the Canon PIXMA G6020 MegaTank print?
Canon rates the MegaTank line for very high yields per bottle set. The G5020, the closest single-function model we cover, is rated for up to 6,000 black text pages or 7,700 color pages per full set.
Exact G6020 figures depend on the bottles and content you print.
Does the Canon PIXMA G6020 MegaTank print double sided?
Yes. Auto duplex printing is part of the MegaTank single-function design, so it flips pages for you without manual reloading.
That matters for multi-page documents and saves paper on long reports.
What is the main downside of a MegaTank printer?
The main downside is that the cheapest ink comes with a bigger upfront price and no scanner on single-function models. If you print little, a cartridge printer costs less to start.
MegaTank value shows up when you print steadily for months.
Can the Canon PIXMA G6020 MegaTank print photos?
It uses four dye-based color inks plus a pigment black, so it handles everyday color documents and casual photos. For gallery-quality photo prints, a dedicated photo printer with more ink colors is the better tool.
For school projects and family pictures, the MegaTank is fine.
