Best Compatible Toner for Brother TN229 & TN229XL (2026): Prices Compared

Last updated: October 28, 2026.

Quick answer: For a Brother HL-L3280CDW, MFC-L3780CDW or any other TN229 color laser, the set we would buy first is our compatible Brother TN229XL BKCMY 4-pack at $299.95 for a rated 9,900 pages, about 3.0 cents a page. Brother's own TN229XL 4-pack bundle lists at $419.49 for the same yield, so ours saves about 28%. We should say straight away that this is not a cheap price for a compatible set: LD Products sells a TN229XL 4-pack for $99.96 and YB Toner for $74.95, and we show those below. If you want the lowest entry price from us, the standard-yield TN229 4-pack is $199.95, and after the first set the best value in our catalog is singles, especially the TN229XXLBK black. The caveat that matters: Brother says its firmware does not block third-party toner, but this color platform draws more chip complaints than Brother's mono line, so the seller's warranty is worth more here than usual.

We'll say the obvious thing up front: we sell these cartridges, so our recommendation is not neutral. To make up for that, the table below puts LD Products, 4inkjets, CompAndSave, YB Toner and two marketplace brands next to our own prices, and on this family every one of them undercuts our XL set, several by a lot. This post covers which printers take TN229, what every option costs per page as of October 2026, which of our fourteen TN229 SKUs make sense and which do not, the DR229CL drum, and what Brother has actually said about firmware.

What printers use Brother TN229 toner?

TN229 is the cartridge family for Brother's 2023-and-later color lasers. It comes in three fills, standard, XL and XXL, that all fit the same printers. It is not the same as TN227 or TN223, which fit the previous HL-L3270CDW and MFC-L3770CDW generation; the shells look alike and do not interchange.

• Brother HL-L3220CDW, HL-L3280CDW, HL-L3295CDW and HL-L3300CDW
• Brother HL-L8245CDW
• Brother DCP-L3560CDW
• Brother MFC-L3720CDW, MFC-L3765CDW and MFC-L3780CDW
• Brother MFC-L8395CDW

Each printer takes four toner cartridges plus one DR229CL drum unit holding all four drums, rated by Brother at 20,000 pages and bought separately about every two to three XL toner sets.

Brother TN229 prices compared: OEM vs Castle Ink vs other sellers

Prices checked October 2026 at the sellers' sites; they change often.

The numbers are not close and we are not going to dress them up. Our TN229XL set is $299.95. YB Toner's is $74.95, LD's is $99.96 and a Walmart marketplace set is under $40. Even CompAndSave, the next most expensive, is $110 under us. If price is the whole decision, every other compatible seller in the table beats us. What we charge for is the part after the sale: every TN229 cartridge we sell carries a new chip and the product page says so; the set ships the same day from stock in Greenlawn, NY on orders placed by 4 PM ET Monday through Friday; you have a full year to return it for a full refund, which matters on a color platform where chip and density complaints are more common than on mono printers; and US phone support means a person, not a form. We replace or refund any cartridge that arrives defective. The marketplace sets say "contact seller" and do not say where they ship from. We think that is worth something on a $300 purchase, but we recognize it is not worth $225 to everyone.

Our pick: the TN229XL 4-pack first, then singles

The TN229XL BKCMY 4-pack at $299.95 is the right first purchase because it replaces all four colors at once with chips of the same generation, the best defence against the intermittent "No Toner" errors people report on Brother color lasers when they mix cartridge sources. At 3.0 cents a page it is 28% under Brother's bundle. The trade-off, beyond the competitor prices above, is inside our own catalog: our four XL singles are $65.95 each, or $263.80 for the same four cartridges, so the bundle is currently $36 more than buying the pieces. We would rather you noticed that here than at checkout.

The value route from Castle Ink after that first set is singles, not another bundle. Black runs out first in nearly every home and office, so replace it alone with the TN229XXLBK ($75.95, 4,500 pages, 1.7 cents a page), the cheapest per-page toner we sell for this family. The XXL colors, cyan, magenta and yellow, are $75.95 each for 4,000 pages; four XXL singles come to $303.80 for 16,500 rated pages, 67% more toner than the XL bundle for $4 more. The XL singles, black, cyan, magenta and yellow, are $65.95 each.

If you want the lowest outlay today, the standard-yield TN229 4-pack is $199.95 for 5,100 rated pages: $100 less at the register but 3.9 cents a page, so it suits a printer that sees a few hundred pages a year. Standard singles, TN229BK, C, M and Y, are $55.95 each; our listings do not state a yield for them, and Brother rates that capacity at 1,500 black and 1,200 per color. We do not currently stock the DR229CL drum.

Chips, Brother firmware and the 2025 lockout story

TN229 cartridges carry a chip that reports toner level. Compatibles ship with a new chip and nothing needs transferring. Brother has no HP-style dynamic security program. In March 2025, after a widely repeated claim that Brother firmware was disabling third-party toner, Brother told The Register that its updates "do not block the use of third-party ink" and that its printers "do not distinguish between genuine and non-genuine cartridges." The specific allegation, that an update switched off auto color registration with non-OEM toner, traced back to a 2022 forum post about firmware W1.56 on an MFC-L3750CDW, and Brother said "the firmware update would not be responsible for the degradation of quality or removal of printer features" (Gigazine).

That does not mean the color line is trouble-free. Technicians on CopyTechNet documented a DCP-L3550CDW and MFC-L3770CDW case where firmware 1.59 changed "Replace Toner" to "No Toner" with error 2500 on an aftermarket chip, and Louis Rossmann's wiki lists DCP-L3550CDW owners with the same experience. In both cases the fix was a newer chip revision or a genuine cartridge. Those are older, TN227-era models, and we have not seen the same on TN229 printers, but it is the reason we tell you to buy from a seller who will swap a cartridge the printer refuses. Brother's 3-year limited warranty excludes "damage resulting from use of non-Brother brand parts, supply and accessory items" but does not void coverage for using them.

How to choose a Brother TN229 cartridge

• Buy XL or XXL, not standard. Genuine standard color is 7.1 cents a page against 5.4 for XL and 4.0 for XXL; our XL set is 3.0 cents against 3.9 for our standard set.
• Match the cartridge to the printer generation. HL-L3220CDW, HL-L3280CDW, HL-L3295CDW, MFC-L3720CDW, MFC-L3780CDW and MFC-L8395CDW take TN229; HL-L3210CW, HL-L3270CDW and MFC-L3770CDW take TN227/TN223.
• After the first set, buy the TN229XXLBK black alone when black runs out instead of another 4-pack.
• Budget for the DR229CL drum: four drums in one assembly, rated 20,000 pages, about a cent a page at Brother's price, and separate from toner.
• Prefer a chipped cartridge with a written US warranty of at least a year; several marketplace listings say "contact seller."
• If quality drops, run color calibration and auto registration before assuming a bad cartridge.

Brother TN229 Compatible Toner FAQs

The bottom line

For a TN229 printer, start with the compatible TN229XL 4-pack at $299.95, or the same four XL singles at $263.80, and after that replace black alone with the TN229XXLBK at $75.95. That is about 28% under Brother's bundle, with new chips disclosed, US stock, same-day shipping and a year to return it. LD Products, YB Toner and the marketplace brands sell XL sets for a quarter of our price or less; we have put their numbers in the table so you can decide what the warranty and the phone number are worth to you.

Related reading: best compatible ink brands, compatible vs OEM Brother ink and toner, best compatible toner for Brother TN830, LD Products vs Castle Ink, and our Brother toner cartridge collection.