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Home > Guides > Buying a fax machine
You can still buy a fax machine: big-box electronics stores, office-supply chains, the manufacturers' own online stores, and online marketplaces all carry them. What you will mostly find are all-in-one printers with fax built in, not standalone fax machines, which have become a small online-only niche.
| Where to look | What you will find | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Office-supply stores (Staples, Office Depot) | A shelf of multifunction printers, a few with fax | Seeing machines in person before buying |
| Electronics retailers (Best Buy, etc.) | Fax-capable all-in-ones in store; dedicated fax units online | Same-day pickup of a multifunction model |
| Manufacturer stores (Brother, Canon, HP) | The full lineup, including models stores do not stock | The widest selection of fax-capable models |
| Online marketplaces | New and refurbished machines, including old standalone faxes | Hard-to-find dedicated fax machines |
| Used and local listings | Cheap older machines, sometimes free for pickup | A machine for rare, low-stakes faxing |
Yes, but you will probably buy it online. Brother still makes a compact laser fax-only unit that shows up at electronics retailers as an online-only item, often with low stock and no store pickup. That tells you most of what you need to know about the market: the dedicated fax machine survives as a niche product for offices that fax constantly and want a machine that does nothing else.
If that is what you are after, the manufacturer stores are the most reliable source, since retailers trim their fax-only shelf space first. Refurbished units are also common on marketplaces, and a refurbished office fax can be a sensible buy because these machines were built to run for years.
The economics flipped years ago. A fax modem costs almost nothing to add to a printer that already scans, so manufacturers folded fax into multifunction printers and stopped developing standalone fax hardware. Canon's current store lineup, for example, organizes fax under a print-scan-copy-fax category: models like the MAXIFY and imageCLASS lines do everything, and you pick based on print speed and ink or toner cost rather than fax features.
For most buyers this is actually the better deal. If you fax a few pages a month, a multifunction printer handles it as a side feature alongside printing and scanning. You only lose out if you need the things standalone fax machines did well: a big document feeder dedicated to faxing, or a machine that stays in fax-receive mode around the clock.
It depends on how you fax. If you receive faxes regularly, you still need something that answers the line: a machine, or a fax-to-email number. But if you only send faxes now and then, the hardware is optional overhead. You can ask your AI assistant to send a fax through LetterAgent instead: you describe the fax, approve the exact quoted price, and it is sent, with no machine to buy, maintain, or find shelf space for. LetterAgent is outbound-only and currently in testing, so it fits the "I just need to send this one fax" case rather than a busy office's daily workflow.
Ready to fax it? Fax with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is sent.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
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