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What is smart chip? What does smart chip do? How does smart chip technology affect the consumers? Smart chip is a small chip that some printer manufacturers put into their inkjet or toner cartridges. It lets printer cartridge and printer communicate and informs the user before the cartridge runs out of ink / toner. Smart chip records droplet count data and tracks ink usage. It may have unique ID and brand name signature of which the printer recognizes. Some smart chips set an expiration date (relative to the date of manufacture) and disable the printer cartridge even if it is full. Printer manufacturers claim that the smart chip technology adds value to their cartridges so the customers will be warned of low ink. This ensures that print quality can be maintained. Consumer advocates think otherwise. The sole purpose of smart chip is to attempt to limit the competition from third party cartridge manufacturers, so that consumers have to buy overpriced OEM cartridges from the original manufacturers. Smart chip makes it difficult or impossible to refill the printer cartridges. Even when the cartridge is refilled, the smart chip would tell the printer that it is still empty and refuse to print. Smart chip recognizes third party cartridges and gives a warning message when the 3rd party replacement cartridge is installed. It makes the users believe that installing a 3rd party cartridge may damage the printer (but in reality, this rarely happens). Smart chip also disables printer cartridge on expiration date even if the cartridge is still full.