From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpay for itselfpay for itselfSAVE MONEYif something you buy pays for itself, the money it saves over a period of time is as much as the product cost to buy A new boiler would pay for itself within two years. → pay
Examples from the Corpus
pay for itself• Installing solar film on the windows will pay for itself.• Fab 25 needs more strong high-volume chips to pay for itself.• Growth needs to pay for itself.• How long for his addition to pay for itself?• Life has a way of giving a comic a funny face which ultimately starts to pay for itself.• Investment in an agency, branch or subsidiary will be expected to pay for itself by generating extra business.• At the St Pierre Park it is estimated that the oven system will have paid for itself inside 18 months.• But I think I can say that each machine has paid for itself, one way or another.• Walkup's argument: Well-planned development can pay for itself, without the burden of impact fees and similar financing mechanisms. 