Systems and methods are provided for adaptive ink flushing of a printer. One embodiment is an apparatus that includes an adaptive ink flushing controller configured to obtain nozzle firing data for a nozzle of a printhead, to analyze the nozzle firing data to determine an inactive firing span of the nozzle, and, in response to determining that the inactive firing span of the nozzle exceeds a threshold, to transmit a firing instruction for ejecting ink.