Meal Delivery Price Index 2026: Real Prices, Tracked Monthly

I track the price of every major meal delivery service every month, because the numbers move constantly and almost nobody publishes what you really pay. This is the September 2026 edition, and it is the biggest one yet: I re checked all 22 services from July, added 15 more, added a grocery section because that is the question everyone is really asking right now, and worked out the full weekly bill with shipping. Every figure below comes straight from the brand's own pricing page where I could see it, and where a brand hides its prices behind a zip code I go through its plan builder to get the real number, and where it hides them behind an account I say so.

What does each service cost per serving right now

The short version: in September 2026 mainstream prepared meals land in the $7 to $16 range and meal kits land in the $6 to $16 range at everyday pricing, before any intro discount. The cheapest prepared options are Everytable and The Cumin Club at about $7 a meal. The priciest mainstream prepared service is Trifecta at $14.99 to $16.00, and the specialty services I added this month go well past that, with Sakara at $26 to $31 a meal. Among the kits, Dinnerly and EveryPlate still open at $5.99, and Blue Apron now tops out around $15.99 on its a la carte menu. Here is the full picture, with what moved since July marked in each row.

Prepared meals, standard price per meal

Meal kits, standard price per serving

Gated means the brand will not show its everyday price until you enter a zip code or sign up. This month I entered a zip code (New York 10001, and Dallas 75201 for Factor) and went through the HelloFresh, Green Chef and Factor plan builders up to the signup step, so their prices are fresh. I did not create accounts. Shipping fees come from each brand's own price calculator, which its plan builder runs before the signup step (New York for HelloFresh and Green Chef, Dallas for Factor). Where I say "no change" I mean the brand's own posted price matched July on the day I checked.

Added this month: 15 more prepared meal services

These are services that were not in the July index. Most are specialty or regional. Three of them will not show a price until you sign up, and I list them anyway so you know before you hand over an email address.

Nutrisystem and Diet to Go price by the day rather than the meal, so the per meal figures are my arithmetic from their posted daily rates. Sakara is a three meals a day program, so its per meal number is the weekly price divided by 15 meals.

What a week of meal delivery really costs, shipping included

The per serving prices above leave out the one fee almost everyone pays: shipping. So here is the full weekly bill for two common orders, a couple buying three dinners from a meal kit and one person buying ten prepared meals, which covers lunch and dinner on weekdays. These are everyday prices with no intro discount, before tax, and a year is 52 weeks. Every row shows exactly what it is based on. To run your own numbers for any plan size, use the meal delivery cost calculator, which uses these same prices.

Meal kits: 2 people, 3 dinners a week

At the kits that charge $10.99 to $12.99, shipping adds $1.83 to $2.17 to every serving on a six serving box, and at the budget kits it is 23 to 25 percent of the bill. EveryPlate's $5.99 serving is really $7.82 and Dinnerly's is $7.99, and both of those use the advertised starting price, so a real three dinner box can cost more. Hungryroot's $6.99 fee is the lowest stated shipping fee among the kits and disappears at $70. Sunbasket, HelloFresh, Marley Spoon and Green Chef bunch up between $13.32 and $14.99 a serving all in, which is about $4,156 to $4,676 a year for three dinners a week. Home Chef and Purple Carrot are left out because neither publishes the shipping fee for a box this size (Purple Carrot's three dinners for two are $85.50 before shipping, and it ships free only at $120).

Prepared meals: one person, 10 meals a week

Free shipping reshuffles the order. The Cumin Club, Clean Eatz Kitchen, Splendid Spoon and Mosaic Foods all start under $10 a meal delivered and ship free at ten meals, though Mosaic's cheapest items are oat bowls and Splendid Spoon's are smoothies. At the top, Factor, FlexPro Meals, Trifecta and BistroMD run $15.29 to $16.99 a meal, or $7,950 to $8,832 a year. The comparison most people get wrong: ten meals from Clean Eatz Kitchen cost $8.50 to $9.50 a meal delivered, less per meal than a three dinner HelloFresh box for two at $13.66 a serving, and nobody has to cook. Left out because the price of this exact order cannot be worked out from what the brand publishes: Fresh Meal Plan (shipping worked out at checkout); Top Chef Meals (free delivery at 10 meals applies only in the New York area, and national shipping depends on location); Magic Kitchen (only a starting shipping fee of $22.95, and complete meals run $5.50 to $17.99); Metabolic Meals, Icon Meals and Eat Clean Bro (shipping not published); MealPro (14 meal minimum); Thistle (fee and number of deliveries depend on location); Everytable (fees depend on subscription and order); Sakara (sold as 9 and 15 meal programs); Diet to Go and Nutrisystem (publish a price per day, not the price of a 10 meal week); and Snap Kitchen, Feast and Fettle and Veestro (prices hidden).

What the first month costs versus the second

Intro deals are real money, but they are front loaded, and the jump when they end is the most common surprise in meal delivery. Here is what two popular prepared plans cost, four weeks at a time, using each brand's current offer and everyday price. The discount comes off the meals, and shipping is charged the way the offer terms say.

Factor: 50 percent off box one and 20 percent off boxes two to five, with $12.99 shipping every week, so week one is $70.95, weeks two to five are $105.73 and every week after is $128.91. Its free breakfast for a year is not counted. BistroMD: 50 percent off week one with free shipping, then 10 percent off weeks two to five, with $19.95 shipping after the first order, so week one is $109.90 and every week from six on is $239.75.

Intro offers across the index run from a single box (The Cumin Club, CookUnity) to about five weeks (Factor, BistroMD, Home Chef). Budget for the price after the offer ends, not the first box.

Groceries are up about a third since 2020, and meal delivery has not caught up to that

Everyone is mad about grocery prices, and the numbers back them up. Using the government's own grocery index, food bought at the store cost 2.2 percent more in August 2026 than in August 2025, and 32 percent more than in January 2020. The pace has slowed from the 2022 spike, but nothing has come back down to where it was, so the bill still feels wrong every week. Restaurant and takeout prices are rising faster than groceries right now, up 3.4 percent in a year, and meal delivery mostly competes with takeout, not with cooking from scratch.

Here is what the everyday items moved, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics average prices for August 2026 against August 2025. I picked items that show up in a normal week of cooking.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics average price data, U.S. city average, August 2026 release published September 11, 2026. Percent changes are my arithmetic from the two published prices.

By grocery category over the same year, fruits and vegetables rose 3.2 percent, coffee and other drinks 3.7 percent, cereal and bakery 2.6 percent, and meat, poultry, fish and eggs 1.1 percent as a group, held down because eggs, chicken and bacon all fell while beef rose. Dairy was the one category that dipped, down 0.3 percent. The USDA's forecast, updated in late August, expects grocery prices to finish 2026 up 2.5 percent and rise another 2.1 percent in 2027. So prices are not coming down. They are just going up more slowly than they did.

Where groceries went up the most

Grocery inflation is not the same everywhere. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes separate price indexes for the four census regions, and they tell different stories.

Since January 2020, grocery prices are up 35.3 percent in the West and 28.2 percent in the Northeast, the biggest and smallest climbs. Over the past year the West (2.7 percent) and the Northeast (2.6 percent) rose fastest, and the Midwest slowest at 1.6 percent. In every region, eating out rose faster than groceries over the past year and since 2020, and the Midwest had the biggest one year jump in restaurant prices at 4.1 percent. Figures compare August 2026 with August 2025 and January 2020, from the BLS consumer price index for food at home and food away from home, not seasonally adjusted.

What a home cooked meal costs versus delivery

The USDA publishes what it costs to feed one adult at home each month on four budgets, from bare bones to generous. For July 2026, the latest report, that works out to roughly $2.82 to $3.55 a meal on the Thrifty plan, $3.07 to $3.53 on the Low Cost plan, $3.75 to $4.43 on the Moderate plan, and $4.78 to $5.42 on the Liberal plan, using monthly cost divided by 90 meals. A family of four on the Thrifty plan is budgeted at $1,024.90 a month, and that figure went up $1.70 from June.

Put that next to the tables above. The cheapest meal kit everyday price is $5.99 a serving before shipping, which is already above the most generous USDA home cooking budget. The cheapest prepared meals start around $7. A typical prepared meal at $12 to $14 costs three to four times what the USDA says a home cooked meal should. That gap has not closed even with groceries up 32 percent since 2020, because meal delivery prices rose too. What has changed is the comparison to takeout: restaurant prices are up 3.4 percent in a year and a $12 prepared meal delivered looks more reasonable every month next to a takeout lunch.

Is meal delivery cheaper than groceries

No, not at the everyday price, and the USDA numbers above make that plain. Even the cheapest kit at $5.99 a serving is above the top of the USDA's home cooking range, and once you add $10.99 shipping to a small box the real number is closer to $8. The honest way to look at it is that meal delivery competes with takeout and with the food you throw away, not with cooking from scratch. You are paying for zero planning, zero shopping, and zero waste. For a lot of busy people that trade is worth it, and it looks better every month that restaurant prices rise faster than grocery prices. For someone who already meal preps on Sundays, it usually is not. A good intro deal can flip the math for the first few weeks, but budget for the everyday price.

What is the cheapest meal delivery service

Right now the lowest everyday prices are Dinnerly and EveryPlate at $5.99 a serving on the kit side, and Everytable and The Cumin Club at about $7 a meal on the prepared side. Among the services I added this month, Clean Eatz Kitchen at $8.99 with free shipping is the standout, and Nutrisystem's $10 a day program works out to about $3.33 a meal if you are fine eating a program. But cheapest depends on shipping. Once you add EveryPlate's $10.99 shipping to a small box, the real cost lands closer to $8 a serving. The Cumin Club, Clean Eatz Kitchen and ModifyHealth ship free, which quietly makes them some of the best all in prices on the prepared side. And remember the two dollar a meal number you see in ads only applies to the very first box.

Which meal kits hide their prices

This got a little better since July. HelloFresh, Green Chef and Factor still make you enter a zip code and answer a short quiz before they show a real price (I did it so you do not have to: the numbers are in the tables above), and Marley Spoon took the price off its homepage. But EveryPlate now states its $5.99 starting price and $10.99 shipping in plain text, Sunbasket shows its starting price on the public menu, and Blue Apron and Purple Carrot both price every meal openly on their menus now. Among the new additions, Snap Kitchen, Feast and Fettle and Veestro will not show a number until you sign up. The pattern still holds: the brands that hide the price tend to have the biggest gap between the intro deal and the everyday price.

How I put this together

MealFan keeps a running database of more than 6,100 individual meals across 25 plus services, refreshed by an automated menu check every week. Each month I pull the current per meal prices, then verify the everyday plan price by hand on each brand's own site. I always keep the intro promo separate from the everyday price, because the promo is not what you pay after the first box or two. When a brand hides its pricing behind a zip code, I go through its plan builder to the signup screen and record what its own price calculator returns. When it hides prices behind an account, I say so in the table rather than guess. The grocery figures come straight from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the USDA, not from news stories about them. Everything gets re verified on the date at the top of this page, and every change gets logged so you can see the trend over time.

• Everyday price means what you pay after any intro offer, for the plan sizes the brand sells, before tax. Where the price depends on plan size I show the range and name the plan.
• Starting prices. Some brands only publish a "from" price, which usually belongs to their biggest plan. I label those as starting prices, and the weekly cost tables flag them, because a smaller box can cost more.
• Hidden prices. For HelloFresh, Green Chef and Factor I enter a zip code (New York 10001, and Dallas 75201 for Factor) and go through the plan builder to the signup screen. The plan builder gets its prices and shipping from the brand's own price calculator, and that is what I record. I never create an account or enter an email.
• Shipping is the fee the brand states for the order in question. A free shipping threshold only counts when the order meets it, and where a brand only gives a starting fee, it is left out of the weekly cost tables.
• Left out: sales tax, tips, add ons, regional surcharges (Purple Carrot adds $15 in some zip codes) and promo codes from coupon sites.
• Grocery data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index and average price series, the USDA Food Plans, and the USDA Economic Research Service Food Price Outlook, pulled from the source data rather than news coverage.
• How MealFan makes money. Five of the 37 services pay us a commission, and they carry a "See current price" button: CookUnity, BistroMD, Purple Carrot, Mosaic Foods and Thistle. Every service is priced the same way whether or not it pays us.
• Corrections. If a price here has changed, tell us through the contact page. I re check it and log the fix in the edition history below.

Edition history

• September 22, 2026. Fresh Factor, HelloFresh and Green Chef prices and shipping from each brand's own calculator. New: the full weekly bill with shipping for 20 services, first month versus second month costs, grocery prices by region, and two new charts.
• September 21, 2026. Second monthly edition. All 22 July services re checked, 15 services added, and a grocery section built on BLS and USDA data.
• July 17, 2026. First monthly edition, 22 services.
• Before July 2026, MealFan published a quarterly Meal Kit Price Index. It is retired and now points here.

Next edition: October 2026.

<figure><img src="https://mealfan.com/wp-content/uploads/mf-data/price-index-2026-09/mealfan-meal-kit-cost-with-shipping-2026-09-v2.webp" alt="What a meal kit serving really costs once shipping is added" width="1800" height="1050" style="width:100%;height:auto"><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://mealfan.com/meal-delivery-price-index/">MealFan Meal Delivery Price Index</a></figcaption></figure>

Common questions about meal delivery prices

How much have groceries gone up?
Grocery prices were up 2.2 percent in August 2026 compared with a year earlier, and up 32 percent compared with January 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Ground beef, coffee and rice rose the most among staples over the past year. Eggs fell 36.7 percent after their 2025 spike.

How much does Factor cost a month?
Factor shows its price only after you enter a zip code. In September it ran $17.49 a meal on 4 meals a week, $15.49 on 6, $14.49 on 8 and $12.99 on 14 or more. The popular eight meal plan is $115.92 a week, about $500 a month, before the $12.99 shipping and before any promo. The current intro is 50 percent off the first box and 20 percent off the next four.

How much is HelloFresh per serving?
$13.49 a serving for two people and two dinners a week, $11.49 for three dinners, and $10.49 on the bigger plans (four people and five or six dinners, for example), checked with a zip code in September. Shipping is $12.99 a box, added at checkout, so the smallest plan comes to $66.95 a week.

What is the cheapest meal delivery service?
Dinnerly and EveryPlate at $5.99 a serving on the kit side, and Everytable and The Cumin Club at about $7 a meal on the prepared side. Clean Eatz Kitchen at $8.99 with free shipping is the best value among the services added this month.

Is it cheaper to cook at home?
Yes, by a wide margin. The USDA puts a home cooked meal at about $2.82 to $5.42 depending on the budget. The cheapest meal kit is $5.99 a serving before shipping, and most prepared meals run $10 to $16.

Are the intro promos worth it?
The first box discount is real, often half off or around $2 to $3 a meal, but it runs out, after one box at some brands and after about five weeks at Factor, BistroMD and Home Chef. Factor's eight meal plan costs $388.14 for the first four weeks and $515.64 for every four weeks once the offer ends. Budget for the everyday price, not the promo.

Which service has the cheapest shipping?
The Cumin Club, Clean Eatz Kitchen and ModifyHealth ship free. Most services charge $9.99 to $12.99. Magic Kitchen from $22.95, BistroMD at $19.95 and Diet to Go at $19.98 a week are the priciest.

How much does meal delivery cost per week?
For two people eating three dinners, a meal kit runs about $46.93 to $89.93 a week with shipping at everyday prices, from EveryPlate at its starting price to Green Chef, and more at Blue Apron if you pick its priciest dishes. For one person eating ten prepared meals, it runs from $69.90 at The Cumin Club or Mosaic Foods to $169.85 at BistroMD.

How much does meal delivery cost a year?
Three dinners a week for two costs about $2,440 a year at EveryPlate's starting price, $4,260 at HelloFresh and $4,676 at Green Chef, shipping included. Ten prepared meals a week for one person runs from about $3,635 at The Cumin Club to $7,950 at Factor and $8,832 at BistroMD.

How much does meal delivery cost for a family of four?
HelloFresh charges $129.48 a week for 4 people and 3 dinners ($10.79 a serving), plus $12.99 shipping, which is $142.47 a week or $11.87 a serving. Green Chef is $155.88 ($12.99 a serving) plus $11.99 shipping, $167.87 a week or $13.99 a serving. Both were read from each brand's own price calculator in September 2026.

What is the cheapest meal delivery for one person?
Counting shipping on a ten meal week, The Cumin Club at $6.99 to $9.99 a meal and Clean Eatz Kitchen at $8.50 to $9.50 a meal, both with free shipping. Mosaic Foods and Daily Harvest can come in lower on paper, but their cheapest items are oat bowls and smoothies rather than full meals.

Do meal delivery prices change by zip code?
Sometimes. Factor showed the same prices in New York and Dallas in September. CookUnity's delivery fee is $9.99 or $11.99 depending on zip code, Purple Carrot adds a $15 surcharge in some zip codes, and Thistle's delivery fee depends on location.

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