Grocery prices 2026: what went up, what came down, and what's next
Grocery prices in the US were 2.2% higher in August 2026 than a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Eggs were down sharply, beef and coffee were up, and most of the rest of the cart moved by a couple of percent either way. USDA forecasts that grocery prices will end 2026 about 2.5% above 2025.
This page is updated each month when BLS publishes new prices. The figures below are for August 2026, released in September.
Grocery prices in 2026 so far
The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures grocery prices with its Consumer Price Index for food at home. From August 2025 to August 2026 that index rose 2.2%. Since January 2026 it has risen 1.3%.
By aisle, over the same 12 months:
| Grocery aisle | Aug 2025 to Aug 2026 |
|---|---|
| All groceries | +2.2% |
| Nonalcoholic beverages (coffee, juice, soda) | +3.7% |
| Fruits and vegetables | +3.2% |
| Cereals and bakery products | +2.6% |
| Other food at home | +2.4% |
| Meats, poultry, fish and eggs | +1.1% |
| Dairy | −0.3% |
| Eggs alone | −23.0% |
| For comparison: restaurants and takeout | +3.4% |
Our arithmetic from the BLS indexes (CPI-U, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted). Eating out rose faster than eating in, which widens the gap we worked through in cooking at home vs eating out.
Prices of everyday groceries, August 2025 vs August 2026
BLS also publishes average prices for a list of individual foods. These are national averages across stores and brands, so your own shelf will differ, but the direction is what matters:
| Item | Aug 2025 | Aug 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eggs, grade A large, dozen | $3.59 | $2.27 | −36.7% |
| Ground beef, 100% beef, lb | $6.32 | $6.92 | +9.6% |
| Sirloin steak, USDA Choice, lb | $14.32 | $14.36 | +0.3% |
| Chicken breast, boneless, lb | $4.21 | $4.17 | −0.9% |
| Whole chicken, lb | $2.08 | $2.01 | −3.1% |
| Whole milk, gallon | $4.17 | $4.23 | +1.4% |
| Cheddar cheese, lb | $6.12 | $5.98 | −2.3% |
| White bread, lb | $1.84 | $1.82 | −1.0% |
| White rice, long grain, lb | $1.06 | $1.11 | +4.9% |
| Ground coffee, lb | $8.87 | $9.30 | +4.8% |
| Bananas, lb | $0.67 | $0.65 | −2.1% |
| White potatoes, lb | $1.00 | $0.98 | −2.5% |
| Field-grown tomatoes, lb | $1.93 | $1.98 | +2.7% |
| White sugar, lb | $1.04 | $1.02 | −1.5% |
BLS average price series, rounded to the cent; changes are from the unrounded prices.
The two big stories are eggs and beef. A dozen eggs cost $6.23 on average in March 2025 and $2.27 in August 2026, which is less than half. Ground beef has gone the other way, up from $5.55 a pound in January 2025 to $6.92.
What USDA expects for the rest of 2026
USDA's Economic Research Service publishes a Food Price Outlook each month. The August 2026 edition forecasts:
| Category | 2026 forecast | Forecast interval |
|---|---|---|
| All food | +3.0% | 2.4% to 3.5% |
| Food at home (groceries) | +2.5% | 1.7% to 3.3% |
| Food away from home | +3.6% | 3.2% to 3.9% |
| Beef and veal | +9.8% | 7.0% to 12.6% |
| Sugar and sweets | +7.1% | 6.0% to 8.2% |
| Fresh vegetables | +5.9% | 4.0% to 8.0% |
| Nonalcoholic beverages | +4.3% | 3.3% to 5.3% |
| Fresh fruits | +2.9% | 1.4% to 4.4% |
| Pork | +0.8% | −1.0% to 2.7% |
| Poultry | +0.5% | −0.8% to 2.0% |
| Dairy | unchanged | |
| Eggs | −30.8% | −35.3% to −25.3% |
These forecasts compare the average of 2026 with the average of 2025, which is a different measure from the 12-month change above. By that yearly-average measure, ERS says grocery prices rose 1.2% in 2024 and 2.3% in 2025. For 2027 it forecasts 2.1%, with a much wider interval, from −5.7% to 10.5%.
How 2026 compares with recent years
| Year | Grocery prices, December to December |
|---|---|
| 2019 | +0.7% |
| 2020 | +3.9% |
| 2021 | +6.5% |
| 2022 | +11.8% |
| 2023 | +1.3% |
| 2024 | +1.8% |
| 2025 | +2.4% |
Our arithmetic from the BLS food-at-home index.
2022 is the year that reset everyone's sense of a normal grocery bill. Prices have kept rising since, but slowly: the three years after it added less, together, than 2022 did alone. Put another way, $100 of groceries in January 2020 cost $132.24 in August 2026. Our grocery inflation calculator does the same sum for any two months since January 2000, for the whole cart or one aisle.
There's one gap in the record. BLS has no figures for October 2025, with the note "Data unavailable due to the 2025 lapse in appropriations", so any comparison that starts or ends in that month has to use September or November instead.
Why your own bill may have risen more
The index follows a fixed national basket. Your bill follows your cart, and a few things push it up faster than prices:
- A growing household. Children eat more every year; USDA's food plans price a 14-to-18-year-old boy at $93.20 a week on the Moderate plan, against $70.40 for a child of 6 to 8.
- A cart that leans on the items that rose. A household that buys a lot of ground beef and coffee has had a steeper year than the average.
- More food going in the bin. The EPA puts the cost of food bought and not eaten at $728 per person a year.
The only way to know which of these applies is to compare the same items on your own receipts a year apart. A grocery price book does that for your regular items, and how to track grocery spending covers the monthly total.
What to do about it
Rising prices change which savings are worth the effort. With beef up and eggs down, the cheap protein this year is the one that fell. A few things worth doing:
- Check unit prices when you switch brands or pack sizes; our unit price calculator compares them per ounce or per 100 grams.
- Know your usual price for the 20 things you buy most, so a real sale stands out.
- Stock up only on what keeps. Is buying in bulk cheaper has the break-even for discounts against waste.
- Compare your total with USDA's current food plans in how much to spend on groceries, which are updated every month for price changes.
How to save money on groceries ranks the rest by how much they tend to move the bill.
Duneed, our iPhone app, reads the line items and prices from photographed grocery receipts and totals each month by category next to the month before, so a jump in one part of the cart shows up without adding receipts by hand.
Common questions
Are grocery prices going up in 2026?
Yes, slowly. The BLS food-at-home index was 2.2% higher in August 2026 than in August 2025, and USDA forecasts a 2.5% rise for 2026 as a whole. Some items are down: eggs, chicken and dairy are cheaper than a year ago.
How much have grocery prices gone up since 2020?
32.2% from January 2020 to August 2026, by the BLS food-at-home index. The biggest single year was 2022, when prices rose 11.8% from December to December.
Why are beef prices so high in 2026?
Ground beef averaged $6.92 a pound in August 2026, up 9.6% in a year, and USDA forecasts beef and veal prices up 9.8% for 2026.
Are egg prices going down?
Yes. A dozen grade A large eggs averaged $2.27 in August 2026, down from $3.59 a year earlier and $6.23 in March 2025, and USDA forecasts egg prices 30.8% lower for 2026 than for 2025.
Will grocery prices go down in 2027?
USDA doesn't expect it. The ERS August 2026 outlook forecasts a 2.1% rise for 2027, with a wide range of −5.7% to 10.5% because it's still early.
Sources
- Consumer Price Index bls.gov
- average prices data.bls.gov
- Food Price Outlook ers.usda.gov
- $93.20 a week on the Moderate plan fns-prod.azureedge.us
- $728 per person a year epa.gov
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