Grocery and food inflation calculator
Enter an amount, the month you paid it and the month to compare it with, and this grocery inflation calculator shows what the same groceries cost in the second month, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' price index for food at home. It covers every month from January 2000 to August 2026, for all groceries or for one aisle at a time. Below it, a table gives grocery inflation for each year since 2001, December to December, the way BLS reports it. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Grocery inflation by year
How much grocery prices (food at home) rose each year, December to December, worked out from the published BLS index values.
| Year | Change |
|---|---|
| August 2025 to August 2026 | 2.2% |
| 2025 | 2.4% |
| 2024 | 1.8% |
| 2023 | 1.3% |
| 2022 | 11.8% |
| 2021 | 6.5% |
| 2020 | 3.9% |
| 2019 | 0.7% |
| 2018 | 0.6% |
| 2017 | 0.9% |
| 2016 | -2.0% |
| 2015 | -0.4% |
| 2014 | 3.7% |
| 2013 | 0.4% |
| 2012 | 1.3% |
| 2011 | 6.0% |
| 2010 | 1.7% |
| 2009 | -2.4% |
| 2008 | 6.6% |
| 2007 | 5.6% |
| 2006 | 1.4% |
| 2005 | 1.7% |
| 2004 | 2.4% |
| 2003 | 4.5% |
| 2002 | 0.8% |
| 2001 | 2.6% |
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted, through August 2026.
How it works
Each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics prices a fixed basket of groceries across US cities and publishes the result as an index, the Consumer Price Index for food at home. The calculator multiplies your amount by the ratio of the two months' index values.
Say you spent $100 on groceries in January 2020. The food-at-home index was 243.110 that month and 321.500 in August 2026, so the same groceries cost $100 × 321.500 ÷ 243.110 = $132.24. That's 32.2% more, or about 4.3% a year on average over those 79 months.
The indexes are the ones BLS uses for its headline figures: all urban consumers, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted, with 1982 to 1984 set to 100. You can check any month against the series pages on the BLS site, such as food at home.
The categories
"All groceries" is the whole food-at-home index. The others are the aisles BLS prices separately, so you can see which part of the cart moved:
| Category | BLS series | Aug 2025 to Aug 2026 | Jan 2020 to Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| All groceries (food at home) | CUUR0000SAF11 | +2.2% | +32.2% |
| Cereals and bakery products | CUUR0000SAF111 | +2.6% | +33.8% |
| Meats, poultry, fish and eggs | CUUR0000SAF112 | +1.1% | +39.0% |
| Eggs | CUUR0000SEFH | −23.0% | +32.4% |
| Dairy and related products | CUUR0000SEFJ | −0.3% | +22.0% |
| Fruits and vegetables | CUUR0000SAF113 | +3.2% | +21.8% |
| Nonalcoholic beverages | CUUR0000SAF114 | +3.7% | +38.0% |
| Other food at home | CUUR0000SAF115 | +2.4% | +34.4% |
| Restaurants and takeout (food away from home) | CUUR0000SEFV | +3.4% | +37.6% |
Our arithmetic from the BLS indexes. "Other food at home" is BLS's group for everything in the grocery basket outside the other five groups. Eggs are also counted inside meats, poultry, fish and eggs. Restaurants and takeout aren't groceries, but they're in the list because the comparison is the one most people are really making.
Why October 2025 is missing
BLS has no figure for October 2025. Its data carries the note "Data unavailable due to the 2025 lapse in appropriations", the gap in federal funding that autumn. The calculator won't invent a number for that month; pick September or November instead.
What it can't tell you
The index is a national average for a fixed basket. Your own bill moves with what you buy, where you shop and how much your household eats, so it can rise faster or slower than any line in the table. A family whose teenagers started eating like adults will see a bigger jump than the index, and that isn't inflation.
To see your own number, compare the same items on receipts a year apart. A grocery price book does exactly that for the 20 or so things you buy every week, and how to track grocery spending covers the monthly total. For what this year's prices mean item by item, with USDA's forecast for the rest of 2026, see grocery prices 2026.
If you want to know what a household should be spending now rather than how much prices moved, the grocery budget calculator uses USDA's current food plans, which USDA updates every month with BLS price indexes for individual foods.
Common questions
How much have grocery prices gone up since 2020?
32.2% from January 2020 to August 2026, by the BLS food-at-home index. $100 of groceries in January 2020 cost $132.24 in August 2026.
How much have grocery prices gone up in the last year?
2.2% from August 2025 to August 2026, the figure in the BLS August 2026 CPI release. Eggs fell 23.0% over the same year, while nonalcoholic beverages rose 3.7%.
Which year had the biggest grocery price rise?
- The food-at-home index rose 11.8% from December 2021 to December 2022, the largest calendar-year rise in the calculator's data, which starts in 2000.
Why doesn't the calculator match my receipts?
Because it isn't measuring your cart. The index follows a fixed national basket; your receipts follow what you bought, at your stores. Use the calculator for the general price level and your own receipts for your own bill.