Grocery Price Index

The Nibbleboard Grocery Price Index tracks real retail prices for 50 of the most commonly purchased cooking ingredients in the United States. Unlike government indexes like the CPI (which track broad category averages), our index shows the actual per-unit price you would pay for specific items like chicken breast, olive oil, or a dozen eggs.

We source prices from 15+ online grocery markets every week, normalize across package sizes and brands, and compute a reliable average retail price per unit. This gives you a clear, item-level snapshot of grocery costs — not just whether “food prices went up 3%,” but exactly how much a pound of ground beef or a head of broccoli costs right now.

Our Recipe Cost Calculator uses these same prices to compute per-serving costs for any recipe. If you want to see how these ingredient prices translate into actual meal costs, try building a recipe there.

Comparing grocery prices can be confusing because different items use different units. Here is how to read the prices in our index:

When comparing across categories, keep in mind that a $0.10/g spice used at 1 tsp per recipe costs far less per meal than a $5/lb protein used at 6 oz per serving. Our Recipe Cost Calculator handles these conversions automatically.