I Did the Math: This Meal Kit Program Gives You the Most Bang for Your Buck

Foodstuffs they are a simple, full-stop product. While the price gap between food items and grocery store prices has narrowed since their introduction, what you’re paying for are pre-measured ingredients packaged in a single box and delivered to your door ready to whip up for dinner.

We calculated how meal kit delivery services stack up against grocery prices, and the findings aren’t surprising, even amid rising food costs across the country. That’s right probably It’s always cheaper to buy groceries at the store, and you prepare food, especially if you buy in person rather than having it delivered.

Read more: I Test Meal Kits For A Living: 7 Costly Mistakes

Meal kit prices are easy to compare. What’s hard to answer is whether any actually deliver value comparable to what a grocery store would cost — and whether some services give you more bang for your buck than others.

So I did the math. Considering the seven most popular meal kit delivery services, many of which appear on our Best Meal Kits of 2026 list, here’s how they stack up, from highest to lowest, based on the value they offer for the price. (Subtract the savings in the right column to make the same meal yourself, getting closer in price between the meal kit and actual grocery costs.)

And while these represent the best value meal kits, we’ve gone through it again to find the absolute cheapest meal kits available in 2026.

• Cost: $11.49 per serving plus extra charge for premium items
• Combined savings on this HelloFresh do-it-yourself box: 35%
• HelloFresh full review

Note that Blue Apron has recently changed its pricing structure and moved away from a subscription model. Each meal now has a specific price per serving, and you can buy meal kits whenever you want without having to track recurring weekly deliveries.

• Cost: $6.99 per serving plus additional charges for premium items
• Combined savings on this EveryPlate DIY box: 40%
• Full review of EveryPlate

How did I do the math

Using the weekly menus available online for each of the seven meal kit services, I chose two common offerings for each, making sure to include some type of protein: a steak or prime red meat dish, a shrimp dish or a chicken or chicken option. (Sometimes the sandwich took the form of a burrito, wrap or tacos.)

Armed with grocery store prices from Kroger in Michigan cities (a pretty good average of current grocery prices in the US), I added the split prices to the stated price of each ingredient, then calculated the savings between the price of the meal kit and what you’d pay to make the same recipe by getting the ingredients yourself.

To illustrate my algebra, here is an example from one of the kits:

• Cost of meal kit: $11.99 per serving for two servings: $23.99
• The cost of making two meals with groceriesPrice: $12.14
• It’s economical to make this recipe yourself: 49%

Note that the only cost I was counting here was the food cost of the standard meal kit model. I didn’t take into account delivery costs or promotional offers (offered with bulk meal kits when you start, or for lapsed customers returning to the service)

I had to make some measurements for certain ingredients (eg, about 6 teaspoons per fluid ounce or the weight of a standard-sized potato), but those measurements were kept the same throughout the meal kits. I have chosen the least expensive type of ingredient available, unless a specific type or standard (such as organic) is specified.

I’ve shown the percentage savings for each item so you can do it yourself, but to come up with the total savings per box, I added up the value of all the ingredients in the box and divided it by the total price of the box, rather than averaging the three percentage savings for each.

Another value recognition

“Value” can be difficult to quantify because your values ​​shape how you perceive costs. Organic products, more responsible packaging or more cooking options can play a bigger role in decision-making than the actual food costs listed here.

That said, the biggest price difference between the foods I listed was in the organic choices: Green Chef and Sunbasket, because the organic produce and high-quality store-bought proteins were closer in price to their regular counterparts than the higher prices in those meal kits you wouldn’t believe. Sunbasket, surprisingly, has a very low cost per serving, but my calculations showed that you get less from those boxes than from those with regular ingredients.

I’ve also listed the cost of each ingredient, but your idea of ​​cost may depend on whether you already have certain items in stock. For example, if you already have garlic powder on hand, you might not count that as an expense, since you didn’t have to spend it grocery shopping this week. (That 11 cents worth of garlic powder probably doesn’t make much of a difference to the bottom line anyway.)

On the other hand, a specialty ingredient that isn’t a base — truffle dust, for example — will feel more expensive because you have to buy it directly to use only part of it, even though there’s plenty left over to use in other recipes. (That special ingredient will hit you hard when you buy it, because it’s truffles.)

Another consideration to note is that every recipe here calls for 10 ounces of shrimp. If your supermarket doesn’t have a seafood counter that allows you to buy in bulk, you may find that frozen shrimp are only available in 12-ounce packs. I calculated the price of only 10 ounces called, but the real money is more, and it is possible that you will use all 12 ounces and not save 2 in the future.

Getting the most for your money with any meal kit

Given these statistics, I’ve found that the best value, regardless of which service you choose, is for premium-ish items that don’t come with a premium markup. Meat and seafood-based meals will always have a higher DIY cost than vegetarian or pasta-based meals, which are cheaper to put together yourself, so the difference between making those meals yourself versus getting them from a meal kit is huge.

The value really comes down to finding cheap protein in your area. The availability of shrimp in suburban Michigan in January has increased those DIY costs, which may not be the case on the coast or in other seasons. To make the most of your meal kit money, regardless of which product menu you choose, check local protein prices and choose your meals accordingly.

What else? Here we are seven ways to expand your food kit service and the best food services to stay healthy in 2026.