Consumer Reports Investigation Says Instacart Might Be Charging You More
As food prices keep rising, consumers develop clever grocery shopping strategies to save money. They stretch their budgets by cooking their own meals, clipping coupons, and comparing prices to get the best deal. However, it's hard to save money on food if a major grocery ordering and delivery service charges some customers more than others for their groceries.
A joint investigation by Consumer Reports, Groundwork Collaborative, and More Perfect Union (published on Consumer Reports), found evidence that Instacart is charging customers different prices for the same groceries. The team started its research in September of 2025 and reported the results in December. Per the joint research, prices can be up to 23% higher for identical groceries, shopped for by different customers. This is a result of Instacart's "algorithmic pricing" system.
Algorithmic pricing isn't illegal, even if Instacart users don't know that it happes. Driven by Instacart's artificial intelligence, customers are charged a variety of prices for identical goods. Per Consumer Reports, Instacart calls the price variances "negligible" — even as the company admits to investors that Instacart "shoppers are not aware that they're in an experiment." Not shockingly, most Americans do not want customers to pay different prices for the same products. In a 2025 Consumer Reports survey of United States adults, 72% rejected the idea of dynamic, algorithmic pricing when it came to grocery bills.
The joint investigation into Instacart's pricing practices
The team put together a group of 437 volunteers to help investigate Instacart prices. The volunteers were split into four groups for participating in video-observed shopping sessions. Research shoppers put together carts of 18 to 20 goods, predetermined by Consumer Reports, at Safeway and Target. Another test was conducted in person with volunteers to observe factors like the time and the day of the week.
Shoppers added set items to their carts, then took screenshots of them without actually paying for the orders. Of the 200 test orders in the investigation, Consumer Reports found that all were subject to Instacart's pricing experimentation. Prices at Instacart partner retailers including Albertsons, Costco, Kroger, and Sprouts Farmers Market were also impacted by algorithmic pricing, according to a separate test. Some items were marked up at a difference of only seven cents, while other items were priced as much as $2.56 higher.
A closer look at one of the tests reveals that the shoppers experienced a variance of 8.4% (which equaled to a difference of almost $10) on the same items while shopping at the same location. In this test, 39 volunteers added 20 pre-determined basic basket items to their carts. The carts had five different price points for the exact same groceries. The lowest cart cost $114.34, while the highest cost $123.93. Only 3 of the 39 shoppers got the lowest-priced baskets, while most would pay $119.85, $122.15, or $122.45 for their selections.
Price variances were not uniform, and some prices were deceptive
The joint team found that Cheerios cereal prices varied 8.9%, Lucerne eggs prices varied 8.0%, and Ruffles chips prices diverged 8.0%. Skippy peanut butter, Wheat Thins crackers, and Oscar Mayer turkey all had a strong price variance, between 22.6% and 23.4%. Other products showed no variation in prices, including Heinz ketchup, Barilla pasta, and Premium saltine crackers.
Consumer Reports also found that the "original" prices displayed on the shoppers' Instacart app varied widely between shoppers. For example, the final "sale" price on Premium crackers would be $3.99 for all shoppers, while original prices were seen as $5.93, $5.99, and $6.69. This practice is called "fictitious pricing," and it violates the Guides Against Deceptive Pricing section of the Code of Federal Regulations.
Dynamic pricing is common in online shopping, but when it is applied in real time to a grocery order (with a dose of fictitious pricing), it's understandable that some shoppers may want to cancel their Instacart subscriptions and get their groceries themselves. However, Instacart is still a giant when it comes to groceries, achieving almost 250 million orders in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2025. Instacart delivery drivers may weigh the pros and cons of the meager fees earned from the tough side hustle, but Instacart is still worth $11.81 billion.