How Much Does Coffee Cost in the US?
Short answer: on October 19, 2026, a 12 oz bag of ground coffee cost $8.98 at H-E-B (CAFE Ole by H-E-B) and $8.99 at Target (Good & Gather Breakfast Blend), both $0.75 an ounce, checked on the retailers' online listings.
Coffee is the basket's inflation leader: the BLS coffee index rose 7.1% year over year in September 2026. In BLS average price data, ground roast coffee averaged $9.33 a pound in September 2026, which works out to about $7.00 for 12 oz, below the store brand bags we verified, because the average blends in cheaper bulk and private label coffee sold by the pound.
The prices we verified
H-E-B, CAFE Ole ground coffee, 12 oz: $8.98 ($0.75 an ounce). Target, Good & Gather Breakfast Blend ground coffee, 12 oz: $8.99 ($0.75 an ounce). Two competing chains landing within a cent of each other is common in coffee: everyone watches everyone else's bag price.
Ad prices this week: Kroger listed Starbucks coffee bags or K-Cups (10 to 12 oz or 10 count) at $7.99 for October 14 to 20, 2026, a name brand below the store brand regular price. Meijer listed larger Folgers, 19 to 26 oz, at $10.99, which is the better per-ounce deal for households that drink Folgers, roughly $0.42 to $0.58 an ounce depending on the canister.
What is a good deal on coffee?
Our guidance: compare coffee per ounce, always. At or below $0.60 an ounce for a mainstream ground coffee is a good price in the current market; at or below $0.50 an ounce, stock up, because coffee keeps for months sealed. The $0.75 an ounce regular price at both stores we track is the full-price benchmark to beat.
K-Cups and pods live in a different price world, often $0.75 to $1.00 per cup before the coffee inside is even counted. If pods are your habit, their sale price matters more than the bag price.
Why coffee prices keep rising
Coffee is an imported crop priced on world markets, and poor harvests in the major growing regions have kept green coffee expensive. The BLS nonalcoholic beverages group, which includes coffee, rose 3.8% year over year in September 2026, and the USDA forecasts the group up 4.2% across 2026.
Unlike eggs or chicken, coffee supply cannot respond in a season: new trees take years to bear. Expect coffee to stay at the top of the risers list, and expect roasters to keep shrinking the standard bag, which is why per-ounce math matters more than the sticker.
How to pay less for coffee
Do the per-ounce division in the aisle. A $10.99 canister can be cheaper coffee than an $8.99 bag, as this week's Meijer Folgers price shows.
Buy coffee on the brand's ad cycle: Starbucks at Kroger this week was $1 under the store brand regular price. Coffee brands rotate through ads roughly monthly at the big chains.
Check coffee against our weekly tracker. When two chains tie at $0.75 an ounce for weeks, the ad is the only real discount, and we flag it in US Grocery Deals Watch.
Coffee creeping from $7 to $9 a bag adds up to real money over a year of mornings. Track what you actually pay per item with free receipt scans, and Premium will flag when your regular items change price.