The numbers
| Month | Average price, 1 lb ground coffee |
|---|---|
| January 2020 | $4.17 |
| August 2020 | $4.50 |
| January 2022 | $5.14 |
| December 2022 | $6.47 |
| August 2023 | $6.09 |
| January 2024 | $6.12 |
| January 2025 | $7.02 |
| August 2025 | $8.87 |
| April 2026 | $9.72 |
| July 2026 | $9.32 |
| August 2026 | $9.30 |
Series APU0000717311, coffee, 100% ground roast, per pound, US city average (BLS). The price peaked at $9.72 in April 2026 and has eased a little since.
Prices move in steps
The line is not a slope. From January 2022 to December 2022 it climbed from $5.14 to $6.47, up 26%. Then it sat near $6.10 from August 2023 to January 2024. From January 2025 to August 2025 it climbed again, $7.02 to $8.87, up 26%. Two jumps account for most of the rise.
Why steps rather than a smooth rise is a question this page does not answer. The data shows when prices moved, not why.
A worked example
Example: a household buying 2 pounds of ground coffee a month. At January 2020 prices that is $8.35 a month. At July 2026 prices it is $18.63. The extra is $10.28 a month, about $123 a year, for the same coffee. This is an illustration, not your household.
Coffee vs prices in general
Headline CPI-U went from 259.918 in August 2020 to 334.98 in August 2026, up 28.9%. Coffee over the same months went from $4.50 to $9.30, up 106%. Coffee rose about 3.7 times as fast as the overall index. Not every item rose faster: the basket tool shows which ones did.
Common questions
Is this the price in cafes? No. It is the supermarket price of a pound of ground coffee, not a cup.
Is the price coming down? It is 4% below its April 2026 peak of $9.72 and still more than double its January 2020 level. Nothing here predicts where it goes next.
Where does the data come from? The BLS Average Price Data program, which collects prices in stores each month. Check the link below for the latest month.
Related tool
Price vs Inflation compares any price now against what inflation alone would have done. Try coffee: $4.17 in January 2020 against $9.32 in July 2026.
Sources
Coffee prices: BLS Average Price Data, series APU0000717311, retrieved October 12, 2026. Overall prices: BLS CPI-U, US city average, all items, August 2016 to August 2026, from the dataset on our basket page. Percentages and the worked example are our arithmetic, rounded.
Limits
Educational explanation, not tax, legal or investment advice. Examples are labelled. Nothing here promises a result.