Whether you order a
McFlurry, a Big Mac, or something off the value menu, you’ve probably noticed that McDonald’s prices are going up. And your eyes (and wallet) aren’t deceiving you—fast food is getting increasingly more expensive.
McDonald’s revenue has surged beyond initial predictions, with the chain making a whopping $6.69 billion in Q3 of last year. McDonald’s executives have credited “strategic menu price increases” for their high profits.
And customers are not having it. A post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, shared photos of a McDonald’s menu in Darien, Connecticut, where a Big Mac meal cost nearly $18. But not every drive-thru is experiencing the same skyrocketing prices. In fact, one research firm calculated that some McDonald’s locations in some states charge far less than the national average for the same exact same food items.
Research firm NetCredit used online data from GrubHub to determine the cost of the same meal in every state: a Big Mac, an order of French fries, and a 10-piece order of Chicken McNuggets. Using these figures, NetCredit calculated the national average price, then compared that to the cost in each individual state to find the “percentage premium.”
And the results were honestly staggering. Factors like the average cost of living, accessibility, and transportation all play a role in how much a McDonald’s meal costs. But we also noticed a few unique patterns that prompted some questions.
Why is McDonald’s so much cheaper in the South? Why do neighboring states (like North and South Carolina) have menu prices that are so different from each other? Why does McDonald’s in Massachusetts cost over 20 percent more than the national average?
We may never receive answers to our questions, but now we know that sometimes it’s worth crossing state lines to get a cheaper burger. Want to see how expensive it is to eat McDonald’s in your state? We took NetCredit’s data and ranked each state’s McDonald’s prices from most to least expensive.
1. Alaska
2. Massachusetts
3. Vermont
4. California
5. New York
6. Hawaii
7. Washington
8. New Jersey
9. Pennsylvania
10. Rhode Island
11. New Hampshire
12. Connecticut
13. Oregon
14. Colorado
15. Kansas
16. Delaware
17. Maryland
18. Minnesota
19. Nebraska
20. Arizona
21. New Mexico
22. South Carolina
23. North Dakota
24.Kentucky
25. Maine
26. Nevada
27. Missouri
28. Michigan
29. West Virginia
30. Ohio
31. Florida
32. Oklahoma
33. Arkansas
34. South Dakota
35. Tennessee
36. Illinois
37. Louisiana
38. Mississippi
39. Montana
40. Iowa
41. Wisconsin
42. Alabama
43. Idaho
44. Indiana
45. Utah
46. North Carolina
47. Georgia
48. Virginia
49. Texas
50. Wyoming
Are you surprised by where your home state falls on this list? Let us know in the comments.