How much does a cup of coffee cost at home

How to calculate the cost per cup of coffee

The cost per cup is the price of the pack divided by the cups you get out of it. With K-Cups, pods and capsules each one makes one cup: a box of 24 K-Cups at $16.00 is $0.667 a cup. With a bag of coffee the cups are the weight of the bag divided by the coffee you use per cup: a 12 oz bag at 0.45 oz a cup makes 26.7 cups, so at $9.00 each cup costs $0.337.

The yearly cost is the cost per cup × cups a day × 365. The calculator does this for every row, marks the cheapest in yellow and shows how much you save in a year against the most expensive one.

Add the price of a machine and it also works out the payback: what that machine costs over the machine of the most expensive method, divided by what you save in a year. The starting amount per cup is 0.45 oz (12.8 g) for an 8 fl oz cup of drip coffee, close to the North American brewing ratio of 55 g of coffee per litre of water; the National Coffee Association's rule of thumb is 1 to 2 tablespoons for every 6 ounces of water. For espresso it is 7 g, the figure of the Italian Espresso National Institute, and for a moka pot 5 g (50 ml cups at about 1 part coffee to 10 parts water). You can change it on each row.

A worked example

In the US. The calculator opens with 2 cups a day. The prices are examples: use the ones from your store.

• Box A, 24 K-Cups at $16.00: $0.667 a cup, $486.67 a year
• Bag A, 12 oz of ground coffee at $9.00, 0.45 oz a cup: $0.337 a cup, $246.37 a year, with a $40 drip coffee maker
• Bag B, a 2 lb (32 oz) bag of whole beans at $20.00, 0.45 oz a cup: $0.281 a cup, $205.31 a year, with $70 for a coffee maker and a grinder

Whole beans cost the least: $281.35 a year less than K-Cups. The $40 coffee maker pays for itself in about 2 months, the $70 coffee maker and grinder in about 3 months. A month of coffee (60 cups) takes one 32 oz bag.

In grams (UK and elsewhere). With capsules at 4.00 for 10 (0.40 a cup), ESE pods at 12.50 for 50 (0.25), ground coffee for a moka pot at 3.50 for 250 g with 5 g a cup (0.07) and beans at 16.00 a kilo with 7 g a cup (0.112), the moka pot wins: 51.10 a year against 292.00 for the capsules. A 300 bean-to-cup machine saves 210.24 a year over capsules and pays for itself in about 17 months.

Coffee cost per year chart

Yearly cost by cost per cup and cups a day:

Cost per cup	1 a day	2 a day	3 a day
$0.28	$102.20	$204.40	$306.60
$0.34	$124.10	$248.20	$372.30
$0.67	$244.55	$489.10	$733.65
$0.80	$292.00	$584.00	$876.00

Every 10 cents a cup adds $36.50 a year for each daily cup.

Reading the box and the bag

For K-Cups, pods and capsules you only need the price and the count on the box. To compare name-brand and store-brand pods, put them on two rows: the calculator treats them as two methods.

For a bag of coffee enter the net weight in ounces (a 2 lb bag is 32 oz) and the coffee per cup. If you measure with a scoop, weigh one level scoop on a kitchen scale once and use that figure. A larger mug takes more coffee: at the same strength a 12 fl oz mug needs 1.5 times the coffee of an 8 fl oz cup.

In the Machine column enter the price of a machine you don't own yet. If it is already on your counter, leave 0: the money is spent and does not change which method is cheaper from now on.

Common mistakes

• Comparing box prices instead of cost per cup. A big box of pods costs more at the register and may still cost less per cup.
• Leaving the coffee per cup at the default. With beans and ground coffee the cost depends on how much you use: going from 0.35 to 0.45 oz raises it by about 29%.
• Counting the machine every year. You pay for it once, so the calculator puts it in the payback time and not in the yearly cost.
• Writing prices in cents. Enter the price as it reads on the receipt: 9.00, not 900.