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Is it cheaper to cook at home or order delivery?

Cook it or order it? Brutally honest meal cost calculator with macros across countries & supermarkets.

Free meal cost calculator with macros. Compare home-cooking vs delivery across 7 countries and 20+ supermarkets. Cost-per-protein, food cost percentage, hidden gas/water/oil utility cost. No signup, no upload — runs in your browser.

Prices: 2026-Q2 averages, last refreshed 2026-06-15. Sources: chain weekly flyers; government food price indexes (US BLS, Statistics Korea, INE, ONS, StatCan, ABS, INEGI); manual in-store spot checks. Methodology →

7 countries · 20+ supermarkets

Compare prices across Korea, US, Spain, Mexico, UK, Canada, Australia. Each country has 3 supermarkets — Walmart vs Whole Foods, E-mart vs Coupang, Mercadona vs Carrefour.

Macros + cost-per-protein included

Every ingredient has calories/protein/carbs/fat data. We compute cost per 100 kcal and per gram of protein — the metrics meal-prep folks actually care about.

Browser-only, no signup, no upload

Recipe inputs never leave your device. Share via URL hash (lz-string + base64). No login, no analytics cookies, no server-side database.

Build your recipe

Boil, fry, bake — picks the right gas/water/oil cost.

⚡ Try a famous recipe

New here? Pick one to see the calculator in action.

Recipe name

Country (where you shop)

Supermarket

Cooking method

Servings

Cook time (min)18 min

Ingredients · 6

Spaghetti(200 g)

Pancetta(100 g)

Egg(3 )

Pecorino Romano(60 g)

Black pepper(4 g)

Sea salt(5 g)

Results

United States · Walmart

Ingredients$4.37

Gas / water / oil$0.09

Total cost$4.47

Per serving$2.23

Delivery (avg)$22.00

You save$19.77

Macros · per serving

Calories829 kcal

Protein44.1 g

Carbs77.2 g

Fat37.3 g

Cost / 100 kcal$0.27

Cost / 1 g protein$0.05

Budget goal

Set a target to check if this recipe meets it.

Max cost / serving

Min protein / serving (g)

Verdict

This is what 'cooking pays' looks like. Frame this receipt.

You save $19.77 vs delivery

Per serving: $2.23

💪 MACRO HERO

Bulking efficiency: certified.

MealMaxx Score

74/ 100

B — Solid

Protein · 30%97

Density · 20%19

Time · 15%43

Delivery · 35%100

Weighted: protein 30% · density 20% · time 15% · delivery 35%. Built for meal-preppers + gym folks.

Shopping list

Black pepper4 g
Egg3
Pancetta100 g
Pecorino Romano60 g
Sea salt5 g
Spaghetti200 g

Per serving$2.23 You save $19.77Results ↓

How it works

Three steps, under a minute.

Pick a country & supermarket

Korea, US, Spain, Mexico, UK, Canada, AU. Each has 3 supermarket price tiers.

Build the recipe

Pick a famous dish or build from scratch. Add ingredients with grams. Pick cooking method (boil/fry/bake/raw).

Read the verdict

Total cost, per-serving cost, macros, cost-per-protein, delivery comparison — and a brutally honest verdict.

Browse by country

Each country: 3 supermarkets + popular dish prices.

Ingredient price tables

South Korea United States Spain Mexico United Kingdom Canada Australia

From the blog

Insights from per-supermarket, per-country price data.

All posts →

deep-dive · 2026-05-03

Why Carbonara costs 5× more in Korea than in Italy

Same 4 ingredients, completely different price. Breakdown of why Korean Carbonara is the world's most expensive — and how to get it under $5/serving.

data · 2026-05-03

Cost per gram of protein: 2026 ranking by source & country

We computed cost-per-1g-protein for chicken, beef, eggs, tofu, fish, beans across 4 countries. The 2x cheapest source is also the most ignored.

guide · 2026-05-03

The hidden gas cost: how much does cooking actually add to your bill?

Most cost calculators ignore the gas, water, and oil. We didn't. Here's the math — and why fried food is silently expensive.

Glossary

Plain-language definitions for cost per serving, food cost percentage and cost per gram of protein.

All terms →

Cost per serving

Cost per serving = (total ingredient cost + gas/water/oil used to cook) ÷ servings actually produced. It is the only home-cooking number that can be compared like-for-like against a delivery menu price.

Food cost percentage explained

FCP = ingredient cost ÷ selling price × 100. Restaurants aim for 28-35%. Below 25% = healthy margin, above 40% = bleeding cash.

Cost per gram of protein

Cost per 1g protein = (total cost) ÷ (total grams of protein). It's the single best metric for budget bulking — eclipses 'protein per serving' since portions vary.

FAQ

The most common questions about meal costs, macros and supermarket prices. Marked up with FAQPage schema so AI search engines can cite the answers.

+How accurate are the supermarket prices?

Prices are quarterly averages from each chain's weekly flyers and government food price indexes (BLS in the US, Statistics Korea, INE in Spain, etc.). Real prices vary by week and promotion — use the calculator as a planning baseline, not a quote.

+What does the 'cost per gram of protein' metric show?

It divides total recipe cost by total protein in grams. The lower the number, the more efficient the recipe is for hitting protein macros — useful for meal-preppers, athletes, and anyone tracking food cost per macro target.

+Why include gas/water/oil cost?

Cooking utility costs are real and city-dependent. A 30-minute oven bake in Seoul vs Mexico City changes the meal cost by $0.40-1.20. Most calculators ignore this; we don't.

+How do I share my recipe?

Tap Share — we encode your recipe into the URL hash using lz-string + base64. Anyone with the link sees the same recipe locally. Nothing is uploaded server-side.

+Is there a 'pro chef' mode for plate cost?

Yes — set servings to 1 and the per-serving figure is your plate cost. Ingredient prices are stored per 100 g, so scaling a recipe from 2 covers to 40 keeps the plate cost accurate. Pair it with the food cost percentage formula (ingredient cost ÷ menu price × 100) to back out the menu price you need for a 30% food cost.

+How much does it cost to make a meal at home vs ordering delivery?

Home cooking a typical meal costs $2–8 per serving in the US, $1–5 in South Korea, and $2–7 in Spain — compared to $8–20+ for delivery. Cooking saves 50–70% on average, but delivery wins on time. The key variable is your labor cost assumption. Use the calculator above to compare your specific dish across countries and supermarkets.

+How do I calculate food cost percentage?

Food cost percentage = (total ingredient cost ÷ menu selling price) × 100. A restaurant targets 28–35%. For home cooking, multiply ingredient cost per serving by number of servings to get total recipe cost, then divide by the number of portions. The calculator does this automatically — just add your ingredients with gram weights.

+Is the site really free?

Yes, $0 forever. Funded by Google AdSense + sponsor links to grocery delivery and kitchen tools (clearly labeled). No premium tier, no paywall, no email signup.