Every price on AllRestaurantMenu comes from a documented process. This page explains exactly what our numbers mean, so you can judge how far to rely on them.
1. Choosing restaurants
For McDonald's USA we sample 78 restaurants: two in each of 39 cities chosen to cover every region of the country — large coastal metros, Sun Belt cities, the Midwest and the Mountain West. The same set of restaurants is re-checked each time we update, so changes over time are real changes, not a different sample.
For McDonald's UK we sample 77 restaurants in 36 towns and cities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: six in London, three each in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, and one or two in every other town.
2. Recording prices
We record each restaurant's complete public delivery menu (Uber Eats) on the check date, including breakfast, all-day and late-night items and each restaurant's listed breakfast hours. We use delivery menus because they are public, consistent and can be checked the same way in every city.
3. From delivery prices to restaurant prices
Restaurant chains do not publish counter prices, and their own apps hide menus behind a login. Delivery menus are public and can be checked the same way in every city, but restaurants price them higher to cover the delivery platform's commission (typically 15–30% of the order). Platform delivery and service fees are added on top at checkout and are not part of the menu price.
So we show two numbers. The delivery price is what we measured. The in-restaurant price is an estimate: the delivery price minus the typical markup for that country. We measure the markup on the one item with an independent in-restaurant price — the Big Mac, recorded twice a year by The Economist's Big Mac Index (CC BY 4.0):
- the US: Big Mac $7.40 on delivery vs $6.22 in the restaurant (July 2026) — a 19% markup
- the UK: Big Mac £6.29 on delivery vs £5.49 in the restaurant (July 2026) — a 15% markup
The same markup is applied to every item, so an individual restaurant's counter price can differ from our estimate by a few pence or cents in either direction. Estimates are always labelled "est." or "≈".
4. Calculating the numbers
- Typical price — the median of all prices recorded for the item (half of restaurants charge less, half more).
- Price range — the lowest and highest price recorded for that item.
- City price — US: the lower of the prices at the sampled restaurants in that city; UK: the median of the sampled restaurants (London has six, so a minimum would favour it).
- City index — the cost of the same fixed basket of items in each city.
- Value per dollar / pound — official protein or calories divided by the typical price.
- UK meal prices — the main item plus the median "make it a meal" upgrade read from each item's options.
5. Price history
Year-by-year Big Mac prices since 2000 come from The Economist's Big Mac Index (last survey of each year). Restaurant inflation comes from official price indices: the US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI for limited-service meals and snacks, and the ONS CPI for restaurants and cafés in the UK (Open Government Licence). From our own checks onwards, every new price check is kept so that changes can be shown item by item.
6. Nutrition and allergens
Calories, macronutrients, caffeine and allergen statements come from the restaurant's official published nutrition information for the standard recipe. Allergens are combined from every default component of an item (bun, patty, sauce, cheese, and so on). Customizations change these values. In the UK we follow the regulated list of 14 allergens, which McDonald's UK marks in bold in each ingredient list; energy is shown in kcal and kJ, salt instead of sodium, and % values refer to the adult Reference Intake.
7. Sizes
For items sold in several sizes (fries, drinks, coffee, shakes) the delivery menu lists one base price; we publish that price and say so in the table notes. Nutrition for these items is for the size stated in the table.
8. Corrections
If you find an error, contact us. We fix confirmed errors quickly and re-check the affected items at the next update.
Last full price check: October 12, 2026.