Tim Hortons coffee by the millilitre: which size is actually cheapest
Verified August 6, 2026Updated September 2, 2026CAD, before taxGuide
Nobody orders coffee by the millilitre. You pick a size out of habit, hand over the money, and never find out what the liquid actually cost you.
It is worth finding out once, because the answer is lopsided. A Tim Hortons small is 53.7 cents per 100 ml and an extra large is 33.1 cents. Same coffee, same pot, a 62% difference in what a mouthful costs, decided entirely by which cup the cashier reaches for.
The reason is that almost nothing in the price of a coffee is coffee. The cup, the lid, the sleeve, the labour and the second the cashier spends on you cost the same whatever the size, so the small has to carry all of that on very little liquid.
What this measures, and what it doesn't
This page covers Tim Hortons drip coffee in full, because it is the one place where both halves of the division are solid. The Original Blend price ladder comes from the verified menu file behind the Tim Hortons page, and Tim Hortons publishes its cup capacities: small 10 oz, medium 14 oz, large 20 oz, extra large 24 oz. Millilitre figures below convert at 29.57 ml per US fluid ounce.
Two chains people expect to see here are missing, and the reason is the same in both cases.
McDonald's appears in the verified file with a single line: Premium Roast Coffee, $1.99. No sizes are attached to it. The file's own note is that cup sizes are not listed for its drinks, so those prices should be read as base prices per drink rather than as a specific size. Without a volume there is no denominator, so there is no cost per millilitre for McDonald's on this page, and I am not going to invent a four-size ladder to fill the gap.
Starbucks has no verified price file on this site at all. Nothing to divide.
Dark Roast, Decaf and Hot Tea are priced identically to Original Blend at every size, so every figure below holds if you drink one of those instead.
Cost per 100 ml, size by size
| Size | Fluid ounces | Volume | Price | Cost per 100 ml | Penalty vs. XL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 10 oz | 296 ml | $1.59 | 53.7 cents | +62.3% |
| Medium | 14 oz | 414 ml | $1.83 | 44.2 cents | +33.5% |
| Large | 20 oz | 591 ml | $2.07 | 35.0 cents | +5.8% |
| Extra large | 24 oz | 710 ml | $2.35 | 33.1 cents | baseline |
The curve is steepest at the bottom and nearly flat at the top. Moving from small to medium saves you a lot per millilitre. Moving from large to extra large saves almost nothing, 5.8%, because by then the fixed costs have already been spread thin.
What each step actually buys
The price ladder itself is unusually tidy: $0.24, then $0.24, then $0.28. Two identical steps and a wider last one. But the coffee those steps buy is not tidy at all.
| Step | Extra cost | Extra coffee | Cost of the extra coffee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small to medium | $0.24 | 118 ml | 20.3 cents per 100 ml |
| Medium to large | $0.24 | 177 ml | 13.6 cents per 100 ml |
| Large to extra large | $0.28 | 119 ml | 23.5 cents per 100 ml |
Medium to large is the best step on the menu. The same $0.24 that bought 118 ml a moment ago now buys 177 ml, because the jump from a 14 oz cup to a 20 oz cup is the biggest single volume increase in the lineup. At 13.6 cents per 100 ml, that increment is cheaper than any whole cup on the board.
Large to extra large is the worst step: the price rises for the only time in the ladder while the volume increase shrinks back to 119 ml. It is still worth taking if you will drink it, since the extra large remains the cheapest cup overall, but the upgrade itself is the weakest of the three.
Two mediums, or one extra large
An extra large holds 710 ml against a medium's 414: 71.5% more coffee for 28.4% more money.
Run that over a working month of 20 days. Twenty mediums cost $36.60 and give you 8,280 ml. Twenty extra larges cost $47.00 and give you 14,200 ml. Ten dollars and forty cents buys 5,920 additional millilitres of coffee, which is fourteen more mediums' worth.
The same arithmetic produces a household trick. Two people each wanting roughly a medium can buy two mediums for $3.66 and get 828 ml, or buy one extra large for $2.35 and split it into 710 ml. That is $1.31 saved for 118 ml less coffee — about half a medium's worth of shortfall, spread across two cups. Over 250 working days it comes to $327.50 a year, which is more than most people would guess a cup size is worth.
What the coffee is competing with
The size ladder is only half the picture. What you order matters more than what size you order it in.
A medium Original Blend is $1.83. A medium Latte is $3.69, almost exactly double, and a medium Iced Capp is $4.29. On the milk drinks the size steps behave differently too: everything built on a latte base moves $0.50, then $0.30, then $0.50, so medium to large is the cheap step on the latte line as well, at $0.30 against $0.50 on either side of it.
If you want the cheapest caffeine in the building, it is drip coffee in the biggest cup. If you want a latte, at least take the medium-to-large step, because it is the one size change on that drink that is not overpriced relative to its neighbours.
Frequently asked questions
Which Tim Hortons coffee size is the best value?
The extra large, at 33.1 cents per 100 ml. It is 24 oz for $2.35, against 53.7 cents per 100 ml for the 10 oz small. Ordering a small is the most expensive way to buy coffee at Tim Hortons by a margin of 62%.
How much coffee is in each Tim Hortons size?
Small 10 oz (296 ml), medium 14 oz (414 ml), large 20 oz (591 ml), extra large 24 oz (710 ml). The extra large was added in 2012, when the chain shifted its size names up a tier.
Which size upgrade is worth the money?
Medium to large. It costs $0.24 and adds 177 ml, an increment priced at 13.6 cents per 100 ml, cheaper per millilitre than any complete cup on the menu. Large to extra large costs more ($0.28) and adds less (119 ml), making it the weakest step even though the extra large is still the cheapest cup overall.
How much does a McDonald's coffee cost per millilitre in Canada?
I cannot tell you from verified data. The McDonald's file behind this site lists Premium Roast Coffee at $1.99 without a cup size attached, and its own note says the drink prices should not be read as a specific size. Without a volume there is nothing to divide by, so there is no figure here rather than an invented one.
Is a small coffee ever the right order?
Only if you will not drink more. Paying 53.7 cents per 100 ml for coffee you finish beats paying 33.1 cents for coffee you pour away, and the absolute difference between a small and an extra large is $0.76. The unit-price argument is real, but it stops mattering if the extra 414 ml goes cold on your desk.
Does milk and sugar cost extra?
Not in brewed drip coffee, where standard dairy and sweeteners are included at the counter. Specialty drinks are a different menu line with their own prices; a medium Latte is $3.69 against $1.83 for a medium coffee.
Methodology and disclaimer
Original Blend prices come from the verified Tim Hortons menu file behind this site's Tim Hortons page, recorded August 2026. Cup capacities are Tim Hortons' published sizes in fluid ounces, converted at 29.57 ml per US fluid ounce and rounded to the nearest millilitre. Cost per 100 ml is the price divided by that volume. No McDonald's or Starbucks per-millilitre figures are published here, because neither has a verified price paired with a cup size on this site. Prices exclude provincial sales taxes and can vary by franchise owner.
Froqel is an independent price guide. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any restaurant chain named here. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.