The Canadian coffee price index

The cheapest brewed coffee Froqel has verified in Canada costs $1.00, and it is not sold by a coffee chain. It is the regular coffee at an IKEA restaurant, and it undercuts a small Tim Hortons by 37%.

The most interesting number on this page is not the cheapest one, though. It is $1.47 — what a cup of McDonald's coffee costs if you buy twelve of them at once, against $1.99 for buying one.

What this compares, and what it doesn't

This is a price index of brewed drip coffee, the plain cup, built from the menu files behind this site. Espresso drinks are a different product priced on a different logic and are not ranked against a drip coffee here.

Two limits worth stating before the table.

Starbucks is not in this index. It is the obvious third name in any Canadian coffee comparison and Froqel has not verified a single Starbucks price. Publishing one would mean copying a number I have not checked, which is the practice this site exists to avoid. When those prices are checked, Starbucks gets a row here and this page gets a new date at the top.

Sizes are not standardised across chains, and I have not corrected for that. A "medium" at one chain is not a medium at another, and only Tim Hortons publishes the volumes that would let you convert. The per-millilitre work that can be done is in the Tim Hortons coffee by the millilitre guide, which finds an extra large holds 71.5% more than a medium for 28.4% more money. Read this page as what a cup costs to buy, not as a cost-per-millilitre ranking.

The index, cheapest to dearest

The whole index spans $2.49, from a dollar to $3.49, and the shape of it tracks the format rather than the coffee. The two cheapest cups are sold at a furniture store and a doughnut chain. The dearest is sold at a table by someone who will refill it.

Three comparisons fall out of the table:

• A Tim Hortons extra large costs less than a Wendy's small. $2.35 against $2.39, for what is certainly more coffee.
• The Burger King and Tim Hortons ladders cross at the large size. Burger King is $0.10 dearer small ($1.69 against $1.59) and $0.06 dearer medium ($1.89 against $1.83), then $0.08 cheaper large ($1.99 against $2.07). Whichever is cheaper depends entirely on the cup you order, which is not how either chain advertises it.
• A sit-down coffee costs about three times a drive-thru one. Chuck's Roadhouse at $3.49 against Tim Hortons small at $1.59.

The carafe: the cheapest cup in Canadian fast food

McDonald's sells a coffee carafe that serves 12 for $17.69. Nobody prices it per cup, so here it is:

Buying twelve coffees at once costs $1.47 a cup, 25.9% less than buying one. That is the largest bulk discount on any drink priced anywhere on this site, and it puts a McDonald's cup below a small Tim Hortons, below a small Burger King, and second only to IKEA's dollar coffee in this whole index.

It survives tax, too, though the margin narrows. A single coffee at $1.99 falls under Ontario's small-order rebate and is taxed at 5%, coming to $2.09. The carafe at $17.69 is well over the threshold and takes the full 13%, coming to $19.99 — $1.67 a cup. Still $0.42 a cup cheaper than buying singles, and still cheaper than a medium Tim Hortons before tax.

If you are buying coffee for an office, a job site or a hockey team, this is the number to know, and it is not printed on any menu board as a per-cup figure.

Every coffee in Canada is taxed at 5% in Ontario

Here is the finding that applies to the whole index at once, and it is the reason the after-tax ranking looks exactly like the before-tax one.

Ontario rebates the 8% provincial portion of the HST on qualifying prepared food and beverages where the transaction total is $4.00 or less. Every single cup in the table above — including the $3.49 sit-down coffee at Chuck's Roadhouse, the dearest one measured — clears that threshold. So a coffee bought on its own is taxed at 5% in Ontario, the same rate as in Alberta, which has no provincial sales tax at all.

Coffee is the single most tax-advantaged thing you can buy in an Ontario restaurant, and almost nobody knows it, because the advantage disappears the moment you add anything to the order.

Buying the third coffee for the office costs $2.36 for a cup that lists at $1.83, because crossing $4.00 strips the rebate off the two underneath it. Two transactions instead of one, and all three stay at 5%. The rule and its legal basis are set out in the six-doughnut tax guide.

That also reframes the carafe. Twelve cups at $1.99 bought one at a time, in twelve separate transactions, would cost $23.88 plus 5% — $25.07. The carafe costs $19.99 all in. Bulk still wins by $5.08, but the gap is smaller than the pre-tax figures suggest, because the singles are getting a tax break the carafe does not.

What coffee costs against what it is sold beside

A cup of coffee is rarely the whole order, and its price only means something next to the thing you buy with it.

All four stay under $4.00 and all four are taxed at 5%. The IKEA pairing at $2.50 is the cheapest coffee-and-something in Canadian food service that Froqel has verified, and it costs less than a single medium coffee plus a donut at Tim Hortons by $0.92.

The McDonald's pairing is the one to watch: at $3.98 it clears the threshold by two cents. Swap the pie for a $2.59 muffin and the order becomes $4.58, the rate jumps to 13%, and the total goes from $4.18 to $5.18 — a dollar more, for sixty cents of extra food.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest coffee in Canada?

Of the prices Froqel has verified, the regular coffee at an IKEA restaurant at $1.00 is the cheapest brewed cup, ahead of a small Tim Hortons Original Blend at $1.59 and a small Burger King coffee at $1.69.

Is Tim Hortons coffee cheaper than McDonald's?

At the small and medium sizes, yes. A small Tim Hortons Original Blend is $1.59 and a medium is $1.83, against $1.99 for a McDonald's Premium Roast. McDonald's wins on volume: its 12-cup carafe works out to $1.47 a cup, cheaper than any single-cup price at either chain.

How much is a coffee at Tim Hortons in 2026?

Original Blend, Dark Roast and Decaf all cost $1.59 small, $1.83 medium, $2.07 large and $2.35 extra large, verified August 2026. Hot Tea is priced identically at all four sizes.

Why is there no Starbucks price on this page?

Because Froqel has not verified one. Every figure on this site is checked against a named source before it is published, and no Starbucks check has been done yet. A number copied from elsewhere would defeat the point of the index.

Do I pay tax on a coffee in Ontario?

Yes, but only 5%. Ontario rebates the 8% provincial portion of the HST on prepared food and beverages where the transaction total is $4.00 or less, and every brewed coffee in this index is under that. Buy enough coffees to pass $4.00 and the whole order jumps to 13%.

Is a McDonald's coffee carafe worth it?

For twelve cups, yes. At $17.69 it works out to $1.47 a cup against $1.99 for a single, a 25.9% saving. After Ontario tax it is $1.67 a cup against $2.09, because the carafe loses the small-order rebate a single coffee keeps.

Does a bigger coffee always cost less per millilitre?

At Tim Hortons, yes, all the way to extra large: 33.1 cents per 100 ml against 44.2 for a medium and 53.7 for a small. That is the only chain on this site that publishes the volumes needed to check it, and the full breakdown is in the coffee by the millilitre guide.

Methodology and disclaimer

Prices come from the verified menu files behind this site's Tim Hortons, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Cora, Chuck's Roadhouse and IKEA Canada pages, recorded August 2026. The McDonald's figures are from a single Toronto restaurant, 20 Eglinton Avenue East; McDonald's Canada does not publish a national price list. Wendy's hot coffee is published as a range and both ends appear in the index. Per-cup carafe figures and all percentages are arithmetic done here on those prices, not figures any chain publishes.

Tax calculations use Ontario's 13% HST and Ontario's point-of-sale rebate of the 8% provincial portion on qualifying prepared food and beverages totalling $4.00 or less, and the 5% GST for Alberta and the territories. Provinces outside the HST group treat restaurant food differently and are not modelled here. Provincial rates change; confirm your own before relying on the arithmetic. This page explains published tax rules and is not tax advice.

Froqel is an independent price guide. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any chain named here. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.