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Ingredient prices

Milk price per gallon

Whole milk, US city average, per gallon. Small per serving, large in aggregate for any operation with a coffee programme.

Also known as whole milk or dairy.

October 2026 · US city average

$4.11

per gal

1 month
−2.9%
3 months
−4.9%
12 months
−0.6%

2024-01 to 2026-09

4.323.86Jan '24Sep '26

What the last 12 months did to a plate

Representative portions and volumes — substitute your own. The point isn't the exact figure, it's that a −0.6% move on one ingredient turns into a specific annual number on a specific dish, and that number is usually larger than it feels.

DishUsesCost todayChange per platePer year at 640/wk
Latte (12 oz)8 oz$0.26−$0.00−$47.84
Cappuccino5 oz$0.16−$0.00−$9.81
Béchamel (per portion)3 oz$0.10−$0.00−$3.92
Milkshake6 oz$0.19−$0.00−$5.33

Volumes differ per row — each is a plausible weekly count for that dish. Computed from the BLS series above; your supplier price will differ by region, volume and grade.

What moves this price

  • Herd size and yield per cow. Both move slowly, which makes fluid milk one of the steadier items on this list.
  • Feed costs. Flow through with a lag, as with every animal protein.
  • Class pricing and cheese demand. Fluid milk competes with cheese and butter manufacturing for the same raw supply.

Buying notes

  • For a café, milk is the second-largest ingredient cost after coffee and the one most affected by waste — steamed milk left in a pitcher is pure loss and it happens all day.
  • Alternative milks cost two to four times as much per gallon. If you don't charge for them, a shifting mix quietly raises your beverage cost with no price change and no obvious cause — this is a genuine and common margin leak.
  • Track it per drink rather than per gallon. Cost per beverage is the number that survives a volume change; see usage rate.

This is the national average. Yours is the one that matters.

Review a supplier invoice and the affected recipe in Marji to check your own plate cost. Quantities, units, usable yields and ingredient costs need review before a margin can guide a price decision. Ongoing costing starts with a free 14-day trial, with no card required; continued costing access requires a paid plan.

Start a 14-day costing trial →See it in the index

When a price change means a new menu price, a free QR menu lets you update it without reprinting.

To cost a recipe with your own purchase price and usable yield, compare free recipe costing apps and their plan limits. The guide includes a calculation you can check before entering your full menu.

Recent ingredient cost and pricing guides

Put market changes in context, check a dish with your own costs, and decide how to explain a menu price change.

Related terms