The Price of Lazy: Nearly 4 in 10 Americans Get Delivery Weekly — and It’s Costing Them Nearly 80% More Than Pickup

Written by  Matt Schulz

Edited by  Dan Shepard

+ 1 More

Published Oct 28, 2025 Content was accurate at the time of publication.

Nearly 4 in 10 Americans get food delivered at least once a week. And when they do, they’re likely to spend almost 80% more than if they picked it up from the restaurant themselves.

LendingTree reviewed DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats delivery costs for typical orders from five popular chains — Buffalo Wild Wings, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Starbucks and Taco Bell — in the nation’s 10 biggest metros. 

We compared the cost of getting meals from these chains delivered to the cost of picking them up at the restaurant. We also compared delivery costs to those of buying a frozen version of the meal or preparing a homemade version. (See the full methodology.) 

The difference in costs was staggering. Here’s what we found.

Key findings

Be ready to pay nearly 80% more

Our review revolved around these five orders from some of the nation’s biggest fast-food and fast-casual chains in the nation’s 10 largest metros:

First, we looked at the cost of each of these orders if we had picked them up at the restaurant. The 10-metro average was $11.71, ranging from $5.27 at Starbucks to $18.28 at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Then, we looked at the cost of having each of those meals delivered using the three largest services — DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats. Our analysis revealed that people with a free subscription to these services should expect to pay an average of 79.5% more across the 10 metros when having these meals delivered rather than picking them up at the restaurant. 

While we found differences in delivery costs among the three services reviewed, they were less than $1.

Pickup vs. delivery costs among major food-delivery services

Of course, costs will vary based on the items you buy — and where you live, which we’ll get to shortly — but the message is clear: If you want to get your next meal delivered instead of picking it up, prepare for a substantial additional cost.

When compared to other alternatives, the disparity grows dramatically. Compared to buying a similar frozen meal from the grocery store, delivery is more than three times the cost — 279.9%, or $15.48. When cooking a comparable meal at home, delivery costs a stunning 601.7% (or $17.98) more. (See the methodology for more details on how we did these analyses.)

Delivery costs vs. other methods of getting a meal

Atlanta has heftiest delivery markup; Houston has smallest

None of the nation’s 10 biggest metros is immune to high food-delivery costs, but our analysis revealed significant differences in the markup between delivery and pickup.  

Atlanta eaters can expect to pay 92.2% more when getting delivery — the highest in the nation and significantly higher than the 10-metro average of 79.5%. New York (89.1%) and Philadelphia (82.8%) have the next highest increases. 

Meanwhile, Houston has the smallest difference in cost between delivery and pickup at 67.0%. Miami (69.3%) and Chicago (71.8%) aren’t far behind.

Pickup vs. delivery costs in nation’s 10 biggest metros

When comparing delivery to making the meal at home, the biggest disparity is in Phoenix, where delivery costs 730.2% more. The smallest gap is in Chicago at 514.3%. 

Comparing delivery to frozen meals, New York has the biggest gap at 315.6%, while Miami’s is the smallest at 245.0%.

Cost of delivery vs. home food vs. frozen food, by metro

Nearly 4 in 10 Americans get delivery at least once a week

A survey done in tandem with our delivery-cost analysis makes it clear that high delivery prices aren’t keeping people from ordering in.

About 4 in 10 Americans (38%) order delivery each week, including 24% who do it at least a few times a week. Parents of kids younger than 18 are among the most likely to order food delivery, which should be understandable to anyone who has had young kids. Six of 10 parents of young kids order at least once a week, including 43% who do so multiple times a week.

More than a third (37%) of people who’ve ordered previously say they did it more often in the past year. Again, parents of young kids (56%) are among the most likely to say so, as are millennials ages 29 to 44 (49%) and men (47%). 

Also, the more you earn, the more likely you are to say you’ve ordered food delivery more often in the past year.

Meanwhile, 39% of women, 37% of Gen Zers ages 18 to 28 and 36% of baby boomers ages 61 to 79 who’ve gotten delivery in the past say they ordered less often in the past year.

Massive gender, generation gaps exist when it comes to delivery habits

A closer examination of our survey data reveals significant differences among various demographics. 

For example, men are far more likely than women to order delivery. Almost half of men (49%) order delivery at least once a week, including 34% who do it multiple times a week.

We also found a large variance by age group. Millennials are the most likely to order food delivery at least once a week (56%), followed closely by Gen Zers (50%). Those are far bigger percentages than those seen with Gen Xers ages 45 to 60 (32%) and baby boomers (12%). 

Perhaps not surprisingly, we also found significant differences among income brackets. While only 12% of Americans who earn less than $30,000 report ordering delivery a few days a week, the figure jumps to 44% among those earning at least $100,000 annually.

Tips for enjoying delivery without wrecking your finances

When we asked those who had ordered delivery why they did it, convenience (43%) was the top reason, followed by treating themselves (28%). I can certainly relate to that myself, and I know millions of Americans share the same sentiment. 

The trick, however, becomes figuring out how to indulge ourselves without delivering ourselves into debt. 

Here are a few tips:

Methodology

To evaluate the cost of food delivery compared to other dining options, researchers compared the delivery costs from three apps with the pickup costs across five popular meals in the 10 major metros.

The delivery apps examined were:

The restaurants and meals included were:

The metros analyzed were:

Researchers also compared each of these meals to the cost of a similar preprepared option from a grocery store. Additionally, we created simple recipes to approximate restaurant meals at home and estimated the per-meal cost of preparing them. The recipes included:

Buffalo Wild Wings-style 10-piece:

Chick-fil-A-style chicken sandwich with waffle fries and a Coke:

Chipotle-style chicken burrito bowl (chicken, cilantro-lime rice and black beans): 

Starbucks-style cold brew:

Taco Bell-style cantina chicken burrito meal (burrito with chips and queso):

For each restaurant order, we selected the closest frozen or ready-to-serve retail items that matched the core format, protein and flavor profile, with no added components beyond what was purchased.

To estimate cost differences across metros, researchers first calculated the price of the meals using Walmart prices in the New York metro. We then applied regional price parity adjustments for the other nine metros to estimate comparable costs in each location.

Additionally, LendingTree commissioned QuestionPro to conduct an online survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 79 from Sept. 2 to 4, 2025. The survey was administered using a nonprobability-based sample, and quotas were used to ensure the sample base represented the overall population. Researchers reviewed all responses for quality control. 

We defined generations as the following ages in 2025: