McDonald’s is taking a huge bite out of American wallets.
In a new study, financial tech company Self unwrapped startling stats surrounding delivery apps in the US to better understand the rising cost of fast food.
By placing the same McDonald’s order in the 100 largest cities in the nation on all the major delivery apps — DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub — their search also revealed gaping price discrepancies across the US.
Each order included a Big Mac Combo Meal, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe Large Meal, a 6-Piece Chicken McNuggets Happy Meal and a Hamburger Happy Meal.
In 2025, the study showed that the average cost of that order at a restaurant was $36.95 — a 23.7% increase since 2023.
That price nearly McDoubled when delivered via third-party delivery apps with an average cost of $62.36 — a 7.8% increase since 2023.
In the 2023 study, they found that the same order for delivery varied as much as $33.88 between 100 cities.
While the price of food alone did increase by 19.3% on delivery apps between 2023 and 2025, there are also delivery fees, service fees, sales tax and other city-dependent fees that are taken into account.
In the 2025 study, DoorDash turned out to be the most expensive delivery app option, with the meal priced at $63.21, which is 71.1% higher than buying directly from the Golden Arches.
Uber Eats was the second most expensive app, with a 69.4% markup costing $62.60, and Grubhub was the cheapest at $61.26, which is a 65.8% increase.
In 2023, the average markup between ordering directly from McDonald’s and using a delivery app was 93.8% — and despite price hikes since 2025, the findings showed that metric decreased to 68.6% on average.
Uber Eats alone had the greatest markup difference in the study, slashing by 34.8% between 2023 and 2025.
The study also factored in a 15% tip for the delivery drivers, though that’s not necessarily mandatory, and some people may choose another tipping option.
According to the research, the most affordable option for McDonald’s would be to go pick it up yourself, but if you do use a delivery app, the most affordable option would be the app that has the best discount code for you at the time of ordering.
“Remember: the codes can be account-specific, so someone else you live with may have discounts you aren’t able to use,” the study said.
The study authors also emphasized to keep in mind that the data is from an analysis that focused just on McDonald’s.
“McDonald’s is a large corporation that can afford to keep its markup lower than smaller businesses; consequently, the price increase for a local independent restaurant, for example, may be even higher, or if they are running a promotion, it may be lower.”
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