new York
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Online grocery delivery service Instacart used AI to charge different prices for the same item, up to 20% more for different shoppers, according to a new report.
A investigation by Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative revealed Tuesday that Instacart was showing different prices on the same household products sold at well-known stores, including Albertsons, Costco, Kroger, Safeway and Target. The report states that customers “are unknowingly part of widespread AI-driven experiences.”
“Corporate practices like these raise prices for American families. When prices are no longer transparent, shoppers cannot compare. When prices are no longer predictable, shoppers cannot budget properly,” the organizations said in the report.
The report found that Instacart uses AI to gauge how “price sensitive” customers are, meaning how much grocery stores can charge for an item before the shopper decides not to buy it. It is different from dynamic pricingwhere prices change instantly based on supply and demand.
“This motive was confirmed by an email exchange between Instacart and Costco that was accidentally sent to (Consumer Reports) by Costco after we contacted the company to comment on our findings,” the report said. (Costco did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.)
This report comes at a time when Americans feel the pinch higher grocery costs, which are rising in part because of tariffs, immigration crackdowns and extreme weather affecting the food supply.
Instacart was chosen because it is “by far the dominant e-commerce grocery service,” with more than 250 million orders in the first three quarters of 2025, the organizations said.
The study asked 437 participants to purchase the exact same item on the service and also compare prices in store. The investigation revealed that “each of the volunteer buyers who participated in our tests was subjected to algorithmic pricing experiments.”
For example, a dozen eggs sold on Instacart at a single Safeway store in Washington, D.C., sold for between $3.99 and $4.28, $4.59 and $4.79. In another test, the price of a box of Safeway’s private label Corn Flakes varied 23% between the lowest and highest prices. — from $2.99 to $3.69.
In total, Instacart-dependent shoppers could see “a cost variation of approximately $1,200 per year” due to the AI-based technology used by the service, according to the report.
Instacart said in a comment to CNN that each retailer’s pricing policy is displayed on its storefront on the company’s app or website so customers can see the difference between online and in-store prices. (Prices for products sold on these apps are often higher due to labor costs and other fees.)
“Just as retailers have long tested prices in their physical stores to better understand consumer preferences, a subset of just 10 retail partners – those already charging markups – are doing the same online through Instacart,” a spokesperson said.
Instacart added that “limited, short-term, randomized testing” helps retailers decide which essential items should remain affordable for customers.