Gepubliceerd op 2026-10-05

Taiwanese fast food chains charge almost the same everywhere, unlike America

As fast food pricing becomes more data-driven, Drive Thru Index compared what five chains charge at each of their own restaurants in Taiwan, on 5 October 2026. The gap between a chain's cheapest and most expensive restaurant is at most 0%; in the US, the price of a McDonald's Big Mac varies by 125%.

Stand van 2026-10-05.

De belangrijkste feiten

• Pizza Hut: NT$432 for the Super Supreme (large) at all 330 restaurantsThe same basket of four items costs NT$838 at every one.
• KFC: NT$124 for the Fried Chicken (2 pc) at all 200 restaurantsThe same basket of five items costs NT$468 at every one.
• Napoli Pizza: NT$269 for the Supreme Pizza (large) at all 135 restaurantsThe same basket of five items costs NT$897 at every one.
• Burger King: NT$144 for the Whopper at all 95 restaurantsThe same basket of five items costs NT$480 at every one.
• Big Mac in the US: 125% from the cheapest restaurant to the dearestAcross 13,649 McDonald's restaurants; percentages only, prices are never converted.

Anthony Gherghetta, an Australian software developer who built Drive Thru Index, started it after reading some of the buzz about AI being used to set fast food prices: he wanted to see whether it was true, and how big the price differences between restaurants really were. Prices bear out the contrast he noticed. In Australia, 97% of McDonald's restaurants charge within 10% of the typical Big Mac price; in the US, 53% do. The gap between the cheapest and the dearest tenth of restaurants is 10% of the typical price in Australia and 33% in the US. In TW, 100% of Pizza Hut locations, the biggest chain tracked there, charge within 10% of its typical Super Supreme (large) price.

“I kept reading that fast food chains were starting to use AI and customer data to set prices, so I wanted to see if it was true and how big the differences really were. In Australia, where I’m from, a Big Mac costs much the same wherever you buy it. In the US the price changes from one restaurant to the next. Fast food apps now know what you order, when and where, but customers can’t see how prices are set. So I built Drive Thru Index to check every restaurant, every day,” said Gherghetta.

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Drive Thru Index reads every restaurant's menu from each chain's own ordering app every day; these are the latest pickup prices collected on or before 5 October 2026, in New Taiwan dollars. A chain's spread is how much more its most expensive restaurant charges than its cheapest, as a share of the cheapest price, for its signature item and for the same basket of items; chains with fewer than 5 restaurants priced are left out. Airports, stadiums and similar sites are left out, and so are prices below 40% or above 250% of a chain's typical price, which are almost always menu errors. Each chain is compared only with itself, and another country is compared by percentages alone: prices are never converted between currencies.

About Drive Thru Index: Drive Thru Index (drivethruindex.com) publishes the menu price of every item at every restaurant of the biggest fast food brands, collected each day from the chains' own ordering apps. As pricing becomes more data-driven, it exists so that customers can see what each restaurant really charges and how it compares with others nearby. It covers the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Mexico and the Netherlands. Brands are only compared with themselves, and prices are never converted between currencies. Its figures are free to quote with attribution: "Source: Drive Thru Index".

The images with this release are free to use with the credit "Image: Drive Thru Index (drivethruindex.com)".

Media contact: anthony@drivethruindex.com

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Geen onderdeel van het persbericht: berichtgeving die de ene contextzin onderbouwt, voor vragen van journalisten.

• How restaurant loyalty programs can drive more traffic and improve experiences Restaurant Dive, 2024-08-15
  Restaurant loyalty apps pull in customers' ordering history and preferences, to personalise offers and recommendations (the intro's apps and loyalty programmes).
• Wendy's backtracks on dynamic pricing Restaurant Dive, 2024-02-28
  Wendy's told investors it would test dynamic and AI-enabled pricing on digital menu boards from 2025, then said after a backlash that it would not raise prices at the busiest times (the intro's experiments with data-driven pricing).
• Inside McDonald's push to have AI price your Big Mac CNBC, 2026-09-29
  Reports a Reuters investigation into an AI tool that recommends menu prices to McDonald's restaurants; McDonald's says franchisees remain free to set their own prices. Not quoted in the release text; the page could not be fetched to check its wording, only its search listing.

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