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Supermarket price comparison
Discover the cheapest supermarket in the UK, based on exclusive Which? price comparison analysis
Ellie Simmonds
Which supermarket is cheapest so far in 2023?
Every month, we compare how much the UK’s biggest supermarkets charge for a trolley of groceries, from bread to toothpaste.
We compare hundreds of grocery prices at Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose to reveal the cheapest supermarket each month (the links take you to our reviews of each one).
April 2023
Aldi was the cheapest supermarket, with a basket of 39 items costing £69.99, on average. It beat rival discounter Lidl by 65p.
The same shop at Waitrose was £87.33, on average, making it £17.34 pricier than Aldi.
Of the ‘big four’, Sainsbury’s was the cheapest at £76.85.
| Supermarket | Average basket price |
| Aldi | £69.99 |
| Lidl | £70.64 |
| Sainsbury’s | £76.85 |
| Asda | £77.92 |
| Tesco | £78.09 |
| Morrisons | £81.46 |
| Ocado | £83.69 |
Which? also analysed the cost of a larger trolley of 135 grocery items, made up of the original 39, plus 96 more.
Asda continued its long-running streak as the cheapest traditional supermarket – a title it’s held since January 2020. Our big shop cost £343.46, on average, beating next-cheapest Sainsbury’s (£353.96) by £10.50.
Meanwhile, the most expensive was Waitrose and was £38.76 more expensive than Asda, coming in at £382.22 for the same products.
| Supermarket | Average basket price |
| Asda | £343.46 |
| Sainsbury’s | £353.96 |
| Morrisons | £355.84 |
| Tesco | £365.77 |
| Ocado | £374.53 |
| Waitrose | £382.22 |
March 2023
Aldi was the cheapest overall, with a shop for 41 items costing £72.54, on average, beating rival discounter Lidl by just 25p.
The same shop at Waitrose was £92.55, on average, making it £20.01 pricier than Aldi.
Of the ‘big four’, Sainsbury’s was the cheapest at £80.27.
| Supermarket | Average basket price |
| Aldi | 72.54 |
| Lidl | 72.79 |
| Sainsbury’s | 80.27 |
| Tesco | 81.58 |
| Asda | 81.88 |
| Morrisons | 83.63 |
| Ocado | 88.03 |
Which? also analysed the cost of a larger trolley of 137 items, made up of the original 41, plus 96 more.
Asda continued its streak, which started in January 2020, as the cheapest traditional supermarket. It cost £343.91, on average, beating the next cheapest Sainsbury’s (£353.16) by £9.25.
Meanwhile, the most expensive based on our analysis was Waitrose. Its total for our trolley was £41.83 more expensive than Asda, at £385.74, on average.
| Supermarket | Average basket price |
| Asda | £343.91 |
| Sainsbury’s | £353.16 |
| Morrisons | £354.87 |
| Tesco | £366.65 |
| Ocado | £371.85 |
| Waitrose | £385.74 |
February 2023
Aldi was the cheapest overall, with a shop for 43 items costing £74.81, on average, beating rival discounter Lidl by £2.69.
The same shop at Waitrose was £96.59, on average, making it £21.78 pricier than Aldi.
Of the ‘big four’, Sainsbury’s was the cheapest at £85.25. There was just 7p difference between Sainsbury’s and Tesco, and Asda wasn’t far behind, either .
| Supermarket | Average basket price |
| Aldi | £74.81 |
| Lidl | £77.50 |
| Sainsbury’s | £85.25 |
| Tesco | £85.32 |
| Asda | £85.81 |
| Morrisons | £89.01 |
| Ocado | £89.96 |
Which? also analysed the cost of a larger trolley of 139 items, made up of the original 43, plus 96 more.
Asda continued its streak, which started in January 2020, as the cheapest traditional supermarket. It cost £355.29, on average, for our big-trolley shop, beating the next cheapest Sainsbury’s (£358.77) by £3.48.
Meanwhile, the most expensive based on our analysis was Waitrose. Its was £41.29 more expensive than Asda, coming in at £396.58, on average.
| Supermarket | Average basket price |
| Asda | £355.29 |
| Sainsbury’s | £358.77 |
| Morrisons | £371.86 |
| Tesco | £376.95 |
| Ocado | £382.54 |
| Waitrose | £396.58 |
January 2023
Aldi was the cheapest overall for our shop consisting of 45 popular groceries, costing £82.03, on average, and beating rival discounter Lidl by £2.04.
The same shop at Waitrose cost £107.71, on average, making it nearly £26 more expensive than Aldi.
Of the ‘big four’, Tesco was the cheapest at £93.80.
| Supermarket | Average basket price |
|---|---|
| Aldi | £82.03 |
| Lidl | £84.07 |
| Tesco | £93.80 |
| Asda | £95.32 |
| Sainsbury’s | £95.65 |
| Morrisons | £96.58 |
| Ocado | £100.87 |
Wich also compared the cost of a larger trolley of 144 items (the original 45, plus 99 more).
Asda cost the least for our big trolley at £363.29, on average. This means that Asda was the cheapest traditional (or non-discounter) supermarket every month in 2022, as well as in January 2023.
Sainsbury’s was the next cheapest in our analysis (£375.84), followed by Tesco (£376.72).
Waitrose was £45.43 more expensive than Asda, coming in at £408.72, on average.
| Supermarket | Average basket price |
|---|---|
| Asda | £363.29 |
| Sainsbury’s | £375.84 |
| Tesco | £376.72 |
| Morrisons | £379.13 |
| Ocado | £392.43 |
| Waitrose | £408.72 |
How do we work out which is the cheapest supermarket?
We track the prices of up to 200 branded and own-label products every day over the course of a month to work out the average cost per item, then add those averages up to get a trolley total for each retailer. We include special offers, but not multibuys.
The contents vary from month to month and might include anything from Andrex toilet paper and Lurpak butter to own-label bread and Heinz baked beans.
Our data is supplied by an independent price comparison company. Most of this is based on online prices, but for Aldi and Lidl (which don’t sell their full ranges online) we send fieldworkers out to stores to see how much each item costs each day.
We rotate the products in the trolley to ensure we’re comparing as many branded products as possible. This means the totals aren’t comparable between months or years.
Which supermarket was cheapest in 2022?
As well as analysing prices each month, we do a whole-year look each January – and, according to our analysis, Aldi was the cheapest supermarket in 2022.
The discounter was the cheapest in our analysis for seven out of 12 months in 2022, which is more than any other supermarket.
Lidl wasn’t far behind, coming out cheapest in the first five months of the year.
Across the seven months that Aldi was the ‘cheapest supermarket of the month’, the average difference was £1.59 compared with Lidl.
Asda was the cheapest of the non-discounters, coming out on top every month across 2022.
