US average price for a pound of ground beef: $6.79/lb for September 2026 (BLS, the public shelf-price survey behind the official CPI, published monthly with the CPI), +7.4% vs a year ago. The freshest public line is Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for beef and veal (the whole category, not ground beef alone): 203.5 for September 2026, a monthly index built from USDA's weekly grocery feature reports (+3.0% year over year). Next BLS update: November 10, 2026, with the October 2026 CPI.
Retail ground beef prices rose 7.4% over the past year to $6.79/lb (September 2026), and the price is +51% versus five years ago, and 2% below the record high of $6.92/lb set in August 2026. Upstream, the price ranchers receive for cattle is -2.1% year over year ($231.00/cwt, August 2026) — when the farm-gate or futures price moves, the shelf follows with a lag of weeks to months, and the spread between them is the middle of the supply chain. The freshest read, Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for beef and veal (the whole category, not ground beef alone), fell 1.6% from August 2026 to September 2026 and is +3.0% on the year.
| Region | Price | As of | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northeast | $7.02/lb | September 2026 | +14.5% |
| Midwest | $6.75/lb | September 2026 | -0.3% |
| South | $6.50/lb | September 2026 | +9.3% |
| West | $6.93/lb | September 2026 | +1.8% |
This page charts the full history of the BLS price back to 2007; the regional averages the BLS publishes (Northeast, Midwest, South and West); Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for beef and veal (the whole category, not ground beef alone); and upstream, the price ranchers receive for cattle and the live cattle futures price. The Build-Your-Cart tool combines these staples into your personal basket, the farm-to-shelf page shows where the retail dollar goes, and the full price history is downloadable as JSON and CSV from the series page.
The US city average is $6.79/lb for September 2026, from the BLS Average Price survey — the shelf prices behind the CPI — +7.4% from a year earlier. The fresher line is Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for beef and veal (the whole category, not ground beef alone): 203.5 for September 2026, a monthly index built from USDA's weekly grocery feature reports (+3.0% year over year). The BLS figure is monthly, so "today" on this page means the latest published month, not this morning.
Retail ground beef prices rose 7.4% over the past year to $6.79/lb (September 2026), and the price is +51% versus five years ago, and 2% below the record high of $6.92/lb set in August 2026. Upstream, the price ranchers receive for cattle is -2.1% year over year ($231.00/cwt, August 2026) — when the farm-gate or futures price moves, the shelf follows with a lag of weeks to months, and the spread between them is the middle of the supply chain. The freshest read, Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for beef and veal (the whole category, not ground beef alone), fell 1.6% from August 2026 to September 2026 and is +3.0% on the year.
BLS average prices for October 2026 publish with the CPI on November 10, 2026 at 8:30 AM Eastern. The advertised-price index adds a month once the month has ended and USDA's weekly feature reports for it are in; this page republishes every morning with whatever is newest.
BLS; USDA NASS for the price ranchers receive for cattle; USDA AMS weekly grocery feature reports (MyMarketNews), from which Nowflation builds the advertised-price index. Every series is charted with its full history on this page and listed with its source in the open data directory; the public-data series also download there.