A friend asked me, “Is making drip coffee REALLY cheaper than K cups?” As a busy mom, I think she was really asking… Is it worth adding the hassle of cleaning a coffee pot to my already hectic morning?

I mean, let’s get real… She’s a busy mom who already has to drag two kids out of bed, make breakfast, pack lunches, and drive them to school. It’s exhausting!

The last thing she needs is a complicated coffee routine. Can you relate, mama?

This is the 4th post in my series about saving money on coffee. In my first post, I look at the best generic whole bean coffee. Then I checked out how much coffee is in a k-cup. Next, I looked at where to find k cups cheap.

Now, let’s break down the cost of k-cup vs drip coffee…

How Much Does a K-Cup Cost?

As I discussed in my post about how much coffee is in a k-cup, the average regular price of a k-cup is around $0.75 each.

I found that in my local stores, the non-sale prices ranged from about $0.30-$1.00 per k-cup.

How Expensive Is A Cup of Keurig Coffee?

To answer the question of how expensive a cup of Keurig coffee is, we need to agree on what a “cup” really means. In the coffee world, a cup is actually only 5-6 ounces.

Most coffee drinkers I know think that 12-16 ounces is a more reasonable cup size. After all, Starbucks tall size (aka small) is 16 oz and the average home or travel mug holds around 12-16 ounces.

Since 1 k-cup only contains around 11g of actual coffee, that’s really only enough to make 6-8oz of quality coffee. Therefore, a more reasonable coffee cup size would require 2 k-cups.

So, how expensive is a cup of Keurig coffee? If it takes 2 k-cups to make a reasonably sized mug of coffee, then it costs $0.60-$2.00 for one cup of Keurig coffee.

This is, of course, ignoring the initial cost of the Keurig machine (which is not a small cost!).

In my post about the cheapest k-cups, I found that the best sale prices you’re likely to find are around $0.25 per k-cup, so the cheapest cup of Keurig coffee would cost around $0.50.

How Much Does a Cup of Drip Coffee Cost?

Using the assumption that an average cup of coffee is 12-16 oz, we’d need to use around 20 grams of ground or whole bean coffee to make a cup.

The average grocery store ground coffee costs in the range of $3-10 per pound. Dividing that to find the cost of 20 grams of coffee gives you a range of $0.15-$0.45 for the coffee to make one cup.

With drip coffee, you need to add the cost of a filter, which is less than $0.01, but for fairness, I’ll add it in. That gives us a total cost of $0.16-$0.46 per cup of drip coffee. 

Cost of K-Cup Vs Drip Coffee

To get a more accurate comparison of the cost of k-cup coffee vs the cost of drip coffee, I compared prices at my local Target and Kroger.

I tried to find brands that were available for purchase in both a k-cup variety and a ground coffee variety.

I looked at the cost of 2 k-cups vs 20g of ground coffee of the exact same brand/variety. Comparing the non-sale prices, this is what I found:

Coffee Brand	K-cup cost	Ground cost	Savings
McCafe	$2.00	$0.35	$1.65
Cafe Bustelo	$2.00	$0.32	$1.68
Maxwell House	$1.55	$0.17	$1.38
Dunkin Donuts	$1.44	$0.41	$1.03
Eight O’Clock	$1.22	$0.31	$0.91
Caribou	$1.11	$0.45	$0.66
Starbucks	$0.91	$0.47	$0.44
Target Market Pantry	$0.75	$0.16	$0.59
Kroger Colombian	$0.62	$0.16	$0.46

Maxwell House ground coffee at Kroger = $3.92/lb

How Much More Do K-Cups Cost Vs Drip Coffee?

As you can see in the chart above, the difference in price between ground coffee and k-cup coffee is HUGE.

Depending on the brand, K-cups cost 2-9 times more than ground coffee. On average k-cups cost about 4x more than ground coffee of the same brand.

How Much Could I Save Switching from K-Cups to Drip Coffee?

When you see the chart above, you may think that a savings of $0.50-$1.66 per day is not that big of a deal in the scheme of things. Let’s look at how that can add up over time.

This is again comparing the cost of 16 ounces per day of k-cup coffee vs ground coffee of the same brand from the same store:

Coffee Brand	Daily Savings	Monthly Savings	Yearly Savings
Cafe Bustelo	$1.68	$50.29	$611.81
McCafe	$1.65	$49.44	$601.46
Maxwell House	$1.38	$41.27	$502.11
Dunkin Donuts	$1.03	$30.78	$374.47
Eight O’Clock	$0.91	$27.30	$332.19
Caribou	$0.66	$19.74	$240.14
Target Market Pantry	$0.59	$17.79	$216.40
Kroger Colombian	$0.46	$13.90	$169.07
Starbucks	$0.44	$13.07	$158.96

Six hundred dollars a year?! That’s a lot of money! Is the convenience of k-cups worth $600/year?

What About the Cost of a New Coffee Machine?

If you’ve already spent a good chunk of money on your Keurig machine, you may be reluctant to spend money a new coffee drip machine.

An investment in a new coffee machine doesn’t have to be big. I would encourage you to check out Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or other places for used coffee pots.

I found my barely-used $100-machine on Craigslist for only $30.

You can also buy a new, small, basic drip coffee machine for less than $20. They have timers so you can set them up the night before and wake up to freshly-brewed coffee. Here’s an example:

Small Basic Coffee Machine

I have not tried this particular machine, but the reviews are pretty good for such a cheap machine.

Cuisinart Grind-And-Brew

Personally, I’d recommend the coffee pot that I love. It uses whole beans and grinds them fresh for you in the morning. I walk downstairs to freshly ground and brewed coffee. I love it! It feels like the future we were promised by the Jetsons!

If you’re not sure what kind of coffee to buy for a machine like this, please check out my post about best generic whole bean coffee.

High-quality whole bean coffee can be found for around $6/lb, which works out to around $0.26 per 16 oz cup of coffee for an excellent cup of Joe. 

How Long Would It Take to Break Even on a New Coffee Machine?

The amount of time it would take you to break even on a new coffee machine would vary a lot based on which kind of coffee you were using.

If you’re buying a small, inexpensive pot, you could break even in less than a month. Even if you bought the grind-and-brew coffee pot I recommended, it would still take less than 3 months to break even with most brands of coffee.

Do Reusable K-cups Save Money?

Personally, I’d recommend getting rid of the Keurig and switching to a drip machine.

If you’re not ready to part with your machine, reusable k-cups are another way to save a significant amount of money over buying regular k-cups.

It also allows you to use whatever coffee you want, as opposed to only what’s available in k-cup form. You could even grind your own beans to use.

Here are some options to check out:

There’s even a scoop that helps you reload the cups without a mess:

There are also optional paper filters to use in the reusable cups:

How to Save Money on K-Cup Coffee

My last post was about the cheapest k-cups available, but I think the best option is to just ditch the Keurig altogether. You can buy the same coffee for about 75% less than you’re paying for k-cups.

What Did My Mom Friend Do?

She was convinced that switching from K-cups was worth the hassle. $600 a year was worth her time! Do you agree?

Since she already had an expensive Keurig, she decided to buy a reusable k-cup for now. She mentioned she may ask for a fancier drip machine for Christmas this year.

More About Saving Money on Coffee

Check out the rest of my posts about saving money on coffee:

• How To Easily Save Money On Coffee
• Where Can You Save The Most Money On K Cups?
• 5 Delicious Store Brand Coffees That Will Save You Money
• How Much Coffee Is In a K-Cup? (+ Examples)
• How Do the Cost of K-cups REALLY Compare to Drip Coffee?