Instacart Confirms A.I. Pricing Tests That Charge Shoppers Different Amounts
As part of a larger project with the nonprofit organization More Perfect Union, a Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative investigation has found that Instacart is using AI to charge customers different prices for the same items. Customers have been unknowingly included in what Instacart calls an “algorithmic pricing experiment,” used to “better understand consumer preferences,” according to a statement from the company in response to the study.
During the month-long study, Instacart conducted algorithmic pricing experiments at Albertsons, Costco, Kroger, Safeway, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Target, among others. The company described the price differences as “negligible,” however, in some cases, there has been a 23% difference in the price of identical products, showing that the experiments are more costly for customers than publicly acknowledged.
To determine the price discrepancies, Consumer Reports enlisted hundreds of volunteers to engage in concurrent online shopping sessions. Instacart confirmed the study’s findings and that the experiments were ongoing at 10 partnering grocery retailers, though it declined to specify which ones. The company added that the experiments reflect well-established in-store pricing practices, and as such, have little impact on consumer pockets.
“Just as retailers have long tested prices in their physical stores to better understand consumer preferences, a subset of only 10 retail partners—ones that already apply markups—do the same online via Instacart. These limited, short-term, and randomized tests help retail partners learn what matters most to consumers and how to keep essential items affordable,” Instacart wrote in a statement.
While charging different prices for the same service isn’t new or illegal, algorithmically-driven adjustments to the prices of food, especially without the customer’s knowledge, are deeply unsettling for many. A September 2025 Consumer Reports survey of 2,240 adults who use Instacart found that 72% disliked being charged different prices for the same products and viewed the practice of algorithmic pricing as manipulative.
What further separates it from traditional “different-price-for-the-same-product” practices is Instacart’s access to personal data. Combined with artificial intelligence, experts warn that it could potentially lead to “surveillance pricing,” which sets individualized prices based on personal characteristics, behaviors, and shopping habits.
Len Sherman, an adjunct professor and executive-in-residence at Columbia Business School in New York City, who researches the proliferation of algorithmic pricing, said: “Every step that we take as a consumer is being bundled together in these massive databases and being analyzed so that the next time we confront a purchase decision, everything we’ve ever done is going to factor into the price we see.”
Click here for a full breakdown of the investigation.
