Study shows Instacart may be charging some shoppers 20% more for the same product
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In Brief Posted: 12:56 PM PST · December 16, 2025 Image Credits:Instacart Lucas Ropek Study shows Instacart may be charging some shoppers 20% more for the same product A recent study published by Consumer Reports alleges that Instacart has been conducting AI-led dynamic pricing experiments that, in some cases, are drastically inflating the cost of certain products. CR and its research partner, Groundwork Collaborative, found that the delivery app was conducting these experiments at the platform’s retail partner locations—places like Kroger, Albertsons, Costco and Safeway. In some cases, consumers were paying as much as 23% more than other shoppers for the exact same product, the report says. The software involved in the experiments, Eversight, is a SaaS product that offers grocers a retail pricing suite designed to “unlock revenue growth” and capitalize on “pricing solutions that scale your pricing strategy and uncover optimal prices your customers expect.” Instacart discloses on its Eversight page that some shoppers “may see slightly higher prices” than others. However, as previously noted, some of those price hikes seem slightly higher than “slightly higher.” A 23% price hike isn’t exactly chump change. When reached for comment, Instacart referred TechCrunch to a previously released statement in which the company noted that “just as retailers have long tested prices in physical stores to understand what resonates with customers, a small subset of our retail partners – 10 U.S. retail partners that already choose to apply markups – use Instacart’s Eversight technology to run limited online pricing tests.” Dynamic pricing has become increasingly common in recent years, and many big e-commerce sites have been accused of employing it. Another recent report claimed that, due to dynamic pricing used by Amazon, school districts across the U.S. have been paying higher prices for basic school supplies. Amazon has since called the report “flawed and misleading.” Techcrunch event Join the Disrupt 2026 Waitlist Add yourself to the Disrupt 2026 waitlist to be first in line when Early Bird tickets drop. Past Disrupts have brought Google Cloud, Netflix, Microsoft, Box, Phia, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, and Vinod Khosla to the stages — part of 250+ industry leaders driving 200+ sessions built to fuel your growth and sharpen your edge. Plus, meet the hundreds of startups innovating across every sector. Join the Disrupt 2026 Waitlist Add yourself to the Disrupt 2026 waitlist to be first in line when Early Bird tickets drop. Past Disrupts have brought Google Cloud, Netflix, Microsoft, Box, Phia, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, and Vinod Khosla to the stages — part of 250+ industry leaders driving 200+ sessions built to fuel your growth and sharpen your edge. Plus, meet the hundreds of startups innovating across every sector. San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026 WAITLIST NOW Topics Amazon, Commerce, dynamic pricing, e-commerce, Instacart Dates TBD Locations TBA Plan ahead for the 2026 StrictlyVC events. Hear straight-from-the-source candid insights in on-stage fireside sessions and meet the builders and backers shaping the industry. Join the waitlist to get first access to the lowest-priced tickets and important updates.
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