How Much Should You Sell Meal Prep For? (2026 Pricing Guide)

Your coworker tried your chicken burrito bowls and wants five for next week. Two people at the gym asked the same thing. Now you need a number, and it has to cover more than groceries.

Price lists online give a range and stop there: PricingLink's guide to charging for meal prep services says "$12 - $18 per serving," depending on ingredients, complexity and market. That skips the parts that decide whether meal prep pays you: the container, the kitchen you may have to rent, the hours you stand at the stove, and the card fee on every order. This guide builds each price from numbers checked on October 8, 2026. If you are still deciding whether to start at all, our guide to selling meal prep from home covers the menu, packaging and where to sell. This page is only about what to charge.

How Much Should You Charge for Meal Prep?

Charge $10 to $12 for a standard meal prep container and $55 to $60 for a box of five. A standard container here means about 4 to 5 ounces of cooked protein, a cup of rice or potato, and a vegetable, in a lidded, microwave-safe container with a label. Bigger portions, pricier proteins and special diets move up the ladder below.

Scroll sideways to see every column.

Meal costs come from Walmart.com prices read October 8, 2026, plus a $0.60 container and an $0.08 label. Soup costs come from our soup pricing guide's October 7, 2026 build. The box range is five chicken meals at the low end and five turkey meals at the high end. Portions are our estimates. Prices vary by store and by week.

Price the everyday meal first, since most of your orders will be that one. Then set the box price, which is where your regulars will land. Everything else is a step up or down from those two numbers.

What Do Meal Delivery Companies and Grocery Stores Charge Right Now?

A ready-to-eat meal costs a customer $3.84 frozen at Walmart, $7.98 to $9.50 from a national frozen meal prep company, $11.45 to $12.95 for a grilled chicken meal with rice and broccoli at a local meal prep shop, and $10.39 to $12.69 a meal from a chef-made delivery service, depending on how many meals a week they order. Those are the prices your customer already has in their head. Your homemade meal sits above the frozen company, right beside the local shop and the chef service.

We checked each price on October 8, 2026, and the company prices again on October 12, 2026.

Swipe across to read the whole table.

Walmart prices are Walmart.com search results read October 8, 2026 and vary by store. Clean Eatz Kitchen prices come from its product page the same day and again on October 12, 2026; the 20-meal and 30-meal plans show higher crossed-out prices ($189.90 and $284.85), so they are marked down and may rise. Prep'd prices come from its online menu on October 12, 2026. CookUnity's $12.59 is the "Each meal starting from" figure on its homepage; the $12.69 (4-meal plan) and $10.39 (16-meal plan) prices come from the plan list in the same page's code, which sells plans of 4, 6, 8, 12 or 16 meals a week. All CookUnity prices are before delivery.

Here is how to read those numbers:

• The grocery bowl is not your competition. A $3.84 frozen bowl is 9.5 ounces and made in a factory. Nobody orders from a neighbor to save a few dollars over that.
• The frozen meal company is your floor. Clean Eatz Kitchen's Basics Meal Plan is $94.95 for 10 frozen meals, or $9.50 each. If your fresh, local meal costs less than that, you are leaving money on the table.
• The local meal prep shop is your closest match. Prep'd sells cooked, ready-to-heat meals from two Oklahoma stores, the same kind of meal you make. Its $11.45 to $12.95 grilled chicken meal is the price a customer in a town with a shop like that already pays.
• The chef delivery service prices right where you do. CookUnity shows "Each meal starting from $12.59" on its homepage, and its plan list prices 4 meals a week at $12.69 a meal and 16 meals a week at $10.39. A new home vendor at $10 to $12 sits inside or just under that range, with no delivery box to recycle.

Restaurant prices keep climbing too. In its September 25, 2026 Food Price Outlook, the USDA Economic Research Service reported that prices for food away from home were 3.4% higher in August 2026 than a year earlier, and it forecasts a 3.5% rise for all of 2026. A price that felt high last year feels normal now.

How Much Does Meal Prep Cost a Customer per Week or per Month?

Five meals a week cost a customer $60 from a home cook charging $12 a meal, or about $260 a month, and ten meals a week cost about $520 a month. That is the number your customer actually weighs. They are not comparing one container to one container; they are comparing a week of lunches, or a month of dinners, against everything else they could buy.

Here is what the same week costs from each kind of seller we checked on October 8 and 12, 2026:

Swipe to see the weekly and monthly totals.

Per-meal prices from the table above: Walmart's read October 8, 2026, and the companies' read October 12, 2026. A month is about 4.33 weeks (52 weeks divided by 12); the totals use the unrounded figure. Clean Eatz sells its plans in 10, 20 and 30 meals, and CookUnity sells 4, 6, 8, 12 or 16 meals a week, so the weekly columns show each one's per-meal price times the meal count, not a plan it sells. The Clean Eatz per-meal prices are rounded; their totals use the unrounded $9.495 and $7.975. CookUnity and Prep'd totals leave out delivery fees.

Three things stand out for your pricing:

• A $60 box of five lands inside CookUnity's range. CookUnity charges $12.69 a meal on its smallest plan (4 meals a week) and $10.39 on its biggest (16 meals), before delivery, so $12 a meal looks fair to anyone who has priced a delivery service.
• The frozen plans save a customer real money. Ten Clean Eatz meals a week cost about $109 a month less than ten of your meals at $12. Your reason to exist is fresh food, local pickup and food made to their order, so say that on your menu.
• Cooking it themselves is the cheapest option of all. Ten chicken, rice and broccoli meals cost about $19.32 in groceries at Walmart.com prices, or $26.14 with containers and labels. What your customer buys from you is the shopping, cooking and cleanup they skip, which by our estimate is 4 or 5 hours a week.

If someone asks "how much does meal prep cost per week," answer with your box price and what is in it. "$60 for five chicken, turkey or pasta meals, ready Sunday" is easier to say yes to than a per-meal price list.

What Does a Local Meal Prep Shop Like Prep'd Charge?

Prep'd, a meal prep shop with stores in Yukon and north Oklahoma City, charges $11.45 for a small grilled chicken meal and $12.95 for a large one, $12.30 small and $14.40 large for teriyaki salmon with broccoli or green beans, and $15.95 a pound for grilled chicken on its own. Its menu is a useful model because it sells the same thing you do: cooked protein, a starch and a vegetable in a container, picked up or delivered and heated at home.

Here is what its online menu listed on October 12, 2026:

• Two sizes, $1.50 apart. The Staple grilled chicken meal with jasmine rice and broccoli is $11.45 small and $12.95 large. Most of the other starch and vegetable picks keep that price; diced red potatoes take $0.50 off, and asparagus with fried rice or diced sweet potatoes adds $0.20 to the small. The menu lists the small at 230 calories and 29 grams of protein and the large at 370 calories and 45 grams of protein.
• A build-your-own option. A custom meal with 4 ounces of chicken breast and 2 ounces of broccoli is $8.90. The same build with 4 ounces of grilled steak is $11.40.
• Pricier proteins cost more. Mongolian steak with rice and broccoli is $13.95, sautéed shrimp with fried rice and broccoli is $14.90, and the large teriyaki salmon meal is $14.40 with broccoli or green beans.
• The keto chicken meal costs a little less. The keto version of the grilled chicken meal comes with vegetables and no starch, at $10.95 small and $12.45 large, $0.50 under the regular meal. Leaving out the vegetable instead takes off the same $0.50, and not every keto meal is cheaper: the keto turkey meatloaf is $13.45, against $12.95 for the regular one with a vegetable.
• Food by the pound. Grilled chicken is $15.95 a pound, grilled steak $24.80, ground turkey $18.75 and jasmine rice $6.00, for customers who want to build their own containers.
• Delivery by the mile. Its FAQ lists $10 for the first 10 miles and $0.50 for each mile after that, up to 25 miles.

You do not need a menu that long. The lesson is the structure: one everyday chicken meal near $12, a second size, a step up for steak and seafood, and a delivery fee that grows with distance. A home vendor can copy that with five or six meals.

On Homegrown you can list a small and a large size of the same meal as two variants, each with its own price. Homegrown does not price by the pound yet, so a "pound of chicken" works as a fixed 1-pound container with its own price.

What Do Meal Prep Vendors on Homegrown Charge?

Meal vendors on Homegrown charge $7 to $20 for a single plate or bowl, and as little as $3 to $5 for lentil stew with rice: $7 for a classic mac and cheese bowl, $9 for a grilled chicken rice bowl, $16 for a takeout-style chicken entree with one side, and $20 for a smoked chicken platter with two sides. That is the same band as the ladder above, with the top end going to bigger plates and extra sides.

Here is what those eight vendors listed on October 12, 2026:

• Frugally Bougie: rice or ramen bowls at $8 with tuna, $9 with grilled chicken and $10 with seared steak. Each bowl comes with kale, onions, peppers, red cabbage, carrots, black beans and a boiled egg. The protein sets the price, and the bowl stays the same.
• Nothing But Food: Bold Bowls with a 4-ounce protein portion over a base the customer picks, such as mashed sweet potato, roasted butternut squash or scrambled eggs, at $10.50 with sliced chicken breast or ground turkey, $11 with shredded pork and $11.50 with ground beef, or $9 with vegetables only. Three of its Powerful Plates list a 6-ounce protein portion: $13.50 for roasted pork loin, $14 for pot roast and $15.50 for salmon with mashed sweet potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts. The protein and the portion set the price.
• Johnny D's Gourmet Baked Mac "n" Cheese: a grilled chicken and broccoli mac and cheese bowl for $13.50, and garlic butter steak bites with mac and cheese for $16. It also lists its mac and cheese bowl with chicken at $9, with steak at $10, with shrimp at $11 and with lobster at $12, so the protein sets the price.
• Claudie's Fresh Flaves: cashew chicken or sesame chicken for $16 with one side and $18 with two, with fried rice or lo mein as the side.
• Roy's Ribs & Chicken: a smoked chicken platter with two sides for $20, and pulled pork or pulled chicken sandwiches with coleslaw for $12.
• Cryptid Kitchen: red lentil stew with rice at $3 for 16 ounces (listed as 2 servings) and $5 for 32 ounces (4 servings). The listing says a 48-ounce batch costs about $4 to make, puts the cost at about $0.75 a serving with the rice, and says the rest of the price covers containers and gas. At $1.25 to $1.50 a serving, the price is at most twice the vendor's food cost and still far below any other meal here.
• Mama K's Kitchen: raw slow cooker meal kits, most of them frozen, from $27 to $44, such as Angel Chicken with the pasta included for $27, chicken fajitas with tortillas, cheese and sour cream for $37, and beef stew for $44, plus an $18 pan of chicken quarters and potatoes for the oven. Each listing says the meal comes raw and the customer cooks it.
• Smoky Butts BBQ: a chicken and sausage pastalaya party pan for $150, in a 20 x 12 x 3 inch pan, ordered 48 hours ahead.

Across these eight vendors, nobody charges by the ounce. They charge by the meal or the pan, and they raise the price when the protein gets more expensive or the plate gets another side. Claudie's $2 step for a second side is an easy one to copy.

What Does One Meal Prep Container Cost You to Make?

One chicken, rice and broccoli meal costs about $2.61 to make, including a $0.60 container and an $0.08 label. The food alone is $1.93. We built it from Walmart.com prices read October 8, 2026.

Slide the table sideways to see all of it.

Great Value chicken, rice, broccoli and olive oil, IRIS 36-ounce 3-compartment reusable containers and Avery 2 x 4 inch labels, from Walmart.com search results read October 8, 2026. The total adds the unrounded costs. The 6-ounce raw portion cooks down to roughly 4.5 ounces, which is our estimate.

Three things jump out of that table:

• The container is almost a quarter of the cost. At $0.60, it costs almost as much as the rice, the broccoli and the oil put together ($0.71).
• Chicken is the biggest single number. Change the protein and the whole cost moves. Change the rice brand and almost nothing happens. Chicken salad works the same way: chicken is about three quarters of the $2.66 in ingredients that go into a pound ($2.81 with the tub), which is why pricing homemade chicken salad at $14 a pound starts with the chicken receipt.
• The cost is low, but the price is not "groceries times three." At $2.61, three times cost is about $7.84, which is less than the frozen meal company. That rule leaves out your kitchen rent and your hours, which the next sections add back.

If you want to run the same math on your own recipes, our guide on how to calculate the real cost per product walks through it line by line.

How Do Chicken, Turkey and Pasta Meals Compare on Cost?

Our three test meals cost between $2.61 and $3.61 each to make, an average of $3.05. Ground turkey costs almost twice as much per pound as frozen chicken breast ($5.31 against $2.99), so the turkey meal is the priciest.

Swipe left to see the rest of the columns.

Walmart.com prices read October 8, 2026: JENNIE-O 93/7 ground turkey at $15.92 for 3 lb, sweet potatoes $5.03 for 3 lb, Great Value penne $1.98 for 32 oz, pasta sauce $1.97 for 24 oz, mozzarella $6.92 for 32 oz. Portions are our estimates.

That is why it makes sense to keep one price for most of your menu. A $1 swing in cost is not worth a different price tag and a confused customer. Set one everyday price, then add a step up only for the proteins that cost a lot more, like steak or salmon. Raw fish is the steepest step: in our poke bowl pricing guide, 4 ounces of retail sushi-grade tuna costs $6.50 against $0.85 for the same weight of tofu, so a tofu bowl sells for about $3 less.

• Keep one or two lower-cost meals on the menu every week. A pasta bake or a chicken bowl carries the margin.
• Rotate the pricey one. A turkey or steak meal is a treat on the menu, not the base.
• Watch meat prices. In its September 2026 outlook, the Economic Research Service forecast beef and veal prices to rise 9.4% in 2026 and poultry only 1.0%. That points you toward chicken as the everyday protein and a firm step up for any beef meal.

What Food Cost Percentage Should Meal Prep Hit?

Aim for food and packaging at 22% to 30% of your price. At $12 a meal, that is $2.64 to $3.60 per container. Our pasta bake lands inside that band at $11, the chicken meal sits just under the bottom edge at $2.61 or 21.8%, and the turkey meal sits just over the top at $3.61 or 30.1%, which is why the ladder above prices turkey at $12 to $13.

Restaurants talk about "food cost percentage," which means the share of the menu price spent on ingredients. For meal prep, count the container and label too, because the customer takes them home. Here is how the numbers work:

• Add up the cost of one meal. Food plus container plus label. Our chicken meal is $2.61.
• Divide by your price. $2.61 divided by $12 is 0.218, or about 22%.
• If you land above 30%, raise the price, shrink the pricey part of the portion, or swap the protein. At $13, the turkey meal drops to 27.8%.
• If you land under 20%, you are either priced well or your portion is small. Check your portion against a real menu, like the 45 grams of protein Prep'd lists for its large grilled chicken meal, before you celebrate.

A low food cost percentage is not the same as a good price. Meal prep has costs that bakers and jam makers do not carry, mainly a licensed kitchen and hours of cooking, portioning and cleanup. Those costs are what the next section adds.

How Much Does Kitchen Rent Add to Each Meal?

Renting a commercial kitchen adds about $2.50 to $5.00 per meal at $25 an hour, depending on how many meals you make in one shift. Commissary kitchens (shared, licensed kitchens you rent by the hour or month) run $15 to $40 an hour or $250 to $1,250 a month, per our commissary kitchen cost guide.

Kitchen rent is a fixed block of time, so it shrinks per meal as you cook more. At $25 an hour, by our estimate:

• 20 meals in a 4-hour shift: $100 of rent, or $5.00 per meal
• 50 meals in a 6-hour shift: $150 of rent, or $3.00 per meal
• 100 meals in a 10-hour shift: $250 of rent, or $2.50 per meal

At 20 meals a week, the kitchen costs more than the food. At $8 a meal and 20 meals a week, our model leaves you about $9.15 in the red after that rent, food, packaging, card fees and your plan.

Here is one real rate to test the $25 against. Capital Kitchens in Austin, Texas, lists "$33/hr. Flat Rate for Main Kitchen Users" with a 12-hour monthly minimum ($396 a month for equipment users, $348 for non-equipment users), and it asks for a certificate showing at least $1,000,000 in general liability insurance (rates page, checked October 12, 2026). At $33 an hour, the same shifts cost:

• 20 meals in 4 hours: $132, or $6.60 per meal
• 50 meals in 6 hours: $198, or $3.96 per meal
• 100 meals in 10 hours: $330, or $3.30 per meal

At $12 a meal and 50 meals a week, that higher rent drops what you keep from about $27.48 an hour to about $22.68. A weekly 6-hour shift adds up to about 26 hours a month, so you clear the 12-hour minimum without trying. If you are still looking for a space, our guide to finding and renting a commissary kitchen covers what the hourly rate usually includes.

If you work from a licensed home kitchen or a shared kitchen you already pay for, your rent per meal may be close to zero. Either way, write the number down. A price that only works when the kitchen is free will break the first month you have to rent one.

What Do You Earn at 20, 50 and 100 Meals a Week?

At $12 a meal, you keep about $69 a week at 20 meals, $275 at 50 meals and $602 at 100 meals, by our estimate. That is after food, containers, labels, kitchen rent at $25 an hour, card fees and your Homegrown plan.

Swipe to see the remaining columns.

"You keep" also subtracts $2.31 a week for a Homegrown plan billed annually ($10 a month). Card fees are 2.9% + $0.30 on each $60 box. Food and packaging use the unrounded average of our three meals, about $3.05. Hours include shopping, cooking, portioning, labeling and pickup, and they are our estimate, not a measurement.

Run the same math at other prices and the gap is big. At $10 a meal, 50 meals a week leaves about $177.69 ($17.77 an hour). At $14, it leaves $371.89 ($37.19 an hour). A $2 change per meal moves your weekly take by almost $100 at 50 meals.

A typical prep week, and where the hours go:

• Post the menu and close orders. Put next week's menu up by Thursday and stop taking orders Friday night, so you know exactly what to buy.
• Shop once. Buy from your order count plus a few spares. Budget an hour.
• Cook in batches. Proteins in sheet pans, rice in one big pot, vegetables last. Our guide to batch cooking for a food business shows how to plan the shift.
• Portion, lid and label. This takes longer than people expect. Plan about 1 hour for every 25 to 30 containers, by our estimate.
• Chill and hand off. Cool fast, keep meals cold, and run a pickup window or a delivery loop.

Should You Charge Per Meal or Sell a Weekly Box?

Sell both: a single meal at $12 and a box of five at $55 to $60. The box is what turns a one-time order into a weekly regular, and it is how the big companies price too.

Clean Eatz Kitchen's Basics Meal Plan shows the pattern. On October 12, 2026, 10 meals were $94.95, 20 meals were $174.75 and 30 meals were $239.25. Per meal that is $9.50, $8.74 and $7.98. The more a customer commits to, the less each meal costs them.

For a home vendor, a simple version works best:

• Single meal: $12. Good for people trying you for the first time.
• Box of five: $55 to $60. A small step down per meal, or the same price with the convenience of one order.
• Box of ten: $110 to $115. For households feeding two people, or one person eating lunch and dinner.

Keep the box price at a round number your customer can remember. "$60 for five" is easier to say yes to than "$12 each, five meals." And make sure even your lowest per-meal price still clears the full cost from the section above. Our guide to subscription box pricing goes deeper on keeping each recurring box profitable.

How Much More Can You Charge for Keto, Gluten-Free or Macro-Counted Meals?

Charge $1 to $3 more than your $12 everyday meal for special diets, putting them at $13 to $15. These meals cost more to make and take more care, and the customers who need them have fewer choices.

Here is where the extra cost comes from:

• Pricier ingredients. Keto meals swap rice for more meat, cheese and vegetables, and gluten-free pasta costs more than regular pasta.
• Separate prep. A gluten-free meal needs clean surfaces, pans and utensils so it is not mixed with flour or regular pasta. That takes time.
• Weighing and counting. "Macro-counted" meals list exact protein, carbs and fat. Weighing every portion to hit those numbers adds minutes per container.
• Fewer local options. A customer with celiac disease or a strict diet plan cannot grab a random grocery bowl, so they value you more.

One exception is worth knowing. If your keto meal is simply your regular meal with the starch left out, it costs you less, not more. Prep'd prices its keto grilled chicken meal, which comes with vegetables and no starch, at $10.95 small and $12.45 large, $0.50 under the regular version. Charge the premium only when the diet meal adds meat, cheese, separate pans or weighing.

Only promise what you can prove. If your kitchen also handles flour, say "made without gluten ingredients" instead of "gluten-free," since the FDA defines "gluten-free" as a label claim with a set standard for gluten content, and a food has to meet it to carry those words. If you list protein or calories, weigh the portions every time, the way Prep'd lists 29 grams of protein for its small chicken meal and 45 for its large one.

How Should You Price Breakfast, Soups and Family Trays?

Price breakfast at $6 to $8, soup at $12 a quart for a meatless soup from a home kitchen your state allows and about $15 a quart for chicken noodle or any soup from a rented kitchen, and family trays at $32 to $45 for four meal-size portions. These add-ons fill out a weekly order without adding much cooking time.

Here is how Homegrown vendors, local shops and our math line up:

• Breakfast: Frugally Bougie sells overnight oats for $6.50 and yogurt parfaits for $6. A 16-ounce jar of fruit-topped oats costs about $1.51 to make in a plastic cup, and our overnight oats pricing guide shows where $4, $5 and $6.50 jars land after fees. A breakfast burrito or a 4-pack of egg bites fits the same $6 to $8 range, by our estimate; Johnny D's lists cheese egg bites at $1.50, with no count stated. A hot breakfast with meat can go higher: Prep'd's breakfast hash is $8.80 small and $9.90 large.
• Soups and stews: A quart (32 ounces) is about 4 servings, so $12 a quart is $3 a serving and $15 is $3.75. Our soup pricing guide for lentil and chicken noodle quarts priced both from Walmart.com on October 7, 2026: a quart of lentil soup costs about $2.86 in food and a container, and $12 a quart pays a home cook about $40 an hour of kitchen time at 48 quarts a month, not counting shopping and pickups. A rented kitchen changes that. At Capital Kitchens' $33 an hour and 24 quarts per 4-hour booking, a quart of chicken noodle costs about $12.49 once you add $5.50 of rent and $3.33 of your time at $20 an hour, and a lentil quart made the same way costs about $11.70. That is why any soup you make in a rented kitchen needs about $15 a quart. Cryptid Kitchen's $5 quart of lentil stew sits far below both prices.
• Family trays: A 9 x 13 pan of pasta bake or enchiladas portioned for meal prep holds about as much food as four of your containers, so it feeds four. Cut into regular entree squares, a 9 x 13 of lasagna serves about 12, the count our lasagna guide uses, so say on the listing how many your pan feeds. At $32 to $45, the customer pays $8.00 to $11.25 a meal-size portion and you use one pan instead of four containers. The store version is cheaper but smaller: Walmart lists a Taylor Farms Chicken Taco Family Meal Tray, 33.7 ounces, for $14.97. Mama K's Kitchen on Homegrown charges $27 to $44 for raw slow cooker kits, most of them frozen, so a family-size slow cooker kit above $40 is already listed there. Lasagna earns its own price sheet: a classic 13x9 meat lasagna costs about $23 in ingredients, and our lasagna pricing guide with six deli tray prices shows those delis charging $45 to $94.99 for a small or half tray, which the five delis that list a count say serves 6 to 16.
• Sides: Roy's Ribs & Chicken on Homegrown sells potato salad and baked mac and cheese for $5 a side, and Claudie's Fresh Flaves charges $2 more for a second side. Sides are an easy way to raise a box total by a few dollars.

If you already rent a kitchen for your meals, a pot of soup shares that shift's rent. Price it at the rented-kitchen number anyway, so the soup pays its share instead of riding free on your meal prices.

A family tray saves you about $0.66 in packaging and three rounds of portioning. Four single meals need four containers and four labels, $2.73 at our prices. One 13 x 9 foil pan with a lid is about $1.99 (Great Value, $3.98 for two on Walmart.com, October 8, 2026), plus one $0.08 label.

If you plan to freeze trays or sell them as heat-and-eat meals, our guide to selling frozen meals locally covers the extra rules for freezer meals.

Should You Charge Extra for Delivery?

Charge a flat $3 to $5 delivery fee, and include delivery at no extra charge only on a box of ten, $100 or more. Our delivery fee pricing guide suggests $3 under 3 miles with a $25 minimum order and $4 out to 5 miles with a $35 minimum, and free delivery on orders of $45 or more. A single box of five at $55 to $60 already clears that $45 line, so meal prep needs a higher one.

Delivery costs you gas, time and a cold chain. A cooler bag and ice packs help keep meals at 41°F or below on the way; check with a food thermometer. Here is a simple setup:

• Pickup is the default. One or two pickup windows a week, at your kitchen or a set spot.
• Delivery has a fee. $4 inside 5 miles is easy to explain.
• Big orders ride for less. A box of ten at $110 can include delivery, since the fee is small next to the order.
• Stick to one delivery day. Route all drop-offs in one loop to keep your hours down.

If you cover a wide area, a per-mile fee is fairer than one flat price. Prep'd charges $10 for the first 10 miles and $0.50 for each mile after that, up to 25 miles, so a 20-mile delivery costs the customer $15 and a 25-mile delivery $17.50. A home vendor can copy the idea with two zones: $4 inside 5 miles with a $35 minimum, and $7 out to 10 miles with a $60 minimum, the tiers our delivery fee guide works out. On Homegrown, delivery is one radius of 1 to 25 miles with one flat fee and a minimum order, so to run two zones or include delivery on a box of ten there, set one fee for the radius you drive and build any extra into the box price.

Leaving delivery "free" for everyone quietly lowers your price. At 20 boxes a week, a $4 fee you do not charge is $80 a week out of your own pocket.

How Much Should You Charge to Meal Prep for One Household?

Personal chefs who cook a week of meals for one household charge for their hours or their dishes, plus groceries at cost: $75 an hour at one Denver-area chef, in the client's kitchen or delivered, and $230 to $350 a week by number of entrées at one Chicago chef who delivers. That is priced differently from a weekly menu you sell to many customers, because the client picks the menu and pays for the groceries.

Here is what two working chefs published, checked October 12, 2026:

• MileHighCook (Denver area): $75 an hour, with a 6-hour first week at $450, and groceries billed separately at cost with the receipt. Its own guide says most households land between $450 and $700 a week for the cooking.
• Chef Luisana (Chicago): $230 for 1 entrée with sides, $250 for 2, $300 for 3 and $350 for 4, with each entrée scaled up to 5 servings, and groceries billed separately. Her price covers everything "from planning your menu to the final delivery," and the meals are delivered to the client. At 3 entrées and 5 servings each, that is 15 meals, or as little as $20 a meal for the cooking alone.

If a friend asks you to "meal prep for me," price it the same way: your hours plus their groceries. By our estimate, a home cook without a chef's résumé can start around $30 to $40 an hour, so a 4-hour session that turns out 10 to 12 meals is $120 to $160 plus groceries. Keep your receipt and hand it over, so the client sees exactly what the food cost.

Cooking in someone else's kitchen with their groceries is a service, not a sale of food you made, and states and counties treat personal chefs differently from food businesses. Ask your county health department how it handles personal chefs before you start, and ask a tax preparer whether you need a business license where you live.

Can You Legally Sell Meal Prep From Home, and What Does That Do to Your Price?

In Texas, meat meals cannot come from a home kitchen at all, and in California they can only under a county MEHKO permit, so in both states we checked, your price has to cover a licensed kitchen or that permit. Meals with chicken, beef or rice need to stay cold to be safe, and Texas's cottage food law (the rules for selling homemade food) leaves meat and poultry out even for sellers who register, so check your own state's list before you set a price.

Two examples, both checked October 12, 2026:

• Texas: The Texas Department of State Health Services cottage food page says a home operation "may sell time and temperature control for safety food," meaning food that must stay cold or hot to be safe, if it registers with the state. It then lists what stays excluded: "meat, meat products, poultry, or poultry products," plus seafood and fish. The foods it allows that need cold or hot holding must be stored and delivered at 41°F or below for cold items, or 135°F or above for hot ones. So a lentil and rice bowl can fit if you register; a chicken and rice bowl cannot. If you sell that lentil bowl online in Texas, the page says you, an employee or a household member must deliver it to the customer in person, and all the label information has to be posted on your website before you take payment.
• California: Some counties allow a Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO), a permit for selling meals from your home kitchen. The California Department of Public Health's MEHKO page says "Food must be prepared, cooked and served on the same day." California Health and Safety Code section 113825 caps a MEHKO at 30 meals a day and 90 a week, and at $100,000 in gross yearly sales, adjusted each year for inflation. The CDPH page still says 60 meals a week and $50,000 in yearly sales, so ask your county which limits it enforces. Our MEHKO guide lists county permit costs. The same-day rule rules out cooking on Sunday for pickups all week, and the caps hold you to six boxes of five a day and 18 boxes a week. The 100-meal week in the earnings table above needs a rented or licensed kitchen.

What that means for your price:

1. If you need a rented kitchen, add $2.50 to $5.00 a meal at $25 an hour, or $3.30 to $6.60 at $33 an hour, per the kitchen rent section.
2. If you work under a MEHKO, add your yearly permit cost spread over your meals, and remember the 30-meal daily cap limits how much the fixed costs can spread out.
3. If your state allows vegetarian meals from home, those meals can carry a lower price than your meat meals, since there is no kitchen rent.

Rules change and vary by county. Verify your state's current rules with your state or county health department before you sell, and ask about labels, permits and food handler training at the same time.

What Do Card Fees Take From a $60 Meal Prep Box?

Card processing takes about $2.04 of a $60 box on Homegrown, $2.14 on Hotplate when the customer pays its service fee, and $2.28 on the Square Free plan when the customer pays online. Across 20 boxes a month, that is $40.80 to $45.60, before any monthly plan or service fee. A delivery app takes far more: DoorDash's Basic plan keeps 15% of a delivered order, $9.00 of the same box.

Swipe the table left to see every fee.

We checked these on the Homegrown signup page, Hotplate's pricing page and its "What Hotplate does" post, Square's fees help page and DoorDash's merchant pricing page on October 8, 2026, and checked them again on October 12, 2026. Card processing is figured on what the customer pays: the $60 box on Homegrown, Square and Hotplate when you cover its fee, and the full $63.55 in Hotplate's default row, the basis our other guides use. Hotplate's page does not spell out which amounts its card fee is charged on, and its own $30 example shows $1.27, more than the subtotal alone would give. Hotplate's post says it charges the fee "to your customer" by default and that 80% of its chefs keep that default. Square's in-person rate on the free plan is 2.6% + 15¢. DoorDash's merchant page does not list what customers pay in delivery and service fees.

The card fee gap between Homegrown, Hotplate with the customer paying its fee, and Square is small on a $60 box: $2.04, $2.14 and $2.28. Covering Hotplate's fee yourself costs more, $5.59 a box. What matters more is what your customer sees at checkout. A box that reads "$60.00" lands differently than one that reads "$63.55 with fees." Either way, build about $2 a box into your price for card processing. Delivery apps are the exception, since DoorDash's Basic plan keeps 15% of that same $60 box, so the places you sell meal prep decide as much of what you keep as the price on the label.

How Do You Sell Out Your Meal Prep Week With Pre-Orders Before You Shop?

Take every order and payment before you buy a single chicken breast. Meal prep only works on thin margins when you cook exactly what was ordered. Leftover containers are pure loss by Friday.

That is the job Homegrown does for a meal prep vendor. It costs $10 a month billed annually, with no percentage fees beyond standard payment processing of 2.9% + $0.30, paid by you, and gives you a storefront where customers see this week's menu, pick their meals and pay before your shopping trip. Here is what fits this kind of business:

• Prepaid pre-orders with a cutoff. Customers order and pay ahead, and an order prep time setting makes them order a set number of hours before each pickup, so Friday night's order list becomes Saturday's shopping list.
• Pickup or local delivery. Set pickup days and time windows, or a delivery radius of 1 to 25 miles with a flat delivery fee and a minimum order.
• Sizes with their own prices. List a small and a large meal, or a single and a box of five, as variants of one listing.
• A menu you change each week. Add this week's dishes and take last week's down.
• One link to share. Put it in your Instagram bio and your gym's group chat instead of taking orders in DMs.

Compare that with the other ways vendors take meal prep orders. Instagram DMs have no monthly plan, but you track 20 orders across 20 chats and chase every payment. Hotplate has no monthly plan; you pay 2.9% + $0.30 card processing on what the customer pays, and its 5% + $0.55 service fee, $3.55 on a $60 box, is shown to your customer unless you choose to pay it yourself. The Square Free plan works if you already use it at a farmers market, but its online rate is 3.3% + $0.30. DoorDash brings its own customers but keeps 15% of every delivered box.

Homegrown does not cook or keep meals cold, you do the driving if you offer delivery, and it does not handle your permits or labels. Your customers create a Homegrown account to place their first order. Your storefront is listed on the Homegrown marketplace, but plan on most orders coming from people you send to your own link. There is no drops (timed-release or countdown) feature for weekly menus.

If you are ready to stop guessing how many meals to cook, you can set up your meal prep storefront and take next week's orders in about 15 minutes.

What Pricing Mistakes Do New Meal Prep Vendors Make?

The most common mistake is pricing from the grocery receipt and forgetting kitchen rent and hours. A $2.61 meal sold at $8 looks like a 67% margin until you pay $100 for a 4-hour kitchen shift.

Common mistakes, and the fix for each:

• Using "three times food cost." At $2.61, that gives about $7.84, below the frozen meal company. Price from full cost instead.
• Forgetting the container. At $0.60, it is almost a quarter of the cost of a chicken meal.
• Pricing soup like a snack. A quart is four servings. Price it at $12 a quart for a meatless soup from a home kitchen your state allows, and about $15 from a rented kitchen.
• Giving delivery away. A $4 fee on 20 boxes is $80 a week.
• One price for steak and chicken. Steak and salmon need their own step up, $14 to $16, and beef prices are forecast to rise much faster than chicken this year.
• Cooking before orders close. Every unsold container costs you its full $2.61 to $3.61 plus the time.
• Never raising prices. Food away from home prices rose 3.4% in the year to August 2026. Review your prices every six months.

Most of these come back to one fix: know your full cost per meal, and only cook what is paid for. Homegrown's pre-order storefront handles the second half, at $10 a month billed annually ($12.50 monthly), plus 2.9% + $0.30 card processing on each order.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should I charge for meal prep per week?

Charge $55 to $60 for a weekly box of five meals, or $110 to $115 for ten. That works out to $11 to $12 per meal, which covers food, containers, kitchen rent and card fees at 50 meals a week. In a rented kitchen, small weeks are the risk: with a 4-hour, $100 shift, $12 a meal only breaks even at about 12 meals a week, by our estimate, and fewer meals than that lose money.

How do you price meal prep services with a food cost percentage?

Add the cost of the food, container and label for one meal, then divide by your price. Aim for 22% to 30%. A chicken bowl that costs $2.61 to make lands at 21.8% when you charge $12, just under the 22% to 30% target. Then check that kitchen rent and your hours still fit, since food cost percentage leaves them out.

Is $10 a meal too cheap for meal prep?

It can be. At $10 a meal and 50 meals a week, our estimate leaves about $17.77 an hour after food, packaging, kitchen rent at $25 an hour, card fees and your Homegrown plan. At 20 meals a week in a rented kitchen, $10 a meal pays about $5 an hour. If you cook in a licensed kitchen you already have, $10 can work.

How much does it cost to make one meal prep container?

A chicken, rice and broccoli container costs about $2.61 to make with store-brand ingredients from Walmart.com in October 2026, including a $0.60 container and an $0.08 label. A ground turkey and sweet potato meal is about $3.61. Kitchen rent can add $2.50 to $5.00 per meal on top of that.

How much does it cost to meal prep for a week yourself?

Cooking 10 chicken, rice and broccoli meals yourself costs about $19.32 in groceries at Walmart.com prices on October 8, 2026, or $26.14 with containers and labels. Buying the same 10 meals costs a customer $120 from a home cook at $12 a meal, or $94.95 for a 10-meal frozen plan from Clean Eatz Kitchen. The gap is what a meal prep customer pays to skip the shopping, cooking and cleanup.

Should meal prep prices include delivery?

Keep the meal price and the delivery fee separate. A flat $3 to $5 delivery fee covers gas and time for most local routes, and you can include delivery on larger orders, like a box of ten at $100 or more. Pickup windows keep your meal prep prices lower for customers who can come to you.

Can I sell meal prep from my home kitchen?

Not in Texas, and in California only with a county MEHKO permit, if your meals contain meat or poultry. Texas allows some foods that need refrigeration if you register, but it still excludes meat and poultry. Some California counties allow a MEHKO permit, which state law caps at 30 meals a day and 90 a week, with a same-day rule. Other states set their own lists, so check the current rules with your state or county health department before you set your prices.

Related Reading

Once your meal prep prices are set, these six guides answer the next questions most vendors ask:

• How to Sell Meal Prep From Home: the licensing path, how to build a weekly menu, which containers to use and where to sell.
• Best Platform to Sell Meal Prep From Home: how ordering tools compare when your menu changes every week and orders close before you shop.
• Commissary Kitchen vs Home Kitchen: when renting a kitchen at $15 to $40 an hour, or $250 to $1,250 a month, starts to make sense.
• MEHKO Laws Explained: California's home kitchen meal permit, its daily meal cap and what counties charge for it.
• Heat-and-Eat Freezer Meal Line: adding frozen meals to your menu the legal way, with the cold chain and labels they need.
• How Much to Sell Tamales For: another prepared food priced from real ingredient costs, a dozen at a time.