Aldi vs Lidl: Which Is Really Cheaper? Real UK Receipt Prices (2026)
Aldi or Lidl - which one actually saves you more? Instead of comparing shelf tags, we looked at what UK shoppers really paid on their receipts in 2026. Across 26 everyday items Aldi came out about 8% cheaper than Lidl, but Lidl wins clearly on bakery, pasta and cheese - and both cost 18-29% less than Tesco and Sainsbury's.
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The short answer: Aldi, by about 8%
Price studies compare shelf tags. We looked at what people actually paid. Across 26 everyday items bought by UK households and scanned with GroceryTracker Pro, the typical Aldi price added up to £39.65. The same basket cost £42.90 at Lidl - about 8% more. Tesco came to £52.22 and Sainsbury's to £55.52.
| Supermarket | 26-item basket | vs Aldi | Gap per year (weekly shop) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aldi | £39.65 | - | - |
| Lidl | £42.90 | +8% | +£169 |
| Tesco | £52.22 | +32% | +£654 |
| Sainsbury's | £55.52 | +40% | +£825 |
Sum of the median price paid per item in each of 26 categories, UK receipts in GBP, last 12 months (most of them June to October 2026). "Gap per year" assumes the same basket bought once a week.
So Aldi is cheaper than Lidl - but only just, and not on everything. The far bigger decision is whether you shop at a discounter at all. Moving the same basket from Tesco or Sainsbury's to either Aldi or Lidl saves more than ten times as much as choosing between the two discounters.
Real receipt prices, item by item
Here is the full basket. Each number is the median price paid per item at that chain - what shoppers handed over at the till, promotions and brand choices included. The household count behind each Aldi and Lidl price is in brackets.
| Item | Aldi | Lidl | Tesco | Sainsbury's |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milk | £1.65 (15) | £1.65 (13) | £1.65 | £1.65 |
| Eggs | £2.85 (17) | £2.85 (12) | £2.95 | £2.05 |
| Cheese | £1.99 (14) | £1.89 (14) | £2.90 | £2.35 |
| Yogurt | £1.49 (13) | £1.49 (10) | £3.00 | £1.98 |
| Sliced bread | £0.99 (11) | £0.99 (11) | £1.50 | £1.60 |
| Fresh bakery bread | £0.85 (12) | £0.99 (14) | £1.50 | £2.50 |
| Rolls | £1.09 (11) | £0.99 (10) | £1.23 | £1.77 |
| Pastries | £1.49 (10) | £0.79 (15) | £1.95 | £1.70 |
| Chicken | £2.99 (13) | £3.71 (12) | £4.25 | £3.63 |
| Minced meat | £3.25 (6) | £4.73 (6) | £3.63 | £6.63 |
| Cold cuts | £1.99 (8) | £1.89 (7) | £2.25 | £1.73 |
| Frozen ready meals | £1.95 (12) | £2.49 (8) | £3.30 | £2.85 |
| Pasta | £1.09 (7) | £0.85 (12) | £1.50 | £1.90 |
| Pasta sauces and condiments | £0.89 (12) | £0.95 (11) | £1.88 | £1.95 |
| Cereal | £1.85 (8) | £1.87 (6) | £2.95 | £3.50 |
| Berries | £1.49 (12) | £1.89 (10) | £2.25 | £2.50 |
| Grapes | £1.89 (10) | £1.89 (7) | £2.00 | £2.20 |
| Citrus fruit | £0.99 (11) | £0.99 (8) | £1.27 | £1.19 |
| Tomatoes | £0.97 (16) | £1.39 (10) | £0.95 | £1.20 |
| Peppers | £1.44 (12) | £1.74 (7) | £1.65 | £1.53 |
| Salad leaves and greens | £0.89 (13) | £1.09 (12) | £1.20 | £1.12 |
| Cucumbers | £0.99 (7) | £0.99 (10) | £0.99 | £0.99 |
| Onions | £0.95 (16) | £0.95 (8) | £0.95 | £0.95 |
| Crisps | £1.19 (8) | £1.12 (12) | £1.50 | £2.10 |
| Biscuits | £0.97 (12) | £0.99 (10) | £1.35 | £1.85 |
| Chocolate | £1.47 (9) | £1.73 (9) | £1.67 | £2.10 |
Bold = cheaper of Aldi and Lidl. Every price rests on at least 6 households and 10 purchases. Pack sizes and brands vary between purchases - this compares real buying decisions, not identical products.
Out of the 26 items, Aldi is cheaper on 12, Lidl on 6, and 8 are an exact tie. The ties are no accident: milk, onions and cucumbers cost the same at all four supermarkets, because these are the items every chain watches and matches.
Where Aldi wins
Aldi's lead comes from a few big-ticket categories rather than from being a few pence cheaper on everything:
- Meat: minced meat at a median £3.25 vs £4.73 at Lidl, chicken £2.99 vs £3.71. Those two items alone account for £2.20 of the £3.25 gap between the two baskets.
- Fresh produce: berries (£1.49 vs £1.89), tomatoes (£0.97 vs £1.39), peppers and salad leaves are all cheaper at Aldi.
- Frozen ready meals: £1.95 vs £2.49 - Lidl is 28% dearer on something many households buy every week.
Where Lidl wins
- The bakery: Lidl's in-store bakery is the clearest win in the whole dataset. The median pastry costs £0.79 at Lidl and £1.49 at Aldi, and rolls are cheaper too. (Aldi's own fresh bakery bread is cheaper than Lidl's, though.)
- Pasta and cheese: pasta at £0.85 vs £1.09, cheese £1.89 vs £1.99.
- Snacks: crisps are slightly cheaper at Lidl.
A practical takeaway: if you live near both, the cheapest weekly shop is meat, produce and frozen at Aldi, with bread, pasta and cheese at Lidl. Whether a second stop is worth it depends on how much of those you buy - the difference on a typical basket is a few pounds, not tens.
What about Tesco Clubcard and Lidl Plus?
Our numbers are prices paid at the till, so loyalty discounts that appear on the receipt are already included. That makes the Tesco gap even more striking: even with Clubcard Prices, the median Tesco item in this basket cost 32% more than at Aldi. Tesco is competitive on fresh staples like milk, onions and tomatoes, and expensive on yogurt, cereal, sauces and bakery.
Lidl Plus coupons work the same way: when a coupon shows up on the receipt as a discount, it is part of the price paid. If you use Lidl Plus every week, your personal Lidl prices may be a little lower than the medians above.
The same result outside the UK
Aldi and Lidl compete in most of Europe, so we ran the same comparison on receipts paid in euros: 85 households shopping at Aldi (including Hofer in Austria) and 120 at Lidl, more than 1,000 receipts in total. The result is almost the same. Aldi was cheaper in 42 of 72 product categories and Lidl in 24, and the combined basket cost about 5% more at Lidl. For the German market, with Rewe and Edeka added, see our Aldi, Lidl and Rewe price comparison (in German).
How to find out which is cheaper for you
A median basket is not your basket. If you never buy meat, Aldi's biggest advantage disappears; if you buy pastries every day, Lidl may come out ahead. The only reliable answer comes from your own receipts:
- Shop at both for a month. Keep every receipt.
- Scan each receipt. A receipt scanner app reads every line and sorts it into categories, so you do not have to type anything.
- Compare by category, not by total. Totals depend on how much you bought. Category prices show where each store is actually cheaper for the things you buy.
- Split the shop if it pays. If one store wins clearly on the categories you spend the most on, that is your main store.
GroceryTracker Pro does this automatically: scan a receipt and every item lands in its category with its price, so after a few weeks you can see what you pay for chicken, bread or coffee at each store. For more on choosing a store, read our supermarket price comparison. To check whether your total is high in the first place, compare it with the average grocery bill per person or set a target with our monthly grocery budget guide. If the discounter saves you money and you still overspend, the supermarket tricks that inflate your bill are the next thing to look at.
How we calculated this
Data: anonymized receipt lines scanned by GroceryTracker Pro users in the UK and paid in GBP, over the last 12 months up to October 2026: Aldi 104 receipts from 30 households, Lidl 89 from 25, Tesco 414 from 40, Sainsbury's 100 from 31. Each item is sorted into a fixed product category (for example "chicken" or "pastries") when it is scanned. For every chain and category we took the median price paid per item, after removing the top and bottom 5% of prices. A category only appears when both Aldi and Lidl have at least 6 households and 10 purchases behind it, and the basket uses only categories that all four chains have. Asda and Morrisons are left out because there is not yet enough data for every category. Prices are what shoppers paid, including promotions and loyalty discounts printed on the receipt. Pack sizes and brands differ between purchases, so this compares real shopping decisions, not identical products.
Frequently asked questions
Is Aldi or Lidl cheaper in the UK?
Aldi, by a small margin. On real UK receipts from 2026, a 26-item basket of everyday groceries cost £39.65 at Aldi and £42.90 at Lidl, about 8% more. Aldi was cheaper on 12 items, Lidl on 6, and 8 cost exactly the same. The gap mostly comes from meat, fresh produce and frozen ready meals.
What is cheaper at Lidl than at Aldi?
Bakery items are the clearest Lidl win: the median pastry cost £0.79 at Lidl against £1.49 at Aldi, and rolls were cheaper too. Pasta, cheese, cold cuts and crisps were also slightly cheaper at Lidl.
How much cheaper are Aldi and Lidl than Tesco?
On the same 26-item basket, Tesco cost £52.22 - 32% more than Aldi and about 22% more than Lidl, even with Clubcard Prices included. Sainsbury's cost £55.52, 40% more than Aldi. For a household doing this shop every week, switching from Tesco to Aldi is worth about £650 a year.
Is it worth shopping at both Aldi and Lidl?
Only if they are close to each other. The difference between the two discounters on a typical basket is a few pounds a week. Buying meat, produce and frozen food at Aldi and bakery, pasta and cheese at Lidl gets the best of both, but the extra trip has to be worth it. Tracking your own receipts for a month shows whether it is for your basket.
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