Instacart+ costs $99 a year, and the pitch is simple: free delivery. The reality is narrower. The membership waives one line of your checkout and leaves the rest alone. Instacart ended the reduced service fees members once received on March 1, 2025, and in December 2025 the Federal Trade Commission announced a $60 million settlement over how the company advertised free delivery and signed people up for subscriptions after free trials. Instacart denies wrongdoing. We read the help pages, the terms and the federal record, modeled the break-even math, and mapped the cheaper routes in: a Costco rate, a SNAP promotion and card offers.
Key Answers Before You Pay Anything
These are the questions where the marketing and the fine print drift apart. Each answer is short on purpose; the sections after this one carry the math and the exceptions.
$99 a year or $9.99 a month. Twelve monthly payments total $119.88, so the annual plan saves $20.88. New members can usually start with a 14-day trial, and both plans renew automatically unless you cancel.
The delivery fee on eligible orders: $10 or more for grocery and retail, $35 at Costco, $25 at eligible restaurants. Service fees, tips, taxes and item prices stay. The reduced-service-fee perk ended on March 1, 2025.
On the $99 plan, 25 orders if you would otherwise pay a $3.99 delivery fee, and 13 if you would pay $7.99. Instacart’s pitch that twice a month pays for it only holds if the fee you avoid averages about $4.13 or more.
Yes. Costco members can get the annual plan for $79. People who recently paid for an Instacart order with EBT SNAP can get a monthly plan at $4.99 for twelve months. Some Chase and Mastercard cards bundle free months and monthly credits.
Only on annual plans, and only if you cancel within five calendar days of the paid term starting and have not used the membership. After that the fee is non-refundable, although benefits run to the end of the term you paid for.
In December 2025 the FTC announced a $60 million settlement alleging misleading free-delivery claims and unclear trial-to-paid enrollment. Instacart denies wrongdoing. The order requires clear disclosure and express consent for auto-renewing charges. When we checked in October, Instacart was not on the FTC’s list of active refund programs.
Not necessarily. Retailers set prices on the platform. A Consumer Reports-led study found shoppers shown different prices for the same item in 2025, and Instacart ended item price tests that December. Compare against the store’s own shelf price before you assume a deal.
No. Instacart states that membership does not give earlier or faster delivery times and does not guarantee that a particular slot will be available.
Peacock Premium (the ad-supported tier) for as long as you are a member, one year of New York Times Cooking for annual members who activate it, and family sharing. Some versions of Instacart’s help pages say Peacock is not open to people who already subscribe.
What You Will Actually Pay, Depending on How You Join
There is one list price and at least five cheaper doors. Which one you walk through can move the first year from about $120 to nothing.
Instacart+ lists at $99 a year or $9.99 a month. The monthly plan works out to $119.88 a year, which is $20.88 more than the annual plan for the same perks. In our review of Instacart’s help pages we found only one benefit the annual plan has that monthly lacks: the free year of New York Times Cooking goes to annual members only. If you plan to stay, annual wins. Monthly makes sense when you are testing the service, or when a partner card is covering the bill.
The free trial is where most of the controversy lives. Instacart’s help center says that at the end of a trial you are charged if the membership auto-enrolls into a paid plan, and that the charge may post up to six hours before renewal. Federal regulators alleged that earlier sign-up flows did not make this clear enough, and Instacart disputes that. Whatever the merits, the practical rule has not changed: treat every trial as a countdown to a charge. When you start the cancellation flow, Instacart offers a reminder email seven days before renewal. Take it.
Partner trials follow different defaults, and it pays to know which kind you hold. Instacart’s Mastercard offer terms say your membership simply expires after the free months unless you choose to renew. Its first-year promotional offers say the opposite: you are charged at the end of the free trial unless you cancel. Same company, same logo, reverse default.
| Way to join | First-year cost | Who qualifies | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly plan | $119.88 ($9.99 × 12) | Anyone | $20.88 more than annual; the NYT Cooking perk goes only to annual members |
| Annual plan | $99 | Anyone | Refund window is five calendar days, and only if unused |
| Costco member rate | $79 (annual) | Active Costco members who link accounts | One redemption per Costco membership; membership must stay valid at renewal |
| EBT SNAP promotion | $59.88 ($4.99 × 12) | People who placed an EBT SNAP order on Instacart in the past six months | Pay with a non-EBT card; renews at $9.99 a month after one year |
| Chase and United cards | Free months and credits | Cardholders who enroll an eligible card | Enroll by December 31, 2027; credits need an active membership |
| Mastercard offer | 3 free months, $10 monthly credit | New members, plus some existing members on credit cards | Redeem by January 31, 2027; no Apple Card or wallet payments; credits expire monthly |
| 14-day trial | $0, then renews | New members | Becomes a paid plan unless you cancel first |
Several card offers pair a monthly Instacart credit with a few free months of membership. Read that pairing carefully. The credits are tied to an active Instacart+ membership, so when the free months run out, the credit stops unless you pay for the membership yourself. One card-benefit writer who stacked several cards saw the combined free time show an expiration of November 2026, well before the offers’ December 2027 deadline.
The Mastercard credit also has conditions worth knowing: it applies to your second qualifying order each month, it expires at the end of that month, it excludes Apple Card and digital wallet payments, and it does not cover service fees, delivery fees, taxes or tips. If you cannot reliably place two orders a month, the credit may go unused.
Keep these in one place. Most membership problems are easier to fix on day one than on day thirty.
What You Get, and What the Blogs Still Get Wrong
Instacart+ has shrunk and shifted over the years. A lot of search results still describe the version from before March 2025, so here is what Instacart itself currently lists, and what it dropped.
| Benefit | Value to you | What you get | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0 delivery fee | $3.99 or more per order | Grocery and retail orders of $10 or more; Costco $35; eligible restaurants $25 | Service fees, taxes and tips still apply; exclusions for some retailers, locations, pickup and long distance |
| Peacock Premium | About $109.99 a year (Instacart’s figure) | Ad-supported Peacock while you are a member | Activate through Instacart; some help pages exclude current Peacock subscribers |
| NYT Cooking | About $50 a year (Instacart’s figure) | One free year for annual members | Annual plans only; activate before May 6, 2027 during an active term; activating can end refund eligibility |
| Family account | Shared perks | Share certain benefits with household members | Instacart’s pages disagree on the limit, from one household member to four |
| Partner credits | $10 to $20 a month | Offered through some Chase and Mastercard cards | Need an active membership; expire monthly; exclude fees and tips |
| Faster delivery | None | Nothing | Instacart says membership gives no earlier slots and no guaranteed availability |
| Reduced service fees | None now | Discontinued March 1, 2025 | Many articles still list it as a benefit |
| 5% pickup credit | Do not count on it | Appeared in older benefit lists | Not in Instacart’s current benefit lists we found; removal was reported in late 2024 |
The delivery waiver, and where the $10 line came from
For years the free-delivery line sat at $35. In late 2024 Instacart ran a limited-time $10 minimum on grocery and retail orders, and its current card-offer pages list $10 for grocery and retail, $35 for Costco and $25 for eligible restaurants. The $35 threshold has not vanished from Instacart’s own text, though. An older version of its membership help page still reads $35 and adds that Instacart may end the $10 offer immediately if a regulation, law or other issue affects its ability to provide it.
In our review we found three different thresholds across Instacart-hosted pages. That is the strongest argument for checking your cart before you plan a purchase around any number printed here, ours included. The waiver is also subject to availability, and Instacart’s offer terms mention long-distance exclusions. Pickup orders and certain prescription orders have been excluded in the past as well.
The perk that disappeared: reduced service fees
Until early 2025, members paid a lower service fee than non-members. Instacart’s help center now says that starting March 1, 2025 it no longer offers reduced service fees for Instacart+ members. If a comparison article tells you the membership trims service fees, check its date.
This matters because service fees are not small. Instacart says the fee varies by location and by the number and type of items in your cart, and the FTC alleged that mandatory service fees on first-order free-delivery promotions added as much as 15% to the order cost. The FTC’s own words for them were delivery fees by another name. Membership does not change any of that, which is why a $10 basket with a $0 delivery fee can still arrive with a surprisingly large charge attached.
Peacock and New York Times Cooking: count them honestly
Instacart advertises Peacock Premium at about $109.99 a year and New York Times Cooking at about $50. These are the company’s own valuations, and they only count if you would otherwise pay. Peacock is the ad-supported tier. You activate it from your Instacart account, which sends you to Peacock to sign in or create an account, and you can use a different email than the one on your Instacart login. Some versions of Instacart’s help text require that you not be a current Peacock subscriber, so read the page before you cancel anything you already pay for.
The cooking subscription is for annual members only and has an activation deadline in the middle of 2027. One more detail that rarely gets mentioned: Instacart’s first-year offer terms say the five-day refund is available only if you have not placed an Instacart+ order or activated the New York Times Cooking subscription. A freebie you activate on day two can cost you the refund you thought you had.
Family sharing and the household limit
Instacart+ includes a Family Account for sharing certain benefits. How many people can join depends on which Instacart-hosted page you read. One help page says up to four customers can share certain benefits, while offer terms attached to promotions say benefits may be shared with one member of the same household. Peacock goes to the primary member. Before you plan to split the cost with a parent, a roommate or an adult child, confirm in your own account who can actually be added, because the terms are about households, not friends.
What it does not do
Instacart is plain about one limit and it deserves repeating. Membership does not give you faster delivery or earlier time slots, and it does not guarantee that a specific slot will be open. If you shop in a busy window and the slots are gone, being a member changes nothing. Instacart also reserves the right to accept, refuse or cancel any membership at its discretion and to change benefits, fees, renewal and cancellation terms with notice. A membership is a service you rent, not a locked-in price.
The Break-Even Math Behind the Sales Pitch
Instacart says that ordering just twice a month can pay for the membership. That claim is nearly true, which is the most dangerous kind. Here is where it holds and where it quietly stops.
In our break-even testing we modeled only the delivery fee, since it is the one saving a member can count on. The annual plan costs $99. At the $3.99 starting fee that non-members are quoted, you need 25 orders to earn it back, which is a little more than twice a month. Instacart’s own sentence works if the delivery fee you avoid averages at least about $4.13 per order, because $99 divided by 24 orders is $4.125. A $3.99 fee falls just short.
The picture improves sharply as the fee you avoid rises. Delivery fees vary with store, basket size, speed and distance, and orders with a shorter window or a longer drive can cost much more than the starting rate. At $7.99, the annual plan pays for itself in 13 orders. The Costco rate cuts the thresholds to 20 and 10, and the SNAP promotion’s first-year price cuts them to 16 and 8.
| How often you order | Orders a year | Delivery fees avoided | Versus the $99 plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 52 | $207.48 – $415.48 | Ahead by $108 to $316 |
| Twice a month | 24 | $95.76 – $191.76 | About even at the low fee; up to $93 ahead |
| Monthly | 12 | $47.88 – $95.88 | Behind by $3 to $51 |
| Quarterly | 4 | $15.96 – $31.96 | Behind by $67 to $83 |
The table assumes every order qualifies for the waiver and that the fee you would otherwise pay sits between $3.99 and $7.99. Your real numbers live on your receipts. Pull your last six orders, add up the delivery-fee lines only, and project that to a year. Ignore the service fee entirely; it stays either way. If the projection falls below the price of the plan you are considering, the membership is a convenience purchase, not a saving, and that is a perfectly fine reason to buy it as long as you know it is the reason.
Open your last six orders. Add the delivery fee on each, divide by six, and multiply by the number of orders you expect in a year. Compare the result with $99, or with $79 if you hold a Costco membership. If you come out ahead by $25 or more, buy the annual plan. If you land within $10 either way, count Peacock only if you would have paid for it, and take the trial rather than the plan. If you are behind, order without the membership and use any partner credit you already own.
Everything else on the receipt that membership leaves alone
| Charge | Typical size | Waived by Instacart+? | Can you reduce it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery fee | From $3.99; more for small baskets, speed or distance | Yes, on eligible orders | Yes: build baskets past the minimum |
| Service fee | Varies by location, item count and item type; the FTC cited up to 15% on some promotions | No | Sometimes: larger baskets, different stores |
| Tip | Your choice, with a suggested default | No | You control the amount |
| Item prices | Set by the retailer; can differ from shelf price | No | Yes: compare with the store’s own price |
| Taxes and local fees | By location; some states add bag or bottle fees | No | No |
| Long-distance or priority options | Extra charges when selected or required | Not generally | Yes: skip priority windows |
Item pricing deserves its own warning, because it is the part of the bill members assume they have escaped. In December 2025, a joint investigation by Consumer Reports, Groundwork Collaborative and More Perfect Union reported that 437 shoppers in four cities, building identical carts at the same time, saw different prices for the same grocery items. In one test, a dozen eggs at one store appeared at five different prices between $3.99 and $4.79. The group estimated the variations could cost a household of four about $1,200 a year. Instacart denied wrongdoing and said retailers set the prices, then announced it was ending all item price tests that month, promising that families shopping the same items at the same time from the same store would see the same prices.
Retailers still set their own prices on the platform, and those prices can differ from what the same store charges on the shelf. The takeaway is not panic. It is a habit: before you commit to a recurring order, price your five most-bought items in the store’s own app or in person once, and see how far the Instacart price drifts.
How Instacart+ lines up with other memberships
| Membership | Price | Free-delivery threshold | What else to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instacart+ | $99 a year or $9.99 a month | $10 grocery and retail; $35 Costco; $25 eligible restaurants | Many stores in one app; service fees still apply |
| Walmart+ | $98 a year or $12.95 a month | $35 on store delivery | Walmart’s own stores only; includes shipping, fuel savings and streaming choice |
| Shipt | $99 a year or $10.99 a month | $35; a $7 fee applies under it | Shipt’s published pricing; 14-day trial |
| Amazon Prime | $139 a year or $14.99 a month | Rules vary by retailer and ZIP | Broad shipping and streaming perks beyond groceries |
Find Your Situation
Averages only get you so far. These are the households where the decision looks different, and the trap each one tends to walk into.
For someone without a car or with limited mobility, a weekly delivery is not a luxury. At 52 orders a year and a delivery fee between $3.99 and $7.99, you would pay $207 to $415 in delivery fees alone, so the $99 plan clearly earns its keep. The $79 Costco route is cheaper still if you already hold a Costco membership, and a recent EBT SNAP order opens the $4.99 monthly promotion.
The trap for this household is not the membership; it is the stack of charges around it. Service fees and tips remain, so budget for them. Build one larger weekly basket instead of several small ones, because a bigger cart spreads the service fee and keeps you clear of the $10 line. Ask the store, or check the app, whether your regular items cost more on Instacart than on the shelf, and keep a handwritten list of your five staples so you can spot a price that jumps.
Also decide who manages the account. If an adult child places the orders, confirm the family-account rules first, since Instacart ties sharing to the household.
Two separate things apply, and they are easy to blur. SNAP can pay for eligible groceries on participating retailers’ online orders, but state SNAP agencies say benefits cannot cover delivery fees, and fees and tips are not food, so you need a backup card for those. Second, Instacart’s SNAP promotion lets customers who placed an EBT SNAP order in the past six months buy a monthly membership at $4.99 for one year, which comes to $59.88.
Instacart’s terms say the promotional membership is charged to a non-EBT payment method, so the membership fee itself cannot come from your benefits card. After twelve months it renews at $9.99 a month. Set a reminder at month eleven; if your delivery use has dropped, cancel before the price doubles. Offers change and eligibility rules differ by account, so check what appears under Member exclusive offers in your own app instead of assuming you qualify.
For small top-ups, compare delivery with the store’s own free pickup. A $0 delivery fee is not a bargain if the service fee and tip on a $15 basket outweigh the trip you saved.
Instacart’s partnership page offers an annual membership at $79 for active Costco members who link their accounts, and new Instacart+ members can get two free months. Limits apply: one redemption per Costco membership, and a valid Costco membership must be in place when you redeem and when you renew. Remember that Costco orders need $35 for the $0 delivery fee, not $10.
The catch is price. Costco’s warehouse prices are famously low, and reports of higher prices on delivery platforms are common. Before you route a big shop through the app, compare three of your usual items against the warehouse price. A $79 membership saves money only if the item markup does not eat the difference.
Check your card before you pay a cent. Many Chase co-brand cards bundle three months of Instacart+ and a monthly credit, Chase Ink Business cards have been reported at $20 a month, and United Club cards have been reported to include a complimentary membership through December 31, 2027. These details come from card-benefit coverage, so confirm them in your card’s own terms. Mastercard’s offer, per Instacart, runs through January 31, 2027.
The two traps are timing and tracking. Enroll the card, then put the deadline in your calendar: if the free months expire and you did nothing, credits stop. And read whether your offer expires on its own or converts into a paid plan, because Instacart’s own offer pages differ. If you plan to keep the membership paid, pay with the card that carries the credit, since credits generally require using the eligible card.
The fear is reasonable, and it is exactly what the FTC’s complaint was about. Instacart’s help center says you are charged at the end of a trial if the membership auto-enrolls, and the charge can land up to six hours before renewal. Do this today: open Account, then Your Instacart+ Membership, check the renewal date, and either cancel or set the seven-day reminder Instacart offers.
Know the refund math before you choose. If you let an annual plan start and then realize you do not want it, you have five calendar days to cancel and request a refund, provided you have not used the membership. That means no orders using the $0 delivery benefit and no activated New York Times Cooking. Instacart also says it often honors out-of-policy refund requests, so if you miss the window, ask in writing and keep the reply.
Start with the Instacart Help Center and ask for the charge to be reversed, citing the date of the charge and the date you first noticed it. Keep screenshots of the order history and the membership page. If the answer is no, ask your card issuer how to dispute a charge you did not knowingly authorize. Do not wait; disputes have deadlines.
On the federal side, the FTC’s December 2025 settlement says people charged for Instacart+ without express informed consent will receive refunds. When we checked the FTC’s active refund programs in October, Instacart was not listed, and the case page we found showed the matter as pending. We found no public claim form. Treat any website that charges you to file a claim, or any text or email that asks you to send money to receive a refund, as a scam; the FTC says it will never ask you to transfer money to get a refund. Watch ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds for the real process.
Skip the membership. At twelve orders a year the delivery fees you would avoid come to $48 to $96, which is below the $99 price. Take the 14-day trial if you want to try the perks and cancel before it ends, order from the store’s own pickup when you can, and put the saved fee toward the basket. If a card offers monthly credits, use the credit without paying for the plan, but only if the credit works for non-members; most partner credits require an active membership, so read the terms before you spend.
This is the profile Instacart+ was built for. Annual pricing at $99 beats the monthly plan by $20.88, and at 52 orders the delivery waiver alone covers the fee several times over. Choose the annual plan, activate Peacock if anyone in the house will use it, and pick a single day each week to place one large order.
The risk for big baskets is not the fee; it is the pricing. A cart of 40 items multiplies any item-level markup, so audit your top ten items once a quarter against the store’s own price. Instacart’s recent pricing controversy centered on exactly this kind of drift, and prices on the platform can still differ from the shelf.
Overlap is the hidden cost. Walmart+ costs $98 a year and covers delivery from Walmart’s own stores, while Shipt lists $99 a year, and Prime costs $139. If your main stores are Walmart or Target, a second delivery membership may add little. If you use Aldi, Kroger-family stores, Publix or Costco through Instacart, the membership earns its place. Pick the membership that matches where you buy most of your groceries, and treat the others as optional. Paying for two grocery memberships to save one delivery fee is rarely arithmetic that works.
Cancel and Get Your Money Back, Step by Step
Leaving is easier than it was a few years ago, but the refund rules are narrow. Here is the sequence we would follow, built from Instacart’s help center and terms.
Start with the refund rule, because it shapes everything. Instacart’s terms say that annual memberships canceled within the first five calendar days of a paid term or renewal may be refunded, but only if you have not used Instacart+ benefits in that period. Annual memberships canceled after that window are non-refundable unless applicable law requires otherwise. We found no published refund window for monthly charges, so assume none. If you cancel at any other time, you keep your benefits until the end of what you paid for, then the plan ends.
Instacart says it also automatically refunds annual renewals canceled within five days if the plan was unused, and that it often honors requests outside the policy. That second statement is a company claim, not a guarantee, and it is worth testing if you miss the window. Ask politely, in writing, with dates.
Open your Instacart account and choose Your Instacart+ Membership. Under Manage your membership, select Cancel membership and choose Continue. If you change your mind about canceling right now, Instacart lets you set a reminder for seven days before renewal instead. Take a screenshot of the confirmation screen, and save any email Instacart sends. If Apple or Google billed you, the refund generally has to be requested from that store, not Instacart.
Instacart’s terms say that if you cancel before a free trial or promotional period expires, it will not charge the following term unless you restart. The cleaner approach is to let a trial run most of its course, check the date, and cancel with a day or two to spare. Do not rely on the six-hour window; it is the last moment a charge can arrive, not a safe cancellation time.
The FTC’s proposed order bars Instacart from misrepresenting delivery costs and satisfaction guarantees and requires clear disclosure and express informed consent for subscriptions that charge automatically unless you opt out. Orders of this kind take effect when a judge signs them. The FTC case page we found listed the matter as pending, last updated in January, and when we checked the FTC’s list of active refund programs in October, Instacart was not on it.
Practically, that means two things. Do not expect a check on a schedule, and do not pay anyone to file a claim for you. If a refund program opens, the FTC will publish it on its refund page. In the meantime, the best protection is your own record: dates of trial start, any charge, and anything Instacart told you in writing.
Your $0 delivery fee ends at the close of the paid term. Peacock Premium, which depends on active membership, stops with it, and a New York Times Cooking subscription tied to the membership term follows the same rule. Any partner credit that required an active membership stops working. If you used a Costco, Chase or Mastercard offer, check whether re-enrolling later is allowed, because many offers limit redemption to new or recently inactive members.
Prices and policies reflect Instacart’s published help pages, terms and offer pages and the FTC’s public record as we reviewed them in October. Instacart can change membership fees, minimums, partner offers and eligibility with notice, and some Instacart-hosted pages show older figures than others, so confirm numbers in your cart and account before you pay. Break-even figures use the delivery fees of $3.99 and $7.99 as scenarios, exclude service fees, tips and taxes, and are illustrations rather than quotes. Statements about the FTC case describe allegations and a proposed settlement that Instacart disputes. Card-offer details come from Instacart’s pages and card-benefit coverage and vary by card. Nothing here is financial or legal advice. This page is independent and is not affiliated with Instacart, the FTC, Costco, Chase or Mastercard.
Key sources: Federal Trade Commission press release and refund programs page · Instacart Help Center, Terms and offer pages · Consumer Reports press release · Walmart.com/plus · Shipt Help Center · NBC Select