Whether you’re grabbing lunch on the go or satisfying a late-night craving, a good burger is one of America’s great equalizers. But with fast-food prices on the rise, how do you know you’re actually getting your money’s worth?
NetCredit set out to answer that question with a new study comparing burgers and fries across the country’s 14 largest fast-food chains. Focused on portion size, value, and price, the study calculated the national average price per ounce of single-patty cheeseburgers and medium (or regular) fries at each chain — analyzing published nutrition data and using home scales to weigh patties and fries to find out which restaurants are truly delivering the most bang for your buck.
Here are some key findings from the study.
- Whataburger's classic “Whataburger” has the largest patty among the 14 U.S. restaurant chains in the study, and it also offers the best overall value for a burger at $1.66 per ounce of meat.
- Burger King's fries are around 15.6% less expensive per ounce than McDonald’s.
- Shake Shack has the best value fries at $0.40 per ounce.
In the study, it was also noted that even though Whataburger’s signature sandwich costs $5.92, which is more expensive than nearly every other U.S. burger chain included in the research, and the patty also weighs the most at 3.56 oz., it levels out to a very fair price of $1.66 per ounce of meat.
McDonald's classic cheeseburger, on the other hand, had the thinnest patty, weighing just 1.06 ounces. Even so, it still came in second to Whataburger in overall value, since the price is so low, just $1.91 per ounce, or roughly $2.02 for the burger.
When it comes to fries, Whataburger came in at the bottom of the list for offering the most amount of fries for the least amount of money. Shake Shack, despite having some of the more expensive fries on the list, had the best overall value, at $0.40 per ounce (because they do give customers a lot of fries, 6.17 ounces per regular portion). By comparison, Sonic, which came in last of the 14 places, maintains a price of $1.27 per ounce, with a total of 2.54 ounces per serving.
Find the complete study here.
NetCredit’s Methodology
To discover the best value burgers and fries combination in America from major chains, NetCredit calculated the price per ounce of patties and fries at these 14 largest U.S. burger chains:
A&W
Burger King
Carl’s Jr
Culver’s
Dairy Queen
Five Guys
In-N-Out
Jack in the Box
McDonald’s
Shake Shack
Smashburger
Sonic
Wendy’s
Whataburger
NetCredit says they made sure that all burgers were the standard single-patty cheeseburger variants at each chain and that all fries were medium or regular options. Both patties and fries were weighed using accurate kitchen scales after removing any other ingredients (buns, bacon, lettuce, sauce, etc.).
Plus, to account for any regional price differences, they normalized all product prices to reflect the national average using data from their 2025 Cost of Takeout study.
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