ALDI's app and website show the price for ordering online, and for many items that is 10% to 13% above what the same store charges on the shelf. To see the shelf price at your own ALDI before you go, call Scavio's ALDI API: POST /api/v1/aldi/search with your store's store_id returns the in-store price, stock level and aisle section for every match, and the same call with service_type: "pickup" returns the online price for comparison. Each search costs 1 credit, about $0.002 on the Growth plan billed yearly, and needs no ALDI account.
The complaint comes up on r/aldi again and again. In a January 2026 thread with 150 upvotes and 28 comments, a shopper who plans a trip by comparing the Walmart and ALDI apps wrote that in the ALDI app "the prices are always higher than in store", so the only way to compare was to walk the aisles. An older thread on online markups, the top Reddit result on Google for this question, asked the same thing about a weekly spreadsheet of Kroger, Walmart and ALDI prices. Both want one number: what this ALDI charges at the register.
How big the gap is
We searched "milk" at two ALDI stores on November 2, 2026, once for each shopping mode. At the North Milwaukee Avenue store in Chicago:
| Product | In store | Pickup | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friendly Farms Whole Milk, 1 gal | $2.53 | $2.53 | $2.53 |
| Friendly Farms 2% Reduced Fat Milk, 1 gal | $2.53 | $2.79 | $2.79 |
| Friendly Farms Vitamin D Whole Milk, 0.5 gal | $1.46 | $1.65 | $1.65 |
| Simply Nature Organic 2% Reduced Fat Milk, 64 fl oz | $3.75 | $4.15 | $4.15 |
| Simply Nature Kids Organic Whole Milk, 59 fl oz | $5.19 | $5.75 | $5.75 |
| Friendly Farms Lactose Free Whole Milk, 64 fl oz | $2.89 | $2.89 | $2.89 |
11 of the 16 milk products cost 10% to 13% more online, and all 16 together came to $45.92 on the shelf against $49.12 online, 7.0% more. At a Dallas store it was 10 of 15 products, 9.7% to 10.8% more. Pickup and delivery were identical at both. The markup is not uniform, which is why a flat "subtract 10%" rule does not work: the gallon of whole milk and the lactose-free milks did not move at all.
Step 1: Find your store
curl -s https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/aldi/stores \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SCAVIO_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"zip": "60601", "limit": 3}'Stores come back nearest first. For ZIP 60601 the first was store_id 12265, 1753 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, 3.6 miles away.
Step 2: Ask for the shelf price
curl -s https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/aldi/search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SCAVIO_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"query": "milk", "store_id": "12265"}'No service_type means instore, the shelf price, and the response says so. Trimmed to one row:
{
"store": { "store_id": "12265", "service_type": "instore", "zip": null },
"products": [
{
"product_id": "19546425",
"name": "Simply Nature Organic 2% Reduced Fat Milk",
"size": "64 fl oz",
"price": 3.75,
"unit_price": "$0.06/fl oz",
"stock_level": "highly_in_stock",
"in_store_location": "Cooler Doors"
}
]
}Step 3: Compare with the online price
curl -s https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/aldi/search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SCAVIO_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"query": "milk", "store_id": "12265", "service_type": "pickup"}'The same product came back at "price": 4.15 with "service_type": "pickup". Join the two responses on product_id and you have the markup per item.
Step 4: Put ALDI next to Walmart
Both threads compare ALDI with Walmart. Scavio's Walmart API prices search results at the Walmart store you pick, on the same key, so a shopping list can carry both shelf prices. On October 26, 2026 a gallon of Great Value whole milk at the Chicago West North Avenue Walmart was $2.53, the same as Friendly Farms at the Chicago ALDI a week later. Does Walmart's API give real-time store prices? covers the Walmart side.
What to know before you rely on it
- Your store, not ALDI's average: the same gallon of Friendly Farms whole milk was $2.53 in Chicago and $4.10 in Staten Island on the same day. Price the store you shop.
- Live, not cached: each call reads aldi.us for that store when you make it, and
fetched_atrecords when. - A level, not a count:
stock_levelsayshighly_in_stock,in_stock,low_stockorout_of_stock; ALDI does not publish unit counts. - Aisle sections only in store:
in_store_location(such as "Cooler Doors") is filled forinstoreand null for pickup and delivery. - Sales show up: a marked-down item carries
was_priceanddiscount_label, such as Simply Nature Organic Whole Omega-3 Milk at $4.29, was $4.39, "2% off" on the shelf in Chicago.
A weekly list of 30 searches at your nearest store is 30 credits, about 6 cents at the Growth-yearly rate; adding the pickup price for each doubles it. The full comparison of ALDI data options is in the best ALDI grocery price APIs, and every call is walked through in how to get ALDI prices by store.
Try the ALDI API free, 50 credits, no card, or run a search at your own store in the playground.
Reference: ALDI API overview · search docs · stores docs · product docs
Frequently asked questions
Are ALDI online prices higher than in store?
Often, yes. On November 2, 2026, 11 of 16 milk products at an ALDI in Chicago cost 10% to 13% more for pickup or delivery than on the shelf, and 10 of 15 did at a Dallas store. The rest, including a gallon of Friendly Farms whole milk, cost the same online and in store.
Are ALDI pickup prices the same as delivery prices?
At the two stores we checked they were identical, item for item: every milk product had the same price for pickup and for delivery, and both were the online price rather than the shelf price.
Can I see ALDI in-store prices online?
The ALDI app and website show prices for ordering, which are often higher than the shelf. Scavio's ALDI API returns the in-store price by default for the store you name, as JSON, so a shopping list or a price comparison can use what you will actually pay at the register.
Do ALDI prices vary by store?
Yes. The same gallon of Friendly Farms whole milk was $2.53 in Chicago and $4.10 in Staten Island, New York on November 2, 2026, while organic and lactose-free milk cost the same at all six stores we checked. Compare prices at your own store, not a national average.