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Holiday candy prices have climbed steadily in recent years, with shoppers paying more for treats tied to major celebrations like Halloween and Valentine's Day. Higher costs for ingredients like cocoa and sugar, along with rising fuel, labor, and transportation expenses, have pushed candy prices up faster than many other grocery items, making even small seasonal indulgences noticeably more expensive, and the trend continues for Easter this year.
To understand how much candy prices have increased this Easter, our FinanceBuzz team tracked price changes for popular seasonal candy at major grocery retailers since 2021. Overall, across the items we sampled, candy prices are 9.9% higher than last year on the same Easter basket, and up 58% since 2021.
Key findings
- Easter basket costs have increased by 58% since 2021, more than double the national rate of inflation (24%).
- An Easter candy basket averages $15.32 this year, 9.9% higher than in 2025.
How rising candy prices will affect Easter shoppers this year
To illustrate the overall impact of the last half-decade of Easter candy inflation, we created a sample basket made up of assorted Easter essentials and tracked prices for each item since 2021.
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In 2021, our sample basket, which includes a chocolate creme egg, a chocolate bunny, seasonal M&Ms, Peeps, a chocolate-and-peanut-butter egg, chocolate-and-peanut-butter candies, and jelly beans, cost $9.71. This year, a basket with the exact same candy is $15.32, which is $5.61 more and a 58% increase over 2021. In that time frame, the national inflation rate was 24%, meaning that Easter candy costs have risen more than twice the national inflation rate.
Costs increased by around 10% in both 2025 and 2026, with a 9.9% increase in 2026.
Easter candy price hikes driven by cocoa and sugar costs
Consumers across the country and around the world have been noticing sharp increases in the cost of chocolate products, as factors such as drought in a major cocoa-producing region and (now-rescinded) tariffs have steadily driven chocolate prices higher over the past two years.
Of the candy prices we track, Easter candy has been affected in the same way as other chocolate products, with the sharpest increase we found on Reese's Pieces Carrot bags (+100%). Likewise, we noted sharp price increases at retailers for other chocolate-forward Easter products, such as Easter-themed M&M's (+75%), Lindt Chocolate Bunnies (+61%), and Cadbury Creme Eggs (+57%).
Non-chocolate Easter treats have also risen significantly at retailers we analyzed. The price of Starburst Jellybeans has increased by 53% over the last five years, while costs for Easter's most divisive treat, marshmallow Peeps, have risen by 21% at retailers we analyzed since 2021.
| Item | 2021 Price | 2026 Price | Increase, 2021-2026 |
| Cadbury Creme Egg | $0.90 | $1.41 | 57% |
| Lindt Chocolate Bunny | $3.82 | $6.15 | 61% |
| M&Ms Easter Bag | $2.99 | $5.24 | 75% |
| Peeps | $1.37 | $1.66 | 21% |
| Reese's Eggs 6 Pack | $4.49 | $6.08 | 36% |
| Reese's Pieces Carrot | $1.00 | $2.00 | 100% |
| Starburst Jellybeans | $2.65 | $4.05 | 53% |
Keeping your Easter candy costs in check
Easter candy may come in small packages, but filling a basket can add up at checkout. From chocolate bunnies to pastel jelly beans, those sweet extras can add up quickly.
A few smart choices can keep Easter baskets festive without breaking the bank:
- Plan your baskets ahead of time. It's easy to toss extra treats into the cart when seasonal displays are everywhere. Start with a budget by deciding how many baskets to make and what candy and treats to include.
- Turn your Easter purchases into rewards. Use a cash back credit card to earn cash back or points on qualifying candy and seasonal purchases.
- Look for savings on spring treats. Seasonal sales, loyalty perks, and grocery credit cards can keep the cost of Easter sweets from hopping too high.
How we determined the rise in candy prices
FinanceBuzz collected both historic and current prices of popular Easter candy from four major grocery retailers, including Walmart, Target, Kroger, and Albertsons. We collected data on the same brand and size of the following products whenever possible across retailers:
- Cadbury Creme Egg: 1 individual egg
- Easter M&M's: 10-ounce bag
- Lindt Chocolate Bunny: 1 individual bunny, 3.5 ounces
- Peeps: 10-pack
- Reese's Eggs: 6-pack
- Reese's Pieces Carrot: 1 individual carrot, 2.2 ounces
- Starburst Jellybeans: 14-ounce bag
Historic prices were collected by manually reviewing archived weekly ads published by retailers during past Easter seasons, as well as archived versions of retailers' websites in or around March and April of each year listed. Current prices were pulled directly from each store's website in March 2026.
Limitations: Prices reflect, to the best of our ability to collect them, what the average consumer would pay for each item at national chains in the weeks leading up to Easter. Because historical data can be incomplete, to the extent possible, we considered only same-store comparisons in our analysis across years.
In select cases where 2026 prices for a given item were notably higher at a single retailer, that retailer's outlier pricing was excluded unless it aligned with historic pricing from previous years. Because our data was collected in March 2026, some retailers may still be rolling out specials or additional discounts. Some retailers may also vary prices by location.
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