How coffee prices are computed
The price on the pack says little about what coffee costs. A box of ten capsules at €3.50 looks cheap next to a kilo of beans at €15, yet those ten capsules hold about 52 g of coffee: €67 a kilo. This site turns every Amazon coffee listing into the price of the same amount — a kilogram of coffee, or ten capsules of one system — and ranks by that.
Two units
Coffee sold by weight is quoted per kg of the net coffee the label states. Capsules, pads and drip bags are quoted per 10 pieces, because the piece is what a machine takes. Every product in a category uses the same unit, and no category is ranked against another: a Vertuo capsule does not fit an Original Line machine, and ground coffee is not instant.
| Unit | Used for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| € / kg | Coffee beans, ground coffee, instant coffee | 6 × 500 g of ground coffee at €29.99 = €10.00 per kg |
| € / 10 capsules | Nespresso (original and compatible), Vertuo, Dolce Gusto, K-Cup, Tassimo, Lavazza A Modo Mio and other capsules | 100 compatible capsules at €19.99 = €2.00 per 10 capsules |
| € / 10 pads · ¥ / 10 bags | Senseo-type and ESE pads; drip bags in Japan | 3 × 36 pads at €12.49 = €1.16 per 10 pads |
Each storefront is priced in its own currency. In the “All” view every product keeps its own category’s unit, printed beside the price; choose a category to rank by it.
Why capsules get a kilo price too
The price per capsule ranks capsules of one system against each other. It does not say what the coffee costs. The ≈ per kg column does: the package price divided by the coffee in it, so a capsule can be held against a bag of beans. 100 compatible capsules at €19.99 holding 5.2 g each are 520 g of coffee: about €38 per kg, two to three times what a kilo of good beans costs.
The coffee per capsule comes from the listing where it says so (“5.5 g per capsule”), or from the box’s net weight over its count. Where the listing says neither, the kilo price uses the system’s typical fill below, and the figure is marked ~ in the Size column, the ≈ per kg column and the row’s details. Typical figures never touch the price per capsule, which rests on the count alone.
| System | Typical coffee per piece |
|---|---|
| Nespresso Original Line | ~5.2 g |
| Nespresso Vertuo | ~10 g (cup sizes run from about 5 to 17 g) |
| Dolce Gusto, black coffee | ~7 g (milk drinks: no kilo price) |
| K-Cup | ~10 g |
| Tassimo | ~7.5 g |
| Lavazza A Modo Mio | ~7.5 g |
| Senseo-type and ESE pads | ~7 g |
| Drip bags | ~8 g |
| Other capsules | ~6 g |
Capsules that hold milk powder — a Dolce Gusto Latte Macchiato, a Tassimo Cappuccino — have no kilo price of coffee at all: their weight is partly milk.
Counting every capsule and gram once
- Original is not Vertuo. An Original Line capsule holds about 5 g, a Vertuo capsule 7 to 17 g, and neither fits the other’s machine; they are separate categories.
- Compatible is not original. Nespresso’s own capsules and compatible ones share a category and its ranking; the Compatible and Nespresso (original) types narrow it to one or the other.
- Milk drinks take two capsules. “16 capsules (8 drinks)” is 16 capsules: the price is per capsule like every other, and the drinks are shown beside it.
- “100 capsules (10 × 10)” is 100 capsules, not 1,000; a count stated beside a pack word (“100 Kapseln, 10er Pack”) is counted once. Where a title can be read two ways (“10 capsules, pack of 10”), the price is marked ~.
- “1 kg (2 × 500 g)” is 1 kg, and “6 × 500 g” is 3 kg.
- Net, not gross. The coffee’s net weight counts, never an item or shipping weight. A capsule box whose stated weight is above 20 g a capsule is a gross weight and is not used.
- Cups are not a quantity. “200 g, makes 100 cups” is 200 g of instant coffee; how many cups it makes depends on your spoon.
- ESE is not Senseo. ESE paper pods are 44 mm, Senseo-type soft pads 62–70 mm; the pads category keeps them apart as types.
What the highlights mean
Best value marks the lowest price per kg (or per capsule, pad or bag) among in-stock listings in the selected category that match your filters, across all result pages. Lowest kilo pricemarks the cheapest ≈ per kg on a capsule, pad or drip-bag page, among listings that state their coffee: a kilo price from a system’s typical fill is shown, never crowned. Tied winners share the highlight, and a lone listing gets no badge.
What is estimated, and what never is
A net weight is never invented. A bag of beans without one is listed by package price, and so is a title that names several different weights. Two things make a unit price an estimate, marked ~ and removed by “Hide estimates”: a pack count the title can be read two ways, and a product page whose weight or count contradicts the title (the product page wins). The typical coffee per capsule is an estimate of the kilo price only, marked ~ in Size and on the kilo price, and never hides a listing whose price per capsule is exact.
Prices far outside what coffee costs (under €2 or over €400 a kilo; under $0.05 or over $2.50 a capsule) are treated as misreads and not ranked.
What is not listed
Coffee machines, grinders, frothers and moka pots; descalers and cleaning tablets; reusable capsules, capsule holders, filter papers, mugs and syrups; tea, cocoa and hot-chocolate capsules; 3-in-1 mixes, creamers and instant cappuccino powders; coffee substitutes, green coffee and caffeine supplements. Their titles name coffee, but none of them is coffee you can price per kilo or per capsule.
Where the numbers come from
Weights and counts are read from the listing’s title (“Jacobs Krönung gemahlen, 6 x 500 g” → 6 × 500 g; “Senseo Kaffeepads 3 x 36 Pads” → 108 pads) and, where the product page has been read, from its description and product information. Every number read from a product page must come with the exact words it was read from, or it is dropped.
Data freshness & countries
Prices are refreshed weekly for ten Amazon storefronts, each a separate catalog in its own currency; the date above the table shows the last update. Some systems are sold only in some of them: K-Cups in the US and Canada, Tassimo in the UK, Germany, France and Canada, pads in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK, A Modo Mio in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the UK, drip bags in Japan. Prices and availability change at any time — what Amazon shows at checkout is what applies.
Affiliate disclosure
Product links carry an Amazon Associates tag. As an Amazon Associate, this site earns from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you. Rankings are computed from the numbers alone and are never sponsored.
No health or compatibility advice
This is a price comparison. It says nothing about caffeine, health or taste, and “compatible” is the seller’s word: check that a capsule fits your machine before you buy. Nespresso, Vertuo, Dolce Gusto, K-Cup, Tassimo, Senseo and A Modo Mio are trademarks of their owners, named only to say which machine a capsule is for; this site is not affiliated with any of them.