Aldi crowned the cheapest supermarket in April

Aldi is the UK's cheapest supermarket of the month for April, according to the latest Which? pricing analysis. 

Meanwhile, Asda has remained in the top spot for our longer list of groceries for the second month in a row, after losing out to Tesco with a Clubcard in January and February this year. 

Read on to find out how other supermarkets, including Lidl and Sainsbury's, compare – and how much you could save by switching supermarkets.

Cheapest supermarket in April

We checked the prices of 96 popular branded and own-brand groceries, including milk, cheese and Hovis sliced bread, at eight of the UK's biggest supermarkets throughout March to see how they compared.

The table shows how much our shopping cost on average:

Aldi secured the cheapest supermarket title again in April, with an average price of £172.77 for our list.

Lidl, with Lidl Plus discounts, came second with an average price of £175.20. Without Lidl Plus discounts, our shop came to £175.29.

Asda came in fourth, with our list of items costing £197.91.

Tesco with a Clubcard was next, at £199.11 – cheaper than shopping at Sainsbury’s with Nectar (£204.40).

Tesco without a Clubcard and Morrisons were next, with the items totalling £204.86 and £205.31, respectively, on average throughout April.

Waitrose was again the most expensive supermarket in our monthly analysis, with the items on our list costing £242.04 on average. This is a difference of £69.27 or 40% compared with Aldi.

There were 47 loyalty discounts overall in April for our smaller list: 23 for Tesco, 21 for Sainsbury's and three at Lidl.

• Find out more: Cheapest supermarkets of 2026

What about a bigger shopping list?

Our longer list covers 221 items, including a wide range of brands not stocked at Aldi or Lidl, such as Heinz, Hovis and Kellogg’s. 

The table shows how much our shopping cost on average for the longer list:

Asda had the lowest average price for our longer list (£567.56) in April. 

Tesco with a Clubcard came in second place, at £576.88 – but without a loyalty card, the same list would cost over £46 more.

Morrisons came next, both with and without a More card, costing £590.07 for loyalty members and £590.50 for non-loyalty members on average. 

Sainsbury's with Nectar (£590.74) was slightly more expensive than Morrisons without a loyalty card, on average. Without a loyalty card, Sainsbury's was the second most expensive for our long list (£637.47).

Waitrose was the most expensive shop for the longer list, at £659.58 – over £92 more expensive than Asda.

There were 208 loyalty discounts overall in April: 113 for Sainsbury's, 93 for Tesco and two for Morrisons.

• Interested in more than just price? Shoppers have rated product quality, customer service, online deliveries and more to reveal the best and worst supermarkets.

Support original journalism

Our award-winning research helps us in our mission to make life simpler, fairer and safer for everyone.

Join Which?

How much of a discount do loyalty cards give?

Based on our smaller list of products, having a loyalty card would save an average of 3% at Sainsbury's and Tesco, and 0.05% at Lidl over the month.

For our longer list, which included more branded groceries and a wider selection of items with loyalty discounts, the savings were generally much more substantial – 7.51% at Tesco and 7.33% at Sainsbury's. However, savings were just 0.07% at Morrisons. 

Lidl announced this week that it would be making changes to its Lidl Plus loyalty scheme. Now customers collect points rather than reward coupons, with £1 spent equalling one point. This brings the scheme in line with both Nectar and Clubcard. 

The discounts offered by loyalty cards may sound good, but that's only if you can access them. Our research has found that millions of people can't access loyalty promotions because they're not eligible to join supermarket member schemes due to their age, lack of address or difficulties with digital access. 

In February, Tesco announced that it planned to make its Clubcard available to under-18s this year. The move comes after a major campaign launched by Which? urging supermarkets to lift their unfair restrictions on their loyalty schemes. 

Although this is a win for consumers, more work is needed as certain restrictions continue to lock people out of valuable savings. Groups often affected include those without smartphones and under-18s, who may struggle to access – or simply not know how to access – loyalty prices.

• Find out more: Loyalty schemes compared

What's happening to grocery prices?

The UK’s inflation rate rose to 3.3% in the year to March, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The largest upward driver was the price of fuel, but it was partially offset by the price of clothing. 

Grocery inflation fell to 3.8% in April according to Numerator, meaning the impact of the conflict in the Middle East hasn't yet impacted supermarket shelves. Spending on promoted items rose 7.8% year on year, suggesting shoppers are looking for deals, while spending on full-price goods fell by 0.2%.

• Find out more: Check what's happening to prices by supermarket, category of food and ranges using the Which? food and drink inflation tracker

How Which? finds the cheapest supermarket

We check the prices of hundreds of grocery items at eight major supermarkets, using an independent price comparison website. 

For each supermarket, we calculate the average price of each item across the month, then add those up to get each supermarket's average total price. 

What items are on the list?

Our shopping list comprises the country’s most popular and widely available groceries, based on extensive market analysis. 

It includes branded items such as Cathedral City cheddar and Hellmann's mayonnaise, as well as own-brand products such as potatoes and baked beans. 

Own-brand items won’t be identical across supermarkets, but we’ve ensured everything we’ve compared is as similar as possible, based on several factors, including quality and weight.

Which? never shares the full list of products used in its analysis, to avoid supermarkets attempting to skew the results. 

We don't want supermarkets to compete with one another to lower prices only on the items they know they'll be judged on. Instead, we want retailers to work to make groceries affordable across the depth and breadth of their available lines.

What about special offers and loyalty prices?

We include special offers but not multibuy discounts. 

We can only include loyalty prices that apply to all members of a scheme (where there's one price on the shelf for shoppers with a loyalty card and another for those without). Currently, this type of two-tier pricing is used at Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose. 

We're unable to include discounts that are personalised to selected members, and we can’t factor in points or other rewards, as these vary between customers and don't always have a quantifiable monetary value.

• Find out more: how to spend less at the supermarket