Key Takeaways
TL;DR: Cooking Thanksgiving yourself is still the cheapest option by far: the Farm Bureau’s classic dinner for 10 cost $55.18 in 2025, about $5.52 a person. A restaurant prix-fixe runs around $75 a person before tax, tip and drinks, and a private chef at home cost a median of $185 a guest on Take a Chef, with groceries, service and cleanup included.
- Cooking at home: $55.18 for the classic ten-person basket in 2025 (turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray and pumpkin pie), or $77.09 with ham, potatoes and green beans. Appetizers, drinks and a second pie come on top.
- Eating out: A Chef’s Pencil study of more than 500 restaurant menus put the 2025 median at $75 a person before tax, tip and drinks, from about $41 in Cincinnati to $105 in Los Angeles.
- A private chef at home: Thanksgiving dinners booked on Take a Chef from 2021 to 2025 cost a median of $185 a guest, and the price per guest drops as the table grows: about $240 for up to four people, $180 for nine to twelve.
- What the chef’s price covers: Menu design, groceries, travel, cooking, serving at the table and cleaning the kitchen. Drinks are yours, which also means no restaurant markup on wine.
- Timing: 7 in 10 of those dinners were booked at least two weeks ahead, and the full refund window closes 15 days before the service (November 11 for Thanksgiving 2026).
Thanksgiving 2026 falls on Thursday, November 26, and for most hosts the first question isn’t what to cook. It’s how much the whole thing is going to cost, and whether it’s worth doing differently this year.
There are three ways to put Thanksgiving dinner on the table: cook it yourself, book a restaurant or bring a private chef home. Below are the real numbers for each, from the American Farm Bureau’s annual survey, a study of more than 500 restaurant menus and the prices guests actually paid for Thanksgiving dinners booked on Take a Chef, plus what each figure leaves out.
Índice
Thanksgiving dinner cost at a glance
Here is what each option costs for a table of ten, with the same caveat in every row: drinks are not included.
| Option | Per person | Table of 10 | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home, classic menu | $5.50 | $55 | Groceries only |
| Home, expanded menu | $7.70 | $77 | Groceries only |
| Restaurant prix-fixe | $75 + tax and tip | about $960 | Food and service, away from home |
| Private chef at home | about $180 | about $1,800 | Groceries, cooking, service and cleanup |
The gap between the first and last rows is real, and so is what sits behind it. The grocery basket doesn’t count appetizers, a second dessert, the hours of shopping and cooking, or the dishes at midnight. The chef’s price counts all of it except the wine.
Cooking Thanksgiving at home: the grocery bill
Every November the American Farm Bureau Federation prices the same Thanksgiving menu so the years can be compared: a 16-pound turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, fresh cranberries, a veggie tray and pumpkin pie with whipped cream, enough for ten.
In 2025 that dinner cost $55.18, about $5.52 a person. It was the third drop in a row, down 5% from $58.08 in 2024 and well below the record $64.05 of 2022, mostly because turkey got cheaper. The 16-pound turkey alone was $21.50, about 39% of the bill. Adding a boneless ham, Russet potatoes and frozen green beans took the total to $77.09.
Where you live moves the number. The classic menu cost $61.75 in the West, $60.82 in the Northeast, $54.38 in the Midwest and $50.01 in the South. The Farm Bureau publishes its 2026 survey the week before Thanksgiving, and we’ll update these figures when it does.
What the survey can’t price is the work. A from-scratch dinner for ten usually means a big shop a few days ahead, thawing the turkey (about a day in the fridge for every four to five pounds), a long cooking day with one oven and a kitchen to clean afterwards. Most real menus also go beyond the basket: cheese or appetizers, a second main, two or three pies and something to drink. If you’re cooking, our Thanksgiving dinner ideas help keep the menu manageable.
Eating out on Thanksgiving: restaurant prices
Restaurants that open on Thanksgiving almost always switch to a set holiday menu. Chef’s Pencil looked at more than 500 of those prix-fixe menus in 29 US cities in 2025 and found a national median of $75 a person, before tax, tip and drinks.
The spread is wide. Los Angeles had the highest median at $105, followed by New York and San Francisco at $95, while Cincinnati and Columbus sat around $41. Hotel restaurants and fine-dining rooms go well above that, and children’s menus are usually cheaper.
Do the math with the extras and that $75 becomes about $95 a person with sales tax and a 20% tip, before anyone orders a glass of wine. A table of ten lands near $960, or more than $1,300 in Los Angeles. The other costs are less visible: Thanksgiving reservations go early, seatings are timed, large tables are hard to get, and there are no leftovers to take home unless you pay for them.
Unforgettable moments with gourmet touches
From intimate dinners to special celebrations, our private chefs create memorable experiences that turn any event into something extraordinary.
Hiring a private chef for Thanksgiving: what guests actually paid
A private chef comes to your home, cooks the full dinner in your kitchen, serves it and leaves the kitchen clean. To see what that costs on the holiday itself, we looked at every Thanksgiving Day dinner booked on Take a Chef in the United States from 2021 to 2025: 187 dinners, from Miami and Orlando to New York, Los Angeles and Phoenix.
The median price was $185 a guest, and half of the dinners cost between $151 and $220 a guest. That price includes designing the menu with you, buying the groceries, the chef’s travel, cooking, serving at the table and the cleanup. Drinks, special tableware and extra staff are not included.
The size of the table changes the price per person more than anything else, because the chef’s time is shared across more guests:
| Guests | Median price per guest | Typical total |
|---|---|---|
| 2 to 4 | $240 | about $660 |
| 5 to 8 | $185 | about $1,290 |
| 9 to 12 | $180 | about $1,790 |
| 13 to 20 | $174 | about $2,670 |
The menu level matters too. On the dinners we analysed, casual menus came to a median of $150 a guest, gourmet ones $190 and exclusive ones $240. And Thanksgiving is a busy day for chefs: in 2025 Thanksgiving Day drew 590 requests on Take a Chef, almost four times as many as the Friday after, which is why the best chefs book up first.
For a year-round view of how chef prices compare with a night out, see our guide to private chef prices vs. restaurants. How the holiday service works, from the request to the cleanup, is on our private chef for Thanksgiving page.
What a $185-a-guest Thanksgiving looks like
Numbers are easier to judge with a real menu next to them. This is the Thanksgiving dinner Caleb B. Hernandez, a private chef in Los Angeles, cooked for a table of eight on Thanksgiving 2025, priced close to the median. The guests wrote afterwards that he even made the Dutch apple pie from scratch that same afternoon.
Every chef on Take a Chef writes their own menus, so the same budget can buy a classic turkey dinner, an Italian-style Thanksgiving or a menu with a second main for the guests who skip turkey. You can see more of them, with the chefs who cooked them, on our Thanksgiving at home page.
Is a private chef worth it for Thanksgiving?
In money alone, no option beats cooking yourself, and a restaurant costs roughly half of what a chef does per person. The case for the chef is everything the per-person number doesn’t show:
- Nobody in the family works. The host sits down with everyone else instead of running between the oven and the table.
- Your own table, your own pace. No timed seating, no driving after dinner, and the football stays on.
- Your own wine. Drinks aren’t marked up, so a table that drinks well narrows the gap with the restaurant fast.
- Everyone eats what they need. Gluten-free stuffing, a vegetarian main or a nut-free dessert are part of the menu, not a special request.
- Leftovers stay with you. Ask for extra turkey and sides, and Friday’s sandwiches are sorted.
- Big tables are easier at home. Finding a restaurant that seats fourteen on Thanksgiving is hard; your dining room already does.
A chef tends to make the most sense for larger family dinners, hosts who also want to enjoy the day, and families away from home. If you’re spending the holiday in a rented house, our guide to Thanksgiving in a vacation rental covers what to check before you go.
How to keep the cost of Thanksgiving down
Whichever way you go, a few decisions cut the bill more than coupons do:
- Book or buy early. Turkeys, restaurant tables and chefs all get scarcer in the last two weeks.
- Keep the menu tight. One main, four or five sides and two desserts feed a crowd; the tenth side dish is the one that gets thrown out.
- Grow the table, not the menu. With a chef, the price per guest falls as the group grows, from about $240 for a small table to about $174 for 13 to 20 guests.
- Mix and match. Have the chef cook the turkey and the sides and let the family bring the pies and the wine.
- Consider the day after. Friday and Saturday get a fraction of Thursday’s requests, so more chefs are available.
If you do book a chef, tipping isn’t expected because the price is all-inclusive; our guide on how much to tip a private chef explains when it’s still a nice gesture.
How booking a Thanksgiving chef works
On Take a Chef you describe your dinner (date, address, number of guests, tastes and allergies) and up to four local chefs send you a menu proposal with its price. You chat with them, adjust the menu and book the one you like. Take a Chef holds the payment until after the dinner, and you get a full refund if you cancel 15 or more days before, which for Thanksgiving 2026 means by November 11.
Most guests don’t leave it late: 7 in 10 of the Thanksgiving dinners we analysed were booked at least two weeks ahead, and the median booking came 27 days before the holiday.
Frequently asked questions about Thanksgiving dinner cost
How much does Thanksgiving dinner cost per person?
It depends on who cooks. The groceries for the American Farm Bureau’s classic dinner came to about $5.52 a person in 2025 ($55.18 for ten). A restaurant Thanksgiving menu cost a median of $75 a person before tax, tip and drinks. A private chef at home cost a median of $185 a guest on Take a Chef, groceries, service and cleanup included.
How much does it cost to hire a private chef for Thanksgiving?
On Take a Chef, Thanksgiving dinners from 2021 to 2025 cost a median of $185 a guest, and half of them landed between $151 and $220. Smaller tables pay more per person (about $240 for up to four guests) and larger ones less (about $174 for 13 to 20). A typical dinner for eight to ten came to roughly $1,300 to $1,800, drinks aside.
Is it cheaper to eat out or cook at home on Thanksgiving?
Cooking at home is much cheaper in money: a full grocery basket for ten costs less than one restaurant cover in most cities. Eating out costs less than a private chef per person, but you add tax, a tip and drinks at restaurant prices, and you lose the day at home, the leftovers and the freedom to linger at your own table.
Do you tip a private chef on Thanksgiving?
Take a Chef prices are all-inclusive, so no tip is expected. If the chef handled extra guests, last-minute dietary changes or simply made the day, an optional $20 to $50 is a generous gesture, and a good review matters a lot to them.
When should I book a chef for Thanksgiving?
As early as you can. Seven in ten Thanksgiving dinners on Take a Chef were booked at least two weeks ahead, and the median booking came 27 days before the holiday. For Thanksgiving 2026 (Thursday, November 26), you get a full refund if you cancel by November 11.
What does the Farm Bureau Thanksgiving survey include?
The American Farm Bureau Federation has priced the same menu since 1986 so years can be compared: a 16-pound turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream, enough for ten people. The 2026 results come out the week before Thanksgiving.
The real cost of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving can cost $55 or $1,800 for the same ten people, and both can be the right answer. The groceries are cheap; the time, the work and the host’s day are what you’re really deciding about. Price the options honestly, extras included, and pick the one that lets you enjoy the table.
Sources: American Farm Bureau Federation, 2025 Thanksgiving dinner cost survey; Chef’s Pencil, Thanksgiving restaurant prices in 2025; Take a Chef bookings for Thanksgiving Day 2021 to 2025 in the United States (187 dinners; prices per guest as paid, single-meal bookings, drinks not included).
