Real-Time Big Mac Index Dataset
Daily Big Mac prices from real menus worldwide. Download, cite, and explore country and city-level purchasing-power parity data, exchange rates, currency valuation signals, and historical price data.
What's included in the dataset?
Six interlinked tables ship daily, plus historical depth. All exports are in CSV and JSON, with stable URLs you can hot-link from a chart, dashboard, or research pipeline.
Country-level Big Mac prices
Median Big Mac price by country, local currency price, USD price, implied PPP rate, raw currency valuation, GDP-adjusted valuation, and update timestamp.
City-level price data
Sampled city prices showing regional differences within each country — Tokyo vs Osaka, Buenos Aires vs Córdoba, Zurich vs Geneva.
Historical price data
Daily historical Big Mac Index data by country, including prices, exchange rates, and valuation changes over time.
Currency & FX data
Exchange rates, currency metadata, and PPP valuation signals — over- and undervalued pegs at a glance.
Rankings
Most expensive, cheapest, most overvalued, and most undervalued currencies by Big Mac PPP — ranked daily.
API access
Programmatic access for developers, researchers, and data products. Public REST endpoints with daily-fresh JSON.
Download the data
All datasets are public and free to use with attribution. Files refresh daily — bookmark the URL and re-fetch to get the latest snapshot. CSV files are UTF-8, comma-delimited, with header rows.
| Dataset | Description | Updated | Download |
|---|---|---|---|
| Latest Big Mac Index | Country-level prices, USD conversion, PPP valuation, GDP-adjusted valuation, exchange rates. | Daily | |
| Historical Big Mac Index | Daily history of Big Mac prices and PPP valuation by country, where available. | Daily | |
| City Prices | Latest city-level Big Mac prices by country and sampled city. | Daily | |
| Country Metadata | Country IDs, names, currencies, sampled cities, coverage status. | When coverage changes | |
| Currency PPP | Currency exchange rates, PPP gaps, and Big Mac valuation signals. | Daily |
How to cite this dataset
If you use this data in an article, report, chart, classroom resource, or research project, please cite TheBigMacIndex.com and link to this page. Three ready-to-paste formats below.
TheBigMacIndex.com, Real-Time Big Mac Index Dataset, accessed 2026-05-02.
Source: <a href="https://thebigmacindex.com/data">TheBigMacIndex.com Real-Time Big Mac Index Dataset</a>
Source: TheBigMacIndex.com, Real-Time Big Mac Index Dataset.
https://thebigmacindex.com/data
Please link to https://thebigmacindex.com/data when citing the dataset. Independent project — not affiliated with McDonald's or The Economist.
Live dataset preview
First 20 rows of today's country ranking, sorted by raw PPP valuation (most overvalued at top). The full ranking includes every tracked country and is updated daily.
| # | Country | Local price | USD price | Currency | Raw PPP | GDP-adj |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | CHF 8.9 | $11.38 | CHF | +42.4% | +21.9% |
| 2 | 🇩🇪 Germany | EUR 7.49 | $8.78 | EUR | +9.9% | +8.3% |
| 3 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | GBP 6.39 | $8.67 | GBP | +8.5% | +15.1% |
| 4 | 🇺🇸 United States | USD 7.99 | $7.99 | USD | 0.0% | -13.2% |
| 5 | 🇦🇺 Australia | AUD 10.65 | $7.66 | AUD | -4.1% | -5.1% |
| 6 | 🇵🇹 Portugal | EUR 6.35 | $7.45 | EUR | -6.8% | +14.9% |
| 7 | 🇵🇱 Poland | PLN 26.9 | $7.42 | PLN | -7.1% | +8.3% |
| 8 | 🇯🇵 Japan | JPY 720 | $4.58 | JPY | -42.6% | -36.6% |
| 9 | 🇿🇦 South Africa | ZAR 68.3 | $4.10 | ZAR | -48.7% | +1.2% |
Methodology
Short version below. The full methodology page covers data sources, scrape pipeline, validation rules, and known limitations.
Data collection
TheBigMacIndex.com collects Big Mac prices from real restaurant menu sources across multiple cities per country. Prices are collected in local currency and standardized to the standalone Big Mac where available.
Country price calculation
For each country, the country-level Big Mac price is the median of sampled city prices. The median reduces the effect of outlier cities, temporary promotions, or unusually expensive locations.
Currency conversion
Local prices are converted into USD using daily exchange rates. This allows prices to be compared across countries and used to estimate purchasing-power parity.
Raw PPP valuation
The raw Big Mac Index compares the implied PPP exchange rate with the market exchange rate. A positive valuation suggests the local currency is overvalued relative to USD by Big Mac PPP; negative suggests undervaluation.
Implied PPP = Local price / US price
Valuation % = (Implied PPP / Market FX − 1) × 100
GDP-adjusted valuation
The GDP-adjusted index accounts for differences in income levels between countries. Since prices tend to be lower in lower-income countries, the adjusted version compares observed Big Mac price with the price predicted by GDP per capita.
Limitations
The Big Mac Index is a simple, intuitive purchasing-power indicator — not a precise trading model. Prices can be influenced by taxes, wages, rent, competition, local pricing strategy, delivery platform markups, and temporary promotions.
Dataset coverage
Country-by-country coverage status. High = 5+ cities or strong repeated samples. Medium = 3–4 cities. Limited = 1–2 cities. New market = recently added.
| Country | Currency | Cities sampled | Latest price date | History available | Coverage status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 United States | USD | 5 | 2026-05-02 | Daily | High coverage |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | CHF | 5 | 2026-05-02 | Daily | High coverage |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | EUR | 3 | 2026-05-02 | Daily | Medium coverage |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | EUR | 4 | 2026-05-02 | Daily | Medium coverage |
| 🇹🇭 Thailand | THB | — | — | Coming | API coverage pending |
| 🇦🇷 Argentina | ARS | — | — | Coming | API coverage pending |
| 🇿🇦 South Africa | ZAR | 3 | 2026-05-02 | Daily | Medium coverage |
| 🇳🇴 Norway | NOK | — | — | Coming | API coverage pending |
| 🇹🇷 Turkey | TRY | — | — | Coming | API coverage pending |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | JPY | 3 | 2026-05-02 | Daily | Medium coverage |
| 🇲🇽 Mexico | MXN | — | — | Coming | API coverage pending |
| 🇦🇺 Australia | AUD | 3 | 2026-05-02 | Daily | Medium coverage |
| 🇨🇳 China | CNY | — | — | Coming | API coverage pending |
| 🇨🇦 Canada | CAD | — | — | Coming | API coverage pending |
| 🇮🇳 India | INR | — | — | Coming | API coverage pending |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | BRL | — | — | Coming | API coverage pending |
Don't see a country? Request a country or submit a price.
Need programmatic access?
Use the Big Mac Index API to access latest prices, historical data, rankings, country metadata, city breakdowns, currency data, and country comparisons.
curl "https://api.thebigmacindex.com/api/v1/burger/latest"
Public REST API. No auth required for read-only endpoints.
GET /latest — current snapshotGET /history — daily historyGET /rankings — sortable rankingsGET /compare — two-country comparisonGET /countries — country metadataGET /currencies — currency dataGET /scrape/status — pipeline freshnessWhat can this data be used for?
FX and currency analysis
Compare market exchange rates with Big Mac PPP-implied exchange rates. Identify persistent over- and undervaluations in real time.
Inflation and price tracking
Track how a standardized consumer product changes in price across countries and over time — without hedonic adjustments or basket reweighting.
Purchasing-power research
Use Big Mac prices as a simple, intuitive proxy for relative purchasing power across regions and time periods.
Data journalism
Create charts, maps, rankings, and stories about global prices, currency misalignment, and consumer purchasing power.
Economics education
Teach purchasing-power parity, exchange rates, inflation, and currency valuation with live, daily-refreshing data.
Pricing localization
Use country-level purchasing power signals to inform regional pricing decisions for digital products and SaaS.
Real-time Big Mac Index vs. traditional Big Mac Index
Inspired by the original Big Mac Index concept. Not affiliated with The Economist or McDonald's.
| Feature | TheBigMacIndex.com | Traditional Big Mac Index |
|---|---|---|
| Update frequency | Daily | Periodic / infrequent |
| Source | Real menu prices and community verification | Survey/editorial collection |
| Granularity | Country and city-level | Mostly country-level |
| Public API | Yes — free, no auth | No public API or limited dataset access |
| Downloads | CSV / JSON | Static periodic releases |
| Use case | Real-time data, dashboards, education, research | Periodic editorial reference |
For journalists, researchers, and educators
Working on a story, chart, classroom resource, or research project using Big Mac price data? Get in touch for data questions, methodology notes, or custom exports.