About What Did It Cost?
What Did It Cost? is a free daily game about prices. You see an everyday thing and a year, say a dozen eggs in 1990 or a new house in 1985, and guess what it cost.
How the game works
Every day there's a new Daily 5: five items, the same for every player that day. A guess within 15% of the real price counts. Once you've finished, you can keep playing as long as you like. After each answer you see what the item costs today and how its price compares with inflation, so every round teaches you something about how prices have changed.
Where the prices come from
Every price comes from a named source and is never estimated. Most are official US figures: the Bureau of Labor Statistics' average prices for food, fuel and electricity, the Census Bureau, the Postal Service, the Department of Labor, the Department of Agriculture, the Geological Survey and others. Some come from well-known organizations' own published figures, such as the College Board for tuition, KFF for health insurance and the American Farm Bureau Federation for Thanksgiving dinner. Each item's page names its source and links to it.
Prices are US averages. Where a source gives monthly prices, we use the yearly average. Items are always generic (a gallon of milk, never a brand). Inflation comparisons use the consumer price index; see how that works.
Today the game has 100 items. Browse them all in the price history.
Who makes it
What Did It Cost? is made by Petna Labs, a project of Petna Ventures, Inc. Our sister site CutTheCharge has step-by-step guides to canceling US subscriptions.
Found a wrong number?
We check every price against its source, but mistakes can happen. If you spot one, please tell us through petnalabs.com and we'll fix it.
How we handle your data: see our privacy notice.