McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast-food chain, is set to make a significant shift in its pricing strategy after months of mounting criticism from customers who say its once-affordable meals have become out of reach. Starting in September 2025, the company will roll out nationwide price cuts on eight of its most popular combo meals, aiming to restore its reputation for everyday value and win back budget-conscious diners.
The move comes after CEO Chris Kempczinski publicly admitted that McDonald’s menu had gotten too expensive, especially for the core customers who built the brand. "Too often ... you’re seeing combo meals priced over $10, and that absolutely is negatively shaping value perceptions," Kempczinski said on an August 2025 earnings call, as reported by Fortune. He added, "We’ve got to get that fixed." The new pricing agreement with U.S. franchisees will see these eight best-selling combo meals offered at prices 15% lower than the total cost of buying the items separately.
For many, the change can’t come soon enough. Over the past year, social media has been flooded with complaints about the soaring cost of McDonald’s meals. A 2023 viral post about an $18 Big Mac combo meal sparked outrage and debate, prompting the president of McDonald’s USA to clarify that such prices were "an exception" and not the norm. But for millions of Americans, especially those feeling the pinch of inflation, the perception stuck: McDonald’s was no longer the cheap, cheerful option it once was.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the average price of a Big Mac combo meal currently hovers around $10, but in some locations—particularly airports and travel hubs—it can reach as high as $18.99. The upcoming price cuts will bring that average down to about $8.50, saving customers roughly $1.50 on each combo. The company is also reintroducing its "Extra Value Meals" branding, with new deals like a $5 breakfast combo and an $8 Big Mac and McNuggets special planned for later in 2025.
The decision to lower prices is more than just a marketing ploy. It’s a direct response to a worrying trend in McDonald’s business: declining visits from its most price-sensitive customers. In May 2025, Kempczinski revealed that first-quarter U.S. traffic from low-income consumers had dropped by nearly double digits, with middle-income consumer visits falling by almost the same amount. "Real incomes are down with the low-income consumer. That is absolutely going to put pressure on visits in the QSR industry," Kempczinski told Restaurant Business. The company’s U.S. comparable sales fell 3.6% in the first quarter—its worst performance since the pandemic—though sales rebounded in the second quarter, thanks in part to themed promotions like the Minecraft Movie meal.
McDonald’s is not alone in feeling the heat. The entire U.S. restaurant industry has seen sluggish traffic in 2025. Market research from Black Box Intelligence found that Americans ate 1 billion fewer restaurant meals in the first quarter of this year compared to 2024, according to Newsweek. Fast-food rivals like Wendy’s and Burger King have been aggressively promoting their own value deals, putting additional pressure on McDonald’s to act.
Behind the scenes, the price cuts are the result of weeks of negotiations between McDonald’s corporate leadership and its franchisees, who operate 93% of the company’s 38,000 global locations (with about 13,600 in the U.S.). To get franchisees on board, McDonald’s pledged to subsidize those who lose money on the discounted meals and to jointly cover the marketing costs of the new pricing initiative, as detailed by FranchiseWire.
Joe Erlinger, head of McDonald’s U.S. business, summed up the company’s new focus: "Customers are telling us they need more of the everyday value and affordability that defines the McDonald’s brand," he told The Wall Street Journal. The company is betting that by making its menu more affordable, it can bring back the diners who have drifted away—especially at breakfast, where traffic has lagged.
To sweeten the deal, McDonald’s will roll out a series of time-limited specials. In September, franchisees will offer $5 Sausage Egg McMuffins and $8 Big Mac meals. November will see the debut of a $5 Sausage, Egg and Cheese McGriddle and an $8 10-piece Chicken McNuggets meal. Later in the year, the chain will expand its Extra Value Meals to include $8 McNugget combos and $5 breakfast deals.
The affordability campaign actually began earlier in 2025, with the introduction of the McValue menu and app-specific promotions like free fries with minimal purchases and a free McCrispy for new app users, according to Fox Business. But the latest round of price cuts marks the most comprehensive attempt yet to reestablish McDonald’s as a go-to option for diners watching their wallets.
It’s a major shift for a brand that, in recent years, has seen its prices rise sharply. From 2019 to 2024, the price of a Big Mac Combo Meal jumped 27%, as franchisees passed along their own cost increases, according to market research firm Technomic and The Wall Street Journal. For many longtime customers, the sticker shock at the menu board was simply too much to ignore.
Still, McDonald’s leadership remains optimistic. Kempczinski has emphasized that the menu board—the prices customers see when they drive up to the restaurant—is the single biggest driver of how people perceive value at McDonald’s. "We recognize that consumers’ value perceptions are most influenced by our core menu pricing," he told investors and analysts on August 6, 2025, as reported by NewsNation. The hope is that the new prices will not only improve perceptions but also boost actual traffic, especially among those with household incomes of $45,000 or less, who have been staying away in droves.
Competitors aren’t standing still, and McDonald’s knows it. With Wendy’s and Burger King rolling out their own value deals, the Golden Arches is under pressure to prove it can still deliver on its founding promise: fast, tasty food at a price anyone can afford. As Kempczinski put it, "We’re working closely and collaboratively with our U.S. franchisees on this opportunity, and we’re developing ideas for how we might address this as an entire system."
As the price cuts take effect this September and new value meals hit the menu later in the year, all eyes will be on whether America’s most iconic fast-food chain can reclaim its reputation for affordability—and bring back the customers it’s lost along the way.
