★ EVERYDAY · HOME & KITCHEN · COMPARISONS
Drip wins by $91.34 a year at the defaults: $447.74 for french press against $356.40 for drip. Enter your cups per day, bean price, and dose per cup to see which brewer is cheaper to run in your kitchen. The french press uses more coffee per cup — and that dose gap, not the machine, decides the year.
A french press steeps a heavy dose of grounds and needs no filter and no power, but it drinks beans: 17 grams a cup at the defaults against 12 grams for drip. A drip machine sips a lighter dose but adds paper filters, a pricier machine, and a little electricity every day. The yearly bill settles it: cups times dose times bean price, plus machine cost spread over its life, plus filters and electricity for drip, side by side.
At the defaults the french press uses 17 grams a cup and drip uses 12 grams, so over 730 cups a year the press burns 12,410 grams of coffee against 8,760 grams for drip — about 42% more beans for the same number of cups. At $16.00 a pound (453.6 grams per pound) that is $437.74 of coffee for the press against $308.99 for drip, a bean gap of $128.75 that dwarfs everything else on the page. Drip then gives back $47.41 of that gap: filters at $0.04 a cup add $29.20 a year, the $60 machine over 5 years adds $12.00 a year, and electricity at 0.10 kWh a day and $0.17 per kWh adds $6.21 a year, against just $10.00 a year for the $30 press over 3 years. The totals are $447.74 a year for french press and $356.40 a year for drip, a saving of $91.34 a year for drip. The lesson is blunt: the brewer you buy barely matters; the grams you scoop decide the year.
Cup count scales the bean gap without changing the equipment gap, so drip's lead grows with every extra cup: at 1 cup a day the press costs $228.87 against drip at $187.31, a saving of $41.56, while at 4 cups a day the press costs $885.49 against drip at $694.60, a saving of $190.89. Bean price moves the same way: at $24.00 a pound the press costs $666.61 against drip at $510.90, a saving of $155.71, while at $10.00 a pound the press costs $283.59 against drip at $240.53, a saving of $43.06. In none of those branches does the winner change, because the 5-gram dose gap is priced into every cup. The honest flip deserves a plain statement: brew the press at the drip dose of 12 grams a cup and the bean costs equalize at $308.99 a year each, the press total falls to $318.99 a year against drip at $356.40, and the press wins by $37.41 a year — exactly the machine, filter, and electricity costs drip carries that the press does not. If you love press coffee, the cheapest move is not a new brewer: it is a scale and a 12-gram scoop.
Rounding convention, stated plainly: each yearly line — coffee, equipment, filters, electricity — is rounded to cents half-up, each yearly total is the sum of its rounded lines, and the gap is the difference of the rounded yearly totals — so $447.74 minus $356.40 is exactly $91.34, and every branch figure adds up exactly as printed.
| Output | Formula | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Cups per year | 2 cups/day × 365 days | 730 cups a year at the defaults. |
| French press coffee per year | 730 cups × 17 g ÷ 453.6 g/lb × $16.00 | 12,410 g, $437.74 of coffee at the defaults. |
| Drip coffee per year | 730 cups × 12 g ÷ 453.6 g/lb × $16.00 | 8,760 g, $308.99 of coffee at the defaults. |
| French press total per year | $437.74 coffee + $10.00 equipment | $447.74 a year at the defaults. |
| Drip total per year | $308.99 coffee + $29.20 filters + $12.00 machine + $6.21 electricity | $356.40 a year at the defaults. |
| Yearly gap | Rounded french press total − rounded drip total | $447.74 − $356.40 = $91.34 a year saved by drip at the defaults. |
| Same-dose flip | 12 g on both sides: press $308.99 + $10.00 vs drip $356.40 | French press $318.99 vs drip $356.40, press wins by $37.41 a year. |
This is a brewing-cost model, not a meter reading. It assumes a steady dose per cup and a steady bean price, while real brewing varies: a heaped scoop can add grams, beans spill, and grinder retention wastes a little on every dose. It excludes water, the kettle's electricity for the press, replacement filters and carafes beyond the stated lines, and the value of taste — a press cup and a drip cup are not the same drink, and many people will happily pay the $91.34 for the one they prefer. Weigh one real dose on a kitchen scale and enter your own grams per cup for the most accurate result.
Bright Side Kit. "French Press vs Drip Coffee Maker: Yearly Cost Calculator" https://brightoolbox.com/french-press-vs-drip-coffee/ Accessed October 24, 2026.Drip, by $91.34 a year at the defaults: $356.40 a year against $447.74 for french press.
$447.74 a year at the defaults: 730 cups, 17 grams a cup at $16.00 a pound ($437.74 of coffee), plus $10.00 a year for the $30 press over 3 years.
$356.40 a year at the defaults: 730 cups, 12 grams a cup at $16.00 a pound ($308.99 of coffee), plus $29.20 of filters, $12.00 of machine cost, and $6.21 of electricity.
Then the french press costs $228.87 a year against drip at $187.31, a saving of $41.56 for drip.
Then the french press costs $885.49 a year against drip at $694.60, a saving of $190.89 for drip.
No: at $24.00 a pound the press costs $666.61 a year against drip at $510.90, a saving of $155.71 for drip. The dose gap grows with the bean price.
When the dose gap closes: brew the press at 12 grams a cup, the same as drip, and the press costs $318.99 a year against drip at $356.40, so the press wins by $37.41 a year by skipping the machine, filters, and electricity.
Water, kettle electricity for the press, replacement carafes, and taste. It prices brewing cost only, at the figures you enter.