Coffee with a cup is more expensive than ground coffee beans. But a capsule coffee machine is cheaper than a fully automatic espresso machine. What is the cheapest way to make a cup of espresso?

Price of the espresso machine

Espresso machines vary quite a bit in price. You can buy the cheapest coffee capsule machine for €50. You can pay more than €1500 for a fully automatic espresso machine.

Coffee pod machines

These machines suitable for coffee cups such as Nespresso or Dolce Gusto are the most affordable type of espresso machines to purchase. On average they cost about €140. The cheapest can be found for a few tens, while the most extensive models cost more than €400.

Read more about the price of coffee pod machines.

Fully automatic machines

You can easily pay hundreds of euros up to more than €1500 for a fully automatic espresso machine. They cost about $750 on average, but you can find good machines for around $300.

Semi-automatic piston machines

Piston machines are slightly more expensive than coffee pod machines and you can buy them for around €100. The machines from our tests cost an average of €500, but you could spend thousands of euros on them.

Coffee cups more expensive than coffee beans

Fully automatic and piston machines are the most expensive, but brew the cheapest cup of espresso: an average of €0.09 per cup. Even if you buy very expensive coffee, a cup costs only €0.20.

coffee cups

Coffee cups are more expensive than a cup of coffee made from coffee beans from a fully automatic or piston machine. The original cups are usually the most expensive. You can also opt for (cheaper) non-original coffee cups.

Nespresso cups: 32 original variants, available for €0.44 per cup. The prices of non-original cups vary widely. They cost on average about €0.23. You can buy Nespresso Vertuo capsules for €0.45.
Dolce Gusto cups: 40 variants, available for about €0.31 per cup. The prices of non-original cups vary widely. They cost about €0.27 on average, not much less than a branded cup.
Refillable coffee cups: You make the most economical cup with cups that you fill yourself with ground coffee beans. You can fill these refillable coffee cups with the coffee of your choice. We recommend a fine espresso grind. The refillable cups cost a few bucks.

coffee beans

Coffee beans are affordable and very exclusive. Nevertheless, a cup of ground coffee beans is almost always cheaper than the cheapest cup. We charge about 7 grams of coffee for espresso. A cup from a kilo bag of an average of €13.50 costs only €0.09. Even with an expensive bag of €30, you are cheaper than with most cups. A cup then costs €0.21.

coffee pods

Coffee pods for a piston machine (ESE pods) are relatively expensive and cost between €0.30 and €0.35. Senseo pads only cost about €0.07.

Making the cheapest espresso

Coffee pods are cheaper than fully automatic machines, but coffee pods are more expensive than coffee beans. The most economical choice depends on the number of cups you brew with it.

We compare differently priced fully-priced machines with medium-priced coffee beans with different-priced coffee pod machines and differently-priced pods.

At how many cups per day is a fully automatic coffee machine with coffee beans cheaper than a coffee pod machine and coffee pods?

Fully automatic €300 versus coffee pod machines

A fully automatic machine of €300 is cheaper after a year from the following number of cups per day:

	Original Nespresso cups	Non-genuine Nespresso cups	Dolce Gusto cups
Coffee pod machine €80	2 cups	5 cups	4 cups
Coffee pod machine €160	2 cups	4 cups	3 cups
Coffee pod machine €200	1 cup	3 cups	–

Fully automatic €750 versus coffee pod machines

A €750 fully automatic machine is cheaper after a year from the following number of cups per day:

	Original Nespresso cups	Non-genuine Nespresso cups	Dolce Gusto cups
Coffee pod machine €80	6 cups	15/16 cups	11 cups
Coffee pod machine €160	5 cups	14 cups	10 cups
Coffee pod machine €200	5 cups	13 cups	–

Starting points for the calculation:

Coffee pod machine €80: affordable Nespresso machine and average Dolce Gusto machine
Coffee pod machine €160: average of all coffee pod machines
Coffee pod machine €200: average Nespresso machine
Fully automatic machine from €300: affordable fully automatic machine of excellent quality
Fully automatic machine from €750: average fully automatic machine
The average cup of ground beans: €0.09
Original Nespresso cups: €0.44
Non-original cups for Nespresso machines: €0.23
Cups for Dolce Gusto: €0.28