Pints up 3.3% to £5.34 as £10 pints arrive in London: what it means for your night

The average price of a pint in a UK pub has risen to £5.34, according to new data published today by the Morning Advertiser, representing a 3.3% increase on last year's average of £5.17 and meaning a pint now costs 17p more than it did twelve months ago. That might not sound significant on its own, but across a regular social life it adds up to around £18 more per year for someone who has two pints a week, before you factor in the round-buying that most nights out involve.

The headline figure sits against a more extreme backdrop. A number of high-end bars in London are now charging £10 or more for a pint, with Stanley's rooftop bar in Mayfair selling a pint of Moretti or Heineken at £11 and a half pint at £8. Guinness is listed at £10 a pint, while the Connaught Grill in Mayfair is charging £12.50 for a 330ml bottle of beer. Those prices are outliers, but they reflect the direction of travel across the whole market. With the price of a pint being shorthand for the economy at large for a lot of people, it paints a grim picture of the cost of living.

The backdrop matters too. Two pubs are closing every day in the UK, according to the British Beer and Pub Association's figures for the first quarter of 2026. Rising costs are squeezing operators and customers at the same time, and the 3.3% increase in average pint prices is a direct result of pub landlords absorbing higher energy bills, increased National Insurance contributions and wholesale price rises from brewers before passing what remains on to the people at the bar.

Here is what the data shows, where prices vary most, and what you can do to make your money go further without giving up the pub altogether.

How much does a pint cost in your region?

How much your favourite pint costs can be a bit of a postcode lottery. Unsurprisingly, London is the most expensive region in the country at an average of £6.55 per pint, while the north east is the cheapest at £4.90, a gap of £1.65 per pint.

Here is the regional picture based on the Morning Advertiser survey data:

• London: £6.55 on average

• North east: £4.90 on average, the cheapest region in the survey

• Doncaster and Bradford among the cheapest cities in the UK at around £3.25

• Oxford among the most expensive outside London at around £6.36

The gap between the cheapest and most expensive areas of the country has been widening consistently year on year, driven by higher operating costs in city centres and tourist areas where rents, wages and energy bills are significantly higher for pub operators.

How much does a pint cost by beer type?

What you choose to drink matters as much as where you drink it, and if you're abstaining from alcohol, you're still paying a hefty premium for your 0% pint.

• Standard lager: £4.89 on average, up 19p on last year

• Premium lager: £5.94 on average, up 29p on last year

• Low and no alcohol beer: £5.11 on average

• Most expensive pint overall: Asahi at an average of £6.89

• Cheapest pint overall: Greene King IPA at an average of £4.26

The difference between ordering a craft premium lager and a standard cask ale can be well over £2 a pint, which on a round of four drinks is more than £8 before you have bought anything else, and definitely will have you questioning whether you throw in a few bags of crisps.

Why are pint prices rising?

The increases are not happening in isolation. Pub operators have been absorbing rising costs from several directions at once, and those costs are eventually passed on to customers.

Brewers including Heineken UK pushed through wholesale price increases of 2.7% from February 2026, citing higher employer taxes, energy costs and packaging requirements. Alcohol duty is also rising in line with inflation, adding further margin pressure for operators already dealing with increased National Insurance contributions from April 2026. TRADING ECONOMICS

Diageo, which makes Guinness, announced a 5.2% draught price increase from April 2026, prompting pub operators to warn that Guinness was becoming unaffordable. One operator described Diageo as appearing "hell-bent on having the first £10 a pint beer," a milestone that has now effectively been reached in parts of London.

Ash Corbett-Collins, chair of the Campaign for Real Ale, said the situation was not the fault of pubs themselves. "It's not surprising pint prices are rising across London and the UK, but our pubs and breweries should not be blamed. Extreme financial pressures from the government are forcing publicans to either raise their prices or consider closing for good. The government must recognise pubs for the essential wellbeing benefits their community spaces provide, and their essential contributions to the economy."

Energy bills are a significant factor too. A busy pub with commercial refrigeration, draught beer cooling systems and late-night opening hours uses substantial amounts of electricity, and with the July energy price cap expected to rise further, some operators are already warning that autumn prices may need to increase again.

How to spend less on a night out

The reality for most people is that going to the pub is one of the few social activities that does not require booking, travelling far, or spending money before you arrive. The question is how to manage the cost without every drink feeling like a financial decision.

A few things that make a genuine difference:

• Choose your pub based on what you are drinking. A pub in a side street, a social club or a pub without a food menu will almost always be cheaper than a gastropub or a city centre bar, often by £1 to £2 a pint for an equivalent drink. In London especially, moving one street away from a main thoroughfare or tourist area can halve the price of the same beer.

• Standard lager or cask ale saves money at every round. The difference between a Greene King IPA at £4.26 and an Asahi at £6.89 is £2.63 a pint. On a four-person round that is over £10 difference in one trip to the bar.

• If you are a thinkmoney Smart Plus account holder, PlusSave is worth checking out before you book. PlusSave lets you buy digital gift cards for a range of bars and restaurants at a discount and spend them immediately at full face value. Right now, venues including All Bar One, Browns and O'Neills are available at 12% off, meaning £100 of drinks and food costs £88. No waiting, no points to accumulate, no catch.

• Low and no alcohol options are closer in price than most people expect. The average price of a low and no alcohol pint is £5.11, only slightly below the overall average of £5.34, but many pubs price their alcohol-free options below their standard lager, and the quality has improved significantly in recent years. Statista

• Set a budget before you go rather than tracking it in the moment. Taking out cash for a night out is one of the oldest approaches in personal finance and still one of the most effective, because it creates a physical limit that tapping a card does not.

• Eat before you go. Food in a pub or bar is consistently more expensive than cooking at home, and eating out adds significantly to the cost of a night without necessarily adding to the enjoyment of the drinks themselves.

• Consider skipping rounds. Buying drinks in rounds feels sociable but it ties your spending to the fastest drinker at the table and means you often end up having more drinks than you planned or at a loss if you're tapping out early. There is nothing wrong with getting your own at your own pace, and most people find their friends either do not notice or will actually appreciate the permission to do the same.