What is a game where you guess the price?

How expensive? shows one item with the country and the year it was priced in. You pull a scale to the figure you think it was, and the reveal gives the official price and how many times off you were.

Where do the prices come from?

From three statistical offices, frozen into the game: the price survey of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the UK Office for National Statistics. Every reveal names its source and its licence.

Are the old prices adjusted for inflation?

No. Every figure is the money of its own day, and that is what makes a round from 1914 hard. The method line under a historic round shows how to get there with an inflation index.

Yes, and you never need an account. Past days live in an archive; your first archive day is free.

How is a round scored?

As a factor: 2× too low, 30× too high. Anything within about five per cent counts as spot on. No points, no ranking, no streak nagging.

How expensive, roughly, is a pint of milk?

Play today’s rounds

FreeNo account required5 rounds a day2 minutes

81% finish all five rounds

How to play

Read the name. Then the place and the year under it, because they are half the question.
Pull the scale until the number looks right. One finger, or type it if you know it.
Lock it in. The real price slides in, and the bar between says how far off you were.

Play today’s five rounds

The reveal

30× too high

A pint of milk cost 0.70 p in Britain in 1914. The same series reads 65 p in January 2025. Source ›

Start from today. A pint reads 65 p in January 2025, and British prices are about 162 times their 1914 level on the long run index. Divide, and you land near 0.4 p. The real figure is a little above that, so milk has got cheaper in real terms. Both numbers are money of their own day.

What is in it

These, and more every week. Some prices sit in your head, others nowhere near it.

Chocolate
White loaf
Pint of lager
Newspaper
Petrol
Electricity
and more

Start with today’s item

Questions

What is a game where you guess the price?: How expensive? shows one item with the country and the year it was priced in. You pull a scale to the figure you think it was, and the reveal gives the official price and how many times off you were.
Where do the prices come from?: From three statistical offices, frozen into the game: the price survey of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the UK Office for National Statistics. Every reveal names its source and its licence.
Are the old prices adjusted for inflation?: No. Every figure is the money of its own day, and that is what makes a round from 1914 hard. The method line under a historic round shows how to get there with an inflation index.
Is it free?: Yes, and you never need an account. Past days live in an archive; your first archive day is free.
How is a round scored?: As a factor: 2× too low, 30× too high. Anything within about five per cent counts as spot on. No points, no ranking, no streak nagging.

Play How expensive? today