Manhattan · checked September 1, 2026
What a drink actually costs in Manhattan.
79,648 real menu prices from 1,956 bars, taken off the menus themselves. Not a survey, not a guess, and not a number from 2019.
The median cocktail is $17.50 and the median beer is $9. Happy hour takes about $6 off that cocktail. And the neighborhood you pick barely matters: median beer runs $8 to $9 across all 13 neighborhoods we cover.
How much is a drink in Manhattan?
Every price below is a single serving off a bar's regular menu. The middle columns are where half of all prices sit, so they describe the ordinary case rather than the extremes.
| Drink | Cheapest quarter | Median | Dearest quarter | Happy hour | Prices |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beer | under $8 | $9 | over $10 | $6 | 14,547 |
| Wine, by the glass | under $14 | $16 | over $18 | $10 | 15,969 |
| Cocktail | under $15 | $17.50 | over $19 | $10 | 17,926 |
| Spirits, by the pour | under $15 | $17 | over $22 | $8 | 15,428 |
| Shot | under $11 | $14 | over $16 | $7 | 1,287 |
Wine and spirits are by the serving; bottles are excluded from both. Shots are a thin sample (147 bars) and should be read as indicative.
How much is a beer in Manhattan?
The median beer is $9 at regular menu price, from 14,547 beer prices across 1,529 Manhattan bars. Half of all beers fall between $8 and $10. At happy hour the median drops to $6.
How much is a cocktail in Manhattan?
The median cocktail is $17.50, from 17,926 cocktail prices across 1,548 bars. Half fall between $15 and $19. At happy hour the median is $10.
How much is a glass of wine in Manhattan?
The median glass of wine is $16, from 15,969 by-the-glass prices across 1,528 bars. Bottles are excluded. At happy hour the median glass is $10.
How much is a whiskey or a spirit pour in Manhattan?
The median spirit pour is $17, from 15,428 priced pours across 647 bars. Half fall between $15 and $22. Bottles are excluded, and the families barely separate: gin sits around $16, whiskey and bourbon around $17, agave around $18. At happy hour the median pour is $8.
How much does happy hour actually save you?
Measured only at bars that publish both a regular and a happy hour price for the same drink, the median saving is $6 on a cocktail (421 bars), $5.50 on a glass of wine (410 bars) and $3 on a beer (373 bars).
| Drink | Regular | Happy hour | Median saving | Bars with both |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beer | $9 | $6 | $3 | 373 |
| Wine, by the glass | $16 | $10 | $5.50 | 410 |
| Cocktail | $17.50 | $10 | $6 | 421 |
| Spirits, by the pour | $17 | $8 | $4 | 51 |
Savings are paired within each bar. Comparing every happy hour price against every regular price would measure cheap bars against expensive ones instead.
Which Manhattan neighborhood has the cheapest drinks?
Barely any of them, which is the surprise. Median beer runs $8 to $9 across all 13 neighborhoods we track, a $1 spread. Inside a single neighborhood the middle half of beers spans about $2. The bar you walk into moves the price more than the neighborhood does.
| Neighborhood | Beer | Wine | Cocktail | Cheapest beer | Bars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Village | $8 | $15 | $16 | $3 | 211 |
| Lower East Side | $8 | $15 | $17 | $4 | 140 |
| Murray Hill | $8.40 | $15 | $16 | $3 | 75 |
| Chelsea | $9 | $16 | $18 | $4 | 112 |
| Financial District | $9 | $16 | $16 | $3.21 | 73 |
| Gramercy | $9 | $16 | $18 | $3 | 187 |
| Hell's Kitchen | $9 | $15 | $16.95 | $3 | 125 |
| Midtown | $9 | $16 | $18 | $4 | 315 |
| SoHo | $9 | $17 | $18 | $4 | 116 |
| Tribeca | $9 | $15 | $19 | $5 | 68 |
| Upper East Side | $9 | $16 | $17 | $4 | 136 |
| Upper West Side | $9 | $15 | $17 | $3 | 126 |
| West Village | $9 | $17 | $18 | $3.99 | 272 |
Ordered by median beer. A neighborhood needs 20 bars before it gets a row, and each drink needs 30 prices before it gets a number.
How does Stoop know these prices?
They come from bars' own posted menus, websites and social pages, extracted per drink and checked against Google data. This snapshot covers 79,648 current prices at 1,956 Manhattan bars and was last generated on September 1, 2026. It is Manhattan only.
Prices move. This is a dated snapshot rather than a live figure, so the numbers here stay still and can be quoted. For tonight's actual window and price at a specific bar, the happy hour pages update through the day.
Tonight's bar starts here.
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