The median beer in our Beer Index costs $9, across 51 bars that print a standard beer on their menu. The cheapest single listing we have is $2 at Anchor Pub & Grille in Beverly. Those two numbers are a long way apart, and the distance between them is the whole story of drinking cheap around here.
Every number in this piece is either ours, from our Beer Index as checked on 9 November 2026, or a price a bar prints on its own menu, linked. Nobody's memory of what a pint used to cost is in here. Memory is how you end up at a Seaport bar holding a lager and feeling robbed.
What "cheap" means in this data
We count a standard beer as a light draft, a Sam Adams or a local IPA. Prices are as the menu lists them, before tax and tip, and the method page says how we handle sizes. A cheap can and a cheap draft are not the same drink. That is why the full Beer Index shows the size next to every price it can.
Of the 51 bars with a standard beer, 11 sit at $7.50 or less. Another 25 land above that and under $10. And 15 charge $10 or more. So roughly one bar in five is cheap by the line we drew, and the other four are playing a different game.
The areas, cheapest first
Five areas have enough priced bars to rank. These are typical listed beers per area, in our data, checked 9 November 2026.
- Fenway: $8 (5 bars)
- Allston: $8 (5 bars)
- Dorchester: $9 (7 bars)
- North Shore: $9 (7 bars)
- South End: $9.50 (5 bars)
- Seaport: $10 (6 bars)
Read that list for what it is. The spread between the top and the bottom is only a couple of dollars, which means the neighborhood tells you less than the individual bar does. A cheap bar in an expensive area beats an expensive bar in a cheap one every time.
The other areas, including Allston, Cambridge, Somerville, Back Bay, Downtown and Jamaica Plain, do not yet have five priced bars in our data, so we do not rank them. That is not the same as having no cheap beer. Somerville is the proof, below.
Where the cheap pint lives
Read the menus below and one thing jumps out: every bargain is a brand name. Nobody on this list is selling a cheap hazy IPA.
- Olde Magoun's Saloon in Somerville lists a Narraganset Tall Boy Can – 4 on its menu. In our reading that 16 ounce can is the best deal inside the city on this list.
- Landmark Public House in Dorchester lists Coors Light 4.50 under bottled beer. Our typical for the bar is $6, and its menu puts Guinness 7.00 on draft, the second-cheapest Guinness in our data.
- Lucky's Lounge sits in Fort Point, inside our Seaport area, where the typical beer is $10 in our data. Its menu lists Miller High Life $5. That is half the area's typical, in what our data ranks as the priciest beer area around.
- Highland Kitchen in Somerville lists Narragansett Lager 5% abv $ 5 on draught.
- Rail Stop Restaurant and Bar in Allston lists Coors Light 5 4.2% in its bar menu.
- Trina's Starlite Lounge in Somerville lists 5 Coors Banquet Beer on its drinks page.
Light lagers, Narragansett and Miller High Life. If you want an IPA at that price, you are asking the wrong bar.
The $2 beer and what it tells you
The single cheapest regular pour in our data is $2 at Anchor Pub & Grille in Beverly, and it is not in Boston. The bar's own menu lists Pabst Blue Ribbon $2.00/16 oz Draft. Even its Guinness Stout $5.50/16 oz Draft undercuts most Boston light beers. Salem is close behind: Village Tavern lists Pabst Blue Ribbon $4.00 on its menu.
So the cheap beer did not vanish. It got pushed to the edges: the North Shore, the Somerville saloons, the Dorchester pubs. The Seaport is where it costs double, and the sliding scale between is what the Beer Index tracks bar by bar.
How to spend less once you are in
A few habits move your total more than hunting one cheap beer, and none of them involve drinking more to get your money's worth.
- Order the brand, not the style. On the menus above, the domestics are the cheap lines and the craft drafts are not.
- Check the size. In our Beer Index the listed sizes run from 7 ounce pony bottles to 20 ounce pints, and where a Guinness size is listed it is usually 20 ounces, so the price per ounce is what matters.
- Skip the happy hour hunt. Massachusetts limits drink discounts, which our late-night budget guide covers, so the cheap price is usually the everyday price.
- Pay as you go instead of running a tab, so you know what the night costs while it is still going. Drink water between rounds; a cheap beer is only cheap if you can still get home.
What to do with this
Pick the area by how you are getting home, not only by the price. A cheap bar is a bad bargain if it strands you, so check the Last Train page for the stop nearest the bar before you order the second round, and book a ride home before you need one. If you want food with it, the Eat Late page lists kitchens that stay open after the bar crowd arrives.
If you want the whole picture of an evening, not just the beer, read what a night out in Boston costs next. And if the only number you need is the one at the top of this page, the Beer Index is the live version.
Why the cheapest pints sit where they do starts with the happy hour ban.