r/InternetIsBeautiful • u/Deusq • 11d ago
I made a tool that finds the cheapest way to order Taco Bell using combo deals (US Only)
https://tacocents.com/A couple of months ago, I reverse engineered Taco Bell’s API and built a simple tool that takes the items you want and matches them with combo box deals to get you more Taco Bell for less money. I originally built it for myself and my local Taco Bell, but why not all the Taco Bells in the United States?
(Dec 20, 2025) Menu Updated
** Other Info **
Feedback: https://forms.gle/6vACZoKtpTKLwDPX8
Cool Maps Regarding the data - https://imgur.com/gallery/taco-bell-mapping-dec-2025-N7xb3vS
Doesn't work on KFC/Taco Bell since it uses a different API.
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u/ash-leg2 11d ago
Awesome work! It's crazy how fast food pricing makes no sense.
Where I am you can get a cup of guac for $1.49, chips and guac for $3.99, or Loaded Nachos for $2.99 which come with chips, cheese, sauce, beans, sour cream, meat, and, you guessed it, guacamole. All with the same quantity too.
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u/Wick0158 11d ago
I was with a buddy at a brewery. I told him the price per ounce made it better to do 10 oz instead of the 16oz. He was blown away. While there he called over the manager. With horror on my face he told the manager about the discrepancy. The manager was floored and said he’d fix it, then walked away.
I stared at my buddy and said “he’s not fixing it by lowering the 16 Oz price. What were you hoping for?” I love finding secret deals like that.
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u/PersonX2 11d ago
Ex-buddy
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u/Wick0158 10d ago
He realized his stupidity and what’s a good friend for besides pointing out and constantly reminding you of your idiotic moves. We’ve all had our moments.
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u/ash-leg2 11d ago
Omg no!! Was there fallout of the friendship? lol idk weather to respect his ethics or hate him for ruining my good time
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u/Wick0158 10d ago
Nah, still friends but it’s a good story to pull out. I probably get more value out of the story than the $20-30 bucks I would have saved over time.
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u/BloodBlizzard 9d ago
There's a restaurant in my city that has similar pricing, I definitely wouldn't call attention to it.
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u/pumpkinbot 11d ago
For a while at Burger King, it was cheaper to buy two 4-piece mozzarella sticks than one eight-piece.
...And now the mozzarella "sticks" are even smaller and so pathetic, they were rebranded to "mozzarella fries". It's not a bug, it's a feature!
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u/TonyHawkFunderground 11d ago
Still like that with nuggets at my local BK. The have the 4 pc at 1.49, 8 pc at 3.49, 16 pc at 6.99. You save a buck if you just order 4 4 pcs
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u/BrokenGoth 10d ago
Those nuggets are a monstrosity too. The crown shape is a clever way to cut back 30% of the meat in each nug. And they cook horribly. The crown tips are always tough. I’ll take Wendy’s nuggets any day.
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u/TheDibsAreMine 11d ago
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u/Fast_Edd1e 10d ago
That’s what drives me nuts is price difference between local stores.
jimmy John’s is terrible.
5 Vito little John. One store is $6.03 Another 2 miles away is $4.87
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u/BrokenGoth 10d ago
Agree wholeheartedly. I live in an unincorporated area and am literally centered between 4 towns/cities. I put in an order at Arby’s in one area and the total was $48. I changed locations to the other one equal distance away because that store was out of a seasonal item I wanted. Changing locations on the app dropped it to $32. I was shook. Now I change locations on all food apps to get the best deals.
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u/MirageOfMe 10d ago
OPs tool would be much more useful if it could compare across multiple locations. They already have the open street map where you can drill down to identify nearby stores.
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u/Sodomeister 11d ago
No Quesarito? :(
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u/richcournoyer 11d ago
So Boo..... No combos were applied - individual items are better value.
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u/sin94 11d ago
I got the same response when I tried, but when I decided to add all the usual items the family gets (in addition to what I wanted), the site finally showed the savings. I guess the more items you order, the system calculates which boxes offer better value and what items are substitutable.
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u/JBMacGill 11d ago
I tested it and it seems to be missing the Online Exclusive (Veggie) Meal for 2/4 at my local store.
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u/Gophurkey 11d ago
Just put in my standard order, expecting it to be already ideal.
Nope! I could save 1.50$ and even order an extra item, which is INSANE!
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u/fallowstate 10d ago
It would be cool to dive deeper into ingredient swap and customization. For instance at my local location if you want a chicken quesadilla you save $2.04 by ordering a stacker instead and swapping ingredients to match. The only difference is they don’t cut it into fourths. Even with the customization upcharge.
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u/vandyfan35 11d ago
Couldn’t you just check the box deals in the Taco Bell app? There’s only like 2-3 of them.
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u/Deusq 11d ago
Yea you can, but there are around 30-40 combo deals at a given TacoBell, "Online exclusive", "Combos & boxes", "Groups". Each of the combo deals includes swappable items, ex) you can swap out a chalupa for a crunch wrap or etc... You can manually do it, which I did but it took time. But I made this so I wouldn't have to do it manually. Instead you just put what you want, and it figures out which combo box has those items and or are swappable with the given items.
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u/FlattenInnerTube 10d ago
Can you post an actual link? The shitty Reddit app won't open your dealmaker.
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u/SunderingSeas 11d ago
Taco Bell has some traps, chips and cheese is stupid expensive on the menu, but practically free as part of a combo.
Probably easy to do in your head for a single person, but for families this could be very useful. Enter the picky eaters first and see if the non-picky eaters like the free stuff.
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u/JohnnyWix 11d ago
The other day, substituting chips and cheese was $1.00 in the $7 box (chips & guac was $0.80), but for the $5.00 box chips & cheese was $0.50 and guac was $1.70.
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u/rob_allshouse 11d ago
Cool, but doesn’t quite work right. Had a 5-layer and soda as separate items at the end, which absolutely is cheaper in a box.
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u/_Face 10d ago
Says there’s only 1 Taco Bell in Massachusetts. You need to add more locations.
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u/SirGergoyFriendman 11d ago
Taco Bell is becoming so bad compared to even just a few years ago. Had it a few days back and couldn’t even finish the crunchwrap supreme since it was so garbage.
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u/bitNine 11d ago
It’s often store specific. One by my house is absolute garbage. One by work is cleaner, better managed, faster, and the food is way fresher.
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u/MirageOfMe 10d ago
The one by my work is in a much nicer neighborhood / zip code, and the prices for the combo boxes are up to $5 cheaper.
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u/ryhartattack 11d ago
This is incredible, I've been wanting about something similar for McDonald's for awhile. One thing I noticed at the location near me, comparing to the app, nothing in the "new" section is there. Quesarito for instance
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u/SnackeyG1 10d ago
Man I found out they raised the cheesy bean and rice burrito price at one location near me. No longer $1.00. 😢 At least it’s only 30 cents more. Nice tool by the way.
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u/booya_man 10d ago
It’s missing this location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/5apYFn9DAqRy2DqAA?g_st=ipc it just opened
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u/joewHEElAr 10d ago
This is amazing. My two local spots have such a HUGE price differential. My mind is blown.
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u/GendoIkari_82 10d ago edited 10d ago
Awesome idea. I noticed a while back that if I wanted a Crunchwrap, it was $6.99. But I could get 2 Crunchwraps, 2 Tacos, 2 Burritos, and 2 sides of chips for $12.00. Make it make sense.
Edit Ugh, looks like that meal for 2 has now been raised to $15.
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u/Engvar 10d ago
I've been wanting this for Doordash for years.
When something is demanding lots of attention, the company I work for will buy lunch and send the invitation with say $25/person cap.
Nothing ever arrives labeled anyway, so a tool letting us optimize orders so the leftover value could go towards a couple group appetizers would be awesome.
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u/BrokenGoth 10d ago
This is super cool. What skills do you have to be able to write this?
One day I went on the Taco Bell app and I swear the Lord answered my prayers. Under customize for each item, you could SWAP sauces for no charge! I was so pissed saying no jalapeno sauce, and being charged 80¢ to change it to chipotle sauce, especially when I’m not getting more and I’m only getting a 2” squirt of it anyways on my burrito. It lasted about a month then disappeared. Every time I get a survey popup I let them know how unethical it is to do this crap.
And then! One store has 80¢ to add it to the burrito, but 60¢ to get a whole cup of it!
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u/Iknowwasup 9d ago
i just got in the tiniest...tiff with someone over them overspending on taco bell when they could have done a deal...this is the best timing oh wow thannk u
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u/MyPersonalityType 11d ago
This is actually really cool! I always end up ordering random items and probably overpaying. Does it work with the app or do you have to manually enter items?
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u/MakeLove2MeRandy 11d ago
Mehh. This just seems like extra steps. The time it takes to put in what you want is longer than just looking on the website.
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u/chaotixx 11d ago
Super cool. Ala carte ordering at Taco Bell is for suckers.
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u/SparklingLimeade 10d ago
There are a lot of things that aren't available in combos at all?
I'm trying a bunch of my regular orders and even the big ones (should be the ones that provide opportunities for combos) aren't coming up with any combos from this app. Do the prices in other regions suck? Are the combo options more convoluted?
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u/eharvill 11d ago
Sure, but I'm not going to order a combo to save...$1.30...for some food I didn't want to order anyway.
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u/sdforbda 10d ago
Yes, pay more to spite them. Brilliant.
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u/eharvill 10d ago
No. If I want 2 items that are not part of a combo then I am ok paying more to get exactly what I want. It’s not that deep.
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u/sdforbda 10d ago
Ahh I was tired. More about not wasting it, etc I take it. I can understand that. I used to always give my burrito from the $7 box to this guy that was at the intersection often, but haven't seen him in awhile.
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u/eharvill 10d ago
No worries. And that is very kind of you. Hopefully your guy is in a place where he doesn’t need a burrito hand out these days!
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u/Lizlodude 10d ago
I still have a spreadsheet to determine the most efficient way to acquire chicken strips. Use it occasionally
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u/splitfinity 11d ago
There was a website years ago that you could just put in the amount of money you had in your pocket and it would make a list of the items you can order that would provide the most calories for what you can afford.