Procter & Gamble Raising Prices? Just 0.4% as Costs Rise
Procter & Gamble, maker of Tide and Pampers, charged stores 0.4% more in July to September than a year before, against up to 10% when costs spiked harder in 2022. It raised its estimate of the profit it will lose to costlier materials, energy and freight in the year to June 2027 to $1.4 billion, from $1 billion in July.
The short answer. P&G raised prices on razors and health products, charged less in the Pampers and Tide businesses, and covered costlier materials mostly with savings and thinner profit. For shoppers, that fits Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for September showing U.S. cleaning product prices, across all brands, rising slower than overall inflation and paper products getting cheaper. Price rises won back a seventh of the slice of sales that costlier raw materials took from P&G’s profit last quarter, against over nine tenths in July to September 2022.
P&G shipped more units as prices barely rose and expected costs grew
What we calculated
- Price and units shipped over 19 quarters, January to March 2022 through July to September 2026: the company-wide price and unit figures, leaving out deals, in each P&G results release.
- The 1.5 point fall in core gross margin (sales left after making the goods, before reorganization costs) is the largest in 11 quarters: from each release since early 2024.
- Price rises gave back a seventh of what costlier materials took from margin in July to September 2026 and over nine tenths in July to September 2022: gain over hit. The 2026 share uses core gross margin and the 2022 share reported gross margin, the measure each release broke down.
- Health care has paired higher prices with fewer units for three quarters running: P&G’s slides for each business for January to March, April to June and July to September 2026.
- Units shipped fell 6% in October to December 2022, the deepest drop in the 19 quarters: the lowest units-shipped figure, leaving out deals.
- The after-tax hit P&G expects from costlier materials, energy and freight grew $400 million between July and October: its October estimate less its July one.
- Sales grew $890 million and the cost of the goods P&G sold grew $791 million from a year earlier: from P&G’s profit statement.
On this page
- Is P&G raising prices?
- How much did P&G raise prices in 2022?
- Is P&G raising prices because of tariffs?
- Why are P&G’s costs going up?
- Who is paying for P&G’s higher costs?
- Are household product prices rising faster than inflation?
- P&G dividend, buybacks and 2027 forecast
- How we counted
- Frequently asked questions
Is P&G raising prices?
A little, and only in some aisles. Across the company, the prices P&G charges stores were 0.4% higher than a year earlier. They rose most on razors and health products and were lower in baby care and in the laundry and home business.
The 0.4% is P&G’s own measure of how much its price changes added to sales in the quarter, as its October 22 results release reports it. Those sales are to stores and distributors, with Walmart alone taking about 16% of them, according to P&G’s annual report. Each retailer then sets its own shelf price.
Sales rose 4% to $23.3 billion. Most of that growth came from shipping more units and from a shift toward pricier products and markets, with price changes the smallest part.
The biggest increases came in grooming, home of Gillette razors, where prices rose 3.5%, and in health care, which sells Crest, Oral-B and Vicks. Both shipped fewer units than a year earlier, with health care down 2.9%. P&G calls much of this “innovation-based pricing”, its term for charging more for new or improved versions of a product. Beauty prices rose a little too.
The two largest businesses went the other way, with lower prices and more units shipped. Baby, feminine and family care, which sells Pampers, Always and Bounty, had prices 1.2% lower, and P&G says baby care prices fell mainly in North America. Laundry and home care, the business behind Tide and Dawn, was 0.3% lower.
Show the data
| Category | Price | Units shipped |
|---|---|---|
| Pantene | 0.7% | 2.2% |
| Gillette | 3.5% | -0.4% |
| Crest | 2.8% | -2.9% |
| Tide | -0.3% | 4.3% |
| Pampers | -1.2% | 2.3% |
Side by side, the figures look like shoppers taking fewer of the goods that got pricier and more of those that did not. That is our reading, and the numbers alone do not prove it; beauty, where prices and units both rose, does not fit the pattern. Units here are shipments to stores, which can differ from what shoppers carry out of the store. P&G also expects to drop some brands and product forms this year, according to its release. Health care has now shown higher prices with fewer units for three quarters running, by P&G’s own slides for January to March and April to June.
Other makers of everyday goods show a mixed picture on price in their latest full quarters, April to June 2026. Colgate-Palmolive lifted pricing 1.6% across the company.
Kimberly-Clark had prices after discounts 0.5% lower. In its preliminary July to September figures, Kimberly-Clark estimated organic sales 1.3% lower, a measure that leaves out currency and deals.
How much did P&G raise prices in 2022?
Far more than now. From April 2022 to March 2023, price increases lifted P&G’s sales by 8% to 10% a quarter from a year earlier, and it shipped fewer units every time.
Shoppers, or at least the stores ordering from P&G, bought less. In October to December 2022 prices added 10% to sales and units fell 6%, the deepest drop in the series we built from P&G’s releases.
The price increases then faded through 2023, and since April 2024 they have added 1 point or less a quarter.
Show the data
| Quarter ending | Price | Units shipped | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 22 | 5.0% | 3.0% | |
| Jun 22 | 8.0% | -1.0% | |
| Sep 22 | 9.0% | -3.0% | |
| Dec 22 | 10.0% | -6.0% | October to December 2022: prices +10%, units shipped -6% |
| Mar 23 | 10.0% | -3.0% | |
| Jun 23 | 7.0% | -1.0% | |
| Sep 23 | 7.0% | -1.0% | |
| Dec 23 | 4.0% | -1.0% | |
| Mar 24 | 3.0% | 0.0% | |
| Jun 24 | 1.0% | 2.0% | |
| Sep 24 | 1.0% | 1.0% | |
| Dec 24 | 0.0% | 2.0% | |
| Mar 25 | 1.0% | 0.0% | |
| Jun 25 | 1.0% | 0.0% | |
| Sep 25 | 1.0% | 0.0% | |
| Dec 25 | 1.0% | -1.0% | |
| Mar 26 | 1.0% | 2.0% | |
| Jun 26 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
| Sep 26 | 0.4% | 2.4% | July to September 2026: prices +0.4%, units shipped +2.4% |
The latest quarter turns the 2022 pattern around. Prices added 0.4% and units rose 2.4%. P&G rounded these figures to whole percentages until this quarter, so the earlier points on the chart are rounded.
Is P&G raising prices because of tariffs?
P&G’s documents do not tie its prices to tariffs. Lower tariff costs and refunds helped its core gross margin, the share of sales left after making the goods, last quarter.
In its breakdown of the quarter’s margin, P&G counted half a percentage point of help, or half of 1% of sales, from “tariff impact from lower costs and recognized recoveries”, without splitting the two. The annual report explains the recoveries. It says the Supreme Court ruled on February 20, 2026 that tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law were invalid.
P&G had paid about $200 million of those tariffs, which it says may be recoverable, and it counted half of that as recovered in April to June 2026. Its documents do not say how tariffs entered any single pricing decision.
Why are P&G’s costs going up?
P&G names costlier raw materials, energy and transportation. It now expects them to cut profit in the year to June 2027 by about $1.4 billion, up from $1 billion in its July estimate.
On July 29, P&G put this fiscal year’s added cost of materials, energy and freight at about $1 billion. That figure is after tax, meaning the hit to profit once the lower income tax is counted. On October 22 it raised that to about $1.4 billion. Its slides for the call add a warning: “Expect cost headwinds to increase in next few quarters.” In plain terms, the company expects the squeeze to grow over the next few quarters.
Show the data
| Item | July 29, 2026 | October 22, 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw materials, energy and transportation | $1.00B | $1.40B | +$0.40B |
| Higher interest costs | $0.15B | $0.30B | +$0.15B |
| Lower income outside the main business | $0.15B | $0.15B | $0.00B |
| Currency changes | $0.05B | $0.05B | $0.00B |
P&G’s documents name no cause for the $1.4 billion beyond those three costs. The consumer price index for energy stood 20.4% higher in September than a year earlier, said the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a gauge of household bills, not P&G’s costs.
Higher interest costs add to the bill. Counting all four items in the chart, P&G expects a profit hit of $0.79 for each share of stock, up from $0.56 in July.
Who is paying for P&G’s higher costs?
On our reading of P&G’s margin breakdown, mostly P&G itself, through cost savings and a thinner profit on its sales. Last quarter, price rises gave back about a seventh of the margin that higher commodity costs (raw materials, energy and freight) took.
P&G’s core gross margin fell to 50.0% from 51.5% a year earlier, leaving out the extra costs of a two-year reorganization. On the reported measure, which counts every cost, the fall was slightly bigger.
Higher commodity costs took 1.4 percentage points of core margin. P&G’s own product reinvestments, which we read as spending on better products and packs, took as much again.
Price rises gave back just 0.2 point. Savings in how P&G makes and moves its goods did more, recovering 1.2 points, and the folded table lists every item.
The mix of what P&G sold lifted sales yet still trimmed margin by half a point, which we read as growth coming from goods that earn less on each sale. P&G does not say which products drove it.
In reported dollars, sales grew $890 million from a year earlier while the cost of the goods sold grew $791 million, so gross profit barely rose. That cost figure also covers making the extra units P&G shipped.
The 2022 spike hit harder. In July to September 2022, costlier commodities and materials took 5.1 percentage points off P&G’s reported gross margin, according to its release for that quarter. Price increases won back 4.7 of those 5.1 points within the same quarter.
Show the data
| Category | Taken by costlier materials | Won back by price rises |
|---|---|---|
| Jul-Sep 2022, reported margin | 5.1 | 4.7 |
| Jul-Sep 2026, core margin | 1.4 | 0.2 |
Show the data
| Core gross margin change, July to September 2026 | Points |
|---|---|
| Higher commodity costs | -1.4 |
| Product reinvestments | -1.4 |
| Shift toward lower-margin products or markets (unfavorable mix) | -0.5 |
| Rounding and other | -0.1 |
| Gross productivity savings | +1.2 |
| Tariffs, lower costs and recoveries | +0.5 |
| Increased pricing | +0.2 |
| Total change | -1.5 |
Source: P&G results release filed with the SEC, October 22, 2026; P&G states each item in basis points, hundredths of a percentage point.
The 1.5 point fall is the largest year over year drop in the 11 quarters since January to March 2024, by the changes P&G reported each quarter. The fall was bigger in April to June 2022, during the last spike. Reported gross margin dropped 3.7 points then, according to P&G’s release for that quarter.
Are household product prices rising faster than inflation?
No. In the year to September, U.S. prices of household cleaning products rose 1.6%, slower than overall inflation, and household paper products got cheaper.
Those figures come from the consumer price index for September, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics published on October 14 and which covers every brand on U.S. shelves. Overall prices were 3.7% higher than a year earlier. The index for hair, dental and shaving products, which we read as the closest match to where P&G raised prices, rose 2.9%. P&G’s figures are worldwide, so the two measures cover different shoppers.
Show the data
| Category | Change |
|---|---|
| Energy | +20.4% |
| All items (overall inflation) | +3.7% |
| Hair, dental and shaving products | +2.9% |
| Household cleaning products | +1.6% |
| Household paper products | -2.2% |
P&G dividend, buybacks and 2027 forecast
P&G kept its profit forecast for the year and its plans to return cash to shareholders, while carrying a larger expected cost bill inside that same forecast.
P&G kept its forecasts for the fiscal year to June 2027, including core earnings per share of $6.89 to $7.11. Earnings per share is the profit for each share of stock, and the core measure leaves out the extra reorganization costs. It raised only its forecast for total sales growth, to 2% to 4%, because of the Thorne supplements business it bought on October 1.
Core earnings per share were $2.00 for July to September, up from $1.99, even with the thinner margin.
On the reported measure, earnings per share rose two cents even though net earnings for shareholders fell slightly, because P&G bought back its own shares, leaving fewer of them.
In the quarter P&G paid $2.6 billion in dividends and bought back $1.3 billion of its shares.
For the full year it still plans more than $10 billion of dividends and about $5 billion of buybacks.
Debt due within a year rose to $17.0 billion at September 30 from $11.3 billion at June 30, and cash rose too; the release does not say why.
Put together, P&G kept its profit range for the year. It did so while expecting the after-tax hit from costlier materials, energy and freight to be $400 million bigger than in July. In July to September, cost savings did far more than price rises to support its margin.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Organic sales growth forecast, fiscal 2027 (excludes currency and deals) | 1% to 3%, kept |
| Total sales growth forecast, fiscal 2027 | 2% to 4%, raised from 1% to 3% |
| Core earnings per share forecast, fiscal 2027 | $6.89 to $7.11, kept |
| Reported earnings per share, July to September | $1.97, against $1.95 a year earlier |
| Dividends per share, July to September | $1.0885, against $1.0568 a year earlier |
| Average shares, counting options and similar awards, July to September | 2,407.2 million, against 2,436.8 million |
| Cash, September 30 | $15.4 billion, against $9.9 billion at June 30 |
| Long-term debt, September 30 | $21.9 billion, against $22.8 billion at June 30 |
Source: P&G results release filed with the SEC, October 22, 2026; July forecast from its July 29 release.
What to watch
- Whether shelf prices for cleaning and paper goods keep running below overall inflation: the October consumer price index, due November 10, 2026, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics schedule.
- Why debt due within a year rose and how much tariff help was refunds: P&G’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q for July to September.
- How the cost estimate and P&G’s prices move next: its October to December results, date not yet announced. P&G reported that quarter on January 22 in 2025 and 2026.
How we counted
Price and units over 19 quarters: for each P&G results release from April 2022 to October 2026, we read the company-wide row of the net sales drivers table. We used its Price and Organic Volume columns, which measure each quarter against the same quarter a year earlier. P&G printed whole percentages until the July to September 2026 quarter. Quarters on the chart are calendar quarters; P&G’s fiscal year starts in July, so its first fiscal quarter is July to September.
Price against commodity costs: P&G’s releases break each quarter’s change in gross margin into basis points by cause. For July to September 2026 we divided the 20 basis points from increased pricing by the 140 from higher commodity costs, on core gross margin. For July to September 2022 we divided the 470 from pricing by the 510 from commodity and input material costs, on reported gross margin, which that release broke down. Dollar changes are net sales less the prior year’s net sales and cost of products sold less the prior year’s, from the consolidated earnings statement. The 11 quarter comparison uses the core gross margin change each release reports, January to March 2024 through July to September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is Procter & Gamble raising prices in 2026?
Only slightly overall. In July to September 2026, price changes added 0.4% to P&G’s sales from a year earlier. Prices rose most in grooming and health care and were lower in laundry and home care and in baby, feminine and family care, according to its October 22 results release.
Is P&G raising prices because of tariffs?
P&G’s documents do not tie its prices to tariffs. Lower tariff costs and refunds added half a point to its gross margin last quarter. The $1.4 billion after-tax hit it expects this fiscal year comes from raw materials, energy and transportation.
Why are P&G’s costs going up?
P&G names higher raw material, energy and transportation costs. It now expects them to add about $1.4 billion after tax this fiscal year, up from about $1 billion in its July estimate, and it also expects higher interest costs.
Did P&G’s profit grow in July to September 2026?
Barely. Core earnings per share, which leave out extra reorganization costs, were $2.00 against $1.99 a year earlier, and net earnings for shareholders fell slightly. Net sales were $23.3 billion, up 4%.
What did P&G report for July to September 2026?
Net sales of $23.3 billion, up 4%, and core earnings per share of $2.00. The full release is on StockTitan’s P&G news page, and the slides P&G filed with the SEC that morning are on its filing page.
Sources
- P&G results release for July to September 2026, StockTitan
- P&G Form 8-K with call slides, October 22, 2026, StockTitan
- P&G results release for April to June 2026, StockTitan
- P&G results release for April to June 2022, StockTitan
- P&G results release for July to September 2022, StockTitan
- P&G results release for October to December 2022, StockTitan
- September 2026 inflation report, StockTitan
- P&G results release, Exhibit 99.1, SEC
- P&G call slides, Exhibit 99.1, SEC
- P&G annual report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2026, SEC
- Consumer Price Index, September 2026, Table 2, Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Consumer Price Index release schedule, Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Colgate-Palmolive results for April to June 2026, SEC
- Kimberly-Clark results for April to June 2026, SEC
- Kimberly-Clark preliminary results for July to September 2026, SEC
The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendation, or an endorsement of any particular investment strategy. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.