Costco Tires: How Do Their Prices Compare To The Competition?

It's not all pretzels and kitchen sponges in bulk or getting discounted gas when you head to your local Costco — there are products available for your car, too. And on top of selling all sorts of products for your car or truck, Costco also offers tire installation for their members. They used to be a go-to location for changing oil as well, but that program has been discontinued. Considering their reputation for inexpensive items or bulk sales, you might think Costco offers low prices on tires, undercutting the competition, but we wanted to take a closer look and find out. 

There are some tire prices quoted below, but they're listed as examples –- not rules to follow. For example, tire prices can fluctuate a bit, going up or down depending on the season, location, and current specials running for specific makes or brands of tires. To keep things even, when looking at tires, we excluded any current manufacturer specials or installer discounts that might be seasonal or localized. We also kept taxes out of the equation. There are also lots of smaller costs associated with buying new tires too. Stuff like mounting, balancing, disposal of old tires, and maintenance for tires (things like flat repair, regular tire rotation, etc.) should all factor into your final choice for which tire retailer you go with. We go over those a bit as well, but the most important numbers in our research were the tire prices themselves. 

To compare prices, we used Costco's website and went searching for tires, along with two other popular tire retailers in the U.S. –- America's Tire and Tire Rack. Our search focused first on a set of tires that would fit a typical family SUV, the 2024 Honda CR-V: all-season 235/60/R18's. At Tire Rack, a set of four Bridgestone Turanza EL440s in the proper size would cost $967.52 before installation and disposal of old tires. At America's Tire, it was $968 for the tires without installation or disposal. At Costco, the same tires rang up at $1,115.96 without including any discounts. That's a big price jump for the exact same set of tires. 

So, we went looking at some truck tires to double-check the price differences. The 2025 Ram 1500 uses 275/55/R20 tires on some trims, so we checked prices in that size range. All three retailers list BFGoodrich's Advantage T/A Sport LT in that size at almost the same price -– $243.99 per tire with Costco and Tire Rack, and one penny more at America's Tire, $244.00. Were the CR-V tires an anomaly? One last tire size should clear things up, right? The Michelin Defender2, fitted to a Mazda3 in 205/60/R16 size, was just like the BFGoodrich –- within a penny across the three retailers – $186.99 at Costco and Tire Rack, rounded up to $187.00 at America's Tire.

More than just the Mazda3 and Ram 1500 examples, these kinds of nearly identical results came up in several searches. There were some exceptions, like the CR-V, but in many cases Costco was a pretty close match to other major retailers for tire prices. Costco does, however, offer some impressive benefits when buying your tires there. For starters, installation is free. As a member, you'll get a 5-year road hazard warranty, as well as free rotation, balancing, and flat repairs. Get those services at your local tire shop and they can cost extra. Costco isn't the only retailer to offer those services, though. 

America's Tire offers tire rotations, rebalancing, flat repairs, and air pressure checks as a part of their maintenance service as well. Buying a set of tires through a site like Tire Rack and installing them at a local independent shop often comes with additional fees for mounting and balancing, so there's some math to be done there, even if the tires are less expensive up front. As mentioned, Costco requires that you're a member to get tire services, so you'll need to set up a membership if you're looking to get tires installed. Currently, a personal membership at Costco costs as little as $65 per year  (before taxes). Be sure to apply the cost of a membership to the final tally when you're doing the math on whether purchasing tires at Costco is right for you.