$2.79 buys one KFC tender and $21.99 buys eight, a bulk saving of four cents each.
KFC tenders prices run from $2.79 for a single tender to $29.99 for the eight-piece meal, with $12.99 the typical figure across twelve items. Nine carry a recorded price. What separates this section from the fried chicken list is the near-absence of a bulk discount: one tender costs $2.79 and eight of them cost $21.99, which works out at $2.75 each. Buying in bulk saves four cents a tender.
KFC guides — surveys, menus and gift cards · KFC menu prices, every section · A La Carte Original Recipe Tender price and calories · Original Recipe 3 Piece Tenders Combo price and calories · Original Recipe 4 Piece Tenders Combo price and calories · Original Recipe 5 Piece Tenders Combo price and calories · Original Recipe 5 Piece Tenders Box price and calories · 2 Piece Tenders Kids Meal price and calories · Original Recipe 8 Piece Tenders A La Carte price and calories · Original Recipe 8 Piece Tenders Meal price and calories
What you need
6 itemsKFC tenders prices and calories
| Item | Typical price | Price range | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| A La Carte Original Recipe Tender | $2.79 | — | — |
| Original Recipe 3 Piece Tenders Combo | varies | $5.49 – $8.69 | — |
| Original Recipe 4 Piece Tenders Combo | varies | $10.49 – $12.19 | — |
| Original Recipe 5 Piece Tenders Combo | $12.99 | — | — |
| Original Recipe 5 Piece Tenders Box | varies | $13.19 – $13.49 | — |
| 2 Piece Tenders Kids Meal | $5.19 | $4.99 – $5.49 | — |
| Original Recipe 8 Piece Tenders A La Carte | $21.99 | — | — |
| Original Recipe 8 Piece Tenders Meal | $29.99 | — | — |
| Original Recipe 12 Piece Tenders Meal | not published | — | — |
| Original Recipe 16 Piece Tenders Meal | not published | — | — |
| Build A Bucket 8 Tender Meal | $20.00 | — | — |
| 3 Tenders Fill Up | not published | — | — |
If something goes wrong
Why is there no saving on the bigger tender boxes?
- Cause
- Single tenders were recorded at $2.79 and the eight-piece box at $21.99, which is $2.75 each. Eight singles would cost $22.32, so the box saves 33 cents in total.
- Fix
- Order the box for convenience rather than for value. The Build A Bucket format at $20.00 is the only tender row that prices below the singles by a real margin.
Why do the 4 piece combo readings differ by so much?
- Cause
- The two figures cover different flavours rather than different restaurants: one honey barbecue version at $12.19 and one hot honey version at $10.49, both from the same published set.
- Fix
- Ask which flavour a quoted price covers. On this row the spread is a menu difference, not a pricing disagreement.
What is the difference between a tenders combo and a tenders box?
- Cause
- At five pieces both exist and the box costs more. The combo was recorded at $12.99 and the box between $13.19 and $13.49.
- Fix
- Compare the two rows before ordering. Nothing published states what the extra 20 to 50 cents buys.
Why do three tender rows have no price?
- Cause
- The twelve-piece meal, the sixteen-piece meal and the 3 Tenders Fill Up attracted no figure from any published listing gathered here, even though all three appear in the company's own sitemap.
- Fix
- Select a restaurant on the company's ordering site, which is the only place a price for those rows appears.
How the tenders list prices out
Twelve tender rows appear in KFC's own published sitemap, which supplies both this list and its names. Nine of them carry a recorded price. The section runs from $2.79 to $29.99 with a typical figure of $12.99.
The flattest ladder on the menu
Divide each priced row by its tender count and something unusual appears. A single tender costs $2.79. The eight-piece box works out at $2.75. The five-piece combo at $12.99 comes to $2.60, and the Build A Bucket eight-tender meal at $20.00 comes to $2.50. Across a range from one piece to eight, the rate moves by less than thirty cents.
Set that against the bone-in chicken on the same menu and the contrast is stark. There, single cuts were recorded at $2.79 to $4.99 while an eight-piece bucket came to about $2.75 a piece and a sixteen-piece to $2.19. Assembling eight bone-in pieces from the a la carte counter costs $33.52 against $21.99 for the bucket, a saving of 34 per cent. Assembling eight tenders one at a time costs $22.32 against $21.99, a saving of 1.5 per cent.
So the usual advice about buying the biggest box does not transfer here. A tender box buys convenience rather than value.
Where the exception sits
Build A Bucket 8 Tender Meal was recorded at $20.00 against $29.99 for the Original Recipe 8 Piece Tenders Meal. Both carry eight tenders. The gap is $9.99, which is the largest unexplained difference anywhere in this section and the only place where a bulk format clearly beats the alternative.
Combos climb less predictably. Three pieces produced $5.49 and $8.69, a spread of 58 per cent, with a third listing quoting a starting price of $9.49 that sits above the entire band. Four pieces produced $10.49 and $12.19 for different flavours. Five pieces settled at $12.99 as a combo and $13.19 to $13.49 as a box.
The tightest and the emptiest
The 2 Piece Tenders Kids Meal is the best-attested row here: three separate readings at $4.99, $5.19 and $5.49, ten per cent apart from end to end. Nothing else in the section has three sources.
Three rows have none. The twelve-piece meal, the sixteen-piece meal and the 3 Tenders Fill Up carry no recorded price at all, which means the tender ladder simply stops being documented above eight pieces.
That silence above eight pieces matters more here than it would elsewhere. Over in the fried chicken section, the twelve and sixteen-piece rows are where the per-piece rate falls furthest, which gives a reader a reason to look them up. Nobody knows whether tenders do the same thing, because nobody has published a figure for either size.
Calories are missing throughout for a different reason again. The company's nutrition guide, its allergen page and its individual item pages all render in the browser and hand back nothing countable, so no figure on this page is presented as the company's own.
Tenders at a glance
- Items listed
- 12
- Cheapest recorded
- $2.79
- Dearest recorded
- $29.99
- Typical
- $12.99
Questions people ask
How much are KFC tenders?
A single tender was recorded at $2.79 and an eight-piece box at $21.99. Combos run from $5.49 for three pieces to $12.99 for five, and the eight-piece meal was recorded at $29.99.
Is it cheaper to buy tenders in a box?
Barely. Eight single tenders at $2.79 come to $22.32 against $21.99 for the eight-piece box, a saving of 33 cents. The equivalent saving on bone-in chicken is $11.53.
Which tender row is the best value?
Build A Bucket 8 Tender Meal at $20.00, which works out at $2.50 a tender and undercuts the standard eight-piece tenders meal by $9.99 for the same count.
Why do the 3 piece combo prices vary so widely?
Two readings came back at $5.49 and $8.69, and a third quoted a starting price of $9.49 which sits above both. No typical figure can be drawn from that.
Which tender items have no price?
Three of the twelve: the Original Recipe 12 Piece Tenders Meal, the Original Recipe 16 Piece Tenders Meal and the 3 Tenders Fill Up. All three appear in KFC's own published sitemap.
Is this page an official KFC price list?
No. The item names and the section come from KFC's own published sitemap, while every price comes from independent published US listings recorded in August 2026.
Can this site tell me the price at my local KFC?
No. Operators set their own prices and the company shows nothing until a restaurant is selected. The bands here exist so an unusual quote is recognisable as one.