Know what it should cost

Most shopping advice is written to sell something. Cotco is built the other way around: the tools work without an account, the math is shown on screen, and every data page names its source and its limits. If a page can't help you answer a real cost question, it doesn't belong here.

What Cotco does

• Calculators for unit price, bulk-buying break-even, cost per use, and membership break-even — all client-side, all showing their arithmetic.
• Product lookup by barcode using the Canadian catalogue of Open Food Facts, an open community database.
• Price trends from Statistics Canada series, so you can see what a category has historically cost.
• Recall search against the Government of Canada's Recalls and Safety Alerts database (Health Canada, CFIA, and Transport Canada), always linking back to the official notice.
• Guides that explain the math with worked examples and decision rules.

What Cotco does not do

• It does not sell products or process payments.
• It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any retailer or warehouse club.
• It does not scrape retailer prices or claim to know today's shelf price near you.
• It does not publish AI-written "best product" rankings or invented reviews.

How it stays free

Cotco is supported by advertising and affiliate links, and only where a link genuinely helps you act on what a tool just told you. Commissions never change a calculator's output, a data page's numbers, or the order of results. See the affiliate disclosure for details.

Accuracy and corrections

Example figures in guides are illustrative, not current prices. Live data comes from the sources named on each page and can lag, change, or be incomplete. If you find an error, tell us on the contact page and include the page URL.