The Easy Way To Get Double The Burger Toppings At McDonald's

When you consider that a burger at McDonald's cost just 15 cents in 1955 — a price that has multiplied by more than 20 times in the last seven decades — you can hardly blame people for wanting to get the most bang for their buck when it comes to fast food. Because the fare you grab from the drive-thru can be a hit or miss, folks have developed a slew of tricks to make sure they're getting hot and fresh sandwiches from McDonald's. However, there aren't many above-board ways to score more food. With a touch of ordering finesse, some thrifty-minded diners have discovered how to get extra toppings on their burgers without shelling out for them.

The key to loading up your McDonald's burger at no extra charge lies in knowing which toppings have upcharges in the point-of-sale system and which don't. If you're ordering online or at a self-service kiosk, you can easily see which toppings you can add for free and which will run up your bill. While you can typically double the vegetables on your sandwich without an upcharge, there are some exceptions. Asking for more shredded lettuce or slivered onions, for example, will cost you an additional 40 cents per serving, whether or not they already come on your burger. (Oddly enough, extra diced onions are free.) Ordering double cheese or bacon, on the other hand, will always cost you more — except in the case of a hamburger, where you can add on two half-pieces of bacon at no charge, per the McDonald's app.

There are some other quirks to ordering extras on your McDonald's burger, especially when it comes to condiments. While ordering extra ketchup, mustard, or mayo on your cheeseburger won't cost you a penny, extra Mac sauce on your Big Mac tacks an additional 90 cents on your bill. (You might as well whip up this copycat Big Mac Sauce recipe and slather the burger up once you get home.) Getting extra Special Edition sauces, like the Gold Sauce on the Gold McCrispy, can cost as much as 99 cents. You might also run into other tricky distinctions on limited-edition sandwiches, such as unusual toppings disguised as ordinary ones. The Gold McCrispy, for example, has crinkle-cut pickles instead of the typical McDonald's pickles, and would therefore smack you with a 40-cent upcharge if you were to ask for extra.

Of course, there are plenty of additional toppings you can get on your burger, as long as you don't mind paying for them. Whether or not your burger already comes with them, adding Roma tomatoes to your order ups the ante by 90 cents per two slices. Meanwhile, the same $2.99 that will get you two half-strips of bacon on a cheeseburger will get you three half-strips of bacon on a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese. (Make it make sense.)