Costco Taiwan - A Foreigners Guide 2026

You might know Costco already but how about Costco Taiwan? When a foreign traveller recently asked about the differences between Costco Taiwan and their home USA branch, it elicited a huge and positive response in our Taiwan Travel Tips TTT Facebook group.

People love Costco Taiwan, from the low prices to the numerous free samples – not to mention the hot food counter at the end and the rush for sublime sushi and cheap rotisserie chicken.

Costco memberships from anywhere in the world are allowed at Costco Taiwan so any existing member can visit and there are currently 14 Costcos in Taiwan as of early 2026 in cities like Taipei, Taoyuan and Kaohsiung.

We aren’t Costco members, so with the help of our TTT group members Esther and Alvin, we were signed in and free to explore all that Costco Taiwan has to offer (thank you Alvin and Esther – so kind!)

We visited the Costco Taoyuan Nankan Store in late March 2026 and all the pictures in this article are taken there.

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Table of Contents

Can anyone visit Costco Taiwan?

Only Costco members can shop instore and if you are already a member anywhere else in the world, you can use this membership to visit a Taiwan store.

Members can sign in visitors on their behalf (a simple swipe of their ID at the main entrance at the Taoyuan branch was all it took) but you would need to be with the membership cardholder to make any purchases at the tills.

That said, you don’t need a membership card to make Costco food court purchases which are so so cheap (it is almost worth visiting just for the low low hot food prices – more on this shortly).

A few TTT members have mentioned you could theoretically sneak in the exit gate via customer services to have a look around and eat at the food court but you wouldn’t be able to buy anything.

Please also note Taiwan Costco won’t issue day passes to non member overseas travellers so you will need to buddy up with a member.

You might like – Our guide to Taipei’s best shopping malls >

How much is Costco Taiwan membership?

As of April 2026, the annual cost of all membership types at Costco Taiwan has risen to NT$1,500 a year.

Gold Star membership in Taiwan has increased from NT$1,350 to NT$1,500, Business membership from NT$1,150 to NT$1,500, and Business add-on membership from NT$900 to NT$1,500.

You might like – Our guide to Taiwan’s best supermarkets and convenience stores >

Why do people love Taiwan Costco so much?

Based on some of our Taiwan Travel Tips (TTT) Facebook group responses, people love Taiwan Costco for reasons such as:

Taiwan Costcos have lots of exclusive Taiwan only items especially certain types of local alcohol.
You can get lots of free alcohol samples (we had some free Jack Daniels shots). One TTT member also said they tried the premium Kavalan Whisky here. Apparently Costco is the cheapest place to buy Taiwan Kavalan Whisky P.S. Please drink responsibly and never ever drink and drive.
The sushi / sashimi / fresh fish section at Taiwan Costco is crazy busy and pretty cheap – we’ll go into more detail about this later.

Complimentary ice (non edible) at the checkout to keep your purchases cool.
A TTT member compared Costco Taiwan to Costco USA,”…I didn’t realize how much better the food was in Taiwan Costco until I moved to the USA .. the chicken/beef bake taste so much juicier and better in Taiwan”.
They have easy to use ATMs / cash machines.
The NT$60 hot dogs (including unlimited soft drink refills) at the food court are all pork based which is apparently different from USA Costco. The coffee is also better, another TTT member said, serving proper Americanos and lattes. Many people say the food court options at the end are way better than Costco USA.

Two group members shared their love of Costco bulgogi bake!
It is also one of the best places in Taiwan to buy kosher products.
Three of the top 10 best selling Costcos in the world are in Taiwan – the Taichung, Neihu and Chungho stores!

As one member described it…”…Costco in Taiwan is so supreme imo”.

You might like – Our guide to the best Taiwan souvenirs >

Our visit to Taiwan Costco

We visited Costco Taoyuan Nankan Store one Sunday in March 2026 – as we waited at the front entrance, we noticed how busy it was. Like crazy busy.

This particular store had one level of shopping (on the ground floor) and 3 additional floors of parking – so expect lots of people! Costco Taiwan opening hours can vary but the Taoyuan branch is open 7 days a week from 10am to 9.30pm.

As we waited to go in, we noticed shoppers with trolleys piled high – popular products amongst the many people we observed leaving including roast chickens, huge amounts of toilet roll and kitchen roll, pizzas, giant bags of grapes and potato chips plus lots of freezer bags.

If you haven’t been to Costco before, it is best described as a HUGE supermarket or wholesaler that sells everything under one roof – from big TVs and electronics to fresh and frozen foods, clothing, stationery and much, much more.

Taiwan Costco food court

Seriously, based on the positive comments in our group, the most popular reason to visit Taiwan Costco is the foodcourt, which many shoppers and families eat at after they’ve finished shopping.

The queues here never stop and it can be hard to get a table to eat your food but once you’ve seen the prices and tried the food, you’ll understand why. We absolutely loved the Costco Taiwan food court experience. It may not be haute cuisine but it is actually pretty tasty especially the pizzas and hot-dogs.

You don’t need a Costco membership card to buy food court items so we got stuck in and joined the masses. We ended up trying the NT$60 HUGE hot dog which comes with unlimited soft drink refills and it was surprisingly good. You can add your own ketchup, relish and mustard plus there is a DIY onion chopper so you add as much grated onions as you like.

We’d also seen many shoppers taking out huge hot pizzas back to their cars so we just had to try a slice – a massive slice of meaty pizza cost NT$59 or you can buy an entire hot pizza for just NT$299 (meatball combo, cheese or seafood). Honestly, it was really tasty and we saw lots of families sharing a giant pizza in the Costco Taiwan foodcourt.

A lot of people also recommend the seafood chowder (NT$69) which is only available at Taiwan, South Korea and Japan Costcos and not in the USA.

Here is a list of all the Taiwan Costco food and 2026 prices we saw:

Crispy chicken bucket – NT$289
Bulgogi bake / seafood bake – NT$99
Braised pork with rice and radish soup – NT$99
Refillable sodas / soft drinks – NT$25
Chicken caesar salad – NT198
Calzone and a refillable drink – NT$99
Tteokbokki and seaweed roll – NT$99
Soft serve cones – NT$79
Latte and americano coffee (hot or iced) – NT$29
Variety mini beignet 3 pieces – NT$49

Seasonal Costco specials are sometimes available too.

Most popular sections and products at Costco Taiwan

As we entered, we cruised on by the electronics section as we have very little suitcase space but as you’d expect, you can buy everything here from iconic Taitung rice cookers to gigantic flat-screen TVs and Starbucks coffee makers.

After this section, some of the Costco Taiwan highlights and things that took our attention were:

Costco Sampling

Seriously, there must have been close to 50 different sampling staff and stations at Taoyuan Costco Taiwan – so many in fact, we even noticed they had their own little sampling staff rest-room tucked away near the toilets!

There were samples of everything, from Jack Daniels or potato chips to fresh fruit and chocolate – make a day of it and try loads (but remember to save room for the fantastic Taiwan Costco food court at the end).

Fresh food / chiller sections / fruit

Costco Taoyuan had two huge chiller sections, one selling all manner of dairy products and the other selling fresh vegetables – huge boxes of fruit are also popular here.

Alcohol

Stock up on local Taiwan brands Gold Medal Taiwan Beer, Buckskin beer and Kavalan Whiskey or imbibe international favourites like Corona, Heineken, Japanese Kirin or South Korean Cass – cheers!

And don’t forget all the alcohol samples!

Fish sections

Never have we seen such a mad scramble as at the sushi and sashimi section of Costco Taiwan – literally as staff were putting it out on shelves, hungry shoppers were piling it into their trollies.

You could buy massive fresh fish / sushi platters for around NT$400 and less which is so much cheaper than most sushi restaurants.

There were lots of interesting dishes including egg sandwiches with prawns or Thai shrimp cake sandwiches (5 in a pack for NT$335) – a protein salad meal with lots of cold fish, salad and various sides cost NT$399.

You might like – Taiwan foodie things to do: best food and drink experiences >

Bakery section

The Costco bakery and bread section smelt sooo good and also quite colourful with lots of fruity desserts like strawberry cakes covered in cream, wobbly pancakes and bagels galore.

We even spotted a cake order selection area where you could buy a cake requesting your own design (but they need at least 24 hours to bake and create it).

Meat and deli section

Costco Taiwan sell huge quantities of fresh and frozen meat and many say the pork quality is the best in the world. At Taoyuan, you could see a huge meat processing room on display with lots of workers packaging various cuts and the prices seemed pretty good.

Possibly the most popular hot product we saw being bought was the Kirkland signature rotisserie chickens which seems to disappear from the hot counter as soon as they were brought out (incidentally, Kirkland is Costco’s own brand and features in all stores worldwide).

Taiwan Costco rotisserie chickens cost NT$189 each as of our visit in March 2026.

Iconic Taiwan snacks and potato chips

We regularly talk about fun Taiwanese snacks and iconic food on Taiwanderers so you will be glad to know you can buy many of these treats like IMEI Taiwan cream puffs and nougat crackers.

You can also bulk buy classic Taiwan potato chips and puffs like the famous good luck snack Kuai Kuai, interesting chip flavors like coriander / cilantro Lays plus all manner of Doritos flavors you can’t get outside of Asia.

Incidentally, we also spotted a few unexpected international items like big boxes of Australian TimTams, Ritz crackers or Japanese Meiji mushroom mountains.