What a gram of
protein costs you.

Short answer

This page deliberately publishes no prices. Anything specific would be wrong for most readers on the day they read it. The protein cost calculator takes the price from the shelf in front of you, which is the only price that applies to you.

The money cost, and why pack price misleads

Comparing pack prices tells you almost nothing, because packs differ in size and in how much protein they contain. A larger, more expensive tub can be the cheaper source per gram of protein, and often is.

The calculation is: total protein in the pack, which is protein per serving multiplied by servings, then divide the pack price by that. A tub with 20 servings at 10g each holds 200g of protein, so the cost per gram is the price divided by 200.

Two things distort this in practice. Waste counts, so protein you bought and threw away was not cheap. And for meat and fish, the purchase weight often includes bone, shell or skin you will not eat, which the edible portion calculator accounts for.

The calorie cost, which most people skip

If you are eating in a deficit, calories are a budget too, and protein that arrives with a lot of them spends that budget faster.

The measure here is protein per 100 Calories. It answers a different question from protein per 100 grams: not how concentrated the protein is by weight, but how much of it you get for a given slice of your day's energy.

The two do not track each other. A food can be respectable on protein per 100g and poor on protein per 100 Calories, which happens whenever the food is also high in fat.

Protein per 100 Calories, for six common sources

Values rounded from USDA FoodData Central for the plain versions. These are composition figures, not prices, so unlike prices they hold wherever you shop.

The ordering is the point. Almonds and peanut butter carry more protein per 100g than eggs do, and less than half as much per 100 Calories, because most of what they carry is fat. Nonfat Greek yogurt has the lowest protein per 100g in the table and the second-highest per 100 Calories.

Chicken breast at about 18.8g per 100 Calories is roughly five times almonds at 3.7g. That is the gap that decides whether a protein target fits inside a calorie target. The protein density calculator works this out for any food, and protein per 100 Calories covers the metric.

Reading the two costs together

Neither number decides anything alone, and they point in different directions often enough to be worth checking both.

Eggs, dairy, tinned fish, legumes and cheaper cuts tend to do well on money. Lean meat, white fish, nonfat dairy and egg whites tend to do well on calories. Nuts, seeds, nut butters and full-fat cheese carry real protein but spend a lot of calorie budget delivering it, which does not make them bad foods, only expensive ones in that specific currency.

Which cost binds depends on your situation. If money is tight and calories are not, optimise money. If you are trying to hit a protein target inside a deficit, the calorie cost is the one that will stop you. Most people have some of both, which is why the protein cost calculator shows price, protein and calories side by side rather than ranking on one.

Why cheapest per gram is not a plan

Optimising a single number tends to produce a diet nobody keeps. The cheapest source per gram is usually the one you will eat least often, and protein you did not eat has no value at any price.

Preparation time is a real cost, and so is variety. A slightly more expensive option that needs no cooking may be the reason you hit your target on a busy weekday, and that outcome is worth more than the saving. Foods also carry more than protein, so choosing entirely on one nutrient narrows a diet in ways worth noticing.

The practical version is to run this once across the handful of protein sources you actually buy, adjust where something is clearly poor value in whichever currency binds for you, and then stop. If the target itself is the problem rather than the sourcing, the protein target calculator and the protein gap calculator are the better place to start.

Limits

Prices change constantly and vary by country, shop, season and pack size, which is why this page has none. Composition figures are general reference values for plain foods; a labelled product in your hand beats any table, including this one.

This is general information for adults about comparing foods on two measures. It is not dietary advice and sets no protein target. Protein needs vary with age, training, pregnancy and health conditions, and kidney disease changes the picture entirely. Speak with a qualified clinician or registered dietitian for individual guidance.