Tools
Protein-per-Dollar Calculator
Which foods actually give you the most protein for your money? Two ways to answer that here: recipes on this site ranked by protein per dollar once they carry real cost data, and a quick calculator below for pricing out any ingredient or product yourself.
Protein-per-dollar rewards volume, it doesn't account for how filling or nutritious a food is beyond protein, use it alongside the recipes themselves, not instead of them.
Estimates, not medical or dietary advice.
Recipes ranked by protein per dollar
I haven't priced out enough recipes yet to rank them by cost, that's real work I'm still doing recipe by recipe. In the meantime, the budget recipe collection is hand-picked for value, and the calculator below works for anything today.
Price out anything yourself
Add an item, its price, servings, and protein per serving. I'll rank them by protein per dollar.
| Item | Price | Servings | Protein / serving | Protein / $1 | Cost / 30g protein | Remove |
|---|
How protein per dollar works
Divide the protein in what you're buying by its price. If a pound of raw chicken breast rings up at $5.00, that's 102g of protein for $5.00, or 20.4g of protein per dollar. Flip it around and 30g of protein costs $1.47. The calculator above does the same math from servings and protein per serving, which is easier when you're reading a label.
Protein in a pound of common staples
Prices change by store and week, but the protein in a pound doesn't. Here's the protein in the amount you'd buy, raw or dry, so you only need your shelf price:
| Food, as bought | Amount | Protein |
|---|---|---|
| Dry lentils | 1 lb | 112g |
| Raw chicken breast, boneless, skinless | 1 lb | 102g |
| Peanut butter | 1 lb (16 oz) | 101g |
| Dry black beans | 1 lb | 98g |
| Raw ground beef, 80/20 | 1 lb | 78g |
| Large eggs | 1 dozen | 75g |
| Cottage cheese, 2% | 1 lb (16 oz) | 50g |
| Plain nonfat Greek yogurt | 1 lb (16 oz) | 46g |
| Firm tofu | 1 lb (16 oz) | 41g |
Going by USDA's dry and cooked figures, lentils and black beans come out about 2.4 to 2.7 times heavier once cooked, since they soak up water. The protein in the bag doesn't change, it just spreads across more weight. Meat goes the other way and loses water as it cooks, so price both by the amount you buy.
Keeping it in perspective
Protein per dollar is one way to look at a food. It doesn't account for how filling a food is, what else it brings, or whether you'll actually want to eat it. The budget recipe collection is where I put recipes built around lower-cost staples, and the protein source comparison lines up common foods on protein per serving and per calorie, from USDA data.
Sources
- Dry lentils: USDA FDC #172420 (Lentils, raw), 24.63g protein per 100g.
- Raw chicken breast, boneless, skinless: USDA FDC #171077 (Chicken, breast, skinless, boneless, meat only, raw), 22.5g protein per 100g.
- Peanut butter: USDA FDC #172470 (Peanut butter, smooth style, without salt), 22.21g protein per 100g.
- Dry black beans: USDA FDC #173734 (Beans, black, mature seeds, raw), 21.6g protein per 100g.
- Raw ground beef, 80/20: USDA FDC #174036 (Beef, ground, 80% lean / 20% fat, raw), 17.17g protein per 100g.
- Large eggs: USDA FDC #171287 (Egg, whole, raw, fresh), large egg = 50g, 12.56g protein per 100g.
- Cottage cheese, 2%: USDA FDC #328841 (Cheese, cottage, lowfat, 2% milkfat), 11g protein per 100g.
- Plain nonfat Greek yogurt: USDA FDC #170894 (Yogurt, Greek, plain, nonfat), 10.19g protein per 100g.
- Firm tofu: USDA FDC #175236 (Firm tofu), 9.08g protein per 100g.
- Cooked weight gain: the ratio of USDA dry to cooked protein per 100g for lentils (#172420, 24.63g, against #172421, 9.02g) and black beans (#173734, 21.6g, against #173735, 8.86g).
Questions about this tool
- What counts as a good protein-per-dollar value?
- There is no single cutoff, since prices vary by store and season. The table further down gives the protein in a pound or a dozen of common staples, so you can check any of them against your own store's price in a few seconds. The protein source comparison tool puts common foods side by side.
- Does protein-per-dollar mean I should only eat the cheapest option?
- No. This is one lens, not a diet plan. A food can have a mediocre protein-per-dollar number and still be a great choice for taste, variety, or the rest of its nutrition. Use it to find worthwhile swaps, not to rule foods out.
- Why do so few recipes show up in the ranked list?
- Cost per serving isn't something USDA nutrition data provides, it has to be priced out by hand per recipe, and that work is still in progress across the site. The calculator below works today for anything, recipe or not.