Cheap High Protein Meals: 4 Meals Priced by the Gram

For cheap high protein meals, the cheapest protein in a US grocery store in August 2026 was dry beans, at 1.68 dollars per 100 g of protein. Spaghetti followed at 2.32, eggs at 3.04, chicken breast at 4.08. I priced four meals from the Bureau of Labor Statistics averages. They give 29.6–40.9 g of protein for 0.67–2.35 dollars a serving.

Which foods give the cheapest protein?

A pack price misleads. Divide it down to the protein inside the pack and the comparison becomes fair, and the sum is simple: the price of 100 g of the food, divided by the grams of protein in 100 g of it, times 100. Prices are August 2026 US city averages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Protein comes from USDA FoodData Central records. I did the sum for eight foods.

Food (price source, protein record)	Price in US dollars	Protein per 100 g	Cost of 100 g of protein in US dollars	Protein per 100 kcal
Dry beans, pinto, raw	1.63 a lb	21.4 g	1.68	6.2 g
Spaghetti and macaroni, pasta, dry	1.37 a lb	13.0 g	2.32	3.5 g
Eggs, grade A large, whole egg	2.27 a dozen	12.4 g	3.04	8.4 g
Whole milk, 3.25% milkfat	4.23 a gallon	3.28 g	3.30	5.5 g
White rice, long grain, raw, enriched	1.11 a lb	7.13 g	3.44	2.0 g
Chicken breast, boneless, raw	4.17 a lb	22.5 g	4.08	20.1 g
Pork chops, boneless, center loin, raw	4.53 a lb	21.1 g	4.73	10.5 g
Cheddar cheese, cheddar	5.98 a lb	23.3 g	5.66	5.7 g

Two conversions need explaining. The price for milk is per gallon, which is four quarts. The milk record gives 976 g a quart, so a gallon is 3,904 g and holds 128.1 g of protein. Prices per pound use 453.6 g, the weight the Bureau gives.

Beans come out cheapest. Chicken breast costs about 2.4 times as much for the same protein, and eggs sit in the middle. A dozen holds 12 × 50.3 g of egg, which is 74.8 g of protein, so one egg is 6.2 g of protein for 19 cents. Eggs go into breakfast too, and high protein pancakes counts four recipes built on them.

The table has two limits. The bean price is for “any type”, and I used the pinto record, so another bean will differ a little. The second is that a low cost per protein can mislead. Rice looks fine at 3.44, but it has 7.13 g of protein per 100 g. To get 100 g of protein from dry rice alone you’d eat about 1.4 kg of it, around 5,100 kcal. Use cost per protein to compare foods that are protein foods to begin with. It doesn’t rescue a food that isn’t one.

How much food and money is 30 g of protein?

Take 30 g as a meal-sized target. A third of the Dietary Guidelines low end for a 70 kg (154 lb) adult is 28 g, which is my arithmetic. How much protein you should eat a day shows where that low end comes from. Here’s what 30 g costs in each food, using the same prices.

For your own daily target, the protein calculator takes your height and weight and uses the same 1.2–1.6 g per kg range.

Food	Weight for 30 g of protein	Cost in US dollars
Dry beans	140 g	0.50
Dry spaghetti	230 g	0.70
Eggs	242 g (4.8 eggs)	0.91
Whole milk	915 g	0.99
Dry white rice	421 g	1.03
Chicken breast, raw	133 g	1.23
Pork chop, raw	142 g	1.42
Cheddar cheese	129 g	1.70

Weights are raw or dry, the way the records list them. Spaghetti needs 230 g dry for 30 g of protein, which is a big bowl once cooked. Beans need 140 g dry. Cheddar and chicken need the least food, 129 g and 133 g, and they cost 1.70 and 1.23 dollars. Beans and spaghetti cost less but fill a big bowl, and on a night I don’t want to cook that much I pay for the compact chicken.

What are four cheap high protein meals?

Each is one serving. All four clear the 28 g line. Prices are the table’s, scaled to the meal. Potatoes use the Bureau’s white potato series, 0.976 dollars a pound in August 2026. Vegetables, oil, spices and salt aren’t priced, so add what you use.

Chicken and rice

Ingredient (state)	Weight	Protein	Energy	Cost in US dollars
Chicken breast, boneless, skinless, raw	150 g	33.8 g	168 kcal	1.38
Rice, white, long-grain, raw, enriched	75 g	5.3 g	274 kcal	0.18
Total	225 g	39.1 g	442 kcal	1.56

That’s 39.1 g of protein for 1.56 dollars, and the chicken is 1.38 of it.

Bean and egg bowl

Ingredient (state)	Weight	Protein	Energy	Cost in US dollars
Pinto beans, dry	80 g	17.1 g	278 kcal	0.29
Eggs, whole, large	100.6 g (2 eggs)	12.5 g	148 kcal	0.38
Total	180.6 g	29.6 g	426 kcal	0.67

Cook the beans from dry. Fry or poach the eggs on top. It comes to 29.6 g of protein for 0.67 dollars, the cheapest meal here. Beans bring fiber too, which high protein high fiber meals counts next to the protein, and a slow cooker will cook them while you’re out: high protein crockpot meals has four pots.

Spaghetti with beans and cheddar

Ingredient (state)	Weight	Protein	Energy	Cost in US dollars
Pasta, dry, enriched	85 g	11.1 g	315 kcal	0.26
Pinto beans, dry	60 g	12.9 g	208 kcal	0.22
Cheddar cheese	30 g	7.0 g	122 kcal	0.40
Total	175 g	31.0 g	645 kcal	0.88

The 30 g of cheese costs 0.40 dollars, more than the pasta (0.26) or the beans (0.22). It brings 7.0 g of protein. This meal has the most energy of the four, at 645 kcal, and the least protein per 100 kcal, at 4.8 g.

Pork chop and potatoes

Ingredient (state)	Weight	Protein	Energy	Cost in US dollars
Pork chop, boneless, center loin, raw	170 g (1 chop)	35.9 g	342 kcal	1.70
Potatoes, white, raw	300 g	5.0 g	207 kcal	0.65
Total	470 g	40.9 g	549 kcal	2.35

Most protein, highest price: 40.9 g for 2.35 dollars. Potatoes add bulk, not much protein. At 12.81 dollars per 100 g of protein, they are a side dish.

How do I price protein for my own groceries?

Use the same sum with your receipt. Take the price of the pack, divide by the pack weight in grams, and divide again by the protein share of the food. The share is the label’s protein grams per 100 g, written as a decimal. Multiply the result by 100 and you have the cost of 100 g of protein.

An egg shows how it works. The dozen cost 2.27 dollars in August 2026 and holds 74.8 g of protein, which is 0.030 dollars a gram, or 3.04 for 100 g. Do it once for the five foods you buy most. Then you know which row of your shop is expensive.

Prices move by store, city and week, and sale prices beat any average. These are US numbers. In the UK, Canada and Australia the sum works the same way with local prices, but I haven’t priced those markets here. The Bureau’s canned tuna series ended in September 2017 and its peanut butter series in December 2017, so check your own receipt for those.

What do cheap meals not tell you?

Anything about the rest of your day. A price table is blind to fiber, vegetables and how full you feel, so I rotate the rows across the week instead of living on the cheapest one.

These prices and the 28 g line suit healthy adults. With kidney disease, during pregnancy or breastfeeding, or under 18, a doctor should set the protein figure before you shop around it.

I save the bean and egg bowl in Calsa as a recipe built from the grams I weighed, so next week I pick it from my own recipes.