How Much Protein Does Tofu Have? Firm, Silken and Extra-Firm

How much protein does tofu have? Raw firm tofu has about 17.3 g of protein per 100 g, according to the USDA record for raw firm tofu. That is 21.8 g in a half cup (126 g). Silken tofu has far less, near 7 g per 100 g, because it is mostly water. The word “firm” on the front of a pack says little, so look for the protein line on the label.

How much protein does tofu have per 100 g?

Between 6.9 g and 18.8 g, depending on the type. I pulled nine tofu records from USDA FoodData Central and put them side by side, one link per row. Portions are the ones each record lists.

Tofu record	Protein per 100 g	Energy per 100 g	Water per 100 g	Record portion	Protein in portion
Firm, raw, calcium sulfate	17.3 g	144 kcal	69.8 g	126 g (half cup)	21.8 g
Hard, nigari	12.7 g	145 kcal	71.1 g	122 g (quarter block)	15.5 g
Extra firm, nigari	10.0 g	83 kcal	82.3 g	91 g (0.2 block)	9.1 g
Firm, calcium sulfate and nigari	9.0 g	78 kcal	82.9 g	126 g (half cup)	11.4 g
Regular, raw, calcium sulfate	8.1 g	76 kcal	84.6 g	124 g (half cup)	10.0 g
Soft, calcium sulfate and nigari	7.2 g	61 kcal	87.3 g	120 g (1 piece)	8.6 g
Silken extra firm, Mori-Nu	7.4 g	55 kcal	88.1 g	84 g (1 slice)	6.2 g
Silken firm, Mori-Nu	6.9 g	62 kcal	87.4 g	84 g (1 slice)	5.8 g
Fried	18.8 g	270 kcal	50.5 g	28 g (1 oz)	5.3 g

The last column is protein per 100 g times the portion weight: 17.27 g × 1.26 = 21.8 g for the first row. Nigari isn’t a brand. In the record titles it means magnesium chloride, one of two coagulants named there, and the other is calcium sulfate.

Why does “firm” tofu range from 9 g to 17 g of protein?

Water explains the gap. The raw firm record holds 69.8 g of water per 100 g. The firm record made with calcium sulfate and nigari holds 82.9 g, and its protein is 9.0 g. Take the water out and the gap closes: protein is 57% of the non-water weight in the first and 53% in the second. I ran the same sum for the eight unfried records. Seven land between 52% and 62%. The hard tofu is the exception at 44%, and it also carries 10.0 g of fat per 100 g.

A block labeled “extra firm” can hold less protein than a “firm” one. The USDA table shows it: extra firm made with nigari has 10.0 g per 100 g, and raw firm has 17.3 g. The gap is 7.3 g.

Why the water differs I can only guess. Pressing and coagulant are the obvious suspects, but the records don’t say. They do give a measured number for each product, and that’s the number to use.

Your pack beats any table. Check its label. Say a pack lists 9 g of protein per 85 g serving. Divide 9 by 85, multiply by 100, and you get 10.6 g per 100 g, about the same as the regular and extra firm rows.

How much tofu do I need for 20 g of protein?

About 116 g of raw firm tofu, or roughly 4 oz. That is 20 g divided by 17.27 g per 100 g, and the table below runs the same division for every record. Silken firm takes 290 g to reach the same 20 g, nearly three times as much.

Tofu record	Grams for 20 g of protein	Energy for that amount	Protein per 100 kcal
Fried	106 g	287 kcal	7.0 g
Firm, raw, calcium sulfate	116 g	167 kcal	12.0 g
Hard, nigari	158 g	229 kcal	8.7 g
Extra firm, nigari	200 g	166 kcal	12.0 g
Firm, calcium sulfate and nigari	221 g	173 kcal	11.6 g
Regular, raw, calcium sulfate	248 g	188 kcal	10.6 g
Silken extra firm, Mori-Nu	270 g	149 kcal	13.5 g
Soft, calcium sulfate and nigari	279 g	170 kcal	11.8 g
Silken firm, Mori-Nu	290 g	180 kcal	11.1 g

Per calorie, silken extra firm (13.5 g per 100 kcal) beats raw firm (12.0 g), because it is so watery that little else is in it. Per bite it loses: 270 g against 116 g. If you’re weighing tofu against tempeh, edamame and lentils, high protein vegan foods lines them up per serving and per 100 kcal.

Other foods need different amounts. Braised chicken breast takes 62 g for 20 g of protein (103 kcal), and plain nonfat Greek yogurt 194 g (118 kcal). Large eggs need 161 g, a little over three eggs (237 kcal), and boiled lentils need 222 g (257 kcal). On protein per calorie, tofu sits well below chicken and well above lentils. The high protein vegetarian foods table runs the same sum for eggs, dairy and beans, if you want tofu next to all of them.

For scale, the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans set 1.2–1.6 g of protein per kg of body weight a day. A 70 kg (154 lb) adult would need 84–112 g a day on that range. Twenty grams from tofu covers a bit under a quarter of the low end, so plan a second source for the rest of the day. To get a target for your own weight, use the macro calculator. Its protein choices are 1.2, 1.4 and 1.6 g per kg, all inside the same range.

Is tofu a complete protein?

Tofu is made from soy, and soy protein scores well. The Dietary Guidelines list soy among the plant protein foods and name tofu with beans, lentils and tempeh as protein-rich foods for vegetarian diets. A 2025 review in The Journal of Nutrition reports a digestible indispensable amino acid score of 100% or higher for soy protein isolate. Whey isolate scores 94–100%.

That score is for the isolate, a powder made from soy, and the review gives none for a block of tofu. I’d call tofu a strong plant protein. “Complete” claims more than that evidence supports. For tofu on a plate, high protein vegan meals weighs out five.

One limit comes before any number: soybeans are one of the nine major food allergens listed by the FDA. A soy allergy rules tofu out. If you have kidney disease, check a tofu-heavy plan with your doctor, who sets the protein target.

Does frying or pressing change the protein in tofu?

Frying concentrates the protein and the calories alike. The fried record has 18.8 g of protein per 100 g, against 17.3 g raw. Frying drives out water, leaving 50.5 g per 100 g, down from 69.8 g, and the oil adds 20.2 g of fat and 270 kcal, which is why its protein per 100 kcal is only 7.0 g against 12.0 g raw. The Dietary Guidelines say to swap deep-fried cooking methods for baked, broiled, roasted, stir-fried or grilled ones.

Pressing works the same way on a small scale. Say a 100 g block loses 10 g of water. The 17.3 g of protein stays put, so it now sits in 90 g: 19.2 g per 100 g. This is arithmetic on paper. I found no USDA record for pressed tofu, and the pressing liquid may carry a little protein too.

Simplest is to weigh the block before pressing and log it against the raw record, so you never guess what the squeeze did.

What should I do with the tofu in my fridge?

If it is going into dinner, high protein vegetarian meals has a plate built on 200 g of firm tofu.

I log tofu by brand now. The USDA records above sit too far apart to trust a generic entry, and a 9 g tofu and a 17 g tofu shouldn’t share one name in your diary. Find the protein per 100 g on the pack in your fridge and write it next to the brand.

Calsa can read that nutrition label from a photo when a tofu’s barcode matches nothing, so the brand’s own protein line goes into the entry.