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Various Retailers / Brands: Protein Powder Per-Gram of Protein Cost Analysis

from $0.02/gram
(May Vary By Location)
+133 Deal Score
56,313 Views
Note: While some items listed may not be on sale currently, we are promoting these offers on the Frontpage due to strong feedback from and excellent contributions made by the community, who view this as a way to compare products and save money on a more consistent basis between stronger sales.

Various Retailers have select Protein Powders starting at 1.88 Cents per Gram of Protein. Pricing may be subject to change as determined by the manufacturer and/or retailer.

Thanks to WolfTheCat and all other community members involved in contributing to and evaluating this list.
  • Pricing and availability may vary in-store vs. online (where applicable) and/or by region.
  • A higher or lower cost-per-gram-of-protein may not be indicative of quality.
Cost Per Gram of Protein Analysis (lowest to highest):
  • Visit the main forum post here and consider bookmarking this page to check back for any potential future updates/additions.
  • Amazon: 5-lbs. Dymatize Elite 100% Whey Protein Powder $46.18 w/ $7.01 + 15% clipped coupons + Subscribe & Save
    • 2.88 cents/gram of protein
      • 10.8% of Protein is Leucine
      • 69.4% of mass is Protein
      • 71.4% of calories are Protein
    • Free shipping w/ Prime or on $35+ orders
    • You may cancel your subscription any time after your order ships.
Featured Comment:
  • WolfTheCat:"The primary metric here is cost per gram of protein, because I figure that is what you want in protein powder. I also list:
    • The type of protein (Whey, soy, etc...). If it is a blend, I include the first two main components in order. For example Isolate > Concentrate means the blend is primarily isolate and has some concentrate.
    • The size of the container, in pounds. Some people don't want 15lb containers.
    • The percent of protein that is Leucine, considered the most important BCAA and a metric of a quality amino acid profile.
    • The percent of product mass that is protein. More mass-dense proteins have fewer ingredients that you may not want, such as inert ingredients, moisture, fat, and carbs (or, in some cases, heavy metals...).
    • The percent of calories that is protein. This is important for folks avoiding fat and/or carbs."
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Original Post

Written by
Edited March 13, 2024 at 05:18 PM by
*** Edited with more products, and new notes in red at the bottom***
* Products with an Amazon link assume a full 5-product S&S discount for calculations. If you aren't getting the full discount, check out this post.


This post isn't about a single deal, but more a comparison of recent SlickDeals and options from Costco, Amazon, MyProtein, and Aldi that compare well. I added Muscle Milk to have a main URL, and it's competitive, but it doesn't conclusively "win" the comparison - you should look at the other options.

(*)MyProtein has constantly revolving sales and coupons that I can't keep up with. You can usually find a 50% off coupon if you search for one online, so I based the calculations assuming you have one, but YMMV.

Notes:
The primary metric here is cost per gram of protein, because I figure that is what you want in protein powder. I also list:
  • The type of protein (Whey, soy, etc...). If it is a blend, I include the first two main components in order. For example Isolate > Concentrate means the blend is primarily isolate and has some concentrate.
  • The size of the container, in pounds. Some people don't want 15lb containers.
  • The percent of protein that is Leucine, considered the most important BCAA and a metric of a quality amino acid profile.
  • The percent of product mass that is protein. More mass-dense proteins have fewer ingredients that you may not want, such as inert ingredients, moisture, fat, and carbs (or, in some cases, heavy metals...).
  • The percent of calories that is protein. This is important for folks avoiding fat and/or carbs.

Stuff I don't consider, but you are free to debate in the comments:
  • Vegan, Non-GMO, Kosher, types of flavorings/sweeteners.
  • Whether the supplier is honest. The supplement industry is unregulated, and I am only comparing what they claim. That may or may not match what is actually in the product, and I have no way of knowing if they tell the truth or not.
  • Serving/scoop size because it is an irrelevant metric. This is normalized by giving a price per gram protein. You can adjust your servings to have as much or little protein as you want.
  • Extra ingredients (wanted or unwanted).
New Notes:
  • If you want another product considered, add a comment and add a deal so I have a link and discounted price for calculations.
  • If the link is to SlickDeals, I use the deal price for calculation.
  • I will add and remove products, and will post a comment when I do so. If you want to stay current, subscribe to this post.
Add Comment
Created 03-12-2024 at 03:36 PM by WolfTheCat
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Deal
Score
+133
56,313 Views
from $0.02/gram

Price Intelligence

Model: Muscle Milk 100% Whey Protein Powder, Chocolate, 5 Pound, 66 Servings, 25g Protein, 2g Sugar, Low in Fat, NSF Certified for Sport, Energizing Snack, Workout Recovery, Packaging May Vary

Deal History 

Sort: Most Recent
Post Date Sold By Sale Price Activity
10/04/23Amazon$34.50
10
09/14/23Amazon$28.95
11
04/17/23Amazon$34.47
3
12/10/22Amazon$29 frontpage
115
11/17/22Amazon$40 frontpage
57
03/17/22Amazon$35 frontpage
22
Show More

Current Prices

Sort: Lowest to Highest | Last Updated 5/2/2024, 10:24 PM
Sold By Sale Price
Amazon$85.99

Community Wiki

Last Edited by WolfTheCat April 4, 2024 at 07:10 AM
*** Moved to Wiki - I will try to keep this current-ish.
- Anyone can add/remove products now, but I may whomp changes when I re-copy from my spreadsheet

* Products with an Amazon link assume a full 5-product S&S discount for calculations. If you aren't getting the full discount, check out this post.
* Products with a SlickDeals link use the price shown in the deal.

[b](*)MyProtein has constantly revolving sales and coupons won't be able to keep up with. You can usually find a 50% off coupon if you search for one online, so I based the calculations assuming you have one, but YMMV.

Stuff I don't consider, but you are free to debate in the comments:
  • Vegan, Non-GMO, Kosher, types of flavorings/sweeteners.
  • Whether the supplier is honest. The supplement industry is unregulated, and I am only comparing what they claim. That may or may not match what is actually in the product, and I have no way of knowing if they tell the truth or not.
  • Serving/scoop size because it is an irrelevant metric. This is normalized by giving a price per gram protein. You can adjust your servings to have as much or little protein as you want.
  • Extra ingredients (wanted or unwanted).
  • If you want another product considered, add a comment and add a deal so I have a link and discounted price for calculations.
  • I will add and remove products, and will post a comment when I do so. If you want to stay current, subscribe to this post.

Your comment cannot be blank.

Featured Comments

More accurate information and additional products available in this post's wiki.

Slickdeals Frontpaged this deal, which takes away my ability to edit the main post.

They also removed several of the products in the comparison and altered some of the pricing in ways that no longer make sense (for example, they changed a 50% my protein coupon to a 35% coupon, but didn't change the per-gram price, making the math wrong).

I have put the original post in the wiki, where I (or anyone else) can edit it.
More accurate information and additional products available in this post's wiki.

My favorite, being an obligate carnivore, but didn't include on list because it isn't a protein powder.

Thanksgiving Turkey. An 18lb bird, 59c/lb near thanksgiving, with about 7lb yield after roasting:
- 1.23c per gram of protein
- $10.62 for 7lb of meat
- 53% of calories from protein
- 27.3% of edible mass from protein
- 6.7% of protein is Leucine

I have ten of these in my freezer outside.

It's a sad day in August when you run out of Thanksgiving turkey.
More accurate information and additional products available in this post's wiki.

Cost is not the only important thing. Some powders may have more value to you for various reasons that are not considered in this analysis, such as merchant reputability, additional ingredients like Creatine, how well it dissolves, how good it tastes, GMO, Vegan, Kosher, etc... Feel free to discuss all that here in the comments.

As an example, I think Muscle Milk is competitive. It's not the cheapest in cost/g, but it's a major brand sold at stores, probably more reputable, and is primarily whey isolate, but I am suspicious of it's low percentage protein (in both calories and mass), making me think it has a lot of extra stuff that you may not want/need.

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Kryptonyte
03-31-2024 at 04:08 PM.
03-31-2024 at 04:08 PM.
Quote from kuripot :
I tried the Unflavored Orgain Organic Pea Protein from Costco and it is blech imo. However, my partner thinks its fine. I'll try mixing it into some meals as suggested
I question your partners tongue. Good luck, try chili. Always mix in at the end as sometimes things have reactions to heat.
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WolfTheCat
04-02-2024 at 07:33 AM.
04-02-2024 at 07:33 AM.
Quote from kuripot :
I tried the Unflavored Orgain Organic Pea Protein from Costco and it is blech imo. However, my partner thinks its fine. I'll try mixing it into some meals as suggested
I've analyzed several Orgain deals. They all provided terrible value in terms of cost per gram of protein.

If you buy it, do so for a different reason - maybe you like their extra ingredients or love the taste or something...
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hyperphoenix19
04-02-2024 at 06:00 PM.
04-02-2024 at 06:00 PM.
This Naked Pea protein seems like a good deal
Vanilla https://www.amazon.com/LESS-NAKED..._1_4_sspa?
$55.09 for 5lbs (2267.96 grams)
37g scoop = 25g Protein

Unflavored (https://www.amazon.com/Protein-Po...00NBIUGA2?)
$55.09 for 5lbs (2267.96 grams)
30g scoop = 27g Protein
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Last edited by hyperphoenix19 April 2, 2024 at 06:03 PM.
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WolfTheCat
04-04-2024 at 06:25 AM.
04-04-2024 at 06:25 AM.
More accurate information and additional products available in this post's wiki.
Quote from hyperphoenix19 :
This Naked Pea protein seems like a good deal
Vanilla https://www.amazon.com/LESS-NAKED..._1_4_sspa? [amazon.com]
$55.09 for 5lbs (2267.96 grams)
37g scoop = 25g Protein

Unflavored (https://www.amazon.com/Protein-Po...00NBIUGA2? [amazon.com])
$55.09 for 5lbs (2267.96 grams)
30g scoop = 27g Protein
I've added them to the wiki.

Not sure I trust those leucine numbers that they claim. No other vegan protein I've analyzed has 10+% Leucine, and oddly, the unflavored doesn't. It has the same leucine for 27g of protein as the flavored for 25g protein, which makes absolutely no sense at all.

Also be aware that pea protein is not a complete protein, being very low in methionine, an essential amino acid (though not one critical to your gainz). This isn't a problem if you eat meat, but if you are a vegan, you should make sure you eat other things to get methionine, such as rice.
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Last edited by WolfTheCat April 4, 2024 at 06:30 AM.
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WolfTheCat
04-04-2024 at 06:27 AM.
04-04-2024 at 06:27 AM.
More accurate information and additional products available in this post's wiki.
Wiki updated.

A few prices have changed, a few products have been added or removed as their deals had expired and were no longer economical.
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CoolKestrel1061
04-07-2024 at 11:46 PM.
04-07-2024 at 11:46 PM.
Pea protein gives me too much gas.
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SlickPicture556
04-08-2024 at 04:51 AM.
04-08-2024 at 04:51 AM.
How are you getting the 15% off on 5 or more subscribe and save? When I checkout on a new purchase it tells me "Save 5% today; Save up to 15% on future auto-deliveries"

I have more than 5 S&S and they're all set to the same delivery date.

The 15% on future deliveries would be 15% of the price at the current time of fulfillment right?
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JPWR
04-10-2024 at 05:12 PM.
04-10-2024 at 05:12 PM.
Dick's Sporting Goods - Cytosport Muscle Milk Gainer Powder 5 Pounds
- $23
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George_P_Burdell
05-01-2024 at 09:04 PM.
05-01-2024 at 09:04 PM.
If spending money isn't issue who makes the best protein powder over all?
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gxnickb
Yesterday at 10:27 AM.
Yesterday at 10:27 AM.
Hi, lovely thread. Could you provide your thoughts on Spacemilk, which is an interesting myco-protein powder that boasts 18.6% Leucine and very little in the way of additives:

https://spacemilk.com/pages/ingredients
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WolfTheCat
Yesterday at 10:44 AM.
Yesterday at 10:44 AM.
Quote from George_P_Burdell :
If spending money isn't issue who makes the best protein powder over all?
I'm not the guy to ask on that one. Cheapskate is in my blood.

I don't understand cost not being an issue, and I hold a pretty high bar for increasing price. A product has to be pretty convincing for me to think an extra feature or ingredient is worth extra money.
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WolfTheCat
Yesterday at 11:22 AM.
Yesterday at 11:22 AM.
Quote from gxnickb :
Hi, lovely thread. Could you provide your thoughts on Spacemilk, which is an interesting myco-protein powder that boasts 18.6% Leucine and very little in the way of additives:

https://spacemilk.com/pages/ingredients
Ran the math on it. It's an interesting concept - fungus isolate protein is indeed a new class of protein that I've never heard of. It is very expensive though in terms of cost per gram of protein - too expensive for me to want to try it.

At 65-75% protein, their isolate process isn't as refined as whey, pea, or soy which is usually 85% protein or higher. There are significant amounts of other (non-proteins) in there.

9¢/g Protein - Spacemilk Fungus Protein (Yeast Isolate) [spacemilk.com]
  • Price: $44.99 for 1.5 lbs.
  • 8.8% of Protein is Leucine
  • 75.8% of mass is Protein
  • 66.7% of calories are Protein

In the end, it's still protein and amino acids, and you can get gainz from other, much less expensive powders.
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gxnickb
Yesterday at 04:54 PM.
Yesterday at 04:54 PM.
Quote from WolfTheCat :
Ran the math on it. It's an interesting concept - fungus isolate protein is indeed a new class of protein that I've never heard of. It is very expensive though in terms of cost per gram of protein - too expensive for me to want to try it.

At 65-75% protein, their isolate process isn't as refined as whey, pea, or soy which is usually 85% protein or higher. There are significant amounts of other (non-proteins) in there.

9¢/g Protein - Spacemilk Fungus Protein (Yeast Isolate) [spacemilk.com]
  • Price: $44.99 for 1.5 lbs.
  • 8.8% of Protein is Leucine
  • 75.8% of mass is Protein
  • 66.7% of calories are Protein

In the end, it's still protein and amino acids, and you can get gainz from other, much less expensive powders.
Thank you !!
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