We earn commission on purchases made through our links. It never affects ranking: tables are ordered purely by price per dose, and no retailer or brand can pay for position.We earn commission when you buy through our links. It never affects the ranking. Full disclosure.

perdose
Updated

Home › Sports & performance

Protein powder

Also called protein, whey, whey protein and 13 more

casein, micellar casein, beef protein, egg protein, egg white protein, soy protein, pea protein, rice protein, hemp protein, vegan protein, plant protein, protein isolate, protein concentrate.

The best price per 25 g protein and per month, form by form, across 9 UK retailers, and where to buy it cheapest. A unit for comparing, not advice.

Comparing protein powder

We count the protein a label states per serving, whatever the pack size or the serving size, so every product sits on one scale. Protein powder comes as whey concentrate, whey isolate, whey hydrolysate, whey blend, milk protein, casein, beef protein, egg white protein, soy protein, pea protein, rice protein and vegan protein blend, and each form has its own table, because someone buying one would not usually take another as a like-for-like substitute. Products that combine protein powder with other ingredients are listed separately, because their price buys more than protein. 25 g is our unit for comparing prices, not a dose to take: the label’s directions and a pharmacist decide that.

All protein powders

Filter
Type
Flavour
Brand
Retailer
How much is protein

A whey isolate is usually 85–90 g per 100 g; a concentrate nearer 70; a meal replacement far less.

Tub size
Why this order: what it costs to match a whey serving

Protein is built from about twenty amino acids. Nine of them are essential: the body cannot make them, so they have to come from what you eat. Protein sources carry very different amounts of those nine, and a price per gram of protein cannot see the difference.

25 g of whey protein carries 10.9 g of essential amino acids. The same 25 g of pea protein carries 7.4 g, rice 7.0 g and hemp 5.7 g. So two tubs can both say "25 g of protein" on the scoop and deliver quite different amounts of the nine.

The yardstick is one whey serving. For every powder we work out how much of its protein it takes to get the 10.9 g of essential amino acids in a 25 g whey serving, and what that costs. That is the first price on every row, and the order the list is in. A whey row reads the same as its price per 25 g, because whey is the yardstick; every other source shows what it really costs to match one.

Scoops to match whey counts the tub's own scoops. A pea powder with 20 g of protein a scoop needs 1.8 of them to match one whey serving. A whey powder with 18 g a scoop needs 1.4: its scoop is smaller, but its protein is the same.

What it takes to match one 25 g whey serving
ProteinEssential amino acids in 25 gProtein to matchMatched on leucine alone
Whey (concentrate, isolate, hydrolysate, blend)10.9 g25 g25 g
Milk protein9.7 g28 g31 g
Casein8.5 g32 g34 g
Egg white protein8.0 g34 g39 g
Pea protein7.4 g37 g38 g
Rice protein7.0 g39 g37 g
Soy protein6.8 g40 g40 g
Hemp protein5.7 g48 g54 g

Why not leucine alone? This page used to price leucine, the one amino acid tubs most often advertise. It is one of the nine, and for pea, rice and soy the two measures tell almost the same story. But leucine alone put hemp, egg, milk and casein further behind whey than their full set of essential amino acids does, as the last column shows, so the whole set is the fairer yardstick.

Why a cheap plant powder can still sit near the top. When a pea or rice powder ranks close to whey, it is not because its protein is richer: matching a whey serving takes about half as much protein again. It is because it costs so much less per gram that it stays close even after paying for the extra.

What it does not cover. These figures measure what is in the powder, not how much of it the body absorbs, which also differs between sources; we have not found a published measure of that for adults that we would trust to price on. The study measured eight of the nine essential amino acids (tryptophan was not measured), so tryptophan is left out for every source alike. Each figure is an average for the source, measured on commercially sold powders rather than on this tub, so a small gap between two powders means little. Beef protein is not in the study, and a blend's mix cannot be known from its label, so both show a dash and come after everything that has a figure.

Where the numbers come from. Laboratory measurements of commercially sold protein powders: Gorissen and colleagues, Amino Acids 2018 (read the study (opens in a new tab)). We hold one figure per source and multiply it by the protein in each serving. It is one number among several: price per 25 g of protein, protein per 100 g and price per kilo are all still on every row.

Ranked by what it costs to match the essential amino acids in one 25 g whey serving (why, above the list). Beef protein and mixed plant blends have no published figure, so they follow the rest, cheapest per 25 g of protein first. Blends and meal replacements are priced on their protein alone, so a tub that is half oats looks dear here and may still be what you want.

Not here yet: protein per calorie. No retailer feed publishes the energy in a serving, so we cannot work it out without inventing it. Protein per 100 g answers most of the same question.

By shop

Each shop's protein powder products, with where its cheapest sits in the market.

How we work out these prices

Questions

Where can I buy protein powder cheapest in the UK?

On 20 October 2026, the cheapest protein powder per dose from a UK seller was 100% Protein - Banana Smooth at Protein Works (59p per 25 g protein, £17.62 a month). Then Whey Protein 360 at Protein Works (68p per 25 g protein, £20.30 a month) and Whey Protein 360 at Protein Works (68p per 25 g protein, £20.30 a month). That is by price per 25 g protein, across 8 UK retailers and 160 products, with every price checked daily; the table above shows the working for each.

What is the best price per 25 g protein of protein powder today?

59p per 25 g protein, for 100% Protein - Banana Smooth at Protein Works (59p per 25 g protein, £17.62 a month), on 20 October 2026. The dearest of the 160 products we price is £3.98 per 25 g protein, and the middle one is £1.25.

How much does protein powder cost per month?

At one 25 g dose a day, the cheapest works out at £17.62 a month, for 100% Protein - Banana Smooth at Protein Works, on 20 October 2026. Across the 160 products we price it runs from £17.62 to £119.31 a month. A month is 30 days, and the figure follows the dose you enter in the table.

Which protein powder form is cheapest per dose?

On 20 October 2026: pea protein from 41p per 25 g protein (Protein Works), soy protein from 42p per 25 g protein (Myprotein), rice protein from 50p per 25 g protein (Bulk), vegan protein blend from 58p per 25 g protein (Protein Works), whey concentrate from 59p per 25 g protein (Protein Works), whey blend from 74p per 25 g protein (Myprotein), beef protein from 80p per 25 g protein (Myprotein), whey isolate from 83p per 25 g protein (Myprotein), casein from 91p per 25 g protein (Myprotein), egg white protein from 93p per 25 g protein (Myprotein) and whey hydrolysate from £1.76 per 25 g protein (Myprotein). The forms differ in what they contain, so this is a fact about price and not a recommendation of one over another.

How long does a pack of protein powder last?

At one 25 g dose a day, the packs we price last from 8 days to 5 months; the middle one lasts 26 days. Each row says how long its pack lasts at the dose you enter.

What does “per 25 g protein” mean?

It is the unit we use to put every product on the same scale: the price of 25 g of protein, whatever the pack size or serving size. It is a comparison unit, not a recommendation of how much to take. Use the “Your daily dose” box to see costs at the amount you actually take.

Why are the protein powder forms in separate tables?

We only rank products against others of the same form, because someone buying one form would not usually see another as a like-for-like substitute on price. Forms we compare separately: Whey concentrate; Whey isolate; Whey hydrolysate; Whey blend; Milk protein; Casein; Beef protein; Egg white protein; Soy protein; Pea protein; Rice protein; Vegan protein blend.

Why is a product I have seen in the shops missing?

If a retailer’s listing does not let us confirm the amount per serving, the pack size or the form, we do not guess and we do not show the product. It appears once its label has been read and confirmed.

How up to date are the prices?

Prices on this page were last checked on 20 October 2026. Every table shows the date its prices were checked. Always confirm the price on the retailer’s site before buying.

Do retailers pay to appear higher?

No. We earn a commission when you buy through our links, but the order is set only by price per dose. No retailer or brand can pay for position.