A dollar of dry pinto beans buys 97.9 grams of protein. A dollar of 80/20 ground beef buys 11.5. Beans win by 8.5x, which is the widest gap in our entire ranking. The honest caveat is that bean protein scores lower on quality than beef protein, so the real gap is closer to 5x. Still not what anyone would call close.
| Pinto beans (dry) | Ground beef (80/20) | |
|---|---|---|
| Protein per $1 | 97.9 g | 11.5 g |
| Protein per 100 g | 21.42 g | 17.17 g |
| Package | 4 lb bag | per lb |
| Price | $3.97 | $6.75 |
| Price per 100 g | $0.22 | $1.49 |
| DIAAS (protein quality) | 0.59 | 1.11 |
| Quality-adjusted protein per $1 | 57.8 g | 11.5 g |
Source: USDA FoodData Central + single-store US prices, July 2026. Full methodology at /methodology/.
Which is actually cheaper per gram of protein?
Beans, and the margin is almost rude. Start with the shelf price, because it tells the story before any nutrition math happens. A 4 pound bag of dry pinto beans costs $3.97. One pound of 80/20 ground beef costs $6.75 at the May 2026 national average. You can buy four pounds of the cheap thing and still have money left over from what one pound of beef would have cost you.
Then the density. Pintos carry 21.42 grams of protein per 100 grams. Ground beef carries 17.17. The beans are ahead there too, which nobody expects. Per 100 grams the beans run about 22 cents and the beef runs about $1.49, roughly seven times the money for less protein. That’s how you get to 8.5x.
Does protein quality close the gap?
Partly, and it’s worth saying out loud instead of hiding it. Beef is a complete protein and scores 1.11 on DIAAS, the scale for how much of a protein your body can actually use. Pinto beans score 0.59, held back by the sulfur amino acids.
Push that through the price and pinto beans land around 57.8 grams of quality-adjusted protein per dollar. Ground beef stays at 11.5, because scores above 1.00 get capped for this math. So the gap goes from 8.5x to about 5x. Beans lose a third of their advantage and are still five times the value. Pair them with a grain and the amino acid issue largely takes care of itself, which is the entire reason rice sits next to beans on so many plates.
Does cooking time change the math?
This is beef’s real argument, and it’s a good one. Ground beef browns in about eight minutes. Dry pintos want an overnight soak and an hour or two on the stove, and if you forget the soak on a Tuesday you’re eating something else.
Two ways around it. Cook a huge pot on Sunday, because dry beans freeze fine and the labor is identical whether you make one pound or four. Or buy the can and accept a smaller win: canned black beans delivered 30.1 grams of protein per dollar at 88 cents a can, still about 2.6 times ground beef. A pot of three-bean chili or a tray of black bean tacos gets dinner done on can time, not soak time.
When is ground beef still the right buy?
When texture is doing a job that beans can’t do. Nothing makes a bean taste like a smashburger, and pretending otherwise is how people end up hating budget cooking. Beef also delivers complete protein in a small, dense package, which matters when appetite runs out before the protein target does. Dry beans triple in volume on the stove, so hitting a big protein number from beans means eating a genuinely big bowl.
The move most families land on isn’t all-or-nothing. Cut the beef by half and let beans fill the pan. Cheap ground beef meals for a big table stretch a lot further with a can of beans in the skillet, and black bean burgers that hold together cover the nights when nobody’s counting anyway. You keep the flavor you’re paying for and quietly stop paying for all of it.
Beef sits near the bottom of the 49 foods we priced, and its leaner sibling is barely different: 93/7 came in at 11.0 grams per dollar at $8.62 a pound. If protein per dollar is the goal, the beans aisle was never a compromise. The full protein per dollar ranking has all 49 foods, and the high protein on a budget guide covers how to actually build a week around them.
