A 15.5 ounce can of store brand black beans cost $0.88 in July 2026. Canned kidney beans and canned chickpeas both cost $0.98. That is a shelf price for the store brand at a single retailer, and it is one of the last places in a grocery store where a dollar still buys a real amount of food.
The interesting part is not the price. It’s what the price gets you.
| Canned bean | Price | Net weight | Price per 100 g | Protein per $1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black beans | $0.88 | 15.5 oz (439 g) | $0.20 | 30.1 g |
| Kidney beans | $0.98 | 15.5 oz (439 g) | $0.22 | 23.4 g |
| Chickpeas | $0.98 | 15.5 oz (439 g) | $0.22 | 22.0 g |
Source: USDA FoodData Central + US store prices, July 2026. Full methodology at /methodology/.
How much is a can of beans at the store?
Between 88 cents and a dollar for the store brand, and that is the number worth anchoring on. Name brands ask more. Organic asks more again. Nothing in the extra spend changes the protein figure in the table above, which is why I buy whichever store brand can is stacked at eye level and stop thinking about it.
Be careful comparing this to what you paid two years ago and getting annoyed. Prices move. Ours are a July 2026 snapshot from one retailer, not a national average, and that limit applies to every number on this site. We say how we collect them at /methodology/.
How many ounces are in a can of beans?
15.5 ounces, which is 439 grams net weight including the liquid. That’s the standard American can, though you’ll find 15 ounce and 16 ounce cans on the same shelf depending on the brand.
Every per can figure we publish uses that 439 gram weight, liquid included. Drain and rinse and you eat less than the full number, since some of the weight goes down the sink. Treating our figures as the ceiling rather than the plate is the honest way to read them.
For what it’s worth, the drained yield question comes up constantly and we don’t hold data on it. We priced and measured cans and bags as sold. If you need an exact drained weight, the can’s own label is a better source than we are.
Is a can of beans cheaper than dry beans?
No, and it is not close. Dry black beans returned 81.0 grams of protein per dollar. Canned black beans returned 30.1. That is roughly 2.7 times more protein for the same money if you’re willing to soak and simmer, and the gap held across every bean we checked both ways in canned versus dry beans.
A 2 pound bag of dry black beans cost $2.42. That is not quite three cans of money, and it holds about 196 grams of protein against the 26.5 grams in one can. The math is brutal and it favors the bag every time.
Here’s the thing though. A can at 88 cents is still one of the cheapest sources of protein in the entire building. It only looks expensive because it’s parked next to the single best value in the store. Both things are true, and I keep both in the house.
What does a can of beans actually get you?
About 26.5 grams of protein and 24.6 grams of fiber from the black beans, which is roughly 53 percent of the FDA’s 50 gram protein Daily Value and 88 percent of the 28 gram fiber Daily Value. From one can. For 88 cents.
That fiber number is the one nobody expects, and it puts canned black beans ahead of every fresh fruit and vegetable we priced in the fiber per dollar ranking. If you’re currently nowhere near 28 grams a day, a whole can at once is a jump your gut may notice, so build up gradually.
We broke the per can gram totals down properly in how much protein is in a can of beans, and the wider per 100 gram picture across ten beans is in the nutritional value of beans.
Which can is the best value?
Black beans, on every measure we have. Cheapest can, most protein per dollar at 30.1 grams, most fiber per dollar at 27.9 grams. That’s a clean sweep, and it happens to be the most useful bean in a home kitchen anyway.
Kidney beans and chickpeas both landed at $0.98 with slightly lower returns, 23.4 and 22.0 grams of protein per dollar. The gap is real but it’s small enough that you should buy the bean your recipe wants. Chickpeas become hummus and roasted chickpea snacks. Kidney beans are chili beans, which is why they show up in three bean chili. Black beans go into everything else.
Three cans is what we audited and three cans is what we’ll claim. Canned cannellini, canned pinto, canned navy: we didn’t price them, so we don’t know.
If you want to know whether the can even needs heating before you eat it, that’s a separate question with a short answer. And the wider map of where beans sit against meat, dairy, and everything else lives in our high protein on a budget guide.
