Across the seven dried beans and pulses we measured, protein runs from 20.47 to 24.63 grams per 100 grams and fiber runs from 10.7 to 22.2 grams. Brown lentils take protein. Green split peas take fiber, by a distance nobody expects.
The canned rows in that table look weak. They aren’t. They’re carrying water, and I’ll come back to why that comparison misleads people.
| Bean or pulse | Form | Protein / 100 g | Fiber / 100 g | Price | Protein per $1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown lentils | Dry | 24.63 g | 10.7 g | $1.44 / 16 oz | 77.7 g |
| Red lentils | Dry | 23.91 g | 10.8 g | $1.94 / 16 oz | 56.0 g |
| Green split peas | Dry | 23.12 g | 22.2 g | $1.42 / 16 oz | 73.9 g |
| Navy beans | Dry | 22.33 g | 15.3 g | $2.67 / 2 lb | 75.9 g |
| Black beans | Dry | 21.60 g | 15.5 g | $2.42 / 2 lb | 81.0 g |
| Pinto beans | Dry | 21.42 g | 15.5 g | $3.97 / 4 lb | 97.9 g |
| Chickpeas | Dry | 20.47 g | 12.2 g | $1.64 / 16 oz | 56.7 g |
| Black beans | Canned | 6.03 g | 5.6 g | $0.88 / can | 30.1 g |
| Kidney beans | Canned | 5.22 g | 4.3 g | $0.98 / can | 23.4 g |
| Chickpeas | Canned | 4.92 g | 4.8 g | $0.98 / can | 22.0 g |
Source: USDA FoodData Central + US store prices, July 2026. Full methodology at /methodology/.
What is the nutritional value of beans?
Dense, cheap, and more uniform than the marketing suggests. Every dry bean in that table sits between 20 and 25 grams of protein per 100 grams. Whatever a bag costs, whatever the packaging says about heirloom varieties, the protein column barely moves.
Fiber is where the spread opens up. Green split peas carry 22.2 grams per 100 grams, roughly double the 10.7 in brown lentils. That’s about 79 percent of the FDA’s 28 gram fiber Daily Value from 100 grams of dry weight, which is a lot of work from a $1.42 bag.
So the practical read is this: pick your bean on fiber, price, and what you want to cook, because protein per 100 grams is close to a wash.
Which beans have the most protein?
It depends whether you’re asking about density or money, and the two give different answers.
By density, brown lentils lead at 24.63 grams per 100 grams, with red lentils and split peas right behind. By dollar, pinto beans lead everything at 97.9 grams per dollar, which is the top figure in our entire 49 food protein per dollar ranking. Pinto beans aren’t the densest bean. They come in a 4 pound bag for $3.97, and that’s what wins.
That’s the pattern across most of our work. Package size and shelf price move the per dollar number far more than nutrient content does. The full plant side of that is in the cheapest plant proteins ranked.
Which beans have the most fiber?
Green split peas, at 22.2 grams per 100 grams, and they’re the cheapest bag on the shelf on top of it. They returned 71.0 grams of fiber per dollar, second only to whole wheat flour across all 53 foods in our fiber per dollar ranking.
Pinto and black beans tie at 15.5 grams per 100 grams. Navy beans sit at 15.3. Lentils are the surprise on the low end at 10.7 and 10.8, which is roughly half the split pea figure despite living in the same aisle and looking like cousins.
Beans that lead on both metrics at once are rare, and we pulled that apart in beans win twice. If you’re new to eating this much fiber, note that a fast increase is uncomfortable for most people and a slow ramp works better.
Why the canned rows look so low
Water. That’s the whole answer.
A dry bean has had its moisture removed. A canned bean has been soaked, cooked, and sealed in liquid, and our canned figures use the full 439 gram net weight of the can including that liquid. Comparing them per 100 grams is like comparing raisins to grapes and deciding grapes are a scam.
Per dollar the gap is real but much smaller, and it’s the number worth using: 30.1 grams of protein per dollar for canned black beans against 81.0 for the same bean dry. We laid the whole comparison out in canned beans versus dried beans nutrition, including why we refuse to publish a dry to can conversion.
What we cannot tell you about beans
Two things, and I’d rather say them here than have you assume otherwise.
We hold no calorie data. Not one of our 22 datasets has a calorie column, so any calorie figure you see attributed to us would be made up. USDA FoodData Central publishes them and that’s where I’d look.
We also hold no vitamin or mineral data. No iron, no folate, no potassium. Beans are widely reported to carry those, and I’m not going to repeat numbers I haven’t audited. What we did is join USDA protein and fiber values to dated US retail prices, which is the piece almost nobody else publishes, and the Daily Value context for the two we do hold is in fiber and protein daily values explained.
Which bean should you actually buy?
Pinto beans if you want the best protein per dollar in the store. Green split peas if you want fiber and the least demanding pot in the aisle. Black beans if you want the most useful all rounder, dry at $2.42 or canned at $0.88 when the stove isn’t happening.
If it’s between lentils, the difference is mostly price and texture, and we sorted that out in which lentils are the best. If it’s between cooking dry or opening a can, canned beans need heating rather than cooking, which changes the calculation on a Tuesday.
Ten beans, and the honest summary is that the differences between them matter less than whether they’re in your cupboard at all. The wider version of that argument is our guide to eating more fiber on a budget.
