The Nut Aisle Index: 15 Nuts and Seeds Ranked by Protein Per Dollar

Here is the whole index in one place, ordered from the most protein per dollar to the least. Prices are national averages per pound of edible nut or seed, estimated in August 2026 dollars. Protein per ounce describes a typical small handful of about 28 grams.

One detail makes this table different from a shelf-tag comparison. USDA's Economic Research Service prices each food on 100 grams of the food as eaten, and its Purchase to Plate documentation states plainly that the weight does not include shells. In-shell pistachios and ballpark peanuts are converted to the kernel you actually eat before the price is calculated, which is why these figures can be compared fairly with shelled almonds or a bag of hulled pepitas.

Notice, too, how the columns pull against each other. Pumpkin seeds sit sixth on price but first on calories per gram of protein. Walnuts and hazelnuts are cheap per pound yet carry about 42 calories for every gram of protein, because most of what you are paying for is fat. Those trade-offs are the story of the aisle, and each entry below walks through them.

The Priciest Protein in the Aisle, by a Wide Margin

Pine nuts close out the index at about 1.6 grams of protein per dollar. At an estimated $37.94 a pound, a single ounce costs around $2.37, nearly what a full pound of raw peanuts costs. That ounce gives you about 3.9 grams of protein and roughly 191 calories, so each 10 grams of protein works out to a little over $6.

None of that is a knock on the pine nut itself. Its protein content, about 13.7 grams per 100 grams, sits right in the middle of the tree nut pack, ahead of pecans and macadamias. The problem is entirely price. Pine nuts are harvested from pine cones, a slow and labor-heavy process, and the national scanner data reflects that at every step.

If you love their soft, buttery bite in pesto or scattered over roasted vegetables, the math simply suggests treating them as a flavor ingredient rather than a protein source. A tablespoon goes a long way for taste. For protein on a budget, almost anything else in the aisle stretches your dollar further, and some options, like sunflower kernels, bring a similarly mild, toasty flavor for about a quarter of the price per pound.

Rich, Creamy, and Built Mostly of Fat

Macadamias come in second to last at about 1.8 grams of protein per dollar. They are not quite as expensive as pine nuts, at an estimated $20.51 a pound, but they carry the least protein of any nut in the index: about 7.9 grams per 100 grams, or 2.2 grams in an ounce.

That combination puts macadamias at the far end of the calorie guardrail, too. It takes roughly 91 calories of macadamia to deliver a single gram of protein, compared with about 22 for peanuts. That buttery texture you love comes from fat, which makes up about three-quarters of the nut's weight.

One quirk in USDA's data is worth flagging. The general survey record for macadamia nuts is built from the salted, dry-roasted version, so we used USDA's raw macadamia record for the nutrition columns instead. The protein figure barely moves between the two, but the sodium does, which is why the salted column above shows about 100 milligrams per ounce.

If you are curious how macadamias and their neighbors stack up when calories rather than dollars are the yardstick, our broader protein-per-calorie ranking lays that comparison out across 50 foods.

The Best Protein Per Calorie: 50 Foods Ranked

A Pie Favorite With a Thin Protein Return

Pecans rank 13th at about 3.0 grams of protein per dollar. Their price per pound, around $14.03 raw, is actually lower than pistachios or cashews. What holds them back is protein content: about 9.2 grams per 100 grams, just 2.6 grams in an ounce.

That low protein also sends pecans to the bottom of the calorie guardrail among everyday nuts. Every gram of pecan protein comes with about 75 calories, more than three times the ratio for peanuts. If you are reaching for pecans because you enjoy their sweet, maple-like crunch, that is a perfectly good reason. If protein is the goal, they are one of the least efficient ways to get it.

Pecans also buck a pattern you will see elsewhere in this index. For pistachios, cashews and almonds, the salted version cost less per gram than the plain one in USDA's price data. Pecans go the other way: salted pecans ran about 18 percent more than raw, at roughly $16.60 a pound. Honey-roasted pecans climb to about $17.93 and carry even less protein, dropping to around 1.6 grams per dollar.

We compared pecans head to head with almonds and walnuts across a wider set of nutrients in an earlier piece, if you want the fuller picture.

Almonds vs. Walnuts vs. Pecans: Nutrients Per Dollar, Ranked

A Spice-Jar Price for a Pantry Staple

Sesame seeds are the surprise near the bottom, at about 3.2 grams of protein per dollar. Nutritionally they are solid, with roughly 17.7 grams of protein per 100 grams, similar to chia or flax. The trouble is the price: an estimated $25.06 a pound, the second highest in the index after pine nuts.

The most likely reason is how sesame is sold. In most grocery stores, whole sesame seeds live in small jars in the spice aisle, and small packages almost always carry a steep per-pound markup. USDA's national average blends every package size sold, so that spice-jar premium flows straight into the result.

Here is the twist that makes sesame worth a closer look. Tahini, the smooth paste made from ground sesame, came out at about $8.75 a pound in the same data, and it delivers roughly 8.8 grams of protein per dollar. That is about 2.7 times what whole seeds give you. If you already enjoy tahini in dressings, hummus or drizzled over roasted vegetables, the jar is doing more for your protein budget than the shaker ever could.

Big Nuts, Middling Protein, Premium Price

Brazil nuts rank 11th at about 4.5 grams of protein per dollar. At an estimated $14.58 a pound, they are priced like pistachios and cashews, but they carry less protein than either: about 14.3 grams per 100 grams, or 4.1 grams in an ounce.

On the calorie guardrail, Brazil nuts sit with the fattier tree nuts. It takes about 46 calories to get a gram of protein from them, a ratio topped only by pine nuts, pecans and macadamias in this index. An ounce is only about six large nuts, which is part of why each one feels so rich.

Their rank is one of the softer spots in the index. In USDA's 2015/16 prices, Brazil nuts ranked 7th on this same measure. By 2017/18 they had slipped to 11th as their price rose relative to the rest of the aisle. Mid-table positions like this one can shift as crop years change, while the very top and bottom of the list have held steady across both data cycles.

If you buy Brazil nuts for their own sake, their cost per ounce, about 91 cents, lands them right beside cashews and pistachios. For protein alone, walnuts and hazelnuts deliver noticeably more per dollar at a lower price per pound.

How the Form You Buy Changes Everything

Cashews take 10th place at about 5.8 grams of protein per dollar, priced here in their raw form at an estimated $14.27 a pound. Raw cashews carry about 18.2 grams of protein per 100 grams and a moderate 30 calories per gram of protein.

The more interesting story is what happens when you change the form. In USDA's price data, roasted unsalted cashews cost about $10.66 a pound, roughly 25 percent less than raw. Salted cashews landed almost exactly there too, at about $10.71. That means the plain roasted canister, not the raw bag, is where cashews give you the most protein for your money, at about 6.5 grams per dollar.

The data does not explain why raw cashews cost more, and it would be a guess to say for certain. Raw cashews tend to be sold in smaller specialty bags and natural-foods aisles, while roasted cashews fill the big snack canisters, and pack size is one of the strongest drivers of per-pound price.

Honey-roasted cashews move the other way. They cost more per pound than plain roasted, around $12.77, and the coating dilutes the protein, bringing them down to roughly 3.7 grams per dollar. If you enjoy that sweet crunch, it is a treat worth knowing the cost of. If you are counting protein per dollar, plain roasted is the clear front-runner among cashew options.

The Unsalted Premium Is Real

Pistachios rank 9th at about 6.5 grams of protein per dollar, priced here as roasted and unsalted at about $14.70 a pound of edible kernels. They are among the most protein-dense nuts in the aisle, at about 21 grams per 100 grams, and their calorie guardrail is excellent: about 27 calories per gram of protein, nearly identical to almonds.

Because USDA prices every nut on the edible portion, the shells you crack and toss are already accounted for. That matters with pistachios more than almost any other nut, since a large share of an in-shell pistachio's weight is shell, and a shelf tag per pound tells you very little on its own.

Now for the finding that surprised us most. In the national scanner data, salted pistachios cost about 24 percent less per edible gram than unsalted ones, at roughly $11.24 a pound. Lightly salted pistachios were cheaper still, at about $9.34, which lifts their protein value to nearly 10 grams per dollar. The data does not say why, but the pattern is consistent: the unsalted version is the specialty product, and you pay for it.

That puts anyone keeping an eye on sodium in an interesting spot. Lightly salted pistachios carry about 56 milligrams of sodium per ounce, roughly half the regular salted version, while costing the least of all three. It is a genuine middle path worth knowing about.

A Quiet Bargain on Price, a Fatty Ratio on Calories

Hazelnuts land in 8th place at about 6.6 grams of protein per dollar. Their estimated price of $10.24 a pound makes them one of the more affordable tree nuts, not far from walnuts and almonds, and an ounce costs around 64 cents.

The catch is the protein ratio. Hazelnuts carry about 15 grams of protein per 100 grams, and it takes roughly 42 calories of hazelnut to deliver each gram. That puts them in the same calorie bracket as walnuts: good value on price, less efficient on protein per calorie.

Hazelnuts are also one of the ranking's climbers. In USDA's 2015/16 data they ranked 10th, and by 2017/18 they had moved up to 8th as their price eased relative to the rest of the aisle. That kind of movement is a reminder that the middle of this list is where rankings are most sensitive to crop years and market swings.

If you enjoy hazelnuts toasted and chopped over oatmeal or blended into homemade spreads, they are a reasonable protein buy for the price. USDA did not publish a separate salted hazelnut price, so there is no salted comparison in the table for this one.

Cheap Per Pound, Heavy on Calories Per Gram of Protein

Walnuts rank 7th at about 7.0 grams of protein per dollar, and they are one of the cheapest tree nuts per pound in the index at an estimated $9.91. An ounce costs about 62 cents and carries around 4.3 grams of protein.

Where walnuts fall behind is the calorie guardrail. Like hazelnuts, walnuts deliver about 43 calories for every gram of protein, because most of the nut is fat. That is not a criticism of walnuts as a food, simply a reminder that low price per pound and high protein per calorie are two different things.

One disclosure belongs here. The plain walnut price in USDA's 2017/18 data was calculated by imputation from related foods rather than a direct scanner match, the only item in our main ranking priced that way. We checked it against the earlier 2011/12 data, when walnuts were directly matched at about $1.67 per 100 grams. The 2017/18 figure of about $1.74 is consistent with that, which gives us reasonable confidence in the rank.

Honey-roasted walnuts are the sharpest price jump in the whole aisle. At about $20.24 a pound, they cost more than twice as much as plain walnuts and carry about a third less protein, which cuts protein per dollar to roughly 2.3 grams.

The Protein Champion That Costs More to Buy

Pumpkin seed kernels, often sold as pepitas, are the most protein-dense food in this entire index. At about 29.8 grams of protein per 100 grams, an ounce delivers roughly 8.5 grams, more than peanuts and well ahead of any tree nut. They also lead the calorie guardrail at about 19 calories per gram of protein.

So why only 6th? Price. At an estimated $17.97 a pound, pepitas cost about $1.12 an ounce, which brings them to about 7.5 grams of protein per dollar. They are the clearest example in the aisle of why protein content and protein value are different questions.

A data note: USDA's price file lists salted and unsalted pumpkin seeds at an identical, much lower price that turns out to be borrowed from a general "mixed seeds" entry. We set those aside and used USDA's directly matched pumpkin seed price instead. Nutrition figures come from USDA's record for hulled, roasted kernels without salt, which matches the green pepitas most stores sell. Whole, in-shell pumpkin seeds are a different food with far less protein per gram.

If per-calorie efficiency matters more to you than per-dollar, pepitas are the standout. Our three-way comparison of pumpkin seeds, almonds and walnuts goes deeper on how they differ beyond protein.

Pumpkin Seeds vs. Almonds vs. Walnuts: Protein, Magnesium and Price Per Ounce

The Most Balanced Nut in the Aisle

Almonds rank 5th at about 8.7 grams of protein per dollar, the highest of any tree nut. Raw almonds come in at an estimated $10.98 a pound and carry about 21 grams of protein per 100 grams, so an ounce gives you roughly 6 grams of protein for about 69 cents.

What makes almonds stand out is balance. They do well on price, sit near the top on protein density, and post one of the best calorie ratios in the index at about 27 calories per gram of protein. Few nuts score well on all three at once.

Almonds also show a gentle version of the salted discount. Salted almonds came in at about $10.44 a pound and lightly salted at about $9.79, both a little below raw. Honey-roasted almonds, by contrast, climb to about $13.69 a pound and carry noticeably less protein, which drops their value to about 4.7 grams per dollar.

The jar holds a small surprise too. Almond butter, at about $10.05 a pound, delivered roughly 9.5 grams of protein per dollar in the same data, slightly ahead of raw almonds. Store-bought almond butter often carries some added salt, though, so the label will tell you more if sodium is something you track.

The Most Protein a Tree Nut Price Can't Buy

Sunflower kernels take 4th place at about 9.7 grams of protein per dollar, beating every tree nut in the aisle. At an estimated $9.03 a pound, an ounce costs about 56 cents and delivers about 5.5 grams of protein.

Their calorie guardrail is solid, too, at about 30 calories per gram of protein, and their mild, toasty flavor works almost anywhere a nut would. If you have ever wished almonds were a little cheaper, sunflower kernels offer a similar protein-per-ounce profile for less.

One transparency note: USDA's only directly matched price for plain sunflower kernels is for the salted version, so that is the price we used. Salt adds almost nothing to the cost, but it adds plenty to the sodium, about 131 milligrams per ounce compared with nearly none for unsalted kernels. Our nutrition columns use USDA's unsalted record, so if you buy salted, expect the same protein and a much higher sodium number.

Flavored sunflower seeds, such as ranch or dill pickle, were cheaper still in the data at about $6.11 a pound, but they carry more sodium than any other seed form we compared, about 174 milligrams per ounce.

Small Seeds, Solid Value, and a Data Trap We Had to Fix

Chia seeds rank 3rd at about 10.5 grams of protein per dollar. At an estimated $7.12 a pound, they cost about 45 cents an ounce, and that ounce holds about 4.7 grams of protein. Their calorie guardrail, about 29 calories per gram of protein, puts them alongside flax and almonds.

Here is something most nutrition charts get wrong. In USDA's 2017-2018 survey database, the chia seed entry carries values that are identical, to the decimal, to flaxseed: the same protein, the same calories, the same fiber. It appears the chia record was linked to flax in that release. We used USDA's standalone chia record instead, which lists about 16.5 grams of protein and 486 calories per 100 grams. That correction moves chia's protein down slightly, but it still holds 3rd place comfortably.

Chia also carries more fiber than anything else in this index, about 34 grams per 100 grams. We note it only as context, since fiber is not part of the ranking.

If you already stir chia into overnight oats or yogurt, you are getting one of the best protein-per-dollar deals in the aisle without changing a thing.

The Quiet Runner-Up

Flaxseed takes 2nd place at about 16.9 grams of protein per dollar, well clear of chia and everything below it. At an estimated $4.90 a pound, it is the cheapest item in the index after peanuts, and an ounce costs about 31 cents.

Nutritionally, flax offers about 18.3 grams of protein per 100 grams, or around 5.2 grams per ounce, with a calorie guardrail of about 29 calories per gram of protein. That is right alongside almonds and chia.

Flax is one of the most stable positions in the index. It placed 2nd in every USDA price cycle we checked, back to 2011/12, although the earlier cycles priced fewer of these items. Whatever happened to prices across the rest of the aisle over those years, flax held its spot.

A practical note: most people use flax in smaller amounts than a handful, stirred into cereal, smoothies or baking. The protein-per-dollar math holds whether you use a tablespoon or an ounce, but the protein you actually get depends on how much ends up in your bowl. We priced whole flaxseed; ground flax meal is sold separately and was not part of USDA's price data.

The Undisputed Protein Bargain of the Nut Aisle

Peanuts top the Nut Aisle Index at about 44 grams of protein per dollar, and it is not close. That is roughly 2.6 times flaxseed in 2nd place, five times almonds, and about 27 times pine nuts. Raw peanuts came in at an estimated $2.65 a pound, which means an ounce costs about 17 cents and delivers around 7.3 grams of protein.

Peanuts also do well on the calorie guardrail, second only to pumpkin seeds at about 22 calories per gram of protein. Strictly speaking they are legumes, not tree nuts, but they sit in the nut aisle and USDA prices them alongside nuts, so they belong here.

The lead holds no matter which form you buy. Dry-roasted unsalted peanuts cost about $3.48 a pound and still deliver about 32 grams of protein per dollar, nearly double any other item in the index. Salted dry-roasted peanuts are almost the same price but carry about 116 milligrams of sodium per ounce. Peanut butter lands at about 35 grams of protein per dollar, though most jars add salt.

Peanuts also ranked first in USDA's 2015/16 price data. If you want to see how peanuts compare with protein sources beyond the nut aisle, our broader ranking puts them against eggs, beans, dairy and more.

The Best Protein Per Dollar: 25 Foods Ranked

The ranking above compares one plain form of each nut. But walk the aisle and you will find the same nut sold raw, roasted, salted, lightly salted, honey roasted, blended into mixes and ground into butter. USDA's price data covers many of those forms, and comparing them reveals where the real premiums hide.

Coatings cost you twice. Honey-roasted nuts are more expensive per pound and carry less protein per gram, because sugar and coating take up space the nut used to fill. Across the aisle, honey roasting roughly halves protein per dollar. Walnuts show it most sharply, dropping from about 7.0 grams to 2.3 grams per dollar. Almonds fall from 8.7 to 4.7, and peanuts from about 32 to 22 grams per dollar compared with plain dry-roasted.

Raw and unsalted are often the specialty items. For pistachios, cashews and almonds, the plain or raw version cost more per gram than the salted or roasted version in USDA's scanner data. Raw cashews ran about 34 percent more per pound than roasted unsalted ones, and unsalted pistachios about 31 percent more than salted. Pecans were the exception, where salting added cost.

Butters can beat the bag. The jar is not always a markup. Tahini delivers about 2.7 times the protein per dollar of whole sesame seeds, and almond butter edges out raw almonds. Peanut butter trails raw peanuts but still beats every other item in the index. Cashew butter was the one butter that cost noticeably more per gram of protein than its whole-nut form.

Mixed nuts ride on peanuts. A standard salted mix with peanuts came in at about $7.11 a pound and about 12.5 grams of protein per dollar, more than any single tree nut, because peanuts pull the average price down. Mixes without peanuts cost more and deliver less.

We took a closer look at nut butters, including how added oils change the protein math, in a dedicated ranking.

Nut Butters Ranked: Protein Per Dollar and the Added-Oil Tax

Salt barely changes the protein in a nut, but it changes the sodium a great deal. Using USDA's survey records for the salted version of each food, a salted ounce of almonds, cashews, pecans or pistachios carries roughly 109 to 113 milligrams of sodium, according to the USDA FoodData Central survey food data. Salted sunflower kernels and pumpkin seeds run higher, at about 131 and 135 milligrams per ounce. Unsalted versions of the same foods carry almost none.

"Lightly salted" is a genuine middle ground in the data. Lightly salted almonds and pistachios carry about 56 milligrams per ounce, roughly half the regular salted version. As a bonus, lightly salted pistachios were the cheapest of the three pistachio forms.

These are USDA's generic values, not any one brand's label. Individual products vary, sometimes widely, so a quick look at the Nutrition Facts panel on the bag you are holding is the most reliable way to know exactly what you are getting.

We built this ranking so anyone can reproduce it. Here is exactly how.

Prices. Every price comes from the USDA Economic Research Service's Purchase to Plate National Average Prices for 2017/2018, the most recent release. ERS built these from Circana retail scanner sales across grocery stores, supercenters, convenience, drug and dollar stores, and reports each food as a price per 100 edible grams. Warehouse clubs are not part of that store list. ERS does not expect its next price release before spring 2027.

We used only prices that ERS matched directly to scanner data, with one disclosed exception: walnuts, whose only plain price was imputed from related foods.

Restating to 2026 dollars. BLS publishes no price index specific to nuts, so we used the closest category, the Consumer Price Index for snacks. The CPI snacks series averaged 252.57 across 2017 and 2018 and stood at 316.81 in August 2026, a factor of 1.2543. Peanut butter used the CPI peanut butter index instead, a factor of 1.2484.

Because one factor scales every nut equally, the restatement changes the dollar figures but not the order of the ranking. The order reflects relative prices in 2017/18. Treat every dollar figure here as an estimate, not a price you will see on a shelf tag this week.

Nutrients. Protein, calories, fiber and sodium come from USDA FoodData Central's SR Legacy records, matched to the form USDA priced. We used SR Legacy rather than the survey database for the main table because the survey database had three issues for these foods: its chia entry duplicates flax, its macadamia entry is salted, and its "unroasted" cashew entry uses the roasted protein value.

The formula. Protein per dollar equals grams of protein per 100 grams divided by the 2026-dollar price per 100 grams. Price per pound multiplies the 100-gram price by 4.5359. Calories per gram of protein divides calories by protein, both per 100 grams.

How stable is the ranking? Because our prices come from 2017/18, we tested whether the order is a one-off. Fourteen of the 15 items were also priced in USDA's 2015/16 data. Ranked the same way, the two cycles agree closely, with a rank correlation of 0.94 on a scale where 1.0 means identical order. Peanuts, flax and chia held the top three spots in both, and pine nuts, macadamias and pecans stayed in the bottom four. The middle of the table, especially pistachios and Brazil nuts, is where positions moved most.

What we left out. Hemp hearts carry more protein per gram than any seed in this index, but USDA publishes no national price for them, so they could not be ranked. Coconut and chestnuts were left out because they are rarely bought for protein.

If there is one thing the Nut Aisle Index makes clear, it is that the protein you get for your money depends on both the nut and the way it is sold. Peanuts are in a league of their own. Flax, chia and sunflower kernels quietly outperform every tree nut. Almonds are the best balanced of the tree nuts, and pepitas are the most protein-dense option in the aisle, even if they cost more to get there.

Just as useful are the quieter patterns: the unsalted premium on pistachios, the honey-roasted markup, and the humble jar of tahini that beats a spice jar of sesame seeds nearly three to one. None of these numbers tells you what to eat. They simply give you a clearer view of the trade-offs the next time you are standing in front of that wall of bags and canisters, deciding which one earns a spot in your basket.