How much protein is in peanut butter?
Peanut butter has 7.1 g of protein per 2 tbsp (32 g) — that's 22.2 g per 100 g, or about 6.3 g per ounce. One 2 tbsp is roughly 14% of the 50 g Daily Value for protein.
USDA FoodData Central · smooth · FDC 172470
Protein & macros by portion
| Portion | Protein | Calories | Fat | Carbs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 tbsp (32 g) | 7.1 g | 191 | 16.4 g | 7.1 g |
| 100 g | 22.2 g | 598 | 51.4 g | 22.3 g |
| 1 oz (28 g) | 6.3 g | 170 | 14.6 g | 6.3 g |
Values computed from USDA per-100 g data (FDC 172470, SR Legacy). smooth.
Peanut butter has a number that flatters it. At 22.2g of protein per 100g, it lines up with some cuts of cooked meat, and that figure gets quoted constantly. But nobody eats 100g of peanut butter — that’s more than six tablespoons. A real serving is 2 tablespoons (32g), and that scoop carries about 7.1g of protein for roughly 190 calories, the large majority of which come from fat. Peanut butter is genuinely tasty and genuinely satisfying. It is not, in any honest accounting, a protein source.
Fat-forward, not protein-forward
The thing to internalize is the ratio. In that 2-tbsp serving, you get around 7g of protein against roughly 16g of fat. Peanut butter is a fat you can spread, with a useful protein side effect — not the other way around. That’s not a knock; the fat is mostly the heart-healthy mono- and polyunsaturated kind, and it’s exactly what makes peanut butter so filling. But it changes how you should use it. If you tried to reach a 30g protein target on peanut butter alone, you’d be eating close to 600 calories to get there. As a contributor — a spoonful that adds 7g of protein and a lot of staying power to something you’re already eating — it’s excellent. As your main protein, it’s a calorie trap.
Incomplete on its own, complete by sandwich
Peanuts are legumes, not nuts in the botanical sense, and they share the legume weakness: they’re relatively low in the amino acid methionine. That makes peanut butter an incomplete protein — fine on its own, but not delivering the full amino acid spread your body uses to build tissue. Here’s the quietly elegant part: the most common way people eat peanut butter already fixes this. Grain-based bread is strong in exactly the methionine peanuts lack, so a peanut butter sandwich is a textbook complementary-protein pairing — assembled by accident, decades before anyone called it that. You don’t need to engineer it. Peanut butter on whole-grain toast, stirred into oats, or eaten alongside any grain rounds out the profile on its own.
Read the jar, not the front label
“Peanut butter” is not one thing. At its simplest — the “natural” style — the ingredient list is two words: peanuts, salt. Some jars drop even the salt. But plenty of mainstream peanut butters add sugar and palm oil or hydrogenated oil to stay smooth and stop the natural oil from separating. The protein barely moves between versions; what moves is the added sugar and the fat quality. This is the single label gotcha worth your attention: flip the jar and read the ingredient line. A short one (peanuts, maybe salt) is the cleaner buy; a long one with cane sugar and hydrogenated oil is closer to a spread than a whole food.
How to actually use it for protein
Lean into what peanut butter is good at: making protein-and-calorie-dense foods more satisfying and stacking a few extra grams onto a meal. Stir a tablespoon into oatmeal, spread it on whole-grain toast, blend it into a protein shake, or pair it with a banana for a snack that holds you over. Each of those adds about 7g of protein plus fat that slows digestion — useful if you’re trying to gain, or just trying to stay full between meals. If you’re working backward from a daily number, peanut butter is a topping that nudges you toward it, not the lever you pull to get there. For how that daily number works and how foods like this fit into it, see our guide on how much protein you need per day.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much protein is in peanut butter?
About 7.1 grams per 2 tablespoons (32g), the standard serving — roughly 22.2g per 100g, or about 6g per ounce (USDA FDC 172470). The per-100g number looks high, but you rarely eat 100g of peanut butter in one sitting.
Is peanut butter a good source of protein?
It's a good protein contributor, not a protein source. Those 7 grams come riding on about 16g of fat and ~190 calories per 2 tbsp, so peanut butter is calorie-dense and fat-forward. It's a tasty way to add protein to a meal, but it's an inefficient way to hit a protein target on its own.
Is peanut butter a complete protein?
No. Peanuts are legumes, and like most legumes they're lower in the amino acid methionine, which makes peanut butter an incomplete protein. The classic fix is built into the PB sandwich: grain-based bread is strong in methionine, so peanut butter and bread complement each other into a more complete amino acid profile.
What's the difference between natural and regular peanut butter?
'Natural' peanut butter is usually just peanuts and salt — sometimes peanuts alone. Many mainstream jars add sugar and palm or hydrogenated oil to keep the texture smooth and shelf-stable. The protein is similar either way; the difference shows up in added sugar and fat quality, so it pays to read the ingredient line.
How can I use peanut butter to hit a protein goal?
Stack it onto foods that already carry protein and calories you want. A spoonful stirred into oatmeal, spread on whole-grain toast, blended into a protein shake, or paired with a banana adds 7g of protein plus staying power. Treat it as a topping that boosts a meal, not as the meal's main protein.
Does peanut butter have a lot of sugar?
Plain peanut butter has very little — the ~10.5g per 100g in the USDA reference is mostly natural. The catch is sweetened jars: added cane sugar or molasses can push the sugar well past that, which is the single biggest thing to check on a label.
When was this data last verified?
2026-06-03, against USDA FoodData Central FDC 172470 (peanut butter, smooth style). We re-verify reference pages regularly and update when USDA revises its data.
Whole-food values are USDA reference data and are not assigned a Labelgrade — that score is for branded packaged products, where ingredients and added sugar/sodium actually vary. See our methodology and how much protein you need per day.