How much protein is in white rice?
White rice has 4.3 g of protein per 1 cup cooked (158 g) — that's 2.7 g per 100 g, or about 0.8 g per ounce. One 1 cup cooked is roughly 9% of the 50 g Daily Value for protein.
USDA FoodData Central · long-grain, enriched, cooked · FDC 168878
Protein & macros by portion
| Portion | Protein | Calories | Fat | Carbs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup cooked (158 g) | 4.3 g | 205 | 0.5 g | 44.6 g |
| 100 g | 2.7 g | 130 | 0.3 g | 28.2 g |
| 1 oz (28 g) | 0.8 g | 37 | 0.1 g | 8 g |
Values computed from USDA per-100 g data (FDC 168878, SR Legacy). long-grain, enriched, cooked.
A standard cooked cup of white rice (158 g) gives you about 4.3 g of protein for roughly 205 calories — and per 100 g it’s just 2.7 g. People search “protein in rice” all the time, but the honest answer is that rice barely registers as a protein food. It’s fuel: a starchy carbohydrate whose calories come almost entirely from the starch itself, not from protein or fat (there’s only 0.3 g of fat per 100 g). Reach for rice when you want a clean, filling base for a meal — not when you’re trying to hit a protein target.
Rice is a carb, not a protein source
It helps to look at where the calories actually go. A cup of white rice is mostly starch — about 28 g of carbohydrate per 100 g — with that small 4.3 g of protein along for the ride and almost no fat or fiber (enriched white rice has just 0.4 g of fiber per 100 g, since milling strips the bran). That’s the whole reason rice is such a versatile staple: it’s neutral, energy-dense, and easy to digest. But it also means the protein it carries is an afterthought. To get even 20 g of protein from rice alone you’d be eating close to a thousand calories of it. The food does one job well, and protein isn’t it.
There’s a quality wrinkle too. Like nearly every grain, white rice is an incomplete protein — it’s low in the essential amino acid lysine, so the modest protein it does contain isn’t fully usable on its own. That’s not a flaw to fix by eating more rice; it’s a cue to pair it with something that fills the gap.
The time-tested fix: rice and beans
The honest framing leads straight to the oldest fix in the book: rice and beans. Beans and lentils are rich in the lysine rice lacks, while rice supplies the methionine beans are short on — put them together and you get a complete protein covering all nine essential amino acids. It’s why the pairing anchors so many traditional cuisines around the world; people arrived at a complete amino-acid profile by taste and tradition long before anyone could name the mechanism. And you don’t have to eat them in the same bowl — your body pools amino acids across the day, so rice at lunch and beans at dinner still complement each other.
If you’d rather not change the grain, note that brown rice has about the same protein (2.7 g per 100 g) but keeps the bran and germ, so it brings more fiber and minerals — better for nutrients, no better for protein. Either way, the move is the same: use rice as the steady carbohydrate base it’s good at, and let the foods next to it carry the protein. The proteins worth pairing it with are listed below.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much protein is in 1 cup of cooked white rice?
About 4.3 g of protein in a standard cooked cup (158 g), which works out to 2.7 g per 100 g (USDA FDC 168878). That comes with roughly 205 calories, nearly all of it from starch. A single ounce of cooked rice has well under 1 g — white rice is a carbohydrate staple, not a protein food.
Is white rice a good source of protein?
No. At about 4.3 g per cup it contributes a little protein, but the calories are almost entirely starch, and that protein is low quality on its own. Treat white rice as energy — the base of the plate — and get your actual protein from the chicken, beans, fish, or eggs you serve alongside it.
Is white rice protein complete?
No. Like nearly all grains, white rice is an incomplete protein — it's low in the essential amino acid lysine. The classic fix is rice and beans: beans are rich in lysine, rice supplies the methionine beans lack, and together they form a complete protein. You don't need them in the same bowl; eating both over the day works.
How much rice is one serving?
A typical cooked serving is 1 cup (158 g), about 205 calories. Restaurant and takeout portions often run two cups or more, which doubles the calories and carbs without meaningfully changing the protein picture. If you're tracking, measure the cooked cup rather than eyeballing the bowl.
Is white rice or brown rice higher in protein?
They're essentially the same — about 2.7 g per 100 g either way. Milling white rice strips the bran and germ, so brown rice carries more fiber, magnesium, and B vitamins, but the protein is unchanged. Neither is a protein source; the real difference between them is fiber and micronutrients, where brown rice wins.
When was this data last verified?
2026-06-03, against USDA FoodData Central FDC 168878 (Rice, white, long-grain, regular, enriched, cooked; SR Legacy). We re-verify reference pages periodically and update when USDA revises the entry.
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.