The Fast Food Value Report

What you’re actually buying at the drive-thru, in real dollars. Every figure below comes from prices we collect directly from each chain’s own ordering system across 30 chains and 2,465 priced items — no estimates, no guesses.

How much protein does $10 buy?

Median grams of protein per $10 spent, by chain. If you’re eating to hit a protein target for the least money, this is the whole game — and the spread is bigger than you’d think.

Ten dollars gets you 87g of protein at Little Caesars — but only 6g at Panda Express. Same ten bucks, 13.9× the protein.

The cheapest way to get 30g of protein

Every priced item, scaled to a 30g-protein serving at its own price-per-gram. These are the most efficient protein sources in all of fast food.

The winner: ExtraMostBestest® Pepperoni at Little Caesars — about $1.93 for 30g of protein ($8.74, 136g protein).

The best-value item at every chain

The single highest value-score pick at each chain — the one thing to order if you care about what your dollar buys. Value blends protein-per-$, calories-per-$ and nutrition quality against every priced item we track.

Are fast-food prices actually rising?

Here’s the honest finding: they’re not — not right now. We’ve logged 85,869 price checks across 485 items over 8 days since Jul 19, 2026, and national menu prices have held completely steady. Fast-food prices are sticky week-to-week; the story is in the step-changes when a chain re-prices, and this report is the baseline we’ll measure the next hike against.

See the full price index →

Get the next move before the crowd

Build a meal that hits your protein goal for less →