How Much Protein Is in an Egg? Depends on the Size

One large egg holds 6.3g of protein. One small egg holds 4.8g and one jumbo egg holds 7.9g — a spread of 66% between the smallest and largest egg sold. Every figure here is computed from one USDA FoodData Central row, whole raw egg at 12.6g of protein per 100g (FDC 171287), multiplied by the egg weights this site already publishes.

The number you have seen quoted is almost always 6g, and 6g is the large egg. If your carton says medium or jumbo, that figure is wrong by up to a gram and a half per egg — which stops being a rounding error somewhere around the third egg.

How much protein is in an egg?

Between 4.8g and 7.9g, depending on the size of the egg — 6.3g for a large one. Here is every size, with what it costs in calories.

The last column is identical all the way down: 8.8g of protein per 100 calories, at every egg size. Size changes how much egg you are holding, not what the egg is made of. So picking jumbo over small buys you more protein and exactly proportionally more calories — it is a portion decision, never a quality one.

How much protein is in 2, 3, 4 or 6 eggs?

Two large eggs give 12.6g of protein, three give 18.9g, four give 25.2g and six give 37.8g. Every other size is in the table below, because "three eggs" means something different in different kitchens.

Read across a row and the point lands: two jumbo eggs carry 15.9g of protein and three small eggs carry 14.4g. Two eggs beat three, because "an egg" is a container, not a measurement. If you are counting eggs to hit a target, you are counting the wrong thing.

In calories the same spread applies: three large eggs are 215 calories, three jumbo are 270. Over a week of daily eggs that is 385 calories of difference from a decision nobody thinks they are making.

How much protein is in a hard-boiled egg?

The same as in the raw egg it was — 6.3g for a large one — because an egg is boiled inside a closed shell and nothing enters or leaves it. Heat changes the structure of egg protein, not the quantity of it.

Being straight about method here: we hold no separate USDA row for boiled, scrambled, poached or fried egg, and we have not invented one. The figure above is the raw row applied to a cooking method that does not change the mass. That reasoning does not extend to a frying pan — anything cooked in oil or butter gains the calories of whatever it was cooked in, and we cannot tell you how much of it your pan absorbed.

We also hold no yolk row, so no yolk figure appears here. Subtracting the white from the whole egg would look like an answer and would not be one, since the two rows are measured per 100g of different substances rather than per egg.

Egg whites: more protein per calorie, less protein per egg

Raw egg white carries 10.9g of protein and 52 calories per 100g, against 12.6g and 143 calories for the whole raw egg (USDA FDC 172183 and FDC 171287). Per 100 calories that is 21.0g of protein from the white against 8.8g from the whole egg — 2.4 times as much protein for the same calorie spend.

What that does not tell you is how much protein is in the white of one egg, and we are not going to guess. A large egg's white is not 50g; we hold no white-weight row, only composition per 100g, so a per-egg white figure would be a number we made up. If you separate eggs, weigh the whites — the arithmetic is then 10.9g of protein for every 100g on the scale.

The practical version

Three large eggs is 18.9g of protein for 215 calories, which is a genuinely efficient breakfast. Four gets you to 25.2g. If you want the full picture on how much you should be aiming for, our protein target guide works it out from bodyweight, and what 20g of protein costs across 189 foods puts eggs against everything else on the same basis.

The full macro breakdown sits on our whole egg page and the egg white page, and the side-by-side comparison covers the fat and cholesterol difference this post deliberately skips.

Why this is annoying to actually do

Nobody checks the carton. You will not weigh your eggs, and you should not have to — but it means the difference between "three eggs" logged and three eggs eaten can be 4.9g of protein and 55 calories — three large against three jumbo — every single morning.

Sunn closes that gap without asking anything of you. Message it "three eggs and toast" in WhatsApp and it comes back with the numbers, asks which size only when the answer would actually move, and keeps the week's running total on its own. No carton-checking, no scale, no app.