← Cheapest meal plan optimizer
Vegan eating is often called expensive. For protein it is not, at moderate targets: dried lentils and beans are among the cheapest protein sources in any shop. What limits a vegan plan is not price but room, because the cheap protein arrives with a lot of carbohydrate. A solver shows both.
Open the free cheapest meal plan optimizer and pick "Vegan" under eating style.
Everything below is computed by the same solver the free tool runs, on its twenty starter foods at example prices (2,000 to 2,300 calories, 45 to 80 g of fat, at least 28 g of fibre, no food above four servings a day, half servings). The figures are a shape, not a quote: edit the prices to what you pay.
Choosing the vegan style drops 7 of the 20 foods (eggs, chicken thigh, whole milk, canned tuna, Greek yogurt, whey protein and cheddar) by name, leaving 13. The optimizer then finds the cheapest servings per day that still meet every bound.
| Protein minimum | Cheapest per day | Per week |
|---|---|---|
| 80 g | $1.79 | $12.56 |
| 100 g | $1.93 | $13.51 |
| 120 g | $2.18 | $15.26 |
| 130 g | $2.38 | $16.66 |
The 100 g plan is lentils, rolled oats, peanut butter, rice, black beans and a little oil. Past that, more black beans join in and each extra 10 g costs more than the last. Above about 137 g a day this food list cannot meet the calorie cap at all (the tool also checks the half-serving rounding, so a real menu may stop slightly lower).
It knows only calories, protein, carbs, fat, fibre, the optional sodium, calcium, iron and potassium bounds and the prices you typed. It does not know vitamin B12, which a vegan diet needs from fortified foods or a supplement, or amino-acid balance, allergies or taste. Ask a doctor or registered dietitian, not a solver, about those. It will not plan under 1,200 calories a day.
On the 13 plant-based starter foods and example prices, the cheapest plan meeting 2,000 to 2,300 calories, 28 g of fibre and the fat bounds costs about $1.79 a day for 80 g of protein, $1.93 for 100 g and $2.18 for 120 g. Your prices will differ, so edit them.
Up to about 100 g a day, no: the cheapest mixed plan is also lentils, oats, rice and peanut butter, so the cost is the same $1.93. The gap shows above that, where a mixed plan can buy dense protein such as whey or chicken and a vegan plan has to keep adding beans and lentils.
Beans and lentils bring far more carbohydrate and calories per gram of protein than animal protein, so under a 2,300-calorie cap and four servings per food the plan runs out of room. Raising the calorie cap or the serving limit, or adding foods such as tofu or tempeh with their real prices, moves the ceiling.
Related: how to eat high-protein on a budget, a cheap vegan high-protein meal plan and what protein a daily food budget buys.