Is Protein Works Expensive? What Its Range Actually Costs Per 25g of Protein
Protein Works runs from 35p to £2.35 per 25g of protein depending which shelf you buy from, a seven-fold spread inside one brand. Here is where it undercuts Bulk, where it costs more than Optimum Nutrition, and what the WW12 code does and does not cover.
Kevin, founder of WheyWise
Quick answer
Protein Works is two different brands wearing one label. WheyWise price checks on 21 August 2026 put its Vegan Soy Protein BLACK at about 35p per 25g of protein, which is cheaper than any mainstream whey in the UK including Bulk's entry-level Basic Whey at 50p. Its whey is mid-table: Whey Protein 360 GOLD works out at about 72p, above Bulk but below MyProtein Impact Whey at 91p and Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard at £1.10. Where Protein Works genuinely is expensive is the clear and diet formats, where Clear Vegan Protein reaches £2.35 per 25g. So the answer depends entirely on which shelf you buy from.
Is Protein Works expensive?
Protein Works is not one price, it is a seven-fold range. At last check on 21 August 2026, Protein Works Vegan Soy Protein BLACK works out at about 35p per 25g of protein while Protein Works Clear Vegan Protein works out at about £2.35 for the same 25g. That is the same brand, the same website, and nearly seven times the cost per gram of protein.
So the honest answer to whether Protein Works is expensive is: no on plant protein, middling on whey, and yes on anything sold as clear or diet. Most people asking the question are looking at the whey, which sits at about 72p per 25g of protein, and the useful comparison there is that Bulk Basic Whey does the same job for about 50p while Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard costs £1.10.
What Protein Works costs per 25g of protein
Every figure below is the cheapest publishable price we held for that product, converted to cost per 25g of protein so the pack sizes and protein percentages are comparable. WheyWise ranks protein this way because sticker price tells you nothing when one bag is 4.8kg at 68% protein and another is 540g at 67%.
| Product | Protein per 100g | Best price found | Cost per 25g protein |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vegan Soy Protein BLACK | 86g | £47.99 / 4kg | 35p |
| Vegan Pea Protein BLACK | 76g | £47.99 / 4kg | 39p |
| Vegan Protein 360 GOLD | 82g | £26.67 / 2kg | 41p |
| Whey Protein 360 PLATINUM | 69g | £93.99 / 4.8kg | 71p |
| Whey Protein 360 GOLD | 68g | £93.99 / 4.8kg | 72p |
| 100% Micellar Casein BLACK | 80g | £104.99 / 4kg | 82p |
| Clear Diet Whey GOLD | 82g | £38.83 / 1kg | £1.18 |
| Diet Whey Protein Isolate BLACK | 86g | £214.99 / 4kg | £1.56 |
| Clear Vegan Protein GOLD | 67g | £33.99 / 540g | £2.35 |
Prices checked 21 August 2026 across the UK retailers we track. Cheapest publishable variant per product.
The pattern is clear once it is laid out. The bottom three rows are all small bags or format products. The top three are all 4kg plant protein. Protein Works is cheap when you buy it in bulk and plant-based, and expensive when you buy it in a 540g tub with a flavour system attached.
Cheapest per gram we track
Protein Works Vegan Protein 360 - GOLD Innovation
2kg bag
The single strongest value case in the Protein Works range, and the reason a blanket 'Protein Works is expensive' answer is wrong. At about 41p per 25g of protein it is cheaper per gram than the brand's own whey by roughly 30p a serving.
Cheapest per gram we track
Pros
- + About 41p per 25g of protein, undercutting every mainstream UK whey including Bulk Basic Whey at 50p
- + 82g of protein per 100g, higher than any whey in the Protein Works range
- + A blend rather than single-source pea, which fixes the amino acid gaps that make cheap pea protein a poor swap for whey
Cons
- – Plant protein still needs a slightly larger scoop than whey to match leucine content
- – The 2kg and 4kg sizes carry the good price, so the entry cost is high even though the per-gram cost is low
●Nutrition per scoop · 24.6g protein in 30g▼
Protein makes up 82%
of this 30g scoop · 109 kcal total
The whey most people actually buy
Protein Works Whey Protein 360 Gold
1.2kg bag
Fairly priced rather than cheap. At about 72p per 25g of protein it sits between Bulk and MyProtein, and the 68g per 100g protein content is what keeps it from competing with the budget tier on cost per gram.
or compare all UK prices →The whey most people actually buy
Protein Works Whey Protein 360 Gold
1.2kg bagPros
- + About 72p per 25g of protein, roughly 19p a serving cheaper than MyProtein Impact Whey at 91p
- + The 4.8kg size is where the price works, and it is one of the largest bags any UK brand sells
- + The most-reviewed product Protein Works makes, so the flavour feedback is worth something
Cons
- – 68g of protein per 100g is low for a whey at this price, and it is the reason the per-gram cost lands where it does
- – Bulk Basic Whey does the same job for about 50p per 25g, a 22p per serving gap
- – Buying anything smaller than the 4.8kg bag moves it into the expensive tier
●Nutrition per scoop · 20.4g protein in 30g▼
Protein makes up 68%
of this 30g scoop · 113 kcal total
Is Protein Works dearer than Bulk and MyProtein?
On whey, Protein Works is dearer than Bulk and cheaper than MyProtein. Protein Works Whey Protein 360 GOLD costs about 72p per 25g of protein, against about 50p for Bulk Basic Whey and about 91p for MyProtein Impact Whey. Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey sits furthest out at about £1.10.
That ordering flips completely on plant protein. Protein Works Vegan Soy Protein BLACK at about 35p per 25g of protein is cheaper than every one of those wheys, including the Bulk entry-level bag. If you are open to plant protein, Protein Works is the cheapest of the four brands, not the second most expensive.
For context on the wider market, the cheapest product we track that is unambiguously a whey is about 32p per 25g of protein, from a brand almost nobody would recognise. Cheaper listings than that exist, but several of the very lowest are soy or wheat blends sold under names that do not say so, which is its own reason to read the ingredients rather than the price. You can see the full ranking on the cheapest protein powder comparison, or put two products side by side with the protein comparison tool.
Why Protein Works costs what it does
Three things set the price, and only one of them is the protein.
Protein density. Whey Protein 360 GOLD is 68g of protein per 100g. A lot of budget whey concentrate runs 72g to 75g. That gap sounds small and is not: at 68g you are buying about 6% more non-protein powder for every bag, and that flows straight into the cost per gram of protein. This is the single biggest reason the whey lands at 72p rather than the mid-50s.
Format. Clear whey and diet formulations carry flavour systems, acidity regulators and often added ingredients that a plain concentrate does not. Clear Diet Whey GOLD is 82g protein per 100g, which is genuinely high, and still costs £1.18 per 25g because it is sold in 1kg rather than 4.8kg. Format and pack size, not protein quality, are doing the work.
Pack size. Protein Works prices its big bags aggressively and its small bags normally. Almost every cheap row in the table above is a 4kg bag. Almost every expensive row is 1kg or smaller. The brand is cheap if you buy the way it wants you to buy.
Where Protein Works is genuinely good value
The plant range, in the 4kg size, is where this brand beats the market rather than matching it. Vegan Soy Protein BLACK at about 35p and Vegan Pea Protein BLACK at about 39p per 25g of protein are cheaper than the cheapest mainstream whey, which is unusual: plant protein normally costs more per gram, not less, because you need more of it to hit the same leucine content.
The second place it wins is the very large whey bag. The 4.8kg Whey Protein 360 in either GOLD or PLATINUM is one of the few ways to get a sub-75p whey from a brand with a real flavour range and a real review record. If you have already tried a flavour and know you like it, that bag is the sensible purchase.
Where it loses is anywhere small. A 540g tub of Clear Vegan Protein at £2.35 per 25g of protein is roughly eleven times the cost per gram of the same brand's soy protein. That is a format decision, not a nutrition one. If you want the full range side by side, the Protein Works brand page lists current prices, and the vegan protein comparison shows where its plant range sits against everyone else's.
Do the discount codes make it cheap?
WheyWise carries a WW12 code for 12% off at Protein Works with no minimum spend. It is worth having, and it is worth knowing exactly what it does not cover, because discount codes at this brand come with more conditions than most.
WW12 is a new-customer code, it cannot be combined with other codes, and it explicitly excludes Whey Protein 80 BLACK, Diet Whey Protein Isolate BLACK, all bundles and all gift vouchers. Two of those exclusions are products people specifically go looking for a code on, which is the usual pattern: the code covers the range the brand wants to move.
We do not publish a price-after-code figure anywhere on WheyWise. The number shown beside a product is the price the retailer is charging today, and a code that may or may not apply to your basket, your account age and your chosen SKU should not be baked into it. Current codes across all retailers sit on the UK protein deals page.
Is Protein Works worth the money?
Buy the 4kg plant protein and Protein Works is one of the best-value protein brands in the UK, full stop. At about 35p to 41p per 25g of protein you are paying less per gram than you would for budget whey, from a brand with a proper flavour range.
Buy the 4.8kg whey and it is fair, not cheap. You are paying roughly 22p a serving more than Bulk Basic Whey for better flavour variety and a far bigger review record. Whether that is worth it depends on how much you care about drinking the same thing every day for four months, which is what a 4.8kg bag actually means.
Buy anything clear, diet or under 1kg and you are paying a format premium of two to three times. That is a legitimate choice if you genuinely prefer a clear, juice-style drink to a milkshake, but it should be a deliberate one rather than something you discover afterwards.
If you are not sure which type suits you before you start comparing prices, the protein finder narrows it to three picks in about a minute. For a closer look at the two whey tiers, we have a full Whey Protein 360 GOLD vs PLATINUM comparison, and for the brand-against-brand question there is MyProtein vs Protein Works on price. If price is the only thing that matters to you, start with the cheapest protein powder in the UK right now.
Frequently asked questions
Is Protein Works expensive compared to other UK protein brands?
It depends which range you buy. Protein Works vegan protein is among the cheapest protein per gram sold in the UK at about 35p to 41p per 25g of protein, checked 21 August 2026. Its whey sits mid-table at about 72p, cheaper than MyProtein Impact Whey at 91p but well above Bulk Basic Whey at 50p. Its clear and diet ranges are expensive at £1.18 to £2.35 per 25g.
How much does Protein Works whey cost per serving?
A 25g-of-protein serving of Protein Works Whey Protein 360 GOLD works out at about 72p, based on a 4.8kg bag at £93.99 direct from Protein Works, checked 21 August 2026. That is roughly £1 a day if you take one shake, or about £22 a month.
Is Protein Works worth the price?
For its vegan range, yes on price alone: nothing mainstream in the UK undercuts Vegan Soy Protein BLACK at about 35p per 25g of protein. For its whey, you are paying roughly 20p more per serving than Bulk Basic Whey for a broader flavour range and a much larger review record. For the clear and diet formats you are paying two to three times the going rate for the format, not for the protein.
Is there a Protein Works discount code that makes it cheaper?
WheyWise carries a WW12 code for 12% off at Protein Works with no minimum spend. It is for new customers, cannot be combined with other codes, and specifically excludes Whey Protein 80 BLACK, Diet Whey Protein Isolate BLACK, bundles and gift vouchers. We do not restate prices after the code, because the price shown beside a product is the price the retailer is charging today.
Which Protein Works product is the best value?
Vegan Soy Protein BLACK at about 35p per 25g of protein, followed by Vegan Pea Protein BLACK at about 39p, both in the 4kg size at £47.99, checked 21 August 2026. Both undercut every mainstream UK whey we track. If you want whey specifically, Whey Protein 360 PLATINUM at about 71p is marginally better value than the GOLD version.
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