A typical steak delivers roughly 7 grams of protein per ounce of cooked meat. That means a 6-ounce steak gives you about 42 grams, an 8-ounce steak about 56 grams, and a 12-ounce steak about 84 grams. The exact number shifts depending on the cut, how much fat it carries, and how long you cook it.
Protein by Cut (3-Ounce Serving)
USDA data breaks down cooked beef by cut for a standard 3-ounce serving, which is roughly the size of a deck of cards. Here’s how popular steak cuts compare:
- Chuck blade roast (braised): 28g
- Bottom round steak (braised): 28g
- Top loin steak (broiled): 27g
- Rib steak, small end (broiled): 27g
- Tenderloin/filet mignon (broiled): 27g
- Eye of round steak (roasted): 26g
- Brisket, whole (braised): 26g
- Rib roast, large end (roasted): 24g
- Sirloin steak (broiled): 23g
- Top round steak (broiled): 23g
The range across cuts is 23 to 28 grams per 3 ounces. Leaner cuts like chuck and bottom round pack slightly more protein per serving because a higher percentage of their weight is muscle rather than fat. Fattier cuts like rib roast sit on the lower end, not because they contain less muscle, but because more of that 3-ounce portion is fat rather than protein-rich tissue.
Protein in Restaurant-Sized Steaks
Most steakhouses don’t serve 3-ounce portions. Using the standard estimate of 7 grams of protein per ounce of cooked beef, here’s what common restaurant sizes deliver:
- 6-ounce steak: ~42g protein
- 8-ounce steak: ~56g protein
- 10-ounce steak: ~70g protein
- 12-ounce steak: ~84g protein
- 16-ounce steak: ~112g protein
A single 8-ounce ribeye can cover most of an adult’s daily protein needs in one sitting. The recommended daily intake for a sedentary adult is about 0.36 grams per pound of body weight, which works out to roughly 54 grams for a 150-pound person. Athletes and people focused on muscle building often aim for double that.
Raw Weight vs. Cooked Weight
Steak loses about 25% of its weight during cooking, mostly from water evaporating. That matters when you’re tracking macros. If you buy a 10-ounce raw steak, it will weigh closer to 7.5 ounces after grilling. The protein doesn’t disappear with the water. It concentrates, so cooked steak has more protein per ounce than raw steak does.
If you’re weighing your food, decide whether you’ll always weigh it raw or always weigh it cooked, then use the matching nutrition data. Mixing the two (weighing cooked meat but using raw nutrition values) will undercount your protein by roughly 25%. Most nutrition labels on packaged raw beef list values for the raw weight. The USDA figures listed above are all for cooked portions.
Grass-Fed vs. Grain-Fed Protein
The protein content is essentially the same regardless of how the cattle were raised. Grass-fed beef does contain about twice the omega-3 fatty acids of grain-fed beef, but in absolute terms that difference amounts to roughly 30 extra milligrams, a tiny fraction of what you’d get from a serving of salmon. If you’re choosing between grass-fed and grain-fed purely for protein, it doesn’t matter.
Why Steak Protein Is Highly Usable
Not all protein sources are created equal. The body can’t use 100% of the protein from every food. Beef scores exceptionally well on the DIAAS scale, which is the current gold standard for measuring protein quality. A medium-cooked ribeye roast scores 130 for adults, well above the 100 threshold that marks a “complete, high-quality” source. Even well-done steak and ground beef score 99 to 107 for adults.
Steak is also rich in leucine, the amino acid most directly responsible for triggering muscle protein synthesis. A 3-ounce cooked sirloin contains about 2 to 2.5 grams of leucine. That comfortably exceeds the roughly 2-gram threshold researchers consider the minimum needed to stimulate muscle building after a meal. This is one reason beef is popular among athletes and people recovering from surgery or illness where maintaining muscle mass matters.
Choosing a Cut for Maximum Protein
If your primary goal is getting the most protein with the least fat, leaner cuts are your best bet. Round steaks, sirloin, and chuck roasts all deliver 26 to 28 grams per 3-ounce serving. Ribeye and rib roast are slightly lower in protein density because of their higher marbling, though the difference is only a few grams per serving. Per 100 grams, cooked ribeye provides about 29.6 grams of protein, which is still excellent by any measure.
For most people, the difference between cuts is small enough that taste and budget matter more than optimizing protein by a gram or two. Any steak cut will deliver a dense, highly digestible source of complete protein.