You Should Be Buying Protein Bars at Costco—and These Are the Best

Going to Costco is a grocery pilgrimage. The whole family goes. You get a dirt-cheap hotdog beforehand. You mark up catalogs with everything you’re getting before you go in, or you freewheel it and let the aisles lead the way. That said, there are purchases that require more forethought than the severely discounted electric toothbrushes or absolutely-must-buy side-sleeper pillows. I’m talking about protein bars. 

Take it from a Costco lifer, the protein bars selection at Costco has seen a major glow-up in recent years. Where previously only a few options were available, now you’ll regularly find loads of options across the nutritional and price spectrum. But which are the best? Above all, there are four that stand out—but our favorite is Pure Protein’s bars (available with a slight markup on Amazon as well), which are sold at just over $1.20 a bar and taste better than they have any right to. For more options, read on. 

Our Experience

I am a longtime Costco obsessive. I spend hours in Costco and on Costco’s website looking for the best ways to save money on food. I also spend an inordinate amount of time eating, reading about, and hunting down new protein bars to stuff my face with so that, when hunger strikes between meals, I have something relatively good for me to reach for. I’ve scoured my local Costco and Costcos up and down the East Coast in my time as a member, and now I’m divulging my knowledge of the cultish grocery warehouse’s protein bar inventory for you.

Choosing the Bars

There are a lot of protein bars available at Costco, but for the purposes of this guide I’m disregarding “protein bars” with less than 15g of protein. There is a whole subcategory of bars at Costco and elsewhere marketed as protein-heavy that in fact carry about as much protein as two ounces of cashews, and are often extremely high in sugar and fat to boot. If that’s the kind of protein bar you’re after, you may as well just enjoy a Snickers instead. 

The bars selected for this guide are generally at least 20g of protein per serving and harbor very little sugar and fat content. They’re typically high in fiber as well, making them a great snack for keeping your stomach content on busy days, or when you’re trying to drop a few pounds. If protein bars don’t sit well in your stomach, try something like protein gummies in their stead.