UK Protein Price Index Q2: How to Pay Less in 2026

Across whey concentrate specifically, the UK's most popular category, eleven of the fourteen mainstream brands with enough data dropped their average price per 100g in Q2. Only three rose. The headline movers are not subtle, with double-digit percentage swings inside a three-week window.

This runs opposite to what most protein buyers expect heading into spring. The "prices only go up" narrative has been wrong for Q2 so far, and buyers who stocked up in January on the assumption prices would climb have, in several cases, paid more than anyone needs to today.

The biggest Q2 price drops logged across whey concentrate, the category with the richest data, look like this.

1. 1

   Grenade: down 21.1% (Q1 avg £2.76/100g to Q2 avg £2.18/100g)

2. 2

   PhD Nutrition: down 18.4% (£3.46 to £2.82)

3. 3

   Ghost Lifestyle: down 17.7% (£4.93 to £4.06)

4. 4

   Cellucor: down 16.1% (£3.94 to £3.31)

5. 5

   USN: down 15.6% (£3.56 to £3.00)

6. 6

   Icon Nutrition: down 13.3% (£3.27 to £2.84)

7. 7

   Boditronics: down 12.9% (£2.29 to £2.00)

8. 8

   MyProtein Impact Whey line: down 11.5% (£3.11 to £2.75)

9. 9

   Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard line: down 9.9% (£4.57 to £4.12)

10. 10

    Warrior Whey: down 8.3% (£2.79 to £2.56)

Isolates have moved too, with whey isolate from Yummy Sports down 10.4%, Optimum Nutrition isolate down 3.1%, and Reflex isolate down 3.3%. Mass gainers have stayed steadier, with DY Nutrition the biggest mover at down 8.0%.

The two big takeaways: premium brands (Grenade, Ghost, Cellucor, PhD, Optimum Nutrition) have cut hardest, and MyProtein, the brand most people associate with permanent discounting, has genuinely moved its everyday price per 100g down by double digits, not just its headline sale price.

Not every brand cut prices. The brands that actually raised prices in Q2 make up a mix of smaller specialist labels and one surprising mainstream name.

1. 1

   Naughty Boy (whey concentrate): up 13.2%

2. 2

   Dorian Yates (mass gainer): up 13.1%

3. 3

   MyProtein Impact Whey Isolate line: up 12.5%

4. 4

   MuscleTech (whey concentrate): up 10.2%

5. 5

   Applied Nutrition (vegan): up 10.4%

6. 6

   Sports Fuel (whey concentrate): up 10.3%

The MyProtein split stands out: Impact Whey concentrate came down 11.5%, but Impact Whey Isolate went up 12.5%. Isolate demand has clearly firmed faster than concentrate demand, which lines up with what we are seeing in our GLP-1 protein guide, where isolate is the category pulled upward by weight-loss drug users looking for high protein density per calorie.

Based on the last 14 days of tracked prices, these are the cheapest in-stock whey bags in our live data. Live prices update weekly, and the figures below reflect typical sale pricing over the last fortnight.

1. 1

   Warrior Whey Protein: floor of £1.70/100g during sales, with 500g bags from £12.00 and 71.2g protein per 100g.

2. 2

   MyProtein Impact Whey Protein: floor of £2.42/100g, 5kg bags available for serious bulk buyers, 72g protein per 100g across 48 flavours.

3. 3

   Protein Works Whey 80 BLACK: floor of £2.61/100g, 74g protein per 100g (higher than either Warrior or MyProtein), 1kg bags from around £17.89.

4. 4

   Bulk Pure Whey Protein: roughly flat quarter on quarter (up 1.5%), with consistent pricing around £2.62/100g and an honest RRP with no inflated headlines.

Three things explain most of the Q2 downward pressure.

1. 1

   Post-January deflation: Q1 prices were elevated by New Year demand (resolution shoppers, bulking season). Q2 is historically softer, and the decline seen in 2026 runs sharper than usual.

2. 2

   Brand repositioning: Optimum Nutrition, Grenade, and PhD have all moved their everyday price closer to where their promotional price used to sit, a likely response to pressure from direct-to-consumer budget brands like Bulk, Warrior, and TPW capturing market share on price per gram.

3. 3

   Isolate splitting from concentrate: demand for high protein density isolates has firmed (driven by GLP-1 users and anyone on a cutting phase) while concentrate demand has softened, pulling isolate prices up and concentrate prices down even within the same brand family.

Three practical implications follow from this data.

1. 1

   If you are buying whey concentrate, do not wait. Q2 pricing on concentrate runs softer than Q1 across nine of the ten biggest UK brands, and there is no structural reason to delay a buy expecting better prices later.

2. 2

   If you are buying whey isolate, compare harder. Brand-by-brand moves are split: Bulk Pure Whey Isolate sits flat at roughly £3.62/100g, Optimum Nutrition Isolate is down about 3%, but MyProtein Impact Whey Isolate is up 12.5% versus Q1. Do not assume the brand that was cheapest in January still is.

3. 3

   Let the tool do the maths. Use the live comparison table sorted by cost per 25g of protein. It updates weekly and normalises for bag size, serving size, and protein density automatically.

We will rerun this index at the end of Q2 with a full quarter of data and a like-for-like comparison. In the meantime, ProteinDeals tracks prices across 85+ UK retailers so the numbers above stay honest as the quarter unfolds. For more context on the broader pricing story, see why UK protein prices were rising in early 2026 and the follow-up to this post later in Q3.