9 of the Best Keto-Friendly Protein Bars You Can Buy in 2024

• Best high protein: MariGold Protein Bars
• Best meat-based: EPIC Bars
• Best allergy-friendly: Keto Bars
• Best organic: BHU Keto Bars
• Best vegan: Dang Bars
• Best high fiber: No Cow Dipped Bars
• Best-tasting: CanDo Keto Krisp Bars
• Best with probiotics: CORE Keto Bars
• Most widely available: think! Keto Protein Bars

The ketogenic, or keto, diet is a very low carb, high fat diet that’s associated with several health benefits, including weight loss (1).

If you’re following this diet, protein bars can be a convenient grab-and-go option when you need a quick meal or a filling snack.

However, finding a keto-friendly bar can be difficult — most protein bars are too high in carbs or too low in fat or contain ingredients that don’t fit on a keto diet, such as dairy.

Even protein bars that meet the keto criteria are not always healthy options. They often contain large amounts of artificial ingredients, additives, and preservatives.

Still, if you look carefully, you can find protein bars that are both keto-friendly and nutritious. Alternatively, you can make them on your own.

Keep reading for our picks of the 9 best keto-friendly protein bars.

When choosing the best keto protein bars, we considered the following factors:

• Ingredient quality: Ideally, the bar should be made mainly with whole foods and without added sugar, artificial colors or flavors, or unnecessary fillers.
• Taste: A keto protein bar should be flavorful and should not taste like a block of cardboard. We looked for bars that offer intriguing flavors and have positive reviews for taste.
• Nutrition: The bars on this list provide 5 or fewer grams (g) of net carbs per serving. They also contain a minimum of 6 g of protein and at least 7 g of fat.
• Price: These bars are typically sold in multipacks, and most cost $25–$50 per multipack.
• Customer reviews: We’ve read through reviews to find out how customers feel about the flavor, texture, and quality of these bars. We’ve also tried several of them ourselves.
• Vetting: The protein bars on our list have been vetted to ensure that they align with Healthline’s brand integrity standards and approach to well-being. You can read more about our vetting process.

Best high protein

MariGold Protein Bars

• Price: $$
• Available flavors: Almond Mocha Crunch, Coconut Rage, Ginger Coconut, Macarooned, Chocolate Mint, Salty Caramel, Pure Joy, Banana Nut, Double Fudge Brownie, Chunky Choco Pecan, Dark & Salty, and Cinnabähn.

MariGold Protein Bars are made with just a few ingredients, including whey isolate from grass-fed cow’s milk, cashews, filtered water, chicory root fiber, L-glutamine, grass-fed ghee, organic flavors, coconut oil, stevia extract, salt, and sunflower lecithin.

Whey protein is a popular supplement because your body can quickly absorb this type of protein. As a result, it may promote significant increases in strength, muscle mass, and even fat loss (2, 3, 4).

MariGold bars are also free of sugar alcohols, which are natural or manufactured carbs that taste sweet yet contain half as many calories as sugar. Some people may wish to avoid sugar alcohols because they may cause digestive distress (5).

Instead, these bars are sweetened with stevia, although a few of the flavors also contain very small amounts of coconut nectar, coconut sugar, and maple syrup.

Here’s the nutrition info for the Salty Caramel flavor (6):

• Calories: 226
• Protein: 22 g
• Fat: 12 g
• Net carbs: 5 g
• Fiber: 6 g

Best meat-based

EPIC Bars

• Price: $
• Available flavors: Chicken BBQ, Beef Barbacoa, Beef Jalapeño, Beef Sea Salt + Pepper, Chicken Sriracha, and Venison Sea Salt + Pepper

EPIC bars are meat-based bars that contain just a handful of ingredients.

For instance, the Venison Sea Salt + Pepper bar is made using grass-fed venison, sea salt, encapsulated lactic acid (not from milk), water, black pepper, cultured celery powder, onion powder, and garlic powder.

While these bars are low in net carbs, they’re very high in sodium, providing 600–750 milligrams (mg) of sodium per bar, depending on the flavor. Most other bars on this list contain only 100–200 mg of sodium.

Keep in mind that, at time of publish, EPIC offers nine flavors, but only the six listed above are keto-friendly.

Here’s the nutrition info for the Venison Sea Salt + Pepper flavor (7):

• Calories: 150
• Protein: 13 g
• Fat: 10 g
• Net carbs: 0 g
• Fiber: 1 g

What our tester says

“These bars are really delicious. I appreciate that they contain real meat and simple ingredients. Because of this, they’re not what you typically expect from a protein bar — they’re more like jerky. My personal favorite is the Venison Sea Salt + Pepper flavor.”

— Healthline writer SaVanna Shoemaker, MS, RDN, LD

Best allergy-friendly

Keto Bars

• Price: $$
• Available flavors: Chocolate Peanut Butter, Dark Chocolate Coconut Almond, and Mint Chocolate

Founded in 2012, Keto Bars was one of the first companies to create protein bars specifically for the keto diet.

In addition to being high in fat and low in net carbs, these bars are vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, and soy-free.

All three flavors have short ingredient lists and are made with a base of unsweetened chocolate, coconut, and nut butter.

To keep the bars sugar-free, the brand uses two alternative sweeteners — stevia and erythritol — in place of added sugar.

The Mint Chocolate bar contains chocolate, almonds, coconut, non-GMO erythritol, cocoa processed with alkali, water, salt, stevia, and peppermint oil.

Here’s the nutrition info for the Mint Chocolate flavor (8)

• Calories: 240
• Protein: 6 g
• Fat: 20 g
• Net carbs: 4 g
• Fiber: 6 g

Best organic

BHU Keto Bars

• Price: $
• Available flavors: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Dough, Double Dark Chocolate Cookie Dough, Chocolate Coconut Cookie Dough, Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough, Caramel Peanut Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and Mint Double Dark Chocolate Cookie Dough

BHU’s keto-friendly protein bars have a fudgy texture and are made without any artificial sweeteners or preservatives. As a result, they need to be kept refrigerated.

One unique ingredient in these bars is organic tapioca flour, which contains prebiotic fiber. This indigestible fiber helps feed beneficial bacteria in your gut, supporting proper digestion, immune system health, and heart health (10, 11).

The White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Dough bar contains the following ingredients: cashews, white chocolate, red palm oil, tapioca fiber, pea protein, macadamia nuts, medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil, baobab, vanilla, sunflower lecithin, sea salt, monk fruit, and water.

Here’s the nutrition info for the White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Dough flavor (12):

• Calories: 250
• Protein: 11 g
• Fat: 20 g
• Net carbs: 0 g
• Fiber: 11 g

What our tester says

“BHU’s keto bars are some of the best-tasting I’ve tried. They really taste like cookie dough, and they make for a great dessert. But since they’re pretty high in fat, these relatively small bars are pretty high in calories — something to keep in mind if you’re trying to lose weight.”

— Healthline writer SaVanna Shoemaker, MS, RDN, LD

Best vegan

Dang Bars

• Price: $
• Available flavors: Lemon Matcha, Toasted Coconut, Crazy Rich Chocolate, Almond Cookie, and Peanut Butter

Dang Bars are a great option if you’re following a plant-based keto diet or simply prefer a vegan-friendly snack bar.

Many of the ingredients in Dang Bars — such as nuts, pea protein, and chia and sunflower seeds — are instantly recognizable as nutritious and keto-friendly.

For example, the Lemon Matcha flavor contains the following ingredients: almonds, chicory root fiber, cocoa butter, pea protein, sunflower seeds, coconut, chia seeds, natural flavors, lemon oil, sunflower lecithin, matcha green tea, citric acid, sea salt, stevia extract, and mixed tocopherols.

Plus, these bars contain chicory root fiber, which is an excellent source of gut-healthy prebiotic fiber. However, it’s also high in short-chain carbohydrates called FODMAPs, so these bars may not be the best option for individuals with digestive conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) (13, 14).

Here’s the nutrition info for the Lemon Matcha flavor (15):

• Calories: 210
• Protein: 9 g
• Fat: 15 g
• Net carbs: 5 g
• Fiber: 6 g

Best high fiber

No Cow Dipped Bars

• Price: $–$$
• Available flavors: Chocolate Sprinkled Donut, Chocolate Sea Salt, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, Chocolate Salted Caramel, Chocolate Mint Cookie, Cinnamon Roll, Key Lime Pie, and Chocolate Coconut Almond

With 11–15 g of fiber per bar, No Cow Dipped Bars have the highest fiber content of all the bars on our list.

Consuming enough fiber each day is associated with a number of health benefits (10, 11).

No Cow Dipped Protein Bars are vegan and keto-friendly bars made using all plant-based ingredients. They’re also certified gluten-free and kosher, soy-free, and Non-GMO Project verified.

The Chocolate Sea Salt bar is made using a brown rice and pea protein blend, soluble corn fiber, chocolate coating, glycerine, almonds, palm oil, natural flavors, cocoa powder, salt, water, and a sweetener blend of monk fruit, stevia extract, and erythritol.

Here’s the nutrition info for the Chocolate Sea Salt flavor (16):

• Calories: 200
• Protein: 20 g
• Fat: 7 g
• Net carbs: 3 g
• Fiber: 15 g

What our tester says

“The taste of these bars wasn’t my favorite, but it also wasn’t terrible. Compared to some of the bars that I prefer the taste of, this one contains more protein and fiber — so it’s a trade-off.”

— Healthline writer SaVanna Shoemaker, MS, RDN, LD

Best-tasting

CanDo Keto Krisp Bars

• Price: $$
• Available flavors: Butter & Salt, Almond Butter Blackberry Jelly, Chocolate Raspberry, Almond Butter, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk, Maple Salted Caramel, Dark Chocolate Almond Sea Salt, and Chocolate Mint

Keto Krisp offers a unique texture twist: crispy yet still soft and chewy.

These bars also come in unique flavors such as Butter & Salt, as well as more traditional flavors such as Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk.

All the varieties are gluten-free and sweetened with stevia and erythritol to keep the sugar content low. With the exception of the Butter & Salt flavor (which contains collagen), they’re also plant-based.

Keto Krisp bars also contain MCT oil, which may be helpful for weight loss, as well as fiber to promote fullness (17, 18).

Here’s the nutrition info for the Butter & Salt flavor (19):

• Calories: 240
• Protein: 10 g
• Fat: 19 g
• Net carbs: 4 g
• Fiber: 9 g

What our tester says

“These protein bars taste more like candy bars than traditional protein bars. They have a crisp, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth texture.

“My absolute favorite is the mint chocolate flavor, which tastes like a really fudgy Thin Mint cookie. However, the Butter & Salt flavor is also very good and reminds me of a buttery pastry.”

— Healthline writer SaVanna Shoemaker, MS, RDN, LD

Best with probiotics

CORE Keto Bars

• Price: $$
• Available flavors: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Dark Chocolate Sea Salt, and Peanut Butter Chocolate

CORE Foods offers keto bars made with probiotics, which may be beneficial for gut health.

They contain the strain Bacillus coagulans GBI-30 6086, which may help your body absorb protein more effectively (20).

However, because they contain live probiotics and no preservatives, these bars should be refrigerated.

These bars are also non-GMO, plant-based, and sweetened with allulose and monk fruit extract.

Here’s the nutrition info for the Peanut Butter Chocolate flavor (21):

• Calories: 170
• Protein: 7 g
• Fat: 12 g
• Net carbs: 3 g
• Fiber: 7 g

What our tester says

“I like CORE Keto Bars, especially the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor. They are soft and chewy with some crispy pieces and are not overly sweet.”

— Healthline writer SaVanna Shoemaker, MS, RDN, LD

Most widely available

think! Keto Protein Bars

• Price: $
• Available flavors: Chocolate Mousse Pie, Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough

These keto-friendly protein bars from think! are available at many grocery store chains, including Walmart, so you can purchase them in person or as part of your regular grocery order rather than needing to order them online.

They’re available in dessert-like flavors and are highly rated for taste. They’re also gluten-free and sweetened with erythritol and stevia.

However, it’s important to note that these bars are made with milk protein, so they’re not vegan-friendly.

Here’s the nutrition info for the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie flavor (22):

• Calories: 180
• Protein: 10 g
• Fat: 14 g
• Net carbs: 3 g
• Fiber: 3 g

What our tester says

“The Chocolate Mousse Pie think! Keto Bar is one of my all-time favorites. I actually brought some on our last vacation to have as my dessert each day. They taste really indulgent — definitely more like a candy bar than a typical protein bar.”

— Healthline writer SaVanna Shoemaker, MS, RDN, LD

Homemade keto bars are ideal if you want to carefully control the ingredients used or simply enjoy the craft of concocting your own foods.

This recipe makes bars with 319 calories and 7 g of protein each. Furthermore, each bar provides a whopping 28 g of fat and only 4 g of net carbs.

In addition to a handful of other whole ingredients, these bars are rich in almonds, pecans, and almond butter. Research has shown that regular nut intake may aid weight loss and benefit heart health (23, 24).

Anyone who loves peanut butter cups will enjoy these no-bake peanut butter protein bars that take less than 10 minutes to make.

You’ll need just five low carb ingredients: coconut flour, a protein powder of your choice, peanut butter, a sticky sweetener of your choice, and chocolate chips.

To keep these bars keto-friendly, the recipe recommends using monk fruit syrup because it’s carb-free. You may want to double-check that both your protein powder and your chocolate chips are keto-friendly as well.

There’s no shortage of options to choose from if you’re looking for a keto-friendly protein bar.

When you’re deciding which product is right for you, it’s important to consider the macronutrient profile of the bar and its ingredient list.

Macronutrient content

There are several versions of the keto diet, though the most popular one encourages getting at least 70% of your daily calories from fat, 20% from protein, and no more than 10% from carbs (1, 25).

If you’re following a standard keto diet, you’ll want to stick to this macronutrient breakdown as closely as possible. For a 200-calorie bar, this ratio would equal 16 g of fat, 10 g of protein, and no more than 5 g of net carbs.

Ingredients

Try to avoid bars with a long list of ingredients you don’t recognize, such as artificial sweeteners or preservatives, as these indicate that the bar is more heavily processed.

Research suggests that diets high in ultra-processed foods are linked to an increased risk of chronic health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and obesity (26, 27, 28).

Instead, choose bars made mostly from whole foods such as oils, spices, natural sweeteners, nuts, and seeds. Because the keto diet is high in fat, you should also look for healthy fats such as nuts and nut butter, MCT oil, avocado oil, and flax, chia, or hemp seeds.

Additional factors

In addition to the macronutrient breakdown and ingredients, you may want to consider:

• price
• available flavors
• texture
• taste

A keto diet, which is based on very low carb and high fat foods, has been shown to offer a number of potential benefits when combined with sound nutrition principles.

Originally created for the management of childhood epileptic seizures, the keto diet has become popular with the general public for a number of health reasons (29).

One of these is that it may help promote weight loss, at least while a person is following the diet (30).

Some research has also found that a keto diet can be beneficial for improving blood sugar regulation (31, 32, 33).

Furthermore, some studies suggest that it may support brain health, possibly offering a therapeutic benefit for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease (34, 35).

However, more research is needed on the long-term health effects of following a keto diet.

Can you have Atkins bars on the keto diet?

Most Atkins bars will fit into a keto diet, as they generally contain a small amount of net carbs and are sweetened with sugar alcohols in place of added sugar. It’s always best to read the ingredient list to make sure any protein bar aligns with your needs and preferences.

Are low carb protein bars good for you?

Low carb protein bars can be a convenient and quick way to boost your protein intake if you don’t have time to make a protein-rich, keto-friendly snack. However, not all bars are created equal.

We recommend reading the nutrition facts and ingredient list on any low carb protein bar you’re considering and seeing how it compares with the options listed above.

Ideally, bars will have ingredients derived from whole foods, a short ingredient list, and no added sugar or unnecessary fillers.

Are Fiber One bars keto?

Fiber One bars are not the best snack bars to eat on a keto diet. This is because they are generally lower in calories and fat and contain around 12–20 g of net carbs, which is more likely to break ketosis.

Additionally, Fiber One bars don’t contain much fat — most varieties provide only about 6 g per bar. Because a keto diet is characterized by very low carb, high fat foods, Fiber One bars do not meet most of the requirements.

Are Quest Bars keto?

Many Quest protein bars are keto-friendly, containing 3–5 g of net carbs per bar. They are also higher in protein and lower in fat than some other keto-friendly bars. However, they do contain the artificial sweetener sucralose, which may be a downside for some.

Numerous low carb, high fat protein bars align with the keto diet to keep you feeling full between meals or to provide a quick and easy breakfast.

It’s important to look for bars that pack a decent amount of protein, fiber, healthy fats, and other nutritious ingredients.

Of course, whipping up a batch of homemade bars is a great option as well.