Beans are one of the most potassium-rich foods in the plant kingdom — a single cup of cooked beans can deliver anywhere from 300 to 500 mg of potassium, often more than a banana. This Beans Potassium Calculator helps you quickly convert any serving size of your favorite cooked bean into its potassium content, then shows how that fits into your daily needs.
Whether you're tracking potassium for kidney health, managing blood pressure, fueling athletic performance, or simply building a well-balanced meal plan, this tool gives you an instant estimate based on standard USDA nutrition data. Choose a bean, enter your portion, and get results in milligrams, percent Daily Value, and banana equivalents.
Use the quick-fill buttons for common serving sizes, or enter your own grams, ounces, or cups. The calculation is broken down step by step so you can see exactly how the number is derived.
🥜 1. Choose Your Bean
⚖️ 2. Enter Serving Size
How to Use This Calculator
Start by selecting the type of bean you're eating from the dropdown menu. The list includes common varieties like black beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils, and lima beans, with potassium values based on cooked, boiled beans without added salt. If your bean isn't listed, choose the closest comparable option — most beans fall in a similar range.
Next, enter the amount you plan to eat. You can type a weight in grams or ounces, or use the cup option, which assumes an average cooked bean weight of 177 grams per cup. For the fastest results, use the one-click presets for 100 g, a typical 130 g serving, one cup, or a full 260 g can (drained). Press the Calculate Potassium button and the tool will instantly display your total potassium in milligrams, the share of the recommended daily value (DV), and a banana-equivalent comparison.
The step-by-step breakdown at the bottom of the result box shows how the number was calculated: serving weight in grams multiplied by the bean's potassium value per 100 grams, then divided by 100. This makes it easy to understand and adapt if you want to scale the portion up or down.
Potassium Reference Table
The table below lists the approximate potassium content of common cooked beans per 100 grams and per standard 177 g cup. Values are adapted from USDA FoodData Central and are intended for general meal-planning purposes.
| Bean type (cooked) | mg per 100 g | mg per cup (177 g) |
|---|---|---|
| White beans (cannellini) | 561 | 993 |
| Adzuki beans | 532 | 942 |
| Soybeans | 515 | 912 |
| Lima beans | 508 | 899 |
| Pinto beans | 436 | 772 |
| Kidney beans | 405 | 717 |
| Great Northern beans | 391 | 692 |
| Lentils | 369 | 653 |
| Black beans | 355 | 628 |
| Navy beans | 307 | 543 |
| Chickpeas (garbanzo) | 291 | 515 |
| Mung beans | 266 | 471 |
Need to check potassium in other meal components? Try our ground meat potassium calculator and pumpkin potassium calculator for quick comparisons.
Why Potassium From Beans Matters
Potassium is an essential mineral and electrolyte that helps regulate fluid balance, nerve signals, and muscle contractions. It also works alongside sodium to control blood pressure. Diets rich in potassium are associated with a lower risk of hypertension, stroke, and kidney stones. The National Institutes of Health recommends adults consume about 4,700 mg of potassium per day, yet most people fall short.
Beans are an excellent way to close that gap because they deliver potassium in a package that also contains protein, fiber, folate, iron, and magnesium — while being naturally low in sodium when prepared without added salt. A single serving of most beans provides 6–12% of your daily potassium need, and when paired with vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, beans make it much easier to hit the daily target.
For athletes, potassium is particularly important because it's lost through sweat. Replacing it with potassium-rich whole foods like beans helps support recovery and maintain normal muscle function. For people with chronic kidney disease, however, potassium intake may need to be limited — always follow guidance from your doctor or renal dietitian rather than relying on generic targets.
Tips for Maximizing Potassium From Beans
Keep the cooking liquid in soups and stews. Some potassium leaches into the cooking water when beans are boiled. If you drain and rinse canned beans, you lose a little potassium but also cut sodium significantly. For the highest potassium per serving, use dried beans cooked from scratch and include the broth in your dish.
Pair beans with other potassium-rich foods. Combine beans with leafy greens, potatoes, tomatoes, or citrus to create a meal that easily crosses the 1,000 mg potassium mark.
Measure after cooking. This calculator assumes cooked beans. Dried raw beans are much more concentrated and require soaking and boiling before eating, so using raw weights will overestimate your portion.
Watch your portion if you're monitoring potassium. The difference between a half-cup side dish and a two-cup vegan chili is significant — one cup of lima beans alone provides nearly 900 mg.
Common Questions
Are canned beans as potassium-rich as dried beans?
Generally yes, with one caveat: canning liquid contains some leached potassium, so draining and rinsing can reduce potassium slightly compared with fresh-cooked beans. However, rinsing also removes a substantial amount of added sodium. If you use canned beans, check the label for sodium content and rinse them well before cooking, especially if you're on a low-sodium diet.
Why does the calculator use a daily value of 4,700 mg?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated the Daily Value for potassium in 2020 from 3,500 mg to 4,700 mg per day, based on the Adequate Intake established by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This calculator uses the current 4,700 mg figure.
Does cooking method change potassium content?
Yes, moderately. Boiling in a large amount of water can leach potassium into the cooking water, while pressure-cooking or using minimal water retains more. The values here represent typical boiled beans. If you pressure-cook beans or use the cooking liquid in the dish, potassium will be closer to the higher end of the range.
Can I use this tool for dried beans directly?
No, the potassium values are based on cooked beans. Dried beans contain about three times more potassium by weight because they lack water. Use the calculator for cooked portions; if you're starting from dried, first weigh after cooking or divide the dried weight by roughly 3 to estimate the cooked weight.
Precision Notes & Important Limitations
This calculator is designed for general nutrition education and meal planning, not for medical therapy or clinical meal planning. Actual potassium content varies by growing conditions, seed variety, brand, and cooking method — the figures here are typical USDA-derived averages and can differ by 10–15% from one batch to another.
If you have kidney disease, heart disease, or take potassium-affecting medications such as ACE inhibitors, ARBs, or potassium-sparing diuretics, talk to your healthcare provider or a registered dietitian before making large changes to your potassium intake. The banana-equivalent comparison is meant only as a memorable visual reference — a medium banana contains approximately 422 mg of potassium, but bananas and beans have very different nutrient profiles beyond potassium.
For more detailed data, consult the full USDA FoodData Central entry for your specific bean variety and preparation method. This tool should be treated as an estimate, not a lab analysis.