Our grading method
Purity Tiers: how we grade protein supplements
Every product on ChooseSahi carries a tier badge — A+, A, B or C. It comes from one calculation, applied identically to all 3,214 whey products and everything else in the catalogue: protein per serving divided by serving size. That is the whole formula, and this page exists so you can check our work.
The whole formula
Nothing else feeds into it — not brand, not price, not our opinion.
from a 40 g scoop
from a 27 g scoop
Same “24 g protein”. Very different powder.
The reason it is worth a dedicated number is that the front of a tub tells you protein per scoop and says nothing about scoop size. A 40 g scoop delivering 24 g of protein and a 27 g scoop delivering the same 24 g both advertise “24 g protein”. The first is 60% protein; the second is 89%. You buy powder by weight, so the fraction of it that is protein is what decides your real cost per gram.
No brand can influence a tier. There is no editorial adjustment and no paid placement — no brand can buy a tier, a rank, or a place on this page. Some links here earn us a commission when you buy, which changes nothing about the arithmetic. If a product we would rather not recommend calculates to an A+, it gets an A+.
The scale
The four tiers
Protein as a share of the powder, by weight.
- A+88% and aboveprotein by weight
Essentially pure protein. In practice this means a well-made isolate or hydrolysate: almost all the lactose, fat and carbohydrate has been filtered out. A 30 g scoop delivering 27 g or more of protein sits here.
- A75% to 87%protein by weight
A good concentrate or a lighter isolate. This is where most quality whey in India lands, and for most buyers it is the sensible tier — the gap in outcome between an A and an A+ is far smaller than the gap in price.
- B60% to 74%protein by weight
A blend, a flavour-heavy formula, or a concentrate carrying a lot of added carbohydrate. Not necessarily a bad product, but you are paying for a meaningful amount of powder that is not protein.
- CBelow 60%protein by weight
Mostly something other than protein — carbohydrate, fat, fillers or flavouring. On a product sold as whey or plant protein powder, that is a warning sign worth checking against the label.
Live from the catalogue
By the numbers
Tier breakdown across 3,214 whey protein products with a computable purity figure, recalculated from the live catalogue on every build.
- A+181% of products
- A98231% of products
- B1,75455% of products
- C46014% of products
14% of the whey proteins we track grade C — mostly something other than protein by weight, despite being sold as whey — while only 1% reach A+. Figures update automatically as the catalogue is re-scraped.
Limits
What the score deliberately ignores
A single number cannot describe a supplement, and pretending otherwise is how scoring systems become marketing. Purity says nothing about amino acid profile, absorption rate, taste, mixability, heavy metal content, or whether the label is truthful in the first place. It measures one thing precisely instead of many things vaguely.
Not measured by purity
- Amino acid profile
- Absorption rate
- Taste
- Mixability
- Heavy metals
- Label honesty
Biggest blind spot
Purity cannot detect amino spiking. Free-form glycine, taurine and BCAAs added to a powder register as protein under the nitrogen-based testing that produces label figures, so a spiked product can score well. That is why we publish a separate guide to spotting amino spiking from the ingredient list, and why the tier should be read alongside it rather than instead of it.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How is the purity score calculated?
Protein per serving divided by serving size, expressed as a percentage. A 30 g scoop delivering 24 g of protein scores 80%. Nothing else feeds into it — not brand, not price, not our opinion.
Why does purity matter more than protein per scoop?
Because scoop sizes differ. A 40 g scoop delivering 24 g of protein and a 27 g scoop delivering 24 g look identical on the front of the tub, but the first is 60% protein and the second is 89%. You are buying the powder, so what fraction of it is protein decides what you actually get per rupee.
Can a brand pay to change its tier?
No. The tier is arithmetic on the nutrition panel — no editorial input and no paid placement. No brand can pay to appear, to rank higher, or to change a tier. We do earn a commission if you buy through some links on this site, and it has no bearing on the tier: the formula never sees it.
Is a C tier product always bad?
Not always. The tier describes protein density, not whether a product suits you — a flavoured blend with added carbohydrate lands lower for exactly that reason. But a C on something sold as pure whey is worth a close look at the label.
What does the purity score not measure?
Amino acid quality, absorption, taste, mixability, heavy metal content and whether the label is honest. It measures one thing precisely rather than many things vaguely, which is why we publish the calculation.
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