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Paneer Calories and Nutrition Facts

October 26, 2026 · Viral Tandel

If you searched for the calories of paneer, the honest answer starts with a plain, sourced number, and a caution about one column in that same number that this guide is not going to gloss over.

Key takeaways

• Paneer is 299 kcal per 100 g, with 15.9 g protein and 15.5 g fat, per USDA FoodData Central.
• That same entry lists 22.5 g of carbohydrate per 100 g, which runs unusually high for a fresh cheese. Treat that specific figure with caution rather than building anything on it.
• Frying paneer, for paneer tikka or pakora, adds oil the plain figure does not include, and there is no verified fried-paneer figure to give you instead.
• Palak paneer, a full dish rather than paneer alone, runs lower per cup than paneer by itself, since spinach and gravy dilute both the cheese and the fat.
• Paneer versus chicken as a protein source gets its own dedicated comparison elsewhere on this site, rather than repeated here.

Paneer, per 100 g and by the cup

The protein and fat columns here are straightforward and worth trusting: paneer is a genuinely calorie-dense, protein-rich cheese either way you slice it. The carbohydrate column is the one to slow down on. Fresh paneer, made from curdled milk with no added starch or sugar, would not typically be expected to carry this much carbohydrate, and this specific USDA entry (FDC ID 2705740) is flagged in this site's own sourcing notes as one to cite carefully rather than lean on. We are showing it as published, because pretending it does not exist would be its own kind of dishonesty, but we are not drawing any conclusion from it. If the exact carbohydrate count in your paneer matters to you, for a specific diet requirement, check the label of the brand you actually bought rather than trusting this one entry.

What frying adds, and why there is no number for it

Paneer shows up in Indian cooking both plain, cubed into a gravy like palak paneer or a curry, and fried, as paneer tikka off a grill or paneer pakora battered and deep fried. The figure above describes plain paneer. Frying changes it meaningfully, since paneer absorbs oil readily, but neither of this site's two sourcing datasets, USDA FoodData Central or the restaurant chains this site tracks separately, publishes a specific fried-paneer figure.

Rather than guess at how much oil a given piece absorbed, the honest answer here is the same one used across this site: it varies by recipe, so scan it. A tandoor-grilled paneer tikka with a light marinade and a deep-fried paneer pakora are not the same food calorically, even though both start from the identical plain paneer above.

Paneer in a dish: palak paneer as one example

Palak paneer is a useful comparison precisely because it shows what happens once paneer is folded into an actual dish rather than eaten as a block. Per cup, it reads well below plain paneer's per-100-gram figure, since the spinach and gravy base dilutes both the cheese and whatever ghee or oil finished the dish. That does not mean palak paneer is automatically "lighter" in any simple sense, the tadka used to finish it is not separately broken out in this figure either, only that a paneer dish and paneer alone are not the same measurement. The palak paneer calories guide covers this dish on its own in more depth.

Paneer and protein, in short

Paneer's protein content is one of the more common reasons people search out its calorie figures in the first place, often to compare it against chicken or another meat. That comparison deserves its own careful treatment rather than a rushed paragraph here, so see paneer versus chicken protein for the full side-by-side. If you are building out a bigger vegetarian Indian plate, the Indian food calories guide covers paneer alongside dal, rice and breads using the same sourced approach as this page, and butter chicken calories sits on the non-vegetarian side of a lot of the same menus paneer dishes appear on.

Logging paneer accurately

Weigh paneer cubes when you can, since a "handful" varies a lot more than a gram weight does, and log any oil used to pan-fry or deep-fry it as its own line rather than assuming the plain-paneer figure already covers it. Packaged paneer, sold in blocks with its own label, can be logged from the barcode for an exact figure rather than an estimate, and that path is free and unlimited to use.

Next time paneer is on your plate, whether cubed into a curry or fried on its own, log it in KalTrack and correct the portion if the estimate looks off, especially if oil is part of what made it into the dish.

This is general information about tracking food, not medical advice. If you are managing a health condition or working to a clinical target, talk to your doctor or a registered dietitian before changing how you eat.