How Much Does Edible Bird's Nest Cost? Prices per Ounce and per 100 g (2026)

Ten Lei Yen, Westminster, California — family-owned since 2007. Prices as of September 29, 2026, from our own price list; we update this page monthly.

Good edible bird's nest starts at $45 per ounce — $1.60 per gram, or $160 per 100 grams — at Ten Lei Yen in 2026. That is our Red Label Small Broken white nest in the 250 g box ($400), and it works out to about $5 to $8 per serving (3–5 g of dry nest). Whole nest starts at $54 per ounce ($1.90 per gram) with our 5A white nest, 250 g ($475). Our premium whole grades run up to $102 per ounce, but for everyday cooking you do not need them. Per pound, the range is about $730 to $1,630 — though almost nobody buys by the pound, because a 100 g box already lasts a month of regular servings.

Those are our actual shelf prices in Westminster and on tenleiyen.com, not estimates. Below is the full table, then what moves the price, then how our prices compare with other US sellers.

Ten Lei Yen bird's nest prices, September 2026

All boxes are dry, cleaned nest. Per-ounce and per-100 g figures are calculated from the box price (1 oz = 28.35 g). Cheapest first.

Broken nest (same nest, in pieces) — the best price per gram

Shop: Red Label Broken Nest

If you are price-conscious, buy the Red Label Small Broken white nest, 250 g. It is the same cleaned white nest as our whole boxes, in small pieces, at $1.60 a gram — the lowest price per gram we sell, and lower than the whole-nest prices most US sellers list. It cooks into the same soup.

Whole nest

Shop: 5A · Red Label · Blue Label

Ready-to-drink, for comparison

Brand's Bird's Nest Soup (68 ml bottles, with rock sugar or sugar-free): $150 for a 2-pack of 6+1 bottles, or about $10.70 per bottle. Each bottle holds a small amount of nest in liquid; a bottle is a treat, not a serving of dry nest.

What a serving costs

A standard serving is 3 to 5 g of dry nest — roughly a third to half of one whole nest, which swells to several times its size after soaking. At our prices:

For comparison, a bowl of bird's nest soup in a restaurant is often priced well above a home serving, and a ready-to-drink bottle is about $10.70 with far less nest in it.

What moves the price

Whole vs broken. This is the biggest lever. Broken nest is the same cleaned nest that didn't survive cleaning or shipping in one piece, sold in large, medium or small pieces. Same taste, same texture once cooked, about 20–40% cheaper per gram than whole Red Label Super Dried nest. Corner cut ("nest feet," chân yến) is the dense anchor end of the nest — chewier, longest cooking time, tied for our lowest price.

Grade. Our labels describe how clean, intact and uniform the whole nests are. Blue Label Supreme and Red Label Super Dried are our top tier (S grade): the cleanest, most intact, most uniform nests we carry. 5A (AAAAA) is our A-grade whole nest: complete nests, good strands, slightly less uniform than S grade, and the best-value whole nest we sell. Note that "5A" is not a top grade at Ten Lei Yen, whatever it means elsewhere — our grade names are our own, and the table above is the honest ranking by price.

Box size. A 250 g box is 3–20% cheaper per gram than the same nest in 100 g.

Color. White, golden and red (blood) nest describe appearance — tied to the swiftlet and the environment where the nest formed — not quality. At our store they cost the same or within $10–$65 a box of each other.

Origin and cleaning. Bird's nest is expensive in the first place because it is naturally scarce, harvested in limited quantities, and cleaned almost entirely by hand — a slow process with a low finished yield. That labor is most of what you pay for.

How our prices compare with other US sellers

Sellers you will see named in online guides, with the prices shown on their own websites (checked September 2026; their prices change, so treat these as a snapshot):

• Golden Nest — AAA white, gold and red nest from $125 for 28 g to $720 for 227 g (about $79–$127 per ounce, including a $633.60 sale price).
• Natural Nest — dried nest listed at $150 to $800 per item (shown sold out when checked); no weights listed, so no per-ounce comparison.
• Blessing Bird Nest (Corona, CA) — 250 g boxes at $800–$850 and 500 g boxes at $1,600–$1,700 (about $91–$96 per ounce).
• Amazon and eBay — prices vary widely; most listings are from third-party sellers, so check origin and seller history.
• Weee! — grocery delivery; carries packaged nest and ready-to-drink.

Where Ten Lei Yen sits: our Red Label Small Broken 250 g at $45 per ounce and our 5A whole nest at $54 per ounce are below the whole-nest prices those sellers list ($79–$127 per ounce at Golden Nest, $91–$96 at Blessing). Our S-grade whole nest ($74–$102/oz) is priced with the market's premium tier. What you get for it is a store you can walk into in Little Saigon (9741 Bolsa Ave, Suite 107, Westminster, CA), look at the nest in the case, and ask the family that has sold it since 2007.

Related guides: how our grades work · how much is a serving · how to tell real nest from fake · dried vs ready-to-drink.

Frequently asked questions

How much is bird's nest per ounce? $45 to $102 per ounce at Ten Lei Yen in 2026, depending on grade and whether the nest is whole or broken. Small broken pieces are $45–$51/oz; whole Blue Label is $85–$102/oz.

How much is bird's nest per pound? About $730 to $1,630 per pound at our 2026 prices. We sell by the 100 g and 250 g box, not by the pound; a 250 g box is roughly half a pound.

Why is 5A cheaper than Red Label at Ten Lei Yen? Because our grade names are our own. 5A is our A-grade whole nest; Red Label Super Dried and Blue Label Supreme are S grade — cleaner and more uniform. Other sellers use "AAAAA" to mean their top grade, so compare by what is in the box, not by the letters.

Is broken bird's nest worth buying? Yes, if you cook it into soup or drinks rather than serve a whole nest for show. It is the same cleaned nest at roughly 20–40% less per gram.

Is ready-to-drink bird's nest cheaper? Per bottle, yes (about $10.70). Per gram of actual nest, no — a bottle contains a small amount of nest in liquid. Dry nest at $5–$18 a serving is the better value if you are eating it regularly.

Does red (blood) nest cost more? At Ten Lei Yen, red costs the same as white in Red Label and broken boxes, and $10–$50 more in Blue Label Supreme — because color is appearance, not quality.

Prices on this page are Ten Lei Yen's own retail prices as of September 29, 2026, in US dollars, before tax and shipping. Sale prices and most bulk boxes (2, 4, 5, 10, 20-box packs) are lower per gram; see the product pages. Competitor prices are as shown on their websites on the date checked and are not verified by us.

Shop this article

White Edible Bird's Nest – Red Label, Small Broken – 250g (8.8 oz)

$400

White Edible Bird's Nest – Red Label, Super Dried – 250g (8.8 oz)

$650

White Edible Bird's Nest, 5A (AAAAA) – Ten Lei Yen – 250g (8.8 oz)

$475

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