Panera soups guide · Fall 2026 menu
All 10 soups with 2026 prices and official nutrition, including the new fall Three Cheese Lasagna Soup. Every soup page on the internet hands you a table. This one starts with the only decision that matters: broth or creamy. Soups sit alongside sandwiches and salads in the complete menu, category by category.
Panera soup is served by the bowl at Panera Bread bakery-cafes, in two families: broth-based soups and creamy soups. This guide covers all 10 soups on the 2026 menu, including the new fall Three Cheese Lasagna Soup, with 9-city average prices and official nutrition.
Independent guide, not affiliated with Panera. Prices are 9-city averages checked September 30, 2026; nutrition taken from Panera’s official Nutrition Guide dated September 2, 2026.
The one decision
Panera’s soup menu looks like ten choices. It is really two. Pick the family first, and the specific soup almost chooses itself.
The lightest real meal on the entire Panera menu, and the best protein-per-calorie ratio of any soup: 14g of protein for 180 calories. Nothing creamy comes close on efficiency.
Order broth when you want light: a real meal that leaves room for the rest of the day.
The famous one, and fairly: rich, cheesy, and satisfying. The honest price of that comfort is 2.3 times the calories of the Chicken Noodle, for slightly less protein.
Order creamy when you want comfort: and know the price before you pay it.
Same price, different meal: both bowls cost $8.13. The $8 question at Panera is never what soup costs: it is what the soup costs you in calories. That is the decision this page exists to make easy.
The protein king of soups: 19g of protein at 360 calories. No other soup on the menu breaks 14g. It is also the newest: a fall 2026 arrival that most soup pages have not caught up to yet, which is why you will not find these verified numbers elsewhere.
Order it when: you want a soup that actually holds you until dinner. It out-proteins the Broccoli Cheddar by 7g for 60 fewer calories.
The full lineup
Every soup with its 2026 price, calories, protein, and sodium, and the one line that matters: when to order it. The two Mac & Cheeses get their own honest section below.
Broth-based
180 cal
Order it when: you want the lightest real meal at Panera. Best protein-per-calorie of any soup.
The Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup is a broth-based soup served at Panera Bread: 180 calories, 14g protein, and 1570mg sodium for $8.13.
Broth-based
300 cal
Order it when: you want the cheese-topped classic. Saltiest of the true soups: enjoy it knowingly.
The Bistro French Onion Soup is a broth-based soup served at Panera Bread: 300 calories, 10g protein, and 1820mg sodium for $8.13.
Creamy
300 cal
Order it when: you want creamy without the full comfort price: mid-weight, steady, filling.
The Cream of Chicken & Wild Rice Soup is a creamy soup served at Panera Bread: 300 calories, 9g protein, and 1400mg sodium for $8.13.
Creamy
330 cal
Order it when: it is actually fall. Sweet, seasonal, and among the gentler sodium counts here.
The Autumn Squash Soup is a creamy soup served at Panera Bread: 330 calories, 8g protein, and 1210mg sodium for $8.22.
Creamy
340 cal
Order it when: it has a grilled cheese next to it. Lowest sodium of any soup, but only 4g protein: it is a partner, not a meal.
The Creamy Tomato Soup is a creamy soup served at Panera Bread: 340 calories, 4g protein, and 1110mg sodium for $8.16.
Creamy: fall 2026
360 cal
Order it when: you want the most protein a soup can give you. The sleeper pick of the fall menu.
The Three Cheese Lasagna Soup is a creamy soup served at Panera Bread: 360 calories, 19g protein, and 1460mg sodium for $8.29.
Creamy
420 cal
Order it when: comfort is the point. The classic, at 2.3 times the Chicken Noodle’s calories.
The Broccoli Cheddar Soup is a creamy soup served at Panera Bread: 420 calories, 12g protein, and 1520mg sodium for $8.13.
Creamy
430 cal
Order it when: you want the heartiest true soup: joint-highest calories, with real protein to show for it.
The Rustic Baked Potato Soup is a creamy soup served at Panera Bread: 430 calories, 14g protein, and 1660mg sodium for $8.29.
The honesty section
Mac & Cheese is listed with Panera's soups, but it is a baked pasta dish that eats like dinner: 980 calories and 32g protein in the regular, 1,050 in the bacon version.
Panera files these under Soups & Mac. We are filing them where they belong: these are full dinners wearing a soup costume, and the numbers prove it.
More calories than most Panera sandwiches, and exactly 100% of the FDA daily sodium value in one bowl. The 32g of protein is real: this is a meal, priced and built like one.
Order it when: it IS dinner. Not as a side, not as a soup course: as the main event, on purpose.
The Mac & Cheese is a baked pasta dish served at Panera Bread alongside its soups: 980 calories, 32g protein, and 2300mg sodium for $10.26.
The heaviest item on this page: 1,050 calories and 114% of a day’s sodium. Bacon adds 4g of protein and 320mg of sodium to the plain Mac: you are trading salt for smoke.
Order it when: you want the full comfort order and the rest of the day can be light. Worth it, knowingly.
The Bacon Mac & Cheese is a baked pasta dish served at Panera Bread alongside its soups: 1050 calories, 36g protein, and 2620mg sodium for $11.57.
Sodium honesty
Even the lightest soup carries 1,570mg of sodium: about 68% of the 2,300mg daily value. The Chicken Noodle is the healthiest soup here by calories and protein, and it still spends two-thirds of your salt budget in one bowl.
At the other end, the Mac & Cheese hits 2,300mg (100% of the day) and the Bacon Mac reaches 2,620mg (114%). No soup on this page is low-sodium: the gentlest, Creamy Tomato, is still 1,110mg. The decision is never “salty or not”: it is how much of the day this bowl spends, and what dinner does about it.
Honest gap: our menu numbers has no bread-bowl combo nutrition, so we are not printing invented numbers. What we can say from the menu’s structure: a bread bowl makes the soup the meal, vessel included. You are eating the bowl.
The decision: treat any bread bowl as a full meal, not a soup upgrade. If the soup alone would not be lunch, the bread bowl will be: order it when the soup is the main event, and skip it when the soup is a side to something else.
Where your next question leads
Soup alone not quite enough? Build a fuller lunch by pairing soup with a half sandwich or salad. Curious which soups people come back for most? Take a look at the orders worth your money.
FAQ
The calorie questions everyone searches, the best-soup question answered honestly, and the soup-of-the-day question answered straight.
420 calories, with 12g of protein and 1,520mg of sodium, for $8.13. That is 2.3 times the calories of the Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup (180 cal) at the same price. Figures match Panera’s official Nutrition Guide dated September 2, 2026; prices are 9-city averages.
180 calories, with 14g of protein and 1,570mg of sodium, for $8.13. It is the lightest soup on the menu and the lightest real meal at Panera. The sodium caveat applies: 1,570mg is about 68% of the 2,300mg FDA daily value, so balance the rest of the day.
There is no single best: it depends on the job. For light with real protein, Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup (180 cal, 14g protein). For the most protein in a soup, the new Three Cheese Lasagna Soup (360 cal, 19g protein). For comfort, Broccoli Cheddar (420 cal). Pick broth for light, creamy for comfort: the split at the top of this page walks through it.
There is no single national soup of the day: availability varies by cafe and by day, and seasonal soups rotate in and out. The reliable move is to check your local cafe’s menu for the day rather than trust a fixed schedule. Our Locations page can point you at your cafe.
For fall 2026, the seasonal set is Autumn Squash Soup (330 cal, $8.22), Rustic Baked Potato Soup (430 cal, $8.29), and the new Three Cheese Lasagna Soup (360 cal, $8.29). Seasonal items rotate, so availability varies by cafe.
980 calories, with 32g of protein and 2,300mg of sodium, for $10.26. The Bacon Mac & Cheese is 1,050 calories, 36g of protein, and 2,620mg of sodium for $11.57. Treat both as dinner, not as a soup side: the honesty section above shows why.
Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup: 180 calories and 14g of protein, the best protein-per-calorie ratio of any soup. The honest caveat: even this lightest soup carries 1,570mg of sodium, about 68% of the daily value, so balance the rest of the day. For the full-menu view, see the Nutrition page.
Keep deciding
A soup rarely travels alone. These pages cover what it pairs with, what it costs to bring home, and where every number on this page comes from.
All 247 items taken from the official nutrition guide, including every soup on this page, filterable by your goal: light, high protein, or easy on sodium.
Nutrition guideThe classic Panera move is soup plus a half sandwich. The homepage finder ranks the sandwich half by your goal, with the same verified data behind every pick.
Open the finderSoup travels well, but the fees decide whether it should. The delivery guide compares the four ordering routes and shows the cheapest way to do it.
Delivery guide