Want to know the truth about vegan food at In-N-Out? There are only two things you can actually order that are vegan and neither one is a burger with a patty. You can get French fries, and you can get a Veggie Burger — which is just a bun stuffed with veggies, no meat, no patty at all. That’s it. That’s the whole vegan menu. And here’s something important: In-N-Out does not make a veggie patty. No Impossible patty, no Beyond patty, no plant-based patty of any kind.
If you’ve read somewhere that they serve a “freshly grilled vegetable patty,” that’s just wrong. It’s a fake fact that keeps getting copied from site to site. Everything in this guide comes straight from In-N-Out’s own official ingredient and allergen lists. So you’ll know exactly what’s really vegan, what secretly isn’t, the right words to say at the counter, and the sneaky traps to watch out for.
Every Vegan Option at In-N-Out
While In-N-Out doesn’t offer a dedicated vegan menu, there are several items that can be made completely plant-based with a few simple modifications. Knowing which ingredients are naturally vegan—and which ones need to be removed—makes ordering much easier. The table below lists every vegan-friendly option along with any changes required before you order.
Item | Vegan? | Required Modification |
|---|---|---|
French Fries | Yes | No changes needed. Order as-is. |
Veggie Burger | Yes (Modified) | Ask for no spread and no cheese. |
Veggie Burger (Protein Style) | Yes (Modified) | Request no spread and no cheese. |
Burger Bun | Yes | No changes required. |
Ketchup & Mustard | Yes | No changes required. |
Grilled or Raw Onions, Pickles & Chilies | Yes | No changes required. |
Soft Drinks, Iced Tea, Lemonade & Black Coffee | Yes | No changes required. |
Spread | No | Contains whole eggs. |
Cheese | No | Contains milk and cream. |
Milkshakes | No | Made with dairy ice cream. |
Animal Style Items | No | Contain cheese and spread. |
Hot Cocoa | No | Contains milk. |
That is the complete picture. Two food items and a drink list. In-N-Out is one of the less accommodating chains for plant-based eaters, and it is fair to know that before you drive over.
The Veggie Burger: What It Really Is
The Veggie Burger is a real order, but the name misleads people. It does not appear on the menu board and it contains no patty, plant-based or otherwise. What you get is a toasted bun with hand-leafed lettuce, tomato, and onion. By default it arrives with spread, which is not vegan. Ordered plain, it is a vegetable sandwich. The good news is that In-N-Out will load it heavily at no charge, and the toppings are all plant-based.
Ask for both raw and grilled onions, add pickles, add chopped chilies, and ask for extra toast. Regulars report the fully loaded version costs under $3 at most locations, though prices vary by state. If you want it low-carb, order it Protein Style. That swaps the bun for a lettuce wrap. Protein Style by itself does not make anything vegan. It only removes the bun, so a Protein Style Double-Double is still beef. The style and the ingredients are two separate decisions.
Are In-N-Out Fries Vegan? Yes, and Here Is Why
In-N-Out fries are the strongest vegan item on the menu. Whole potatoes are cut in the store daily and cooked in 100% sunflower oil. The ingredient list is potatoes, sunflower oil, and salt. No beef tallow, no dairy coating, no additives. The fryer situation is also unusually good. Fries are the only fried item In-N-Out makes, so nothing with meat or dairy shares that oil. That removes the cross-contact problem that rules out fries at many other chains. You can request them:
- Light: cooked less, softer.
- Well-done: cooked longer, crispier.
- Extra well-done: the crispiest version.
- No salt or extra salt: free either way.
One trap: never order Animal Style fries. They are topped with melted cheese and spread, which makes them both non-vegan and non-vegetarian. If you want something more than plain fries, ask for grilled onions on top with no cheese and no spread. That request is vegan and free of charge at most locations.
Why the Spread Is Not Vegan
In-N-Out’s spread is a Thousand Island-style sauce, and its official ingredient list includes whole eggs. In-N-Out labels it with a single allergen: egg. This is where nearly every vegan guide, including the widely copied ones, gets it wrong. You will constantly read that the spread “contains dairy and eggs.”
It does not contain dairy. The published ingredients are oil, cucumbers, tomatoes, vinegar, whole eggs, sugar, mustard seeds, spices, and preservatives. There is no milk in it. The distinction matters. If you are dairy-free but still eat eggs, the spread is fine for you. If you are vegan or egg-free, skip it. Either way, the fix is the same: ask for ketchup and mustard instead. Both are vegan, and the swap costs nothing.
Are In-N-Out Buns Vegan? Yes
The buns are vegan, and this is another point competitors get wrong by guessing. Some sites claim the buns are “likely not vegan” because they “may contain dairy or eggs.” In-N-Out’s published bun ingredients contain neither. The bun is made from enriched wheat flour, water, sugar, yeast, soybean oil, salt, vital wheat gluten, malted barley extract, cultured wheat starch and flour, citric acid, tricalcium phosphate, enzymes, ascorbic acid, sodium stearoyl lactylate, and sesame flour.
No milk, no eggs, no butter. In-N-Out also does not butter its buns before toasting. Two things to know: the bun contains wheat and gluten, so it is not celiac-safe. And it contains sesame flour, which In-N-Out declares as an allergen in Texas, Colorado, and Tennessee.
Vegan Drinks at In-N-Out
The drink menu is where vegans have the most room. These are plant-based:
- Fountain sodas: Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Dr Pepper, 7UP, root beer, and other Coca-Cola products.
- Lemonade: both the regular and light versions.
- Iced tea: sweetened and unsweetened.
- Black coffee: plain, with no creamer.
- Water: free with any order.
A useful 2026 update: In-N-Out now lists an oat milk creamer alongside its half and half. Most locations carry it, which means you can get a coffee or tea with a plant-based creamer. This is the closest In-N-Out has come to a dairy-free dairy substitute, and almost no vegan guide mentions it yet. Availability varies, so ask at your location.
Skip these: all milkshakes are made with real dairy ice cream, and there is no plant-milk shake. Hot cocoa contains milk. Marshmallow packets almost certainly contain gelatin, an animal-derived ingredient found in standard marshmallows, so treat them as non-vegan by default unless your location confirms otherwise. Gelatin will not show up on the allergen chart, because it is not classified as a major allergen, so an absence there tells you nothing.
How to Order Vegan at In-N-Out, Word for Word
Vague orders are how spread ends up on your food. Be specific and say the removals out loud.
- Name the item. “I’d like a Veggie Burger.”
- Remove the two non-vegan parts immediately. “No spread and no cheese.”
- Replace the sauce. “Ketchup and mustard instead.”
- Load it up. “Both raw and grilled onions, add pickles, add chopped chilies, extra toast.”
- Add fries. “And fries well-done.” Do not say Animal Style.
- Pick a drink. Any soda, lemonade, iced tea, or water.
A complete order sounds like this: “A Veggie Burger with no spread and no cheese, ketchup and mustard instead, both onions, add pickles, add chilies, extra toast. Fries well-done and a lemonade.” If you are ordering through a third-party delivery app, put every removal in the notes field, then expect it to be missed anyway. Ordering in person or at the drive-thru is far more reliable, because the register has fields for these modifications and the kitchen sees them printed on the ticket.
What Is Not Vegan at In-N-Out
Knowing the traps matters more than knowing the options, because the defaults are stacked against you.
- Spread: whole eggs. On almost everything by default.
- Cheese: milk, cheese culture, cream, and milkfat. Not vegan and there is no plant-based cheese.
- Milkshakes: dairy. Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and Neapolitan are all out.
- Hot cocoa: contains milk.
- Animal Style: adds both cheese and extra spread. Non-vegan by definition, whether on a burger or fries.
- Grilled Cheese: vegetarian, not vegan. It is the Veggie Burger with cheese slices added.
- Flying Dutchman and Protein Style burgers: these are beef items. The style names confuse people, but neither has anything to do with plant-based eating.
Cross-Contact: What Vegans Should Know
Ingredient lists are only half the story. In-N-Out uses shared grills and shared prep surfaces, so the grilled onions on your Veggie Burger are cooked on the same flat-top as beef patties. There are no separate vegan prep areas. If your standard is ingredient-based, this is not an issue.
If you avoid all contact with animal products, ask for raw onions instead of grilled and be aware that the toppings are assembled in a kitchen built around beef. The fries are the exception and the reason they are the safest item. Nothing else goes in the fryer. Staff are also well trained on allergy orders and will change gloves and flag the ticket when you tell them, so mentioning an egg or dairy allergy tends to get more careful handling than saying “I’m vegan.”
Will In-N-Out Ever Add a Vegan Burger?
There is no announced plan. In-N-Out has stayed quiet on the subject for years while competitors moved: Burger King launched the Impossible Whopper, Carl’s Jr. added the Beyond Burger, and McDonald’s tested the McPlant in several markets. PETA and other advocacy groups have run petitions asking In-N-Out to add a plant-based patty, and past petitions have gathered thousands of signatures. The company has not committed to anything publicly.
The likely reason is structural rather than ideological. In-N-Out built its entire operation around fresh, never-frozen beef and a menu that has barely changed since the 1960s, and it has resisted adding almost every new item for decades. A plant-based patty would be one of the biggest menu changes in the chain’s history. Until that changes, customization is the only route.
In-N-Out vs Other Chains for Vegans
Being straight about this helps you plan a road trip better than pretending the options are good.
Restaurant Chain | Vegan Patty Available? | Vegan Fries |
|---|---|---|
In-N-Out | No | Yes |
Burger King | Yes (Impossible Whopper) | Yes |
Carl’s Jr. | Limited (Beyond Burger, varies by location) | Yes |
Five Guys | No | Yes |
White Castle | Yes (Impossible Sliders) | Yes |
In-N-Out lands at the bottom of the burger category for plant-based patties, but it does beat several chains on fries, since many fry in shared oil or use dairy-containing coatings.
Where You Can Find In-N-Out
In-N-Out now runs more than 430 locations across ten states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, and Tennessee, which became the tenth state when its first location opened in December 2025. The chain remains concentrated in the West and Southwest. Use the location finder on the official In-N-Out site to check the nearest store, since new openings happen regularly.
Final Thoughts
n-N-Out is a beef chain, and a vegan order here is a bun full of vegetables and a good order of fries. That is worth saying plainly instead of dressing up. The fries are excellent and reliably vegan, the buns and toppings are clean, and a fully loaded Veggie Burger with both onions, pickles, and chilies is more satisfying than it has any right to be for around $3. The two rules that matter: say no spread, and never say Animal Style. Everything else on the plant-based side of this menu takes care of itself
FAQs
Is there an official vegan menu at In-N-Out?
No. There is no vegan menu and no plant-based patty. You build a vegan order by customizing the Veggie Burger and adding fries.
Does In-N-Out have a vegan milkshake?
No. Every shake is made with dairy ice cream, and In-N-Out does not offer a plant-milk version. Oat milk creamer is available for coffee and tea at most locations, but it is not used in shakes.
Is In-N-Out spread vegan?
No. The official ingredient list includes whole eggs, and In-N-Out labels it with an egg allergen. It does not contain dairy, so dairy-free eaters who still eat eggs can have it. Vegans should ask for ketchup and mustard instead.
Which In-N-Out condiments are vegan?
Ketchup, mustard, chopped chilies, pickles, and both raw and grilled onions are all plant-based. Spread is the only sauce that is not.
Are In-N-Out buns vegan?
Yes. The published bun ingredients contain no dairy or eggs, and the buns are not buttered. They do contain wheat, gluten, and sesame flour.
Are In-N-Out fries vegan?
Yes. They are potatoes cut in-store, cooked in 100% sunflower oil, and salted. Fries are the only fried item, so no meat or dairy shares the oil.
Are Animal Style fries vegan?
No. Animal Style adds melted cheese and spread, so they are neither vegan nor vegetarian.
Does Protein Style make a burger vegan?
No. Protein Style only replaces the bun with lettuce. The patty and cheese stay unless you remove them. A Veggie Burger ordered Protein Style with no spread and no cheese is vegan.
Is In-N-Out halal?
This is a separate question from vegan, and the answer is no. In-N-Out is not halal certified and does not claim to source halal beef. Fries and a Veggie Burger without spread contain no meat, but the kitchen is not halal, and diners who follow halal rules should treat that as their deciding factor.
How do I make sure my order is fully vegan?
Say “no spread, no cheese” explicitly, ask for ketchup and mustard instead, and skip anything Animal Style. Order in person rather than through delivery apps, and repeat the modifications back before you pay.
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