Abstract Amino acid utilization by cattle can be studied by: 1) assessing amino acid requirements with foundational research and using the resultant information to predict animal performance, or 2) evaluating changes in animal performance in response to changes in amino acid supply and subsequently using those measures to predict amino acid requirements. Neither approach has yielded definitive results, and our ability to predict responses of cattle to amino acid supplementation is still quite limited after many years of research. Most supplementation studies have focused on methionine and lysine, amino acids for which ruminally protected products are commercially available. Most finishing cattle fed diets typical of the U.S. feedlot industry are not responsive to methionine or lysine supplementation, although little research is available for cattle fed beta-agonists. In some cases, growing cattle fed corn-based diets have demonstrated performance responses to lysine supplementation. Growing cattle fed forage-based diets, particularly those based on grass silages, appear responsive to supplemental amino acids. Numerous studies with Holstein steers (150 to 250 kg) maintained in a research model to make amino acids the most limiting nutrient have demonstrated linear increases in nitrogen retention, followed by a plateau, when limiting amino acids were supplemented. From those studies, maintenance requirements for amino acids appear to be small, and efficiencies of amino acid utilization for growth are less than predicted by NASEM (2016). Some factors that would be expected to increase the likelihood that amino acids are the most limiting nutrient include: decreased body weight, greater mature body weight, environments that minimize maintenance energy requirements, and diets that lead to redued amounts of microbial protein synthesis (energy sources such as fat and ruminally resistant starch). Despite the many unknowns associated with amino acid requirements of cattle for growth, potential exists to use amino acid supplementation to improve economics of cattle performance or reduce environmental impacts of cattle production.