We studied the metabolizable energy content and the apparent (AID) and standardized (SID) ileal digestibility of CP and amino acids (AA) of soybean meals (SBM) from Argentina (ARG), Brazil (BRA), and USA in 21 d-old broilers. These samples (CP = 46.0 ± 0.97%, on 88% DM) were randomly collected from European feed mills and analyzed for key components, including proximal analysis, carbohydrate fraction, AA, and protein quality indicators. The broilers were initially fed a commercial crumble diet from 0 to 14 d of age followed by their corresponding experimental diet in mash form for 7 d. The experimental diets consisted of 53% of a N-free diet based on dextrose, and 47% of each of the 27 SBM tested, as the unique source of N. The experimental design was completely randomized with 3 SBM origins and 9 samples per origin. The experimental unit was a cage with 8 broilers. Data were analyzed as a completely randomized design using an ANOVA with SBM origin as main effect. In addition, Pearson correlation (r) analyses were conducted to study the relationship among chemical traits of the SBM and the in vivo data. From 15 to 21 d of age, broilers fed the USA SBM grew faster (42.7 vs. 38.7 and 39.2 g/d; P < 0.01) and had better feed conversion ratio (FCR; 1.74 vs. 1.90 and 1.88 g/g; P < 0.001) than broilers fed the ARG and BRA meals. On 88% DM basis, the USA meals had higher AME (2,412 vs. 2,349 and 2,344 kcal/kg; P = 0.062) and AMEn (2,276 vs. 2,224 and 2,216 kcal/kg; P = 0.092) than the ARG and BRA meals. Also, the SID of Lys (88.7 vs. 87.5 and 86.9%; P < 0.05) and Cys (77.2 vs. 73.4 and 73.0%; P < 0.01) were higher for the USA meals than for the ARG and BRA meals. The AMEn (CV = 8.10 and 7.04 vs. 8.88%) and the SID of CP (CV = 4.90 and 5.06 vs. 6.62%) and Lys (CV = 4.23 and 4.21 vs. 5.72%) were more uniform for the ARG and USA meals than for the BRA meals. Independent of the origin of the soybeans, the AMEn values of the SBM were correlated negatively with the FCR (r = – 0.390; P < 0.05) of the birds, and positively with the protein dispersibility index (r = 0.438; P < 0.05) and the SID of CP (r = 0.347; P < 0.05) and Lys (r = 0.342; P = 0.081) of the SBM. Also, the SID of Lys was correlated negatively with FCR (r = – 0.365; P < 0.061), and positively with trypsin inhibitor activity (r = 0.358; P < 0.067), SID of CP (r = 0.969; P < 0.001) and the total tract apparent retention of CP (r = 0.514; P < 0.001) of the SBM