营养级（英语：Trophic level）是指生物在食物链之中所占的位置。

生物学家视大自然为一个能量传递的过程。在生态系统中，绿色植物（生产者）将来自太阳的能量吸收，然后草食性动物（初级消费者）吃植物，肉食性动物（次级消费者）又把初级消费者吃掉。

例如，一个捕食性食物链是青草→野兔→狐狸→野狼，牵涉了四种生物，是为四个营养级（青草是第一营养级，野狼是第四营养级），当中，狐狸吸收了野兔的部分能量，而野免吸收的能量是来自青草透过光合作用制造的。在能量传递的过程中，有大部分的能量散失，因此需要很大数量的青草才能供应足够能量给很少量的野兔，从而再供应给更少量的狐狸及野狼。因此营养级被形容为金字塔形，即金字塔底部为青草，最顶部为野狼。

The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain. The word trophic derives from the Greek τροφή (trophē) referring to food or feeding. A food chain represents a succession of organisms that eat another organism and are, in turn, eaten themselves. The number of steps an organism is from the start of the chain is a measure of its trophic level. Food chains start at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, move to herbivores at level 2, predators at level 3 and typically finish with carnivores or apex predators at level 4 or 5. The path along the chain can form either a one-way flow or a food "web". Ecological communities with higher biodiversity form more complex trophic paths.