Peptide and/or protein quantitation methods, kits, and compositions, particularly useful for mass spectrometry, are provided herein based on a bathocuproine-based composition complex such as bathocuproinedisulfonic acid disodium salt hydrate complex. The methods are one-step rapid absorbance methods using small sample volumes. They produce a robust signal with high signal to background ratio and accurately quantitate even complex peptide mixtures with low variability and high sensitivity.