Abstract We have calculated the ground state energy of the Hubbard model in the approximation of Hubbard's first paper1 . For the neutral model with nearest neighbour interaction the energy resulting from the selfconsistent paramagnetic solution is compared with those ones following from the (ferromagnetic) Hartree-Fock and an (antiferromagnetic) single particle theory. The energy of the latter one turns out to be the best approximation of the true ground state energy of the model for all values of the coupling constant V0 , but the energy derived from Hubbard's approximation, in spite of the absence of magnetic ordering, is a reasonable approximation at least for sufficiently large values of V0.