The electrostatic potentials from molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories and Poisson-Boltzmann calculations on a tetra peptide are compared to understand the validity of the resulting free energy surface. The Tuftsin peptide with sequence, Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg, in water is used for the comparison. The results obtained from the analysis of the MD trajectories for the total electrostatic potential at points on a grid using the Ewald technique are compared with the solution to the Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) equation averaged over the same set of configurations. The latter was solved using an optimal set of dielectric constant parameters. Structural averaging of the field over the MD simulation was examined in the context of the PB results. The detailed spatial variation of the electrostatic potential on the molecular surface are not qualitatively reproducible from MD to PB. Implications of using such field calculations and the implied free energies are discussed. ©2000 American Institute of Physics.