Creatine · Creatine Monohydrate
The most-studied supplement in existence; muscle, brain, and mood benefits.
Short answer
Creatine (Creatine Monohydrate) is a foundational / muscle with evidence grade A, meaning it is well-supported by replicated human trials. We track 6 produkter containing Creatine. Typical doses range from 2500 to 10000.0 mg per portion. The top-ranked product scores 7.7 out of 10 on our composite scale (dose, evidence, price, testing, transparency). Prices range up to $129.00 per månad.
Top Creatine produkter
| Product | Varumärke | Dose | Pris/mo | 3rd-party tested | Poäng |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creatine Monohydrate Powder | 10000.0 mg | $26.50 | Yes | 7.7 | |
| AG1 Pro | 5000.0 mg | $99.00 | Yes | 7.2 | |
| Longevity Mix - Blood Orange | 2500 mg | $49.00 | Yes | 6.5 | |
| Creatine+ | 5000 mg | $70.00 | No | 6.4 | |
| Daily Ultimate Essentials | 3000 mg | $129.00 | Yes | 6.0 |
Scores are editorial judgments, not a scientific standard. Se how we score.
What it is
A compound your body makes and stores in muscles for quick energy bursts. Also concentrated in the brain. You get some from red meat and fish; supplementing tops it up.
Why people take it
Thousands of trials on strength and lean mass. More recent work shows benefits for cognitive function (especially in older adults, vegetarians, and during sleep deprivation) and possibly mood.
Our verdict
Absurdly well-established. Cheap, safe, works for almost everyone at 3 to 5 g/day. Longevity link: preserved muscle mass is one of the strongest predictors of healthy aging.
Structure & class
N-methylguanidinoacetic acid. Stored as phosphocreatine, replenishes ATP in high-demand tissues.
Mechanism & clinical data
Kreider 2017 review documented efficacy in muscle mass, strength, exercise performance, and cognitive function. Rae 2003 showed cognitive improvements with 5 g/day. No difference between monohydrate and 'fancy' forms in absorption.
Pharmacokinetics
~3 hours plasma; muscle stores turn over weekly.
Dose & forms
What to watch out for
Don't pay extra for 'HCl', 'buffered', or 'Kre-Alkalyn', monohydrate is chemically identical after absorption. Look for Creapure® certification.
Säkerhet limits and interactions
When a product exceeds the UL or contains an ingredient with clinically significant interactions, a "Review advised" flag appears on its product page and links here.
Where this dose comes from
The trial dose above is our editorial pick from the published human trials for this ingredient. We choose the dose that the best-available studies used on the endpoint most relevant to longevity. The range shows the lowest and highest doses tested in published trials. The landmark studies below are the papers we read to set it. You can click through and check our work.
When new trials publish, our automated sweeps flag them. If a new study materially changes the dose, we update it through editorial review and record the old dose, new dose, and the triggering study in every affected product's recommendation history. The dose is never changed automatically.
Regelverk status
Timeline
Regelverk events, evidence grade changes, and key research milestones for Creatine, most recent first. Every entry links to its primär source.
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EU Court sharpens the bar for botanical health claimsA Court of Justice of the European Union ruling in april 2025 further tightened the requirements for how botanical ingredients (herbs, plant extracts) can be marketed with health claims in the EU, effectively removing much of the flexibility of the on-hold list.
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EU report identifies 117 supplement substances as potential health risksThe HoA Working Group on Food Supplements (26 European countries) published its first report evaluating 117 substances used in food supplements. Of these, 65 were assessed as likely novel foods, 6 were already regulated, 34 had insufficient data, and 12 were prioritized for Article 8 restriction under Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006. The 12 priority substances include ashwagandha, curcumin, melatonin, piperine, St. John's wort, coumarin, p-synephrine, maca, holy basil, Melaleuca, black cohosh, and L-tryptophan. The report drew on 1,500 RASFF alerts reviewed between 2017 and mid-2022.
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Creatine + cognition metaanalys 2024 (16 RCTs)Across 16 RCTs (492 participants), creatine supplementation significantly improved memory and attention, though not overall cognitive function or executive function.
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Creatine + memory metaanalys 2023 (Nutrition Reviews)This metaanalys found creatine supplementation produces a small but significant improvement in memory performance in healthy adults.
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Creatine + sarcopenia review 2022 (Bone)This review concludes creatine monohydrate, especially combined with resistance training, has favorable effects on aging muscle and bone, supporting its use against frailty and sarcopenia.
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EU adds second creatine health claim for adults over 55Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/672 authorised a second health claim for creatine: creatine in combination with resistance training improves muscle strength in adults over 55. The EFSA scientific opinion was published in februari 2016, establishing a cause and effect relationship between creatine plus resistance training and muscle strength improvement.
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Creatine + older adults metaanalys 2017 (22 RCTs)Across 22 RCTs (721 older adults), creatine plus resistance training produced significantly greater gains in lean tissue mass and both upper- and lower-body strength versus resistance training alone.
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EU authorises health claim for creatine at 3 g/dayCommission Regulation (EU) 432/2012 authorised the claim: "Creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high intensity exercise." The claim applies to foods providing 3 g of creatine per daily intake, targeting adults performing high intensity exercise. This was the first authorised EU health claim for a sports supplement ingredient.
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EU Health Claims Regulation adoptedRegulation (EC) No 1924/2006 laid down harmonised rules for nutrition and health claims made on foods, including supplements. Only claims listed in the EU Register of authorised claims can be used. Rejected botanical claims are held in a separate on-hold list.
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EU introduces the Novel Food RegulationRegulation (EC) No 258/97 required any food or food ingredient without a history of consumption in the EU before 15 maj 1997 to be authorised before being placed on the market. This is the framework that captures NMN, spermidine as a supplement ingredient, urolithin A, and many other longevity actives.
Reported adverse events
Consumer reports submitted to an official government adverse-event database. These reports mention this ingredient but do not prove it caused the reaction. Report volume reflects market penetration as much as inherent risk.
Retrieved from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (CAERS) via the openFDA API. Verified 2026-08-06. Reports are voluntary consumer submissions and mandatory serious-event filings. They establish surveillance, not causality.
Creatine monohydrate raises muscle phosphocreatine stores, boosting strength and lean mass when paired with resistance training.
Verified 2026-08-06. We update this section as new peer-reviewed trials land.
Best-supported claim
Creatine's best-established effect is muscle strength and lean mass gain when combined with resistance training. In adults under 50, a 2024 metaanalys found creatine plus resistance training increased upper-body strength by 4.43 kg and lower-body strength by 11.35 kg versus resistance training alone (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11547435/). In older adults, a 2024 update pooling multiple meta-analyses found creatine increased lean tissue mass by 1.18 kg and upper-body strength (SMD 0.24) versus strength training and placebo (https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/teb-2024-0019/html). A comprehensive 2025 safety analysis of 32 studies and 1,232 older participants found no significant difference in any evaluated side effect between creatine and placebo (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502783.2025.2534130).
Not supported by the evidence base
Marketers increasingly promote creatine as a cognitive enhancer and brain-health supplement, but this claim rests on statistically flawed evidence. A widely cited 2024 metaanalys found creatine improved memory and processing speed, but a 2026 commentary identified a unit-of-analysis error: several trials counted multiple correlated cognitive subtests from the same participants as independent data points, inflating the effective sample size beyond the actual number of people studied (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2026.1716285/full). When a related 2023 metaanalys on memory was re-analyzed correctly, the overall memory effect was no longer significant except in older adults, and the European Food Säkerhet Authority's 2024 opinion concluded no conclusions could be drawn from the flawed pooling. Creatine's effect on overall cognitive function and executive function also failed to reach significance in the original metaanalys itself (SMD 0.34, p=0.22, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11275561/).
Typical dose
3-5 g/day maintenance dose (creatine monohydrate), often preceded by a 20 g/day loading phase for 5-7 days
Säkerhet
Creatine monohydrate is among the most studied supplements and has a strong safety record across decades of trials, including in older adults and clinical populations. It causes a small, likely benign rise in serum creatinine that reflects increased creatine turnover rather than kidney damage; multiple systematic reviews confirm no significant change in glomerular filtration rate or other kidney function markers (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12590749/). A 2023 narrative review concluded cumulative RCT evidence does not support kidney harm in healthy people, though it recommends people with pre-existing kidney disease avoid creatine and that those with reduced kidney function be monitored (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10054094/). Common minor side effects include water retention and mild GI discomfort during loading.
Three recent studies to know
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Effects of Creatine Supplementation and Resistance Training on Muscle Strength Gains in Adults <50 Years of Age: A Systematic Review and Meta-AnalysisLäs studie →
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Commentary: Double-counting in "The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function in adults: a systematisk översikt and metaanalys"Läs studie →
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Effect of creatine supplementation on kidney function: a systematisk översikt and metaanalysLäs studie →
Landmark studies
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Creatine + cognition metaanalys 2024 (16 RCTs)
Across 16 RCTs (492 participants), creatine supplementation significantly improved memory and attention, though not overall cognitive function or executive function.
Läs studie → -
Creatine + memory metaanalys 2023 (Nutrition Reviews)
This metaanalys found creatine supplementation produces a small but significant improvement in memory performance in healthy adults.
Läs studie → -
Creatine + older adults metaanalys 2017 (22 RCTs)
Across 22 RCTs (721 older adults), creatine plus resistance training produced significantly greater gains in lean tissue mass and both upper- and lower-body strength versus resistance training alone.
Läs studie → -
Creatine + sarcopenia review 2022 (Bone)
This review concludes creatine monohydrate, especially combined with resistance training, has favorable effects on aging muscle and bone, supporting its use against frailty and sarcopenia.
Läs studie →
Found in these produkter (6)
Alla produkter in our catalog that contain Creatine, ranked by our overall score. Ranking is editorial, never paid.
Buying guides and comparisons
Related ingredients
Se alla in Foundational / Muscle →Molekyler in the same class, plus the actives most often formulated alongside Creatine in our catalogue.
Frequently asked questions
What is Creatine?
A compound your body makes and stores in muscles for quick energy bursts. Also concentrated in the brain. You get some from red meat and fish; supplementing tops it up.
What dose of Creatine should I take?
The trial dose in published human studies is 5000 mg per dag, with a range of 3000 to 10000 mg per dag. Always consult a qualified clinician before starting any supplement.
Is Creatine safe?
Don't pay extra for 'HCl', 'buffered', or 'Kre-Alkalyn', monohydrate is chemically identical after absorption. Look for Creapure® certification.
What is the best Creatine supplement?
We track 6 produkter containing Creatine. The top-ranked product scores 7.7 out of 10 on our composite scale, which evaluates dose, evidence, price, third-party testing, and transparency. See the comparison table above. Scores are editorial judgments, not a scientific standard.
What is the evidence grade for Creatine?
Creatine has evidence grade A, meaning it is well-supported by replicated human trials. Grade A means replicated human RCTs with hard endpoints. Grade B means human RCTs with biomarker outcomes. Grade C means mixed or small human trials. See our evidence grading methodology.
Data verification
Bevisning grades are reviewed when new human RCTs are published. Product counts update automatically as new produkter are added. Dose ranges reflect published trial data, not brand recommendations. Read how we verify.