Creatine Guide (2026): Research, Forms, Dose and Cost

What to buy

Naked Creatine is our pick for most people. It is plain micronized creatine monohydrate, 5 g a scoop, in a 1 kg tub, and it is on NSF/ANSI 173, a list that checks a tub holds what its label says.

Where to go next

• Best creatine: our ranked picks and who each one fits.
• Creatine prices: every tub size, cheapest dose first.
• Third-party tested creatine: which tub is on which testing list.
• Creatine dosage guide: how much, loading and timing.
• Creatine forms compared: monohydrate, HCl and the rest. Set on HCl? See the best creatine HCl.
• Best micronized creatine: the finer powder that mixes faster.
• Cheaper alternative to Thorne creatine: the same testing for less.
• Is your brand any good? Sports Research Creapure, Legion, Ascent, 1st Phorm.
• Creatine gummies and creatine capsules: which ones hold what the label says.
• Creatine for women, creatine for men, creatine for seniors.
• Thorne vs Optimum Nutrition, Momentous vs Thorne, Nutricost vs Thorne, BulkSupplements vs Thorne, Optimum Nutrition vs Nutricost, Nutricost vs BulkSupplements and Thorne vs Transparent Labs: same creatine, different testing and price.

What creatine does

Creatine helps muscles make quick energy for short, hard efforts, so you can do a little more work in each session. Over weeks that adds up. It is not a substitute for training: without lifting, the gains in studies were small. Here is what pooled studies found.

How much to take

Take 3 to 5 g of creatine monohydrate a day. A loading week is optional. The dosage guide covers loading, dose by body weight and timing.

Is creatine safe?

Yes, for healthy adults. The International Society of Sports Nutrition reviewed the research and found that up to 30 g a day for up to 5 years was well tolerated in healthy people. The usual dose is far lower. Here is what studies found on the common worries.

Does creatine cause hair loss?

No study has shown it. The worry comes from one 2009 study of 20 rugby players, where a hormone called DHT rose. It was never repeated. A 2025 trial was the first to measure hair itself. After 12 weeks, DHT and hair density did not differ from placebo.

Does creatine hurt your kidneys?

Not in people with healthy kidneys. Your body turns creatine into creatinine, the number a kidney blood test reads, so creatine raises it a little. That is a test effect, not damage. A 2025 review of trials found a small rise that faded, and no change in eGFR, the real measure of kidney filtering. The few kidney-failure case reports involved existing kidney disease or other causes. Tell whoever orders your blood work that you take creatine.

Does it cause bloating or dehydration?

It pulls water into your muscle cells, not under your skin. In a controlled trial, total body water rose, but the share inside and outside cells stayed the same. If you load, early weight gain is mostly this water, not fat. No controlled study has shown cramps or dehydration from creatine.

Will it upset your stomach?

Rarely. In one trial of 59 soccer players, a single 10 g dose caused more diarrhea than the same amount split in two. If you take more than your usual scoop, split it.

Who should ask a doctor first?

Ask first if you have kidney disease, take a medicine that is hard on the kidneys, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are under 18. Studies have not looked closely at those groups.

Creatine for men

Men take the same creatine as everyone else, and the two worries men ask about most, hair loss and kidneys, are answered above. For the dose by body weight, see the creatine dosage guide.

Which form is best?

Monohydrate. No other form, such as HCl, buffered or ethyl ester, has been shown to work better in the studies we found, and monohydrate costs the least. Creatine forms compared covers each one. Creapure is a brand whose maker states about 99.99% purity.

Read the label, not the front of the tub

Most products with creatine on the front are not plain creatine. We counted 1,917 creatine labels filed with NIH's Dietary Supplement Label Database on September 23, 2026. Only 247 (12.9%) list creatine and nothing else.

1. Creatine and nothing else 12.9%
2. Creatine plus a flavor or anti-caking agent 4.4%
3. Creatine plus other active ingredients 82.7%

What is in a creatine label

Item	Value (%)
Creatine and nothing else	12.9%
Creatine plus a flavor or anti-caking agent	4.4%
Creatine plus other active ingredients	82.7%

Both say creatine on the front

Which tubs are tested by an outside group is on third-party tested creatine.

Questions people ask