Best Stim-Free Pre-Workout
Buy Transparent Labs Stim-Free: it has the citrulline malate and beta-alanine amounts studies used, no caffeine, and it is on the Informed Choice testing list. On Amazon it comes as a $79.98 set with a tub of Transparent Labs Hydrate electrolytes. Want one tub for less? Buy Legion Pulse Stim-Free, $2.50 a serving.
By Erin Rose Updated October 26, 2026 How we score
Our pick for: Most people
- Caffeine
- 0 mgNo stimulant on the label
- Citrulline malate
- 8 gStudies used 6 to 8 g
- Beta-alanine
- 4 gStudies used 4 to 6 g a day
- Betaine
- 2.5 gStudies used it daily for a week or more
- Testing list
- Informed ChoiceTested for banned substances
- In the set
- 2 tubs30 servings of Stim-Free, 40 of Hydrate
Why we pick it It is the only one here with citrulline malate and beta-alanine both at the amounts studies used, plus betaine, and the only one on a public testing list.
What is in the box One 30-serving tub of Stim-Free and one 40-serving tub of Hydrate, a sugar-free electrolyte drink on NSF Certified for Sport, Informed Choice and NSF/ANSI 173 (how it compares). $79.98 is the brand’s price for both tubs; Amazon’s can differ.
What you give up You pay for two tubs up front. It has no creatine, and the beta-alanine can make your skin tingle.
Which one is right for you?
Stim-free pre-workouts drop the caffeine and keep the blood-flow and endurance ingredients.
Want one tub for less?
Buy Legion Pulse Stim-Free. It has 8 g of citrulline malate, 3.6 g of beta-alanine (a bit under the 4 to 6 g studies used), 2.5 g of betaine and 300 mg alpha-GPC in two scoops, for $2.50 a serving. The catch: it is on no public testing list. Legion cites a lab report from Labdoor, which is not one of those lists.
Legion Pulse Stim-Free
$2.50 a serving · 20 servings of 2 scoops
Want the biggest pump, with creatine?
Gorilla Mode Nitric has 10 g of L-citrulline, 5 g of creatine, 4 g of betaine and 1.5 g sodium nitrate in two scoops. The catch: it has no beta-alanine, it costs the most at $3.00 for two scoops, and the tub's 40 "servings" are single scoops at half that dose.
Gorilla Mode Nitric
$3.00 a serving · 20 servings of 2 scoops
Want the lowest cost?
Nutricost Stim-Free costs $1.10 a serving, the least here. One scoop has 6 g of L-citrulline. The catch: its 1.2 g of beta-alanine is far under the 4 to 6 g a day studies used, and it has no betaine. Some reviews list 3.2 g of beta-alanine; the current label says 1.2 g. It also adds 10 mg of evodiamine, a plant extract sold in fat burners.
Nutricost Stim-Free
$1.10 a serving · 30 servings of 1 scoop
Don’t like the tingle?
The tingle comes from beta-alanine, and it is the only side effect studies report (Trexler 2015). PEScience High Volume has none. Two scoops give 6 g of L-citrulline and 2 g arginine nitrate, for $2.22 a serving. You give up beta-alanine's help with hard efforts over weeks of use.
PEScience High Volume
$2.22 a serving · 18 servings of 2 scoops
Stim-free pre-workouts we compared
We chose the 5 caffeine-free pre-workouts top review sites name most that we could price at a brand store. We read each label and checked five public testing lists (named in the sources). Only Transparent Labs Stim-Free is on one. Amounts are for one full serving.
| Product | A servingBrand price, October 26, 2026 | Key amounts in one serving |
|---|---|---|
| Transparent Labs Stim-Free0 mg caffeine · 1 scoop | $1.67 | Our pick: 8 g citrulline malate, 4 g beta-alanine, 2.5 g betaine, 1.3 g taurine, 1 g L-tyrosine; Informed Choice; on Amazon as a $79.98 set with Hydrate |
| Nutricost Stim-Free0 mg caffeine · 1 scoop | $1.10 | 6 g L-citrulline, 1.2 g beta-alanine; no betaine or creatine |
| PEScience High Volume0 mg caffeine · 2 scoops | $2.22 | 6 g L-citrulline, 2 g arginine nitrate; no beta-alanine, betaine or creatine |
| Legion Pulse Stim-Free0 mg caffeine · 2 scoops | $2.50 | 8 g citrulline malate, 3.6 g beta-alanine, 2.5 g betaine, 300 mg alpha-GPC |
| Gorilla Mode Nitric0 mg caffeine · 2 scoops | $3.00 | 10 g L-citrulline, 5 g creatine, 4 g betaine, 1.5 g sodium nitrate, 4 g HydroPrime glycerol, 3 g taurine, 1 g agmatine |
Does stim-free pre-workout work?
Citrulline malate at 6 to 8 g, taken 40 to 60 minutes before lifting, added about 3 reps over all the sets of an exercise taken to failure, about 6% more. A small effect, in 8 studies of 137 mostly trained men. Split into upper and lower body, neither result was clear on its own (Vårvik 2021). Gorilla Mode Nitric, Nutricost Stim-Free and PEScience High Volume use pure L-citrulline, so a gram of theirs holds more citrulline than a gram of citrulline malate.
Beta-alanine builds up over weeks: 4 to 6 g a day for 2 to 4 weeks helped hard efforts lasting 1 to 4 minutes (Trexler 2015). Betaine taken daily for a week or more helped maximal strength, mostly in the legs, in a review of 17 small studies. It did not help muscular endurance (Zawieja 2024).
Nitrate studies mostly used beetroot juice. A 2026 review of 33 of them found small gains in power and aerobic fitness (Cai 2026). Gorilla Mode Nitric and PEScience High Volume use nitrate salts instead, so those results may not carry over. See also citrulline, beta-alanine and the best pre-workout with caffeine.
How to read a stim-free label
Check how many scoops make a serving: some tubs count single scoops while the full dose is two. Check that there is no caffeine row. Then look for a testing list you can look up, not just a brand's "third-party tested" line. Sports supplements can carry banned substances, on purpose or by accident (Harty 2018).
Questions people ask
Will I feel a stim-free pre-workout?
Not the way you feel caffeine. There is no jolt of energy. Any gain shows up in your sets, and beta-alanine and betaine need weeks of daily use.
Can I take it at night?
Yes. These have no caffeine. In one study, 400 mg of caffeine taken 6 hours before bed still cut into sleep (Drake 2013).
Do I still need creatine?
Yes, unless you buy Gorilla Mode Nitric, the only one here with creatine (5 g). Creatine works by building up in muscle, so take it every day, not just before a workout (Kreider 2017). See the best creatine.
Sources
- Vårvik FT, et al. “Acute Effect of Citrulline Malate on Repetition Performance During Strength Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2021. PubMed 34010809
- Trexler ET, et al. “International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine.” J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015. PubMed 26175657
- Zawieja E, et al. “Effects of chronic betaine supplementation on exercise performance: Systematic review and meta-analysis.” J Sports Sci. 2024. PubMed 39514262
- Kreider RB, et al. “International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine.” J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017. PubMed 28615996
- Cai C, et al. “Effectiveness of beetroot juice on aerobic and anaerobic exercise performance: systematic review and meta-analysis.” Front Nutr. 2026. PubMed 42445795
- Harty PS, et al. “Multi-ingredient pre-workout supplements, safety implications, and performance outcomes: a brief review.” J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2018. PubMed 30089501
- Drake C, et al. “Caffeine effects on sleep taken 0, 3, or 6 hours before going to bed.” J Clin Sleep Med. 2013. PubMed 24235903
- Labels: NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database (our pick’s label, Legion Pulse Stim-Free, Gorilla Mode Nitric) and the brands’ own label panels for Nutricost and PEScience. Testing lists: NSF Certified for Sport, NSF/ANSI 173, Informed Sport and Informed Choice.