Creatine powder vs capsules: which should you buy?
Our picks, each format ranked separately: Powders: Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Powder, Unflavored (1.2 kg); gummies and chewables: Momentous Creatine Chews, Lemon Lime (150 chewable tablets) (before delivery). Where to buy
Powder costs less per dose. A 5 g dose is one scoop, or 7 capsules. The cheapest capsules we track cost $0.40 a dose against $0.14 for powder, about 2.9×.
Creatine monohydrate is the same compound either way, so this is a question about packaging rather than about what reaches you. The capsule counts are not a criticism of any brand: 5 g is a large amount to fit into capsules, and every count in the table is the label's own.
| Cheapest of each | Per 5 g dose | Units per dose | Container |
|---|---|---|---|
| BulkSupplements.com Creatine Monohydrate (Micronized) Powder (5000 g) | $0.14 | 1 | $139.97 |
| BulkSupplements.com Creatine Monohydrate Capsules (420 count) | $0.40 | 7 | $23.97 |
How many capsules make 5 g
By each label's own serving, between 4.0 and 10 capsules on the 12 capsule products we price, across 9 brands.
When capsules still make sense
Travel, and not owning a shaker. Powder needs water and something to stir it in; capsules need neither.
What we would not lean on is taste. Creatine monohydrate is close to flavorless in water, and it is usually sold unflavored. The argument for capsules here is convenience, not palatability.
Where to buy: the creatine monohydrate shortlist
The pick is the cheapest certified product, at the exact package sold where the certifier names packages, with no adverse finding on record, a price its retailer let us read recently, and no more than a year’s supply at the label’s serving; per delivered dose where the retailer publishes a delivery rate. Where none does, it is the cheapest such product before delivery, and it says how far the order is from free delivery. It is the same pick the category page shows. Any answer shown beside it is the cheapest under a different rule and says so on its own line; answers that cost more than the pick fold under one line until you ask for them.
How these lines are chosen
Among 52 products and 65 retailer listings we track; Amazon and Walmart are not included. A month is thirty doses of the size in the heading, priced the same way as the per-dose figure beside it. “Delivery known” ranks only products whose retailer publishes a delivery rate; a cheaper product with an unpublished rate is on its own line, or in the full list below.
How these lines are chosen
Among 14 products and 14 retailer listings we track; Amazon and Walmart are not included. A month is thirty doses of the size in the heading, priced the same way as the per-dose figure beside it. “Delivery known” ranks only products whose retailer publishes a delivery rate; a cheaper product with an unpublished rate is on its own line, or in the full list below.
A pick has to be independently certified, at the exact package sold where the certifier names packages, with no recall or failed test, a price its retailer let us read recently, and no more than a year’s supply at the label’s serving. Where the retailer publishes no delivery rate, the pick is priced before delivery and says so. Nothing we track here clears all of those yet. Each of these misses at least one bar, and says which (the first clears the certification bar):
How these lines are chosen
Among 9 products and 9 retailer listings we track; Amazon and Walmart are not included. A month is thirty doses of the size in the heading, priced the same way as the per-dose figure beside it. “Delivery known” ranks only products whose retailer publishes a delivery rate; a cheaper product with an unpublished rate is on its own line, or in the full list below. No product here that clears every other bar publishes a delivery rate below its free-delivery threshold, so the pick is priced before delivery.
Full comparison of every product in this category: Creatine Monohydrate. Every question we answer: the question index.
What this rests on: prices we last recorded at the retailer named on each product page, which go stale, and each page says when it was checked; the products we track, not every product sold, and Amazon and Walmart are not among the stores; listings and labels read at the source, each linked from the page. Found an error? Tell us. The full method: How we compare.