How much creatine should you take per day?

August 10, 2026 · 7 min read · AUROM

Supplement bottle with capsules and glass of water

The research on this is more settled than most supplement questions get to be. The number that matters is small, and you don't need a complicated protocol to hit it.

The short answer

Most healthy adults need 3 to 5 grams of creatine monohydrate a day to fully saturate muscle stores and keep them there, with no loading phase required [1][2]. Larger athletes may need 5 to 10 grams a day for the same effect [1], and daily intake above 10 grams can cause stomach upset in some people [2].

That's the whole answer for most people. The rest of this post is the reasoning, including where the evidence stops.

Do you need a loading phase, or can you just start with 3 to 5 grams?

Creatine works by topping up the phosphocreatine your muscles use to regenerate energy during short, hard efforts. A loading phase just fills that tank faster. The original protocol, from the International Society of Sports Nutrition's 2017 position stand, is 5 g four times a day (about 20 g total, or 0.3 g per kg of body weight) for five to seven days, then dropping to a 3 to 5 g maintenance dose [1].

A more recent review from the same research community, published in 2021, concludes a loading phase "is not required" at all. Taking 3 to 5 g a day on its own reaches the same muscle saturation, it just takes about four weeks instead of a week [2]. Loading gets you there sooner. Skipping it gets you to the same place with a smaller daily number and, for some people, less stomach discomfort along the way, since doses above 10 g a day are the ones associated with gastrointestinal upset [2].

Neither approach is wrong. It's a trade: speed versus a gentler ramp.

Does your size change the dose?

Some. The 2017 position stand notes that larger athletes may need up to 5 to 10 g a day to maintain the same muscle stores that a smaller person maintains on 3 to 5 g [1]. The 2021 review frames this the same way, as a dose relative to body mass: about 0.1 g per kg [2]. For a 90 kg person, that lands closer to 9 g. For a 60 kg person, it's closer to 6, and the standard 5 g scoop already covers most of that range.

This isn't a precise dial you need to tune. It's the reason the range exists instead of a single number: a 5 g dose is a sensible default for most adults, and going a little higher is a reasonable adjustment if you're a larger person and want to be sure you're covering it, not a sign the standard dose is wrong.

Is more than 5 grams ever worth it?

Sometimes, depending on what you're measuring. A 2024 dose-response meta-analysis pooling 143 studies and over 3,600 participants found that daily doses above 5 g produced a larger reduction in body fat percentage than doses at or below 5 g, and that protocols including an ongoing maintenance dose had greater effects on body composition than those without, with a significant effect on fat-free mass [4]. The effect sizes involved are modest, fractions of a kilogram either way, so this isn't a case for doubling your dose on a hunch. It's evidence that going a bit over 5 g isn't wasted for people chasing body composition specifically.

There's a separate question about bone, and the honest answer is less exciting. A 2018 meta-analysis pooling five small trials of creatine alongside resistance training in older adults, 193 people in total, found no added benefit for whole-body, hip, femoral neck, or lumbar spine bone density compared with resistance training alone. The five trials it pooled used either 5 g a day or about 0.1 g per kg of body weight, over 12 weeks to a year [3]. The trial pool is small and the authors themselves flag a real risk of bias in most of it, so this isn't the final word on creatine and bone. It is a reason not to assume that going higher than 5 g a day buys you something extra there.

What about vegetarians and vegans?

Creatine comes mostly from meat and fish, so the old assumption is that vegetarians and vegans start with lower muscle creatine stores and might need to do more. A 2025 pilot trial gave a loading-style dose to 15 young adult vegans and vegetarians, seven on creatine and eight on placebo, for seven days. Muscle creatine in the creatine group rose by about 19 mmol per kg of dry muscle on average, though the spread was wide for a sample that size, and their starting levels going in were closer to typical omnivore levels than the older assumption predicts [5]. The honest answer is that the standard dosing guidance applies to vegetarians and vegans too. There's no separate number backed by strong evidence yet, and this trial found no change in sprint performance over its seven days, so there is no basis yet for treating vegetarians and vegans as a separate dosing group [5].

The 5 grams in AUROM's creatine

AUROM's creatine monohydrate is built around the number in the research, not a marketing-friendly one. One scoop is 5 g of micronized creatine monohydrate, nothing else added. Micronized just means the powder is milled to a finer particle size. The 250 g tub is a 50-day supply at that dose, and the subscription intervals are set to match it exactly: one tub every 50 days, or two every 100. You're not left guessing when to reorder, or sitting on three unopened tubs. A Certificate of Analysis is available for every batch on request, so the tub you have can be checked against the batch it came from.

If you have kidney or liver disease, or you're pregnant or breastfeeding

None of the numbers above are written for you. If you have diagnosed kidney or liver disease, are pregnant, or are breastfeeding, dosing is a conversation with a clinician who has your actual labs and history, not something to settle from an article.

Questions people actually ask

How long does creatine take to work if you skip loading? About four weeks. Taking 3 to 5 g a day from the start reaches the same muscle saturation as loading does, it just takes longer to get there than the five to seven day loading protocol [2].

How long does a 250 g tub of creatine last? About 50 days at the standard 5 g daily dose. AUROM's subscription intervals, one tub every 50 days or two every 100, are set to match that math instead of a generic monthly cycle.

How many grams is one scoop of creatine? AUROM's scoop is 5 g, the dose this post is built around. It's a single ingredient, micronized creatine monohydrate, so the scoop is that dose and nothing else. If you're using another brand, check its label rather than assuming the scoop matches.

Do you have to take creatine every day? Daily is the pattern the research measures. The 3 to 5 g figure this post is built around is a daily maintenance dose, loaded into place or not [1][2]. Stores do drain without intake, but slowly: the 2017 position stand reports it generally takes four to six weeks for elevated muscle creatine to return to baseline once you stop [1]. A missed day is not a reset.

What happens if you take more than 10 grams a day? The 2017 ISSN position stand reports no compelling evidence that creatine monohydrate at up to 30 g a day for as long as five years has detrimental effects in otherwise healthy people [1], but doses above 10 g a day are the range where some people report stomach upset, like diarrhea [2]. Nothing in the sources here shows an added benefit to going that high for most people.

What to actually do

Take it daily. The benefit comes from keeping your stores topped up, not from any single dose. Load first if you want the effect sooner, or skip loading and get to the same place in about a month. Adjust upward within the 5 to 10 g range if you're a larger person [1]. Past 10 g a day these sources show no added benefit to chase, and that is where stomach upset starts turning up [2].

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.