How many capsules is one serving?
134 of the 220 capsule, tablet and softgel packages we price call one pill a serving. The other 86 call it 2, 3, 4 and 7. So the number on the front of a bottle counts pills, and the number of servings inside it is a different number that the front does not print. The label rounds, too, so the two do not always divide cleanly into each other.
The widest case we track is Micro Ingredients Creatine Monohydrate Capsules (500 count). Its label calls 7 capsules a serving and states 71 servings in the container. The count in its name and the servings inside it are different numbers and neither implies the other.
Every serving here is the serving the label itself prints. Nothing on this page is a recommendation about how much to take or how often.
| Pills in a serving | Packages | Where they turn up | Biggest bottle at this serving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 134 | Magnesium, Vitamin D3, Omega-3, Vitamin B12 and Zinc | Micro Ingredients Magnesium Oxide (500 capsules) 500 servings at 1 capsule each buy |
| 2 | 53 | Creatine Monohydrate, Magnesium and Omega-3 | Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Capsules, Unflavored (300 capsules) 150 servings at 2 capsules each buy |
| 3 | 17 | Magnesium and Omega-3 | Double Wood Supplements Magnesium Malate (420 capsules) 140 servings at 3 capsules each buy |
| 4 | 13 | Creatine Monohydrate and Magnesium | Nutricost Creatine Monohydrate Capsules (500 count) 125 servings at 4 capsules each |
| 7 | 3 | Creatine Monohydrate | Micro Ingredients Creatine Monohydrate Capsules (500 count) 71 servings at 7 capsules each buy |
Read from each product's own Supplement Facts panel where it states a servings line. Where it does not, the count comes from the same package's front label, or is worked out from the pack size and the serving, and the product page says which of the three it was. Powders and single-serve packets are not here, because neither is a countable pill; what a scoop holds is a question of its own.
Every category we compare: the home page. 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.