How many capsules of magnesium do you have to take?
Between 0.4 capsules and 5.0 softgels, depending entirely on which product you bought. Nothing on the front of a bottle tells you this, and it is the number most likely to decide whether you keep taking it.
A magnesium capsule can hold anywhere from 40 mg to 500 mg of elemental magnesium. The dose is what your body gets; the unit count is what you have to swallow. Both are computed here from each product's own Supplement Facts panel against a 200 mg comparison dose.
A powder shows as one unit because a scoop is a scoop whatever it weighs — the comparison there is grams, not count. Fractional counts mean one comparison dose does not land on a whole capsule; we report that rather than rounding up, because rounding changes the dose as well as the price.
- Servings per container are derived from net weight rather than read off the label, except where a note on the product says otherwise.
- Most source records have not been checked by a person. The ones that have say so.
- Amazon and Walmart are not included, so “cheapest” means cheapest among the retailers we track.
- Prices go stale. Each one shows when it was last checked, and says so when it is older than the retailer allows us to cache it.
Full comparison of every product in this category: Magnesium. How these numbers are made: How we compare.