Why is magnesium L-threonate so much more expensive?
On what this site measures — cost per 200 mg of elemental magnesium, and how much you have to swallow to get it — Glycinate is the cheaper of the two, at $0.05 against $2.30 — about 46.2×.
The argument usually made between these two forms is about absorption, tolerance and what time of day to take them. Those are claims about physiology. We do not measure any of them, and this page does not settle them. What it can give you is the part that is checkable: what a real dose costs, how many units it takes, and what the panels actually name.
| Form | Cheapest per 200 mg | Units per dose | Products | Panel names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glycinate | $0.05 | 0.7 | 8 | Magnesium Glycinate + Magnesium Oxide |
| L-Threonate | $2.30 | 4.1 | 1 | Magtein Magnesium L-Threonate |
Where the price actually goes
The l-threonate panel prints both numbers: 145 mg of magnesium from 2 g of the compound. So about 7% of what you swallow is magnesium, and the rest is the molecule carrying it.
That is most of the price gap, and it is arithmetic rather than branding: a dose means buying and swallowing many times more material. It shows up in the units column above as well as the cost one.
What we are not telling you is whether that is worth it. The case made for the more expensive form is that this particular molecule reaches tissue the others reach less well, which — true or not — is a claim about physiology, and we measure prices and labels. A page that priced the compound and then declared the claim overblown would be doing the same thing it criticises.
Check the panel before the argument
Whichever you prefer on absorption grounds, it is worth confirming the product is actually that salt. Several here name a second, cheaper one on their own panel: which magnesium products are one salt and which are blends.
OPINIONWe also wrote an argued piece on what the evidence for L-threonate actually tested. It is kept off this page on purpose: everything above is computed, and that is not.
- 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.