Creatine
The most-studied sports supplement there is, now taken well beyond the gym.
- Strength and muscle
- Brain and memory
- Staying strong with age
- Sport performance
- Mood
A plain-English overview, not advice. Written from published reviews and trials and from what people say in public forums.
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On this page
What is creatine?
Creatine is a compound your body makes from three amino acids and stores mostly in muscle, where it acts as a quick-release energy reserve for short, hard efforts. You also get it from meat and fish, which is why vegetarians and vegans tend to have lower stores. As a supplement it is almost always creatine monohydrate, a plain white powder that has been studied for decades; newer forms such as creatine HCl are sold too, but nearly all the research is on monohydrate. It started out as a strength and sprint supplement and is now taken for memory, mood and healthy ageing as well.
Why do people take creatine?
Strength and muscle
The thinking. Muscle holds creatine as phosphocreatine, which recharges the energy currency (ATP) in the first seconds of a hard effort. Fuller stores mean a little more work in each set before fatigue, and over weeks that extra work adds up to more strength and more muscle. This is the classic reason, and the one with the most research behind it.
What research has found. Nine reviews and meta-analyses of randomised trials, in adults doing resistance training, consistently found greater gains in strength and lean mass with creatine than with training alone, in the upper and lower body alike. This is one of the best-studied uses, and several reviews of trials broadly agree.
Brain and memory
The thinking. The brain uses a great deal of energy and keeps its own creatine, so the idea is that topping up gives it the same buffer that muscle gets, with the biggest possible difference in people whose stores start low, such as vegetarians, older adults or anyone short on sleep.
What research has found. Three reviews and two small trials measured memory, attention and processing speed in healthy adults, some under mental fatigue or low oxygen. Memory was the measure that improved most consistently, particularly in older adults; the other measures were mixed. Studies here point in different directions, so this one is still being worked out; the dose, how long people took it and who took part all seem to matter.
Staying strong with age
The thinking. Muscle and strength decline with age, and older adults often eat less meat, so their creatine stores tend to be lower. People take it, usually alongside some resistance exercise, to hold on to strength and muscle for longer.
What research has found. Three reviews and two randomised trials in older adults doing resistance training mostly found greater strength gains with creatine than with training alone; the results for muscle mass were less consistent. A fair body of trials has looked at this, and most point the same way.
Sport performance
The thinking. Sprints, jumps, changes of direction and repeated bursts all run on the same phosphocreatine system, so athletes in team and power sports take it for a little more in the tank on the tenth sprint as well as the first.
What research has found. A meta-analysis and a trial in football players measured sprint, jump and repeated-effort tests and found better anaerobic and repeated-sprint performance with creatine, but no difference in endurance measures. The studies disagree, so this is unsettled: dose, duration and who took part all seem to shift the result.
Mood
The thinking. Energy metabolism in the brain looks different in depression, and creatine’s role in the brain’s energy supply is why researchers began adding it to standard care. This is a newer and more tentative reason people take it.
What research has found. A review and a small trial in adults with depression, both looking at creatine added to standard treatment, found lower depression scores with creatine. Research here is still young: a few studies so far, mostly pointing the same way.
What does creatine do in the body?
Every muscle contraction is paid for in ATP, the body’s energy currency, and a muscle only holds a few seconds’ worth. Phosphocreatine is the fast backup: it hands a phosphate back to spent ATP in a fraction of a second, which is what keeps a sprint or a heavy lift going past the first couple of seconds. A supplement raises the amount of creatine stored in muscle by around 20 to 40 per cent, so the backup lasts a little longer and recovers a little faster between efforts.
Creatine also draws water into muscle cells, which is why the scales often go up by a kilo or so in the first weeks and why muscles can look fuller. The body makes about a gram a day itself and gets another gram or so from a meat-eating diet, so stores in vegetarians and vegans start lower and tend to rise most. The International Society of Sports Nutrition’s safety review found long-term use, even at doses above typical labels, well tolerated in healthy people, and monohydrate is the form nearly all of that research used.
What do people say about taking creatine?
These are anecdotes people have shared, not evidence.
What people like
- People who lift very commonly say their numbers went up and they recovered faster between sessions, some to the point of barely feeling sore and training more days a week.
- Muscles looking fuller and more defined, and clothes getting snug across the back and shoulders, even while the scales creep up a little.
- Some women in midlife say they take it as much for their head as their body, and report that brain fog and tiredness eased.
- Long-term users describe it as cheap and uneventful, something they see no reason to stop; a few have got elderly parents taking it too.
Common complaints
- A kilo or so of water weight in the first week or two is very common and frustrates people who watch the scales; most say it settles and drops off again if they stop.
- A persistent dry mouth and thirst, mentioned particularly by women, and sometimes wind or bloating; the usual tip is to drink at least two litres of water a day.
- Stomach upset and loose stools, mostly in people who started on larger amounts, and disturbed sleep or vivid dreams in a minority who took it late in the day.
- Some notice nothing beyond the water weight and give up. Hair-loss worries come up repeatedly, mostly from men; most long-term users say their hair is fine.
How people take it
- The standard routine is 3 to 5 grams of plain monohydrate powder once a day. Hardly anyone bothers with a loading phase, and people who have taken it for years say they never loaded and never had a problem.
- Timing is habit rather than rule: morning, around a workout, or an hour before training. People who slept badly moved it earlier in the day.
- Powder is the form most people trust; gummies get side-eye from posters who doubt how much they contain. Common gripes are grittiness in cold water and whether hot drinks spoil it.
- Mixed into water, a smoothie, porridge or juice; skipping the odd day is considered fine. Strength and recovery changes are described within days to a couple of weeks, visible changes in shape after months of training alongside it.
Read from these public discussions:
- Creatine - anyone take it? (Mumsnet, 2026)
- Does anyone take creatine? (Mumsnet, 2023)
- Creatine and dry mouth (Mumsnet, 2025)
- Any bad side effects of Creatine? Your experiences? (AnandTech forums, 2003)
- creatine and hair loss (AnandTech forums, 2012)
What forms of creatine are there?
| Form | What’s different | Per serving, on products we list |
|---|---|---|
| Monohydrate | Creatine bound to a water molecule; the form used in almost all research. | 3.4 g to 5 g |
| HCl | Creatine bound to hydrochloric acid. | not in our price tables yet |
| Other forms | Other bound or buffered forms, such as ethyl ester, kre-alkalyn or nitrate; less studied than monohydrate. | not in our price tables yet |
What else is worth knowing about creatine?
- Trials commonly used 3 to 5 g a day, sometimes after a short loading phase of around 20 g a day for five to seven days; both routes fill muscle stores, loading just gets there faster.
- Expect the scales to rise by around a kilo in the first weeks as muscle cells take on water.
- Most cognitive-function trials were small, some under 20 people, so the memory findings rest on far fewer people than the strength findings.
- Labels state creatine per serving; monohydrate is the form nearly all trials used, and the other forms have far less research behind them.
If you take medication, are pregnant, or have a health condition, check with a pharmacist or GP first.
The research behind this page (26 studies)
- Metabolic Basis of Creatine in Health and Disease: A Bioinformatics-Assisted Review. (2021, review)
- International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. (2017, review)
- Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation: what does the scientific evidence really show? (2021, review)
- Creatine supplementation protocols with or without training interventions on body composition: a GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. (2024, meta-analysis)
- Influence of age, sex, and type of exercise on the efficacy of creatine supplementation on lean body mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. (2022, meta-analysis)
- Comparative Effects of Dietary Protein, Creatine, and Omega-3 Supplementation on Muscle Strength, Endurance, and Recovery in Trained Athletes: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis. (2026, systematic review)
- Creatine supplementation in young men under resistance versus non-resistance training: a systematic review and meta-analysis of strength, performance, and lean mass. (2026, systematic review)
- Effects of Creatine Supplementation and Resistance Training on Muscle Strength Gains in Adults <50 Years of Age: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. (2024, meta-analysis)
- The Effects of Creatine Supplementation Combined with Resistance Training on Regional Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis. (2023, meta-analysis)
- Benefits of Creatine Supplementation for Vegetarians Compared to Omnivorous Athletes: A Systematic Review. (2020, systematic review)
- Creatine Supplementation and Upper Limb Strength Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. (2017, meta-analysis)
- Creatine Supplementation and Lower Limb Strength Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses. (2015, meta-analysis)
- Effects of creatine supplementation on memory in healthy individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. (2023, meta-analysis)
- The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. (2024, systematic review)
- Effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function of healthy individuals: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials. (2018, systematic review)
- Can Creatine Combat the Mental Fatigue-associated Decrease in Visuomotor Skills? (2020, randomised trial)
- Creatine supplementation enhances corticomotor excitability and cognitive performance during oxygen deprivation. (2015, randomised trial)
- Creatine supplementation during resistance training in older adults-a meta-analysis. (2014, meta-analysis)
- Efficacy of Creatine Supplementation Combined with Resistance Training on Muscle Strength and Muscle Mass in Older Females: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. (2021, meta-analysis)
- Meta-Analysis Examining the Importance of Creatine Ingestion Strategies on Lean Tissue Mass and Strength in Older Adults. (2021, meta-analysis)
- Strategic creatine supplementation and resistance training in healthy older adults. (2015, randomised trial)
- Creatine supplementation and resistance training in vulnerable older women: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. (2014, randomised trial)
- Effects of Creatine Supplementation on Athletic Performance in Soccer Players: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. (2019, meta-analysis)
- Effects of plyometric training and creatine supplementation on maximal-intensity exercise and endurance in female soccer players. (2016, randomised trial)
- Efficacy and safety profile of oral creatine monohydrate in add-on to cognitive-behavioural therapy in depression: An 8-week pilot, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled feasibility and exploratory trial in an under-resourced area. (2025, randomised trial)
- The Effect of Creatine Monohydrate on Mental Disorders: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. (2026, systematic review)
How much does creatine cost?
That depends on the form and the pack, so we work out the price of the same dose of every creatine product we can find and rank them.