Multivitamin

Many vitamins and minerals in one daily tablet, taken to cover the gaps.

People take it for

Filling the gaps
Energy and mood
Memory and thinking
Pregnancy
Heart and blood pressure

A plain-English overview, not advice. Written from published reviews and trials and from what people say in public forums.

Compare multivitamin prices per dose

What is multivitamin?

A multivitamin is not one ingredient but a mixture: a day’s worth of vitamins and minerals in one tablet, capsule, gummy, effervescent drink or liquid. There is no standard recipe behind the name — products sold as multivitamins run from three vitamins in a plain tablet to broad blends of two dozen nutrients or more, in versions aimed at women, men, children and the over-fifties. It is also the most widely taken supplement there is: in one large American survey, about a third of adults had taken one in the past month, most often for general health and to cover what their food might be missing.

Why do people take multivitamin?

Filling the gaps

The thinking. This is the reason most people give: not a particular hope, but cover for the weeks when meals are rushed. Nutrition reviews say a varied diet is the better source, while noting that shortfalls turn up even where food is plentiful, more often in older adults and routinely after weight-loss surgery.

What research has found. These trials mostly measure what reaches the blood. Six short placebo-controlled trials pooled together found higher vitamin C, B6, B12, folate and beta-carotene after six to eight weeks. In 32 adults over six months, B6 and B12 rose and homocysteine, a blood marker tied to low B vitamins, fell; twelve weeks in older adults raised vitamin C and zinc. Research here is still young: a few studies so far, mostly pointing the same way.

Energy and mood

The thinking. Tiredness and feeling frazzled are among the commonest reasons people pick up a multivitamin, and the B vitamins are the part of the mixture usually credited: reviews describe a diet rich in B-group vitamins as important to how the body and brain work. The high-dose B-complex products sold for stress and stamina are built on that idea.

What research has found. One systematic review gathered seven randomised, placebo-controlled trials of those high-dose products in healthy adults and in adults who began with poor nutritional status. The measures that moved most often were perceived stress, general mental health, concentration and self-rated energy; not every measure shifted, and few trials allowed for testing many at once. Only a few studies have measured this so far, though they mostly agree.

Memory and thinking

The thinking. Worry about memory in later life brings a lot of people to a daily multivitamin. The thinking is simple enough: the brain runs on the same vitamins and minerals as everything else, so someone whose diet or absorption has slipped may be running short.

What research has found. Most of the recent work comes from one large trial in American over-sixties, which tested a shop multivitamin against placebo in three separate groups. Pooled, memory and thinking scores came out slightly higher over one to three years, a difference the researchers put at two to three years of age-related change. An earlier twelve-year trial in nearly 6,000 older male doctors found none, and a small trial in older women found one memory measure quicker and the rest unchanged. A fair body of trials has looked at this, and most point the same way.

Pregnancy

The thinking. Many women start a multivitamin when they begin trying for a baby, usually one built around folic acid. Reviews of maternal supplementation describe folate in the first weeks as the nutrient a baby’s developing spine and brain are most sensitive to, and a multivitamin is the form it commonly comes in.

What research has found. Umbrella reviews pooling trials and population studies recorded fewer neural tube defects — the spine and brain differences folate is tied to — among babies whose mothers supplemented before and in early pregnancy: close to 40% fewer in the multivitamin groups, and more again with folic acid alone. This is one of the best-studied uses, and several reviews of trials broadly agree.

Heart and blood pressure

The thinking. Heart health is why some of the largest multivitamin trials exist. The thinking has been that inflammation and oxidation play a part in heart disease, and that a daily mixture of vitamins and minerals might act on them.

What research has found. A review of eighteen studies covering more than two million people found no difference in deaths from heart disease or in strokes, and an earlier review found much the same. Twelve trials measuring blood pressure itself gave a small average drop in the upper number, about 1.3 mmHg, with no clear change in the lower one and larger drops among the few participants whose blood pressure was already raised. A reasonable number of trials have measured this, and most of them agree.

What does multivitamin do in the body?

A multivitamin has no single action, because it is not a single thing. Each vitamin and mineral in it does its own job, so what a daily tablet adds depends on which of them your food was short of. Reviews describe it as filling small gaps rather than adding anything new, and note the opposite risk where intake is already ample: supplements on top of fortified foods can push a few nutrients, folic acid especially, past recommended ceilings.

The parts followed most closely in trials are the ones with a marker to watch. Several of the vitamins act as free-radical scavengers, mopping up reactive by-products, which is why trials measure oxidised LDL in the blood. The B vitamins show up in homocysteine, which falls as B6 and B12 rise. Folate matters in a narrow window in the first weeks of pregnancy, when the neural tube is forming.

What do people say about taking multivitamin?

These are anecdotes people have shared, not evidence.

What people like

Very commonly, people describe a daily multivitamin as cheap cover for the days their diet slips, and like having only one thing to remember.
Often, those who stick with one say the difference is quiet rather than dramatic: steadier energy, better sleep, or blood tests that stay normal.
Some say they felt brighter after a few months, usually alongside other changes, and a few noticed it only when they stopped while away.
Commonly, people are pleased that the cheapest own-brand seemed to do the same job as a costly one, often citing a consumer magazine test.

Common complaints

Very commonly, people say they noticed nothing at all, and doubt a multivitamin does much for anyone already eating reasonably well.
Often, the effects people can actually feel get put down to single nutrients, usually vitamin D, iron or magnesium, rather than to the multivitamin.
Tablet size comes up repeatedly: big capsules that are hard to swallow or leave people queasy send several hunting for smaller tablets or sprays.
Some resent how many pills a full routine takes, and a running joke is that most of what they swallow ends up in the loo.
A minority worry about what goes into the cheapest versions, folic acid and synthetic forms in particular.

How people take it

Most take one tablet a day, usually at breakfast, using it as a base with targeted supplements added on top.
Own-brand tablets from supermarkets and discounters are the usual choice, with a month’s supply costing anything from about a pound to eleven.
Small round tablets, capsules, effervescent drinks, sprays and liquids are all used, chosen mostly by what people find easy to swallow.
Several take theirs on and off rather than daily, and a keen minority use blood tests to decide what they actually need.

Read from these public discussions:

To ask if you take any supplements and if so what difference have they made? (Mumsnet, 2026)
What is your supplement regime? (Mumsnet, 2025)
Overwhelmed by vitamin choice: kids and adults (Mumsnet, 2024)
Do vitamins actually work? (Mumsnet, 2023)
What are the best value-for-money multivitamins? (MoneySavingExpert, 2022)
Multi vitamins (MoneySavingExpert, 2017)

What forms of multivitamin are there?

Form	What’s different	Per serving, on products we list
Multivitamins (per serving)	One serving carries many nutrients at once, sold as tablets, capsules, gummies, effervescent drinks or liquids.	1 serving

What else is worth knowing about multivitamin?

Labels give the amounts per serving, and a serving is not always one tablet: some gummies and over-fifty formulas run to two or three a day, so the cost per day can differ from the cost per tablet.
The largest trials were in American adults over sixty, mostly well fed to begin with; the researchers on the long trial that found no change in thinking gave that, and the modest doses used, as reasons.
Background reviews describe multivitamins as generally well tolerated, and one trial in older women found no signs of liver strain over sixteen weeks.

If you take medication, are pregnant, or have a health condition, check with a pharmacist or GP first.

The research behind this page (21 studies)

How much does multivitamin cost?

That depends on the form and the pack, so we work out the price of the same dose of every multivitamin product we can find and rank them.

Compare multivitamin prices per dose