Creatine calculator | Optimize Your Creatine Intake

Use our calculator to find your optimal daily creatine dose for muscle growth and performance. Enter your weight for customized recommendations.

Doses are for creatine monohydrate and are based on body weight: 0.3 g/kg per day while loading, 0.03 g/kg per day to maintain.
Loading, days 1 to 7
22.5 g/day
Split into 4 servings of 5.6 g across the day
About 4.5 level scoops of 5 g
Maintenance, from day 8 on
3 g/day
One serving a day, any time you like
About 0.6 level scoops of 5 g
Water target
3.2 L
Time to saturation
7 days
A 500 g tub lasts
166 days
Your weight
75.0 kg

At 75.0 kg: 75.0 × 0.3 = 22.5 g per day while loading, and 75.0 × 0.03 = 3 g per day to maintain.

General information only, not medical advice. Creatine is well studied and safe for healthy adults, but if you have kidney problems, are pregnant, or take prescription medication, talk to a doctor before starting.

How much creatine you actually need

Creatine dosing scales with how much muscle you carry, which is why body weight is the input. The standard figures are 0.3 g per kilogram per day to load and 0.03 g per kilogram per day to maintain. For most people that works out at roughly 20 g a day for a week, then 3 to 5 g a day indefinitely. Creatine monohydrate is the form all of this research used; it is also the cheapest, and no other form has been shown to beat it.

The loading phase

Loading means taking about four times the maintenance dose for five to seven days to fill your muscle creatine stores quickly. Split it into four servings across the day rather than taking it all at once, which is easier on the stomach. After the week is up you drop to the maintenance dose, because the stores are already full and anything extra is simply excreted.

Skipping the loading phase

You do not have to load. Taking the maintenance dose from day one reaches exactly the same saturation, it just takes about four weeks instead of one. The end result is identical, so the only thing loading buys you is speed. If creatine upsets your stomach, skipping the loading phase is the usual fix.

Creatine dose by body weight

Body weight Loading dose Maintenance dose
50 kg 15 g/day 3 g/day
60 kg 18 g/day 3 g/day
70 kg 21 g/day 3 g/day
80 kg 24 g/day 3 g/day
90 kg 27 g/day 3 g/day
100 kg 30 g/day 3 g/day
110 kg 33 g/day 3.5 g/day

Getting the most out of it

  • Consistency beats timing. Taking it every day matters far more than whether you take it before or after training.
  • Drink enough water. Creatine pulls water into muscle, so keep your fluid intake up, especially during a loading week.
  • Buy monohydrate. Hydrochloride, ethyl ester and buffered versions cost more and have never outperformed plain monohydrate.
  • Expect a little scale weight. One to two kilograms in the first weeks is water inside the muscle, not fat.
  • No cycling needed. There is no evidence that your body stops responding, so there is no reason to take periodic breaks.

Frequently asked questions

Around 0.03 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, which is 3 to 5 grams for most adults. If you want your muscles saturated within a week instead of a month, take 0.3 grams per kilogram per day for the first five to seven days, split into four servings, then drop to the maintenance dose.

No. Loading only changes how fast you get there. Taking 3 to 5 grams a day from the start reaches the same muscle creatine level in about four weeks, whereas loading gets you there in about one. If loading upsets your stomach, skip it.

Any time. Studies comparing before and after training find very small differences, and taking it consistently every day matters much more than the hour of the day. Pick a time you will not forget.

There is no special creatine hydration formula. A reasonable target is about 35 millilitres per kilogram of body weight, plus roughly half a litre extra, which is what this calculator reports. Creatine draws water into your muscle cells, so it is worth being deliberate about drinking during a loading week.

You will usually see one to two kilograms appear on the scale within the first couple of weeks. That is water held inside your muscle, not body fat, and it is part of how creatine works rather than a side effect to avoid.

Creatine monohydrate is one of the most heavily studied supplements there is, and long-term trials in healthy adults have not found harm at these doses. That said, this page is general information, not medical advice: if you have kidney disease, are pregnant, or take prescription medication, ask a doctor first.

Creatine monohydrate. It is the form used in nearly all of the research, it is the cheapest by a wide margin, and no alternative form, including hydrochloride, ethyl ester and buffered creatine, has been shown to work better.

No. There is no evidence that your body downregulates or stops responding, so there is no reason to take periodic breaks. If you stop, muscle stores simply return to baseline over about four to six weeks.

Creatine calculator

A creatine calculator works out your daily creatine monohydrate dose from your body weight: 0.3 g per kg per day for a five to seven day loading phase, then 0.03 g per kg per day to maintain, which is 3 to 5 g a day for most adults.

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