What does a pre-workout really cost? The price-per-serving maths

“24,99 € a tub” means nothing. A cheap tub can be the worst investment in your gym bag, and a premium tub can be a bargain. The only unit that counts: the price per genuinely effective serving. Here is how to work it out in 2 minutes, on any label.

The trap of the tub price

Two 30-serving tubs shown at the same price can contain anything from one to three times as much active material. The first puts 2 g of citrulline in a serving (a trace), the second puts in 8 g (the studied dose). Same headline price, but one of them is mainly selling you flavouring and filler. The tub price does not measure what you are buying; the price per useful gram does.

The calculation in 3 steps

• 1. Price ÷ number of servings. A tub at 39,95 € for 30 servings = 1,33 € per serving. That is your baseline.
• 2. Look at what is IN the serving. Add up the actives that are genuinely dosed (citrulline, beta-alanine, creatine, electrolytes…). A serving with 22 g of actives at 1,50 € has nothing in common with an 8 g serving at the same price.
• 3. Be wary of totals with no breakdown. If the label announces an overall “blend” with no per-ingredient detail, the calculation is impossible — and that is precisely the point.

The case of “proprietary blends”

The proprietary blend is that line on the label announcing “Performance Matrix: 6 500 mg” without saying how much of each active. Legal, but opaque: there is no way to know whether your 6 500 mg holds 150 mg of caffeine or 350, 1 g of citrulline or 6. You can neither compare prices nor control your doses. Our comparison tool sets out what these mixes hide, next to a fully displayed composition.

The MyNutriLab example, real figures

With us, the maths is public by design: every active is shown to the milligram, and the price depends on the doses YOU put in. Concretely, in the Standard format (30 servings): from 39,95 € for a Mild tier (≈ 1,33 €/serving) to 49,95 € for a Hardcore tier (≈ 1,67 €/serving) — with, for example, 8 g of citrulline, 4 g of beta-alanine and 5 g of creatine in a loaded serving. Lower a dose and the price drops; cut an active and you stop paying for it. Whether you take a ready-made formula or go made to measure, a subscription takes another 15 % off.

The 3 questions to put to any label

• Is every active shown with its exact dosage, or hidden inside a “blend”?
• Do the doses match the studied amounts (citrulline 6-8 g, beta-alanine 2-4 g, creatine 3 g and above)?
• How much does the serving cost me, and what does it really contain?

If a brand cannot answer those three questions, you already know the answer to the fourth: where your money is going. Compare for yourself — it is our best argument.