Electrolytes: what you pay for 500 mg of sodium

Electrolyte powders, sticks and tablets are sold per serving – but the amount of sodium in one serving is very different from product to product – from a pinch to many times that. So the price per stick says very little.

27.8–1,000 mg

sodium per serving

73×

price gap per 500 mg of sodium, cheapest vs. most expensive

Cheap per stick, expensive per 500 mg

Eidon Ionic Minerals Electrolytes, Liquid Concentrate is the 101st cheapest of our 271 products per serving – but only 269th per 500 mg of sodium, because one serving has 27.8 mg of sodium. Per 500 mg, it costs $13.18.

The cheapest product in our list costs $0.22 per 500 mg of sodium, the most expensive $16.15 – 73 times as much for the same amount of sodium.

Why we compare by sodium

Every electrolyte product lists sodium, so it’s the one number we can compare across all of them. Potassium and magnesium are on the label too, but in very different amounts – a product with more of them doesn’t get extra credit in our comparison. If those matter to you, compare them on the label as well.

500 mg is a round number that makes products comparable – it’s not a recommendation.

How much sodium do people get anyway?

Americans get about 3,400 mg of sodium a day on average, and the Dietary Guidelines say adults should stay below 2,300 mg (FDA (opens in a new tab)). The National Academies list 1,500 mg a day as an adequate intake for adults (National Academies (opens in a new tab)). One serving of the products we checked has 27.8–1,000 mg.

All 271 products, sorted by cost per 500 mg of sodium: electrolyte prices.