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Creatine monohydrate
Your muscles store creatine as phosphocreatine, a fast reserve they use to rebuild energy during short, intense efforts. It carries one authorised EU claim, for exactly that kind of effort, on the condition of 3 g a day. It sits in one formula, at 5 g: enough for the claim, and above the 3 g a day EFSA assessed for long-term use, which we would rather tell you here than leave out.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
One claim. Authorised, with a condition.
This is the exact wording on the EU register for creatine, under Regulation 432/2012. We do not paraphrase it into something that sounds stronger. It comes with a condition: the product has to provide 3 g of creatine a day, and you have to be told that this daily intake is where the effect comes from. Pre-workout carries 5 g, so it meets the condition.This is the exact wording on the EU register for creatine. It applies at 3 g a day, and you have to be told so. Pre-workout carries 5 g, so it meets the condition.
The claim is about repeated short bursts of high-intensity exercise, and nothing wider. You will read that creatine sharpens your mind or helps with your mood: our file notes early research on the brain (Forbes et al. 2022), but there is no authorised claim for it, and we do not make one. Our file also mentions a second claim, for adults over 55 doing resistance training, but it is not on our claims register with its exact wording yet, so we do not quote it.
WHY MONOHYDRATE
No newer form has shown an advantage.
The authorised claim is written for creatine, not for any particular form or brand of it, so the form is not a claim argument and we do not use it as one. Our notes call monohydrate the gold standard and record no demonstrated advantage for the alternatives. Our file names Creapure®, made by Alzchem in Germany, as the preferred source, for its certified purity above 99.9%. It dissolves in water and tastes neutral, but our file also records it as not stable in liquid and sensitive to heat, which matters in a liquid system.
A creatine monohydrate made by Alzchem in Germany, recorded in our file as certified above 99.9% pure. Soluble in water, neutral in taste, most at home between pH 5 and 7. Not stable in liquid, and sensitive to heat.
Creatine hydrochloride and creatine ethyl ester are the forms our notes compare it with. They record no demonstrated advantage for either over monohydrate, so we did not pick them.
Phosphocreatine is rare in supplements, and guanidinoacetate, a precursor, is a novel food in the EU. Either would do the same job as creatine, so our notes flag them as duplicates.
Our file prefers Creapure®, but the supplier is still pending, so we cannot tell you yet that the creatine in your cartridge is that one. Our file also records creatine as not stable in liquid, and how that is handled in a liquid cartridge is not documented yet. Our files put absorption at 95 to 100%, but that figure is not traced to a checked source yet, so we do not quote it as fact.Our file prefers Creapure®, but the supplier is still pending, and it records creatine as not stable in liquid. Neither point is settled yet.
WHERE IT APPEARS
One of the twenty-nine carries creatine.
It appears only in Pre-workout, next to citrulline, beta-alanine, caffeine and vitamin B3. The 5 g it carries meets the 3 g a day the claim asks for, and sits at the top of the 3 to 5 g a day maintenance range in the ISSN position stand. It is also above the 3 g a day EFSA assessed as safe for long-term use in adults. Our formula file calls that justified for sport use, and says it should be written into your record rather than left unsaid. The formula is taken 30 to 60 minutes before you train, at most once a day and never after 16:00, it runs in cycles of up to 24 weeks with a pause of at least 4, and it has its own exclusions. They are on its own page.
THE CEILING
No official limit. 3 g a day is what EFSA assessed.
Our ingredient file records no tolerable upper intake level set by EFSA for creatine, and there is no NRV: your body makes about 1 g a day and food adds about another 1 g. What EFSA did assess is 3 g a day, which it found safe for long-term use in adults. Pre-workout carries 5 g, above that, and it is the only formula that carries creatine, so 5 g is also your total from us. Our notes set 5 g a day as the most you should get if creatine ever sat in two formulas at once, and more than 10 g a day as something to avoid without a reason, but that is not written as a rule in the engine yet, and we would rather tell you that than imply a check that is not there.EFSA has not set an upper limit for creatine; it assessed 3 g a day as safe for long-term use. Pre-workout carries 5 g, above that, and is the only formula with creatine, so 5 g is your total from us.
Creatine does not act on the day you take it. Your muscles fill their stores over time: our file puts the first change at 3 to 4 weeks at 3 to 5 g a day, or 5 to 7 days with a loading phase of about 20 g a day, which Pre-workout does not use. In your blood it lasts about 3 hours; the store in your muscles lasts weeks. It leaves through the kidneys, as creatinine. On its own it needs no set time and no food; in Pre-workout the timing is set by the caffeine.
It can hold 1 to 2 kg of water inside your muscles. A large single dose, above 10 g in one go, can upset your stomach; Pre-workout serves 5 g. Cramps are reported anecdotally, without evidence. Our file finds no kidney damage in healthy people at 3 to 5 g a day over years. It does raise creatinine in blood tests without meaning kidney damage, so tell your doctor before one.
Take particular care with kidney disease: it is contraindicated in moderate to severe kidney disease, or with a single kidney, unless a nephrologist supervises it. In pregnancy and breastfeeding there are early data but no trials yet: ask a doctor. With cancer, or before combining it with cancer treatment, ask your oncologist first. With liver disease our file finds no contraindication, and with heart disease no evidence of harm, but the data are limited. Our file notes the ISSN considers it safe in adolescent athletes, but Pre-workout is not for anyone under 18. Keep well hydrated. Pre-workout itself excludes pregnancy, breastfeeding, under 18, heart disease and liver disease.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
Documented pairs, not hunches.
Creatine is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. We have documented 2 of them, out of the 443 pairs on file, and both are complementary: beta-alanine, which shares Pre-workout with it, and cordyceps, which is not in any formula today. Its other partners in Pre-workout, citrulline, caffeine and vitamin B3, have not been checked against it as pairs yet.
Beta-alanine buffers acid during efforts of one to four minutes; creatine rebuilds energy during efforts under 30 seconds. Our file records the pair as complementary, with no added risk, which is why they can share Pre-workout. Cordyceps is recorded as complementary and compatible too, but it is not in any formula today.
Our notes say caffeine may slightly blunt how well creatine fills your muscle stores, but the studies disagree and no analysis has settled it. The two share Pre-workout. The pair is not in our interaction table yet, so it is noted here rather than checked.
Our file notes a possible added load on the kidneys with drugs that strain them, such as long-term NSAIDs, ciclosporin or aminoglycosides, a moderate but theoretical risk, and a higher risk of dehydration or electrolyte imbalance with diuretics. It records no interaction with anticoagulants and no contraindication with psychiatric medication. If you take regular medication, the app asks before Pre-workout is ever assigned.
None of creatine's medication interactions is in our drug table yet: the card above comes from its own file, not from a checked pair. Our notes also list HMB, carbohydrates and whey protein as partners, but none of those is a documented pair either. Across the library, 443 of the 9,730 possible pairs are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.None of creatine's medication interactions is in our drug table yet. Across the library, 443 of the 9,730 possible pairs are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
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What it is, what we are allowed to say about it, which formulas carry it, what it reacts with and where each of those statements comes from. No proprietary blends, no hidden amounts.