Best Rhodiola Supplement

With the rise of brain-boosting supplements called nootropics, certain botanical ingredients have gotten renewed attention for their potential to improve memory and focus. Some of those ingredients also offer additional benefits that can give people a single-ingredient approach to treating numerous maladies.

Rhodiola rosea is one such botanical, with the ability not just to support cognition but also to regulate blood sugar, elevate energy levels, and even reduce stress and cortisol.1 But our research has revealed that not all rhodiola supplements are created equal, with powders that pale in comparison to the potent extracts used in studies and other factors that can make one option vastly superior to another.

We took a deep dive into the rhodiola market, identified the best possible supplements, and tried them for ourselves. We’ll get into the nitty-gritty of what we found, but for those of you in a hurry, here's a quick breakdown of our discoveries:

At Innerbody, we thoroughly evaluate each and every product or service we review, including the rhodiola supplements in this guide. All told, our team has spent more than 1,000 hours scrutinizing rhodiola and other similar botanical ingredients, as well as reading through hundreds of scientific journal articles pertaining to cognition, energy, stress, blood sugar, and how rhodiola may play a role in managing all of them.

In addition to this research, we investigated the top rhodiola supplements on the market, determining which were the best compared to available scientific research and, ultimately, taking on the role of a customer to purchase and try them for ourselves. Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this guide was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy and will continue to be monitored for updates by our editorial team.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

In evaluating rhodiola supplements, we applied a simple set of criteria that would most likely matter to a majority of customers. Specifically, we scrutinized effectiveness, safety, cost, and convenience to determine which of the top rhodiola supplements on the market would be the best fit for specific needs.

Let’s look closer at each criterion to see what brands rose to the top:

Effectiveness

Winner: Revive Brain+

As is the case with many botanical extracts, an efficacy evaluation comes down to more than just dosage. Botanicals like ashwagandha, fenugreek, and others are often standardized to contain minimum amounts of specific bioactive compounds that research has identified as critical to the plant’s medicinal properties. Rhodiola is no different.

In fact, in rhodiola’s case, there are two bioactive compounds at the heart of its effectiveness: rosavins and salidrosides.2

When rhodiola extracts are standardized, you’ll typically see 3% rosavin and 1% salidroside in the formula. A 100mg dose of such an extract would yield 3mg of rosavins and 1mg of salidrosides. We’ll get into the specifics of how much of either is needed for research to bear fruit, but there are two approaches to taking such a standardized rhodiola that could appeal to you, depending on your goals.

The approach likely to yield the best results for those seeking a cognitive and mood boost would likely be Reive Brain+ because it combines a relatively high dose of that classic 3% and 1% rhodiola extract with numerous other cognition-enhancing ingredients like Cognizin branded citicoline, saffron extract, and more.

The other approach would be to seek out the most potent possible single-ingredient extract. There are two companies offering standardized rhodiola extracts at concentrations higher than the 3% and 1% combo that’s so common.

One of those companies is Nektium, a nutraceutical company with two branded rhodiola extracts flying under the brand name Rhodiolife. Rhodiolife is available in the more common 3% and 1% standardization scheme, but it’s also available as a 5% rosavin and 1.8% salidroside version. That allows smaller doses to align with scientific research, and it allows users to increase their doses more meaningfully.

The problem with Rhodiolife is that it’s really only found in more complex formulas that contain numerous other botanicals combined for specific effects. If you want a similarly strong extract that sells on its own, you have to look to a brand developed between the supplement company Triquetra and the nutraceutical company Natac. Their efforts resulted in a Rhodiola extract with 5% rosavins and 2% salidrosides, slightly higher than what Rhodiolife offers, earning it a victory here for efficacy among single-ingredient rhodiola supplements.

Safety

Winner: Life Extension Rhodiola Extract

As with efficacy, extract standardization is critical for safety, as it ensures that you get a reliable and consistent dose of bioactive compounds with each serving. When you also consider the fact that rhodiola produces only mild side effects like headache or dry mouth after doses that far outpace the typical therapeutic approach, it would seem pretty safe to reach for something like Triquetra’s 5% rhodiola.18

However, if the best dose of anything is the smallest dose you need for it to be effective, it would behoove anyone with safety at the front of their minds to consider a more conservative 3% extract instead. If you felt that it was working, you could stop there or experiment with a higher dose and upgrade to a more concentrated extract if the effects were even more pronounced and you had no negative reactions.

If that higher dose of a 3% extract didn’t feel meaningfully different or resulted in some adverse effects, you could quickly titrate back down to your starting dose. In this spirit, Life Extension's rhodiola is standardized to 3% rosavins and 1% salidrosides, with a single capsule containing just 250mg.

All that said, there are some very specific contraindications for rhodiola, including for those with bipolar disorder and those on certain types of medication, which we’ll detail further in our “Is rhodiola safe?” section later on.

Cost

Winner: Bulk Supplements Rhodiola Extract Powder

When we look to bulk marketplaces for botanical ingredients, we often find great deals on subpar products. They may be unstandardized extracts in a category that regularly includes stringent standardization. They may also not be extracts at all — just dried, powdered plant material — when the bulk of scientific research points toward a preference for extracts.

In this case, however, Bulk Supplements provides a powdered extract that shares nearly the same standardization characteristics as our top pick for safety, with 3% rosavins per serving (the salidroside content is not standardized).

And because it’s a bulk powder, the cost per gram of rhodiola is significantly less than you’d pay for any encapsulated alternative, especially if you opt for one of Bulk Supplements’ higher quantities:

As you can see, the next best price, even compared to the smallest quantity you can get from Bulk Supplements, is nearly twice as expensive per gram.

Convenience

Winner: Triquetra Siberian Rhodiola

Our measure of convenience takes several things into account, including the practical aspects of taking a supplement such as titration potential and capsule size. Triquetra does extremely well in this regard, as its high concentration of bioactive compounds is still manageable for those who want to start at a relatively low dose. Each capsule only contains 200mg of rhodiola, and you can titrate up as desired. That combination of more potent extract and lower dose by weight allows the product’s capsules to be smaller, as well. While many others, like Nootropics Depot, rely on large 00-size capsules, Triquetra’s capsules are a smaller size — either 0 or 1 — making them easier to swallow.

Triquetra’s 30-day money-back guarantee isn’t the longest in our guide, but with many rhodiola studies showing efficacy in as little as four weeks, it’s still long enough that you can sense whether it’s working for you before initiating a return.

Rhodiola rosea is a plant native to the northern latitudes and high altitudes of Europe and Asia. It’s commonly found in Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, and Iceland, and it has a particular prevalence in northern Russia, notably the Siberia region. It has a rich history of use in traditional medicine as an adaptogen to treat various ailments, including:3

• High-altitude sickness
• Fatigue
• GI issues
• Anemia
• Impotence
• Depression
• Infections
• Nervous system disorders

Recent scientific research has shown that several of these treatment areas are legitimate targets for rhodiola, making its supplement form capable of treating numerous issues. But different intended uses might require different doses, so it’s imperative to understand just how rhodiola works in each of these cases.

Rhodiola depends mostly on the actions of two bioactive compounds: rosavins and salidrosides. These compounds can be found in any rhodiola supplement, but they’re much more concentrated in rhodiola extracts than in products that offer just dried and powdered plant material.

The consideration of these bioactive compounds makes for a more complicated research picture than you might see otherwise, as some research uses unstandardized rhodiola, some papers rely on extracts of varying standardizations, and others only look specifically at one compound or another without respect to the amount of rhodiola involved in their sourcing.

Given the potential for these differences to cause some confusion, let’s organize our breakdown of rhodiola’s potential around its most common uses:

• Cognition and neuroprotection
• Energy and exercise performance
• Mood
• Bone health
• Blood sugar

Rhodiola for cognition

A study in humans using a 3% rosavin and 1% salidroside rhodiola called SHR-5 found that participants treated with a 576mg daily dose had less burnout, better mental health, superior performance in complex computerized tasks, and lower salivary cortisol levels.4 These results occurred in just 28 days.

Many similar extracts on the market provide 3% rosavin and 1% salidroside doses of 200mg, 250mg, or 500mg, all of which are less than the 576mg used in the study. However, a 5% rosavin extract like Rhodiolife 5% or Triquetra’s Siberian Rhodiola could provide the same amount of bioactive compounds delivered by 576mg of SHR-5 in a dose as small as 350mg.

A review of nearly 40 animal studies using doses ranging in human equivalents from 70mg to 60g daily saw consistent benefits for cognitive impairment.5

Another study in mice looking at rhodiola’s potential for neuroprotection found that crude extract and isolated bioactive compounds all provided benefits, though high doses of isolated bioactive compounds performed better.6

Rhodiola to improve mood

A prominent rhodiola study for depression also used the SHR-5 extract, delivering 3% rosavins and 1% salidrosides.7 At doses of 340mg and 680mg per day, participants saw improvements in depression scores, insomnia, and emotional stability. In a 5% extract, those doses would equal 200mg and 400mg, respectively.

Another study looking at generalized anxiety disorder found that a similar 340mg dose of rhodiola extract improved anxiety scores significantly when compared to placebo.8

And in treating major depressive disorder as compared directly to sertraline, 340mg of SHR-5 was slightly less effective than sertraline, but it provided its efficacy with significantly fewer adverse effects.9

Rhodiola for energy and exercise performance

A recent literature review from 2023 examined the results of more than a dozen rhodiola studies focused on exercise performance.10 Across 16 trials and more than 350 participants, researchers found:

• Increases in mean and maximum lifting power
• Decreases in exerted heart rate
• Increases in VO2 peak and mean aerobic power
• Improvements in reaction time, movement accuracy, and speed

The dose range associated with these outcomes was 100-600mg daily for 4-6 weeks. However, numerous studies saw little statistically significant improvement in other measured outcomes, though these differences may be attributable to study design and participant demographics (e.g., untrained versus trained athletes).

On the energy side, several studies have illustrated rhodiola’s potential to combat physical and mental fatigue. One impressive study on participants with chronic fatigue found statistically significant improvements in their self-reported fatigue scores after eight weeks of taking 200mg/day.11

Rhodiola for bone health

Both of rhodiola’s major bioactive components — rosavins and salidrosides — have been identified as having critical roles to play in bone health. For example, a 2024 deep dive into rosavin’s role in bone metabolism concluded that it could be a major contributor to the fight against osteoporosis.12 And an in vitro study of isolated salidrosides showed how they could prevent bone loss in the face of oxidative damage typical of osteoporosis and related disorders.13

Rhodiola for blood sugar

Numerous studies have shown that rhodiola has the potential to help manage blood glucose, though many such studies have relied on mice and rats.14 In vitro research has proposed a specific mechanism of action for salidrosides from rhodiola to help control blood glucose via AMP-activated protein kinase.19 There is even evidence that salidrosides may play a part in ameliorating diabetic neuropathy, reducing pain and suffering for many with diabetes.15

Because it offers several potential benefits that could serve numerous populations, plenty of people could be excellent candidates for rhodiola supplementation.

• Older populations could benefit from cognition and bone health support.
• Stressed individuals could benefit from its anxiolytic effects.
• Athletes could see increases in energy and performance.
• Diabetics and prediabetics could experience better glucose metabolism.

Who might want to look elsewhere?

Despite its multiple potential benefits, rhodiola might not be for everyone. If you’re relatively young, feel generally energized, and don’t suffer from depression or anxiety, you might not feel much when taking a rhodiola supplement. And for young people, rhodiola’s protective mechanisms for bone health and cognition might not have a meaningful impact, either.

There are also some populations with specific conditions or taking certain medications for whom we would not recommend rhodiola, which we’ll discuss in our next section.

While rhodiola should be mostly safe for the vast majority of people, there are some for whom it could pose significant health risks. For example, case studies illustrate that rhodiola may induce manic episodes in those with bipolar disorder.16 It might also act as an additive agent for patients on a class of antidepressants called monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), possibly increasing the risk of related side effects.17

Also, according to the Merck Manual, a reference for physicians and pharmaceutical professionals, rhodiola might counteract the effects of certain immunosuppressants and alter blood pressure and glucose levels in sensitive patients.18

Ultimately, it’s critical that you discuss adding rhodiola to your daily regimen with your physician.

Best single-ingredient approach

Among standardized rhodiola extracts available on the market, Triquetra’s Siberian Rhodiola is the most potent. It’s common to see an extract standardized to contain 3% rosavins and 1% salidrosides, or to standardize for one compound and not the other. Rhodiolife — a prominent nutraceutical extract you’ll see in some complex nootropic blends — typically appears in a 3% and 1% split, though it’s also available in a 5% and 1.8% split.

Triquetra outpaces all of these, delivering 5% rosavins and 2% salidrosides. And considering the company’s commitment to quality testing and responsible manufacturing, it does so for a very reasonable price.

A bottle of Triquetra contains 60 capsules with 200mg of rhodiola in each one. That allows you to take 1-2 capsules daily, depending on your goals and body weight. For many, a single daily capsule may be enough, allowing each bottle to last up to two months.

Pricing and purchasing

A single bottle of Triquetra rhodiola costs $28.97 for a one-time purchase, and subscribers get 15% off. However, you’re stuck paying shipping when you go through Triquetra directly, regardless of whether or not you subscribe. Triquetra charges shipping based on weight and distance; for reference, one bottle of rhodiola shipping to the NY/NJ area costs just over $5.

Pricing is identical on Amazon, but Prime members get free shipping, which may be enough incentive for you to purchase through that avenue. Sometimes the product becomes unavailable there, though.

Here’s how the pricing works out with and without a subscription discount:

Triquetra has a 30-day money-back guarantee. Life Extension’s 365-day guarantee is certainly superior, but seeing as studies show that rhodiola may yield results in just 28 days, we’d say Triquetra’s policy still gives you enough time to see if it works for you before you run up against the return deadline.

Best budget pick

We often look to Bulk Supplements as a place to get reasonably well-made supplement ingredients at a low price, especially when they’re available as loose powders instead of capsules. The company offers two different rhodiola extracts, both of which provide great deals. However, you’ll want to understand the differences between them before making a purchase.

Our top pick from Triquetra delivers 5% rosavins and 2% salidrosides in its standardized extract. Bulk Supplements doesn’t rise to that concentration in its rosavins but actually beats it for salidrosides with a 3% concentration. The problem is that its 3% salidroside rhodiola is available in an extract that’s only standardized for salidroside content. The product’s rosavin content is a mystery.

Here’s how the two rhodiolas from Bulk Supplements compare:

So, how should you choose between the two? Well, pricing aside for the moment, it’s worth noting that some specific research focuses on salidroside’s bioactivity without looking into rosavin’s and vice versa. If you’re after a specific effect from your rhodiola supplementation, there may be science pointing toward better results from salidrosides than rosavins. One area in which we've found this to be true is for blood glucose control.

In general, rhodiola extract has been shown to work relatively well for glucose management, but there is compelling and specific research to suggest salidrosides play a specific role in this effect.19 That might give you an opportunity to reach for Bulk Supplements’ salidroside-standardized rhodiola to meet your needs, which is less expensive than the rosavin-centric formula.

However, in our reading, we’ve uncovered much more research specific to rosavin’s generalized benefits than those of salidroside, and almost every major product and study using a standardized extract uses something with a higher rosavin content.

Purchasing and pricing

Let’s break down the price differences between Bulk Supplements’ rosavin-standardized and salidroside-standardized extracts. Keep in mind that you can knock 10% off any of these prices by subscribing:

As you can see, the product standardized for salidrosides is significantly less expensive than the rosavin version. The only competitive alternative for a 3% salidroside product would be rhodiola capsules from Nootropics Depot, but that product’s best-case cost per gram is about $0.50, more than the most expensive version of Bulk Supplements’ rosavin-centric extract.

The biggest downsides to a Bulk Supplements purchase are the shipping and return policies. Shipping can be expensive (around $10) if you don’t meet the company’s free shipping threshold. For the rosavin-forward extract, this is pretty easy; any quantity over 100g gets you there. But for the salidroside version, you need to buy more than two pounds of extract to qualify for free shipping.

The return policy is even worse, as the company will only refund you for unopened products and only for the lowest possible price of that product. For example, you could buy that 2.2-pound bag of salidroside-standardized extract for $65.96 to avoid paying shipping. But if you changed your mind and wanted a refund, Bulk Supplements would only give you back the cost of a 100g bag. That’s under $19, costing you nearly $50.

When other companies, like Life Extension and Triquetra, offer you the ability to try their products and still return them for full refunds without such devious fine print, it’s easier to recommend them to anyone who isn’t tied to an extremely strict budget.

Best for diabetes and blood sugar management

Like Bulk Supplements, Nootropics Depot offers a rhodiola extract with a standardized 3% salidroside concentration and an unknown concentration of rosavins. Unlike Bulk Supplements, this product is encapsulated to contain 500mg of rhodiola extract per capsule, instead of the loose powder Bulk Supplements provides.

It’s also worth noting that Nootropics Depot has a rhodiola with a standardized 3% rosavin and 1% salidroside content, but it’s not competitively priced within the market.

When we broke down the potential differences a salidroside-first approach could have from a more typical rosavin focus, we mentioned blood glucose as one of the research areas in which salidrosides have an advantage. To that end, we selected Nootropics Depot's 3% salidroside rhodiola as the best choice for diabetes and blood sugar management because it marries that salidroside concentration with more precise dosing delivered via capsule and a more thorough quality and safety testing process.

Pricing and purchasing

While Nootropics Depot doesn’t offer a subscription option for its rhodiola extracts, you can purchase a larger bottle to save some money per dose. Either is available in a 60-count or 120-count package:

Nootropics Depot has relatively high shipping charges that run around $11. Its free shipping threshold is lower than most competitors at just $50, but none of its rhodiola products cross that threshold on their own. You may be able to save some money on shipping if you’re a Prime member, but the base cost for Nootropics Depot rhodiola on Amazon is a bit higher ($33 for a 120-count 3% salidroside bottle at the time of this writing).

Whether you go through Amazon or Nootropics Depot, you won’t have much luck with returns. Amazon won’t take back any Nootropics Depot purchase, even unopened, and Nootropics Depot will only allow returns on unopened goods. If you’re concerned enough about efficacy to want a money-back guarantee, you’d be better off going with Life Extension or Triquetra.

Best cognitive booster with rhodiola

One of the primary goals for which people use rhodiola is to improve focus and cognition, so it makes sense to look to the nootropics market for a complex formula containing multiple well-researched brain boosters alongside rhodiola. There are numerous high-quality options on the market, but many tend to underdose their ingredients, hoping the act of combining them will make up for their paltry numbers.

Revive is one of the few companies to provide nearly all of its ingredients at clinically relevant doses and to exclude ingredients that lack sufficient scientific support to justify their presence. All told, the formula contains 14 ingredients:

• Niacin (as niacinamide): 100mg NE
• Vitamin B6 (as pyridoxal-5-phosphate): 20mg
• Folate (as L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate calcium salt): 200mcg DFE
• Vitamin B12 (as methylcobalamin): 500mcg
• L-Alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine 50%: 600mg
• Acetyl-L-carnitine HCl: 500mg
• L-Tyrosine: 500mg
• Rhodiola rosea (root) extract (standardized to 3% rosavins, 1% salidrosides): 300mg
• Alpha lipoic acid: 250mg
• Citicoline monosodium salt: 250mg
• Phosphatidylserine (as NutriPS™): 100mg
• Saffron (Crocus sativus) [flower] extract: 30mg
• Pyrroloquinoline quinone (as PQQ disodium salt): 10mg
• Lithium (from lithium orotate): 400mcg

Among these ingredients, the 300mg dose of rhodiola is well within the dose range used in common study designs. There should also be benefits to stress, mood, and sleep, from the 30mg of saffron extract, according to multiple studies.20 Some other ingredients are still dosed within effective study ranges, albeit on the low end of those ranges. Phosphatidylserine is a good example at its 100mg dose, as is the 10mg of PQQ.21 22

If the sight of lithium is somewhat striking to you, you’re probably familiar with its use as a potent drug for major depression and bipolar disorder. But doses for those conditions typically run between 600mg and 1,200mg,23 which is more than 1,000 times the amount of lithium you’ll find in Revive Brain+. There’s some evidence that microdosing lithium can provide cognitive and longevity benefits, but a proper microdose has not been established at this time.23

Purchasing and pricing

Unlike most other companies in this space that provide discounts for subscribers or bulk purchases, Revive employs a flat rate for its Brain+ product. One bottle costs $59. You can still subscribe for the added convenience a subscription offers, but a subscription confers no additional savings. Each bottle still costs $59.

Revive also has the highest free-shipping threshold of any company in our guide, asking you to spend $150 before free shipping will kick in. Shipping is calculated by weight and distance, and it’s not especially cheap. One bottle of Brain+ costs nearly $10 to ship to the NY/NJ area. Revive also has a poor return policy compared to companies like Life Extension and Triquetra, with a short 15-day window that only allows returns on unopened products.

Best money-back guarantee

Life Extension offers a relatively inexpensive rhodiola extract that may be strong enough to exert effects at a two-capsule dose. The extract is standardized to 3% rosavins and 1% salidrosides, but each capsule only contains a 250mg dose. Based on the research we’ve reviewed, a slightly higher dose than 500mg at that exact concentration would be recommended for reliable efficacy, so individuals with a bit more body weight might find that they need three capsules of Life Extension’s product to feel its effects.

Ultimately, this rhodiola extract is ideal for lighter-weight individuals who are determined to get something with a strong money-back guarantee. Life Extension offers 365 days of coverage on your purchase, so you can take your time trying its products to make sure they’re right for you.

Pricing and shipping

Life Extension’s pricing can be somewhat inconsistent. When we ordered our bottles of rhodiola for the purposes of this review, they each cost $11.48. But now, as of this writing, the one-time purchase price on the Life Extension site is listed at $12.75. It may go back down at some point, and the company regularly has sales on its products. Life Extension also has some of the steepest discounts on subscriptions that we’ve seen, with the current rate cut on rhodiola being 40% for subscribers, bringing the cost per bottle down to just $7.65.

If you fail to reach the $50 free shipping threshold, Life Extension charges a flat $5.50 for shipping in the U.S. This is about half as expensive as most of the competitors in our guide.

Considering the various potential benefits rhodiola has to offer, you can take several alternative paths to improve the aspects of your health that rhodiola could influence. The most direct way to discuss these would be for us to break them down by goal and see what other approaches the market has to offer that can boast some scientific support.