Best CoQ10 Supplement

Coenzyme Q10, or CoQ10, is one of the most popular supplements for heart health and general wellness. In addition to cardiovascular support, studies link it to blood sugar regulation, cancer prevention, skin rejuvenation, and even migraine control.1

Some of these claims are more thoroughly substantiated than others, but there appear to be undeniable benefits to supplementing with CoQ10. And there are plenty of options for your CoQ10 intake — so many that it’s a challenge figuring out which ones will be safest and most effective.

This guide will break down what CoQ10 is, how it can help you, and which companies make the best supplements.

If you’re pressed for time, take a quick look at our summary of recommendations:

Our recommendations are grounded in a few critical facts that are unique to CoQ10’s potential to work for you.

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.

At Innerbody Research, we extensively test each health service or product we review, including CoQ10 supplements. We’ve ordered and tried these products for ourselves, so we can speak to things like taste, pill size, shipping times, and customer service. Our team also spent more than 1,300 hours studying clinical research into how CoQ10 can affect various bodily systems, including heart health, cognition, and fertility.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy. We’ll continue monitoring the CoQ10 landscape for developments to keep this content current.

When we set out to evaluate CoQ10 supplements, we found a few set criteria to be the most useful in comparing one to another. We focused much of our attention on efficacy, looking at doses and ingredients to see which CoQ10 supplement might have the best chance of working for you. Cost, too, was an ever-present concern, as the prices of these supplements can range dramatically. We also considered safety, an important point in general but not one that’s terribly different among CoQ10s. Our last consideration was customer service and convenience, much about which we gathered from our experiences ordering and trying these products for ourselves.

Effectiveness

Advantage: Micro Ingredients CoQ10 Softgels

For efficacy, Micro Ingredient’s advantage here is incredibly slight. Research we’ve reviewed indicates that doses between 100mg and 200mg will cover the majority of potential CoQ10 benefits, with smaller doses running the risk of being too weak and larger doses running up against the U-shaped curve we described earlier — essentially that higher doses begin to perform worse than lower ones.24

So, for most people, that 100-200mg range is ideal, making a 100mg softgel the best vehicle for CoQ10, as it allows for easy dose adjustment between 200mg and 100mg if desired. Like many companies, Micro Ingredients has a few CoQ10 softgel sizes in its catalog, but its 100mg softgels are our preferred choice. What’s more, the company employs MCT oil in its softgels, which is ultimately what gives them the edge over products from Puritan’s Pride and Nootropics Depot. We prefer to see either MCT oil or soy oil in CoQ10 products, as these have shown the most promise in research on bioavailability and shelf stability.52 53 Puritan’s Pride uses rice bran oil, and Nootropics Depot provides a powdered CoQ10 with no carrier oil.

Theoretically, an even more effective approach would be to combine a therapeutic dose of CoQ10 with other effective ingredients for a given benefit. For example, if you wanted to take CoQ10 for cardiovascular health, a heart health complex containing it could be a great choice. Unfortunately, our review of the marketplace revealed no viable complexes that support CoQ10’s most common use cases. Some used too little or too much CoQ10, while others combined it with ingredients that lacked sufficient scientific support. Still others buried their CoQ10 and other ingredient doses in large proprietary blends, making it impossible to recommend them. For now, the most effective approach to attaining CoQ10’s potential benefits is to incorporate it on its own.

Cost

Advantage: Puritan’s Pride Q-Sorb

When we consider the cost of a CoQ10 supplement, we look at both the sticker price and the cost per dose across one-time purchases, bulk purchases, and subscription. Even more enlightening, we calculate the cost per gram of CoQ10 (cost per milligram renders prices too low to compare them reasonably), so differences in serving size or doses per bottle doesn’t throw off the math.

Puritan’s Pride takes top prize in this category because it has the lowest overall cost per bottle and lowest cost per gram of CoQ10.

Here’s a look at several of the top CoQ10 products on the market break down their pricing by dose and by gram of CoQ10:

One caveat here is that these prices are the best possible prices per bottle, which, for Puritan’s Pride, involve a $100 investment in six bottles. If you have less capital to spend, opting for a smaller quantity, specifically the 60-serving bottle, would enable you to get your hands on some CoQ10 for closer to $10.

Safety

Advantage: Micro Ingredients

CoQ10 is mostly safe for healthy individuals, with mild side effects occasionally reported that include digestive issues or insomnia, even at doses as high as 720mg/day.3 But there’s CoQ10 in all of these CoQ10 products, so how do we pick a winner for safety?

To do that, we looked beyond the CoQ10 itself to compare manufacturing methods, testing procedures, and other ingredients. Micro Ingredients squeaked ahead of most of the competition for a few reasons. For starters, its 100mg softgels align well with a good quantity for easy titration. It’s also non-GMO and gluten-free, and it uses MCT oil as a carrier — a healthier choice than most others.

What really sets Micro Ingredients apart is its third-party testing, which ensures that its ingredients meet purity, potency, and safety standards. However, obtaining a certificate of analysis from Micro Ingredients involves contacting the company. By comparison, Nootropics Depot posts links to recent batch test results on each product page. Unfortunately, its CoQ10 comes in capsule form — not softgels — which doesn’t align with as much research into safety or efficacy. It also only comes in a 200mg per-capsule dose.

Convenience and customer service

Advantage: Nature’s Bounty CoQ10 Gummies

Most CoQ10 supplements boast the same relative degree of convenience. They almost all require you to take a single pill once per day. But some of these pills are rather large, making them inconvenient for anyone who has a tough time swallowing medicine. And because the softgels are necessary to prevent the medicine from degrading in oxygen, you can’t snap them in half or break them down to make them easier to take.

Qunol’s Liquid CoQ10 solves this problem by delivering doses in liquid form, but you still need something to pour it into, or you can use the cap and rinse it after. And liquids certainly don’t travel as well as softgels do.

Even more convenient than a liquid CoQ10 is a CoQ10 gummy. Qunol has one of these in its lineup, but it’s more expensive and contains more sugar than our winner for convenience from Nature’s Bounty. These CoQ10 gummies have one less gram of sugar per serving compared to Qunol, and each gummy contains twice as much CoQ10, delivering 100mg in each rather than just 50mg.

In testing, our team universally enjoyed the peach mango flavor, as well, making them a clear choice for anyone with convenience at top of mind. However, we should point out that there haven’t been any significant studies conducted using CoQ10 in gummy form, so efficacy may vary compared to more reliable forms like softgels.

Coenzyme Q10 is an antioxidant naturally produced inside your body. It’s a key component of the electron transport chain, which is essential to creating adenosine triphosphate (ATP) — fuel for your cells. CoQ10 is incredibly abundant in the body and can be found in about 95% of our cells.

Large amounts of CoQ10 reside in the brain, liver, heart, and kidneys. But your body doesn’t produce as much CoQ10 as you age,4 which is why supplementation can be important whether or not you suffer from a clinical deficiency.5

Ubiquinol vs. ubiquinone

CoQ10 has two forms available for supplementation — ubiquinol and ubiquinone. There’s a complicated web of contradictory science and marketing hype touting one form’s potential over the other, but CoQ10 molecules convert back and forth between these states naturally. In fact, this redox reaction occurs in a single CoQ10 molecule around 500 times every hour.39 So, ultimately, it shouldn’t matter which one you take; either form at a supportable dose should yield benefits.

That said, there’s the question of the abundance of available evidence for a given CoQ10 form and whether the existing science should point you in one direction or another. And head-to-head studies haven’t been conducted comparing the two forms for anything other than bioavailability, making scrutiny of research into other effects more pertinent.

Let’s quickly break down the case for each, then examine a few studies in greater detail to see if one form truly has the edge over the other.

On the bioavailability side, ubiquinol gets a lot of praise. This largely comes from bioavailability studies such as a randomized, controlled trial from 2018, which showed identical doses of ubiquinone and ubiquinol resulting in greater serum CoQ10 concentrations among the ubiquinol group.34 That’s certainly important, but it was a very small study (only ten participants), and it doesn’t give us a sense of actual efficacy for any use case.

We’ve also seen a certain form of ubiquinone outperform ubiquinol in one bioavailability study, though there were also important differences among the compared samples there, as well.52 Moreover, there aren’t yet any head-to-head studies looking at more than just bioavailability, and both forms appear effective at similar doses in individual studies.

Ultimately, the case for ubiquinone over ubiquinol in most instances relies on the following facts:

• Researchers have yet to show that ubiquinol’s superior bioavailability translates to greater beneficial effects.
• Ubiquinone and ubiquinol undergo a rapid and incessant redox cycle that turns one into the other and back again; which one you take might not bear significance.
• Ubiquinone still boasts a larger body of evidence overall and a lower price in almost every case, making it the logical starting point for the vast majority of people interested in CoQ10.

All that said, we’ve provided a high-quality ubiquinol option for you in this guide, should you remain convinced that it’s superior.

CoQ10’s positive effects have been well-documented in hundreds of clinical studies, but exactly how it provides these benefits hasn’t always been as clear. In many cases, beneficial effects can be chalked up to antioxidant activity, while the coenzyme’s role in the electron transport chain can account for some others.

Here’s what the research has to say about CoQ10’s most well-known mechanisms of action:

CoQ10’s ability to mitigate inflammation and oxidative stress while maximizing the health and efficiency of mitochondria has multiple downstream effects influencing everything from cardiovascular health to fertility. ​

Because CoQ10 production declines with age, supplementation simply replaces the CoQ10 that would otherwise be there. That allows the cells in just about every organ of the body to perform more efficiently.

As described in the previous section, CoQ10 has plenty of benefits to offer, with a relatively low cost and a minimal side effect profile. It’s tempting to climb to the nearest mountaintop and shout from it that we should all be taking a reasonable daily dose to improve our short- and long-term health. Because we all encounter things that exacerbate oxidative stress in our daily lives, and because CoQ10 evidently supports cellular health as we age through adulthood, supplementing would be useful for a great many people.48 And what’s more, with cardiovascular disease remaining the number one cause of death in the U.S., CoQ10 can benefit heart health.27 46

But there may be other things to consider here, as well. For example, cofactors in heart disease include stress and poverty, and adding another monthly expense to your regimen — even a fairly inexpensive one for the supplement market — might not be the best move for everyone.47 If you’re just abstractly worried about heart disease and are otherwise healthy but have a very tight budget, it might not the best investment — at least not for that specific reason (either way, it’s something to discuss with your doctor).

Ultimately, if you’re interested in any of the potential benefits we’ve discussed — perhaps you have high blood pressure, glucose issues, fertility concerns, etc. — you should bring it up with your doctor and ask about CoQ10 specifically.

Who might want to look elsewhere?

There are some benefits being touted online that simply don’t have the same level of scientific support when it comes to CoQ10. Here are a few areas where support for CoQ10 is lacking:

Many drugs and supplements have dose-dependent relationships — the more you take, the better it works. The only limiting factors are typically adverse effects that increase with higher doses or the impracticality (physically or financially) of taking excessive amounts of these treatments.

But after hundreds of research papers looking at CoQ10’s potential in dozens of health issues, numerous researchers have discussed an apparent U-shaped curve in much of the data. A U-shaped curve occurs when increasing a dose starts providing more benefit but only to a point. Increase the dose beyond that point, and efficacy not only wanes, but it reverses.

Here’s what a U-shaped curve looks like (data points are invented for illustration purposes):

In this invented example, the intervention in question does its best job at reducing a negative biomarker at around 200mg, after which the effect tapers off and soon becomes almost nonexistent. Similar U-shaped curves have emerged in CoQ10 research for blood pressure, glycemic control, and even some cancers.35 12 36

In most cases, the greatest efficacy in these U shapes occurs at or around 200mg, with a slight bias toward doses below 200mg. So, for most people, we advise taking no more than 200mg of CoQ10 unless expressly advised to do so by a doctor.

This research also reveals certain minimums for efficacy, as does the broader range of individual studies into CoQ10 for various ailments. In most, daily doses just below 100mg are where significant effects begin. That’s why our recommendations almost universally contain 100mg per softgel; that dose allows you to hew closer to 100mg or 200mg, depending on your size, any perceived effects, and conversations with your doctor.

Softgels are the most widely used delivery mechanism for CoQ10 in the scientific literature. They contain CoQ10 crystals that have been solubilized (made more soluble, in this case, by suspension in a fat), and they’re more predictably bioavailable than taking a powdered CoQ10 alongside a fatty meal.52 There are successful clinical trials using powders, capsules, and tablets, but these are rarer. And softgel encapsulation — especially in opaque softgels — appears to offer some shelf stability benefit, as well.53

In softgels, CoQ10 is paired with one or more carrier oils in which the substance is suspended. These oils themselves may have some influence on CoQ10’s bioavailability and shelf stability, leading brands to tout one or another as the best. But what does the science say?

At this point in the research, there’s no clear winner among carrier oils for bioavailability. One prominent study showed that soy oil and MCT oil are among the best options for bioavailability, but other factors, including the surface-to-volume ratio of individual CoQ10 crystals in different solubilized formulations, may have played a role.52

On the stability side, a study pitting 11 CoQ10 products against one another showed that MCT oil slightly outperformed soy oil in keeping a constant CoQ10 concentration over several months.53 However, these were disparate commercial formulations with numerous other variables that could potentially affect stability.

At this point, the choice for the best carrier oil likely comes down to either MCT or soy oil, and if you’re allergic to one but not the other, then the choice is made for you. A little under 0.4% of the population in the U.S. reports an allergic reaction to coconut, whereas about 0.5% is allergic to soy.54 40

Ultimately, this paints a picture where you could consider things like cost or capsule count above efficacy or stability, so long as you have either soy oil or MCT oil in your softgels.

Most studies involving CoQ10 report few to no adverse effects in study populations.3 When side effects did occur, they were generally mild and included:

CoQ10 appears to be safe at doses as high as 720mg/day.3

According to the NIH, CoQ10 should be avoided if you’re taking chemotherapy drugs, as the data for potential contraindications is too limited. It’s also not advisable to take CoQ10 if you’re prone to episodes of hypoglycemia, whether from a medication or condition.56

No studies have established whether CoQ10 supplements are safe during pregnancy or nursing periods. Those who are pregnant or nursing or who hope to become pregnant should avoid CoQ10 supplements. And, as always, speak to your doctor before introducing any new supplement into your daily regimen.

Best for most people (softgels) and best powder form (powder)

The majority of the Micro Ingredients catalog is made up of single-ingredient supplements, with only a rare few offering more than one ingredient as a complex formula. In most cases, the company does a good job of offering titration-friendly doses in each serving of these ingredients, and its CoQ10 is no different. Each softgel contains 100mg of CoQ10 — a common feature of the top picks in our guide, but one still worth noting.

Micro Ingredients softgels go a step further by using MCT oil as its carrier oil, which is generally considered a healthier oil and is often employed by the upper echelon of CoQ10 brands.37 It’s also free of soy (a common carrier oil source), gluten, and dairy, but it’s not vegan-friendly, as the capsules contain gelatin.

In addition to its softgels, Micro Ingredients also produces a top-tier CoQ10 powder. To be clear, the majority of the scientific research into CoQ10’s benefits uses softgels, but if you’re looking for a powder regardless, this is one of the best. It boasts boasts a great per-gram price and a vegan-friendly status that the softgels lack.

One last feather in Micro Ingredients’ cap is its third-party testing, which ensures consistent and accurate dosing and shows that each batch is free of contaminants like heavy meals or microorganisms. Some other companies perform similar testing, including Nootropic Depot, but it isn’t a standard practice across the CoQ10 space.

Micro Ingredients pricing

Micro Ingredients doesn’t offer subscription savings on its website, but the company’s Amazon store makes subscribing an option, and prices are roughly the same between the two platforms. (Subscribing on Amazon is the most cost-effective way to buy it.) Here’s how the pricing works out for Micro Ingredients CoQ10:

As you can see, the cost per gram improves as you reach for a higher dose, but the 200mg dose (divided into two 100mg softgels) remains our preference for its alignment with scientific research.

Shipping can tack on an extra $7 if you don’t meet the company’s $59 free-shipping threshold, or you can go through Amazon if you’re a Prime member to save on shipping. That’s not as generous as the free shipping other companies like Qunol offer on all orders, but it’s still a relatively low charge among companies with shipping fees. Unfortunately, Micro Ingredients doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee, which is at odds with some stellar guarantees in this guide, including a 365-day promise from Life Extension.

Best budget pick

Puritan’s Pride produces softgels using a form of ubiquinone called Q-Sorb. It’s a fermented CoQ10, but there isn’t anything identifiable about Q-Sorb that improves its absorption compared to competitors. There’s no scientific evidence to lean on, so there’s no way to regard dosing or potential efficacy in any way different from standard CoQ10.

Still, very few companies offer the wide dose range you see in Puritan’s Pride’s lineup. You can get Q-Sorb CoQ10 in these doses:

• 50mg
• 100mg
• 120mg
• 200mg
• 300mg
• 400mg

These options are nice, but remember that doses of 300mg and above can fall victim to CoQ10’s U-shaped curve, potentially resulting in inferior effects.

Puritan’s Pride pricing

If you buy directly from Puritan's Pride, one 240-count bottle of our recommended 100mg costs a hair over $50, which seems extremely expensive until you realize you actually get three bottles for this price. Puritan’s Price lists this as a “Buy 1 Get 1 Free” promotion, but considering the price, it really just amounts to bulk savings. And that promotional structure prevents you from buying a single bottle at a lower price. You could get a 60-count bottle in a buy-one-get-one deal for around $14, but that still ends up being more expensive per dose and per gram than the 240-count alternative.

Because of this, unless you know for sure that this is the right product for you, you may be better off considering other purchasing options. We'd suggest purchasing from Amazon, where you really can buy a single, 60-serving bottle of Q-Sorb 100mg for $10. This way, you can try the product without spending over $50 at the outset.

Here’s a closer look at how the pricing works out if you choose to buy the 240-count bottle directly.

No other company in this space has such an odd price structure. It works out to a reasonable cost overall, but it’s a bit prohibitive to those without a lot of capital. With free shipping on orders over $30, the 240-count bottle nets free shipping at any level. Also, you can set your shipments to arrive in intervals running from one to six months.

Puritan’s Pride’s 90-day return policy is the second-most generous on our list, falling short of Life Extension’s one-year guarantee but beating out the next best policy by a month.

Best for ubiquinol

Life Extension offers a wide array of products, from supplements and foods to skincare serums and lab testing. Most of its product line is geared toward extending life and quality of life and achieving a healthier, more youthful appearance.

Life Extension uses Kaneka branded ubiquinol — the form most often seen in ubiquinol research. You can get it on its own, but the company also makes the only CoQ10 in our guide to include either shilajit or PQQ. Let’s break each of those down so you can understand what makes them beneficial.

Due to the lower-than-ideal dosing of either of these components, it’s likely a better choice to stick with Life Extension’s plain Super Ubiquinol, which contains 100mg of CoQ10 per capsule.

Life Extension pricing

One bottle of Life Extension Super Ubiquinol costs $33.75. Subscribers can save up to 26% and only pay $28 per bottle. Subscriptions also unlock free shipping.

Life Extension claims to have a generous one-year return policy, though the particulars of this policy are nowhere on the company's website. You could subscribe to its CoQ10 for a year and then find out the return policy can only apply to a single order, returning just $28 of the $336 spent. You might get back the whole $336 in such a case, but the lack of transparency leads us to believe otherwise. Still, this is the longest guarantee we’ve seen in the space.

Best liquid option

Qunol is one of the most recognizable brands in the CoQ10 space. Its Liquid CoQ10 is ideal for anyone who wants to avoid the hassle of swallowing pills or the added ingredient in softgels. The company also offers CoQ10 gummies, but they pale in comparison to our top gummy pick from Nature’s Bounty.

For the most part, Qunol’s CoQ10 softgels use Kaneka ubiquinol, though some contain ubiquinone. Some of the ubiquinol options come with a 250mg dose of omega-3s, which can aid in absorption while also providing their own health benefits, such as guarding against cardiovascular disease.17 Other Qunol softgels utilize palm oil, which may not be as bad for cardiovascular health as once thought but does have significant negative effects on the planet and the people who live where it’s cultivated.23

The best product in Qunol’s lineup from our perspective is its Liquid CoQ10. It’s a tasty, convenient option that comes with the right dose per serving to align with most of the best CoQ10 research.

Qunol pricing

Qunol doesn’t prescribe one dose over another, but it spells out the measurements for a 100mg and 200mg dose on the bottle. That can affect your spending, depending on how you take it.

Here’s how it works out at either dose level:

Qunol offers free shipping on all orders within the U.S., as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee. Both of these approaches are superior to most competitors, who typically have cost thresholds for free shipping and strict return policies.

Best vegan option

While the heart is the organ most often associated with CoQ10, the brain stands to enjoy serious benefits from supplementation.18 The most powerful of these benefits is CoQ10’s neuroprotective potential that can help stave off the cognitive decline that comes naturally with age, as well as senility disorders like Alzheimer’s. And that’s why you see CoQ10 from a company renowned for its brain-boosting supplements.

Some of the most significant differences among some CoQ10 supplements are the materials used for their softgels and the lipids used to increase absorption. Nootropics Depot doesn’t deal with either, delivering a CoQ10 powder in vegan-friendly capsules.

The big downside to Nootropics Depot’s approach is that powder capsules are much less often used in clinical CoQ10 research. There are a handful of good studies that show performance roughly on par with that of softgels, but CoQ10 is lipophilic — it works best in the presence of fats. That means you’ll want to have a fatty snack on hand or take this CoQ10 with a balanced meal to ensure proper absorption.

You also get 200mg per capsule, making this a poor choice for anyone seeking a smaller dose.

Nootropics Depot pricing

You can get Nootropics Depot’s CoQ10 capsules in a 60- or 180-count bottle for the following prices:

As you can see, the 180-count bottle offers superior savings, but it costs more than twice as much as its 60-count counterpart.

Shipping charges from Nootropics Depot can be around $10 if you don’t hit the company’s $50 free shipping threshold, which makes that 60-count bottle a lot less enticing. Also, if you’re not satisfied with Nootropics Depot products, you’re out of luck. Like Micro Ingredients, Nootropics Depot has no money-back guarantee, just a 30-day return policy for unopened items.

Best gummy

Among CoQ10 gummies, it can be hard to find the right balance between dose and taste. In our trials, Nature’s Bounty checked both boxes, delivering a very enjoyable peach mango flavor and a solid 100mg of CoQ10 in each gummy. Our testers universally agreed this was their preferred gummy for both flavor and texture, with one claiming it tasted identical to a favorite childhood fruit snack.

The gummy format certainly makes this a convenient option, as well. Popping a flavorful gummy is easier than swallowing pills or mixing a powder into a drink. But there’s a downside to gummies, namely that they tend to contain sugar. To be fair, Nature’s Bounty has about as much or less sugar than some other brands we considered. But it uses corn syrup as its primary sweetener, which may be a turnoff for some consumers.

The gummies are also not vegan-friendly, as they’re made with gelatin, but very few CoQ10 products are vegan-friendly, as they often come in gelatin-based softgels.

Nature’s Bounty pricing

One of the best things about Nature’s Bounty CoQ10 Gummies is that they’re inexpensive to acquire. They don’t have the best value, delivering one of the higher costs per dose in our guide, but at just under $10 for a bottle, it’s easy to try them out to see if you like the flavor.

Shipping and returns for these gummies will depend on where you get them. The company doesn’t sell directly to consumers, so policies from Amazon, iHerb, and others will determine your options.

Honorable mention

Sports Research didn’t earn a top recommendation in our summary toward the top of the page, but it just narrowly missed being our preferred vegan option. It’s an outstanding product in many ways, though its use of black pepper extract — while effective for enhancing bioavailability — isn’t supported by any effect-based research beyond just increasing serum CoQ10.19

A single bottle of Sports Research CoQ10 contains 120 softgels (100mg) and costs $27.95, but you can save 15% by subscribing. That brings your cost down to $23.76/bottle, with flexible shipping options every two, four, or six months.

Sports Research also has one of the best money-back guarantees in its class at 45 days. You’ll still be on the hook for any shipping charges incurred in either direction, but you can try the product for up to a month and a half and get a near-total refund if it doesn’t work for you. That’s 15 days more than you get from more typical 30-day guarantees, though 45 days is a lot shorter than Life Extension’s 365-day policy.

CoQ10 supplementation appears to have many potential benefits. But if you’re interested in it for a particular reason, you might find superior or complementary options out there that are worth your investigation. Let’s take a look at a few potential goals people commonly look to CoQ10 to address and discuss some alternatives.