Best GABA Supplement

Stress touches everyone at some point, and most people feel it frequently. Indeed, in a 2025 Gallup research report, over 50% of American adults reported feeling stressed the previous day, and a more recent survey published by the American Psychological Association suggests the number may be rising.1 29 It’s a problem with serious implications for health, affecting multiple organ systems over time.2

But there are a number of things you can do about chronic, low-level stress. You can even take a supplement: something like gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, an amino acid and the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in your brain.57 As a supplement, it’s taken with the overarching goal of helping you feel more centered throughout the day. We’ve researched, found, and tested the top GABA supplements so you can determine which one will help you the most.

If you’re in a hurry, check out our top recommendations for the best GABA supplements below.

Summary of recommendations

• Best for most people: Thorne PharmaGABA-100
• Best liquid: Quicksilver Scientific GABA + L-Theanine
• Best multi-ingredient solution: Quality of Life Serenelle
• Most cost-effective: Nutricost GABA Powder
• Lowest up-front cost: NOW GABA Supplement

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions to live healthier lifestyles.

For our review of the best GABA supplements, we spent over 100 hours reading and analyzing 50+ scientific studies and other reputable sources on this important neurotransmitter. The knowledge we gained informed our survey of the GABA supplements market, guiding us as we examined top manufacturers and hidden gems to ensure our choices are truly recommendable. We then identified the top players, bought them, and tried them.

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 monitor the latest research and shifting product options for GABA supplements to ensure this guide stays up-to-date.

We rated the market’s best GABA supplements based on three criteria, which we determined are the factors that are most likely to move consumers toward one product or another:

• Safety: What are some common risks of GABA supplementation, and which brand best mitigates those risks?
• Effectiveness: Which brand’s formulation best aligns with clinical research?
• Cost: Which brand offers the best balance between immediate accessibility and long-term savings?

Now let’s discuss how our recommendations performed in each category.

Safety

Advantage: Thorne PharmaGABA-100

Among our recommendations, Thorne and Nutricost stand out for safe testing owing to their NSF certification. To achieve and maintain NSF certification, a company must undergo random, unannounced plant inspections and thorough testing/retesting, so with either one, you can be certain you’ve got a product that has continued to withstand rigorous third-party evaluation.30

Thorne, however, goes a step beyond, as it’s also GMP-certified by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). That’s impressive because, unlike the FDA, the TGA does actively regulate dietary supplements (a.k.a. “complementary medicines”).31 32

Additionally, Thorne uses a branded form of GABA called PharmaGABA, which is Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) as a food ingredient by the FDA and is regularly seen in GABA research studies.8 One 2014 study of PharmaGABA supplementation in rats found no adverse effects or any signs of toxicity, and that was with up to 2,500mg/kg of the rats’ body weight — equivalent to about 34,014mg for a 180lb human.25 The most that our Thorne recommendation will give you is 100mg, so the risk of adverse effects is negligible outside of contraindicated populations.

Effectiveness

Advantage: Thorne PharmaGABA-100

We favor products whose ingredients boast research backing, and PharmaGABA is one of the most researched branded GABAs on the market. With regard to efficacy, it has yielded successful outcomes in a sleep study and a case study on its potential to calm symptoms of bipolar disorder with psychotic features and suicidality.23 24

The sleep study administered 100mg doses, the same amount as in Thorne PharmaGABA-100. The case study used Thorne PharmaGABA-100 specifically. Again, Thorne’s GABA has a pedigree behind it.

Two of our other recommendations use PharmaGABA, too: Quality of Life and Quicksilver Scientific. Between the two, Quality of Life has the better research support since it’s a capsule using clinical doses of PharmaGABA, lemon balm, Sensoril ashwagandha, and L-theanine. Quicksilver, however, is a liquid, a form with significantly less representation in the research literature.

The question that remains is: If Quality of Life has multiple ingredients at clinically effective levels, what makes Thorne the better option?

It’s the fact that it’s so simple and straightforward. At 100mg PharmaGABA per one-capsule serving, Thorne’s dose aligns neatly with that of clinical trials, and if you wanted more GABA oomph, you could do so without risk of overconsuming other ingredients. In contrast, Quality of Life has you split two capsules between a.m. and p.m., which is not a well-supported dosing protocol, and its multi-ingredient formulation complicates titration.

That is, “better” here means “better for a broader user population,” and Thorne fits the bill.

Cost

Advantage: Nutricost GABA Powder

Even though Nutricost GABA Powder is pricier up front than NOW GABA, it remains our budget pick because of how many servings it provides relative to its cost:

Because each bottle of Nutricost contains 1,000 servings, its per-serving cost is $0.12–$0.13 less than that of NOW GABA. Not only that, but with a one-dose-per-day regimen, a single Nutricost order should last you around 2.5 years, whereas you’d need 3–4 bottles of NOW to meet a single year’s demand. So, if you break the cost down by year, you’d spend around $10 annually with Nutricost and at least $50 with NOW.

That being said, for the lowest financial barrier to entry, NOW is the clear winner, and the option we recommend for anyone who wants to dip their toes into the GABA space before fully incorporating the supplement into their health routine.

Before we get into all the GABA science, check out this quick-reference chart to help you visualize the key differences between our favorite GABA supplements:

Your neurons send information across your brain through action potentials, which are electric charges that zip down a neuron and tell it to open its sodium and potassium channels. All neurons can be adjusted to be either more likely (excitatory) or less likely (inhibitory) to set off an action potential. Most of the time, when a neuron is inhibited, GABA is responsible, reducing the amount of information sent through your brain.

GABA is an amino acid and the most important inhibitory neurotransmitter in your brain. It’s found in up to 50% of all neurons across the brain, central nervous system, and peripheral nervous system.26

Since GABA inhibits information across the entire brain, its effects are wide-ranging:

When your GABA is low, your neurons may fire irregularly. When your brain has insufficient receptors for GABA, it leads to a lack of control in firing rates. Consequently, you may experience disorders such as anxiety,33 epilepsy,34 and/or insomnia.35

At the same time, you have no reliable way of monitoring your GABA levels. Low GABA isn’t considered a deficiency of the sort you might have with a vitamin or mineral. Also, as noted by Dr. Matt Segar, a member of our Medical Review Board: “Currently, there's no widely available test to measure GABA levels in the body.”

How is GABA made?

GABA is made naturally by your body from glutamate, the major excitatory neurotransmitter, using vitamin B6. Additionally, you can get GABA from exogenous sources, both supplemental and dietary.

From food alone, the average person ingests 80–120mg of GABA every day.8 Fermented foods are one of the best sources of dietary GABA.37 In fact, GABA is a by-product of foods that have been fermented with Lactobacillus bacteria, which include:

• Yogurt
• Cheese
• Sauerkraut
• Kimchi
• Miso
• Cocoa
• Kefir
• Tempeh

Lactobacillus is a genus of common probiotics that creates large amounts of GABA as a protective feature to maintain its productivity in high-acidity environments.9 Lactobacillus happens to be one of the most common gastrointestinal (GI) bacteria, which may explain why GABA is so prevalent in the gut.10

Supplemental GABA almost always comes in an ingestible form: a capsule, pill, powder, or oil. When you take a GABA supplement, it all eventually gets broken down by your stomach into its chemical form. Sublingual oils may absorb faster because they theoretically enter circulation via two channels: first the mucosal tissue under the tongue, and then the stomach.53

After the stomach, supplemental GABA crosses the intestinal barrier.15 In around 30 minutes after ingestion, it reaches peak circulation.16

GABA and the blood–brain barrier

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a highly selective, protective border between your blood and central nervous system. It’s a sort of filter, keeping out the things that don’t need to reach your brain.40 Normally, a substance cannot pass the BBB unless assisted by a transporter or receptor.

There’s a lot of debate about whether supplemental GABA can pass the BBB. According to a 2020 systematic review, some studies from the 1970s suggest it’s wholly unable, while others from the ’80s to the early 2000s suggest anything from small to substantial amounts can get through.41 Two studies in the review — a 2008 study with 13 human subjects and a 2012 study with 63 — used electroencephalogram (EEG) tests to measure brainwaves in response to biosynthetic GABA, and the researchers found altered EEG activity after 30–60 minutes following administration, but they didn’t identify the mechanisms behind the alterations.42 43 Therefore, we can’t take either study as proof that supplemental GABA can substantially cross the BBB, only that it correlated with physiological effects relevant to the brain.

Basically, the extent of GABA’s permeability through the human BBB remains unknown at this point. But we know there are GABA receptors in the peripheral nervous system,11 and their activation may account for some of GABA’s physiological effects.

The physiological effects we’ve alluded to relate mostly to health areas with a psychological component where an alteration in the physiological state can affect a person’s psychological response — namely, stress and sleep. But there may be other areas, as well, where GABA may make a meaningful impact.

For some users or in some instances, GABA can cause specific adverse events:

• Low blood pressure: GABA can have hypotensive effects even at low supplemental doses, dropping your blood pressure and slowing your heart rate.22 Although no studies have shown these effects to cause serious harm, low blood pressure can be deadly.
• Breathing difficulties: It might feel like tightness in your chest, a burning sensation, or overall shortness of breath. It may pass quickly, but it’s an important sign to pay attention to. Often, it’s a sign you’ve taken too much GABA.
• Tolerance: Your brain gains tolerance to GABA relatively quickly, and stops making as much naturally when you supplement it with an exogenous source. That’s why certain GABA-altering prescriptions, like Xanax, are prescribed for short-term use only and can be dangerous if stopped abruptly.36
• Drowsiness: Off-kilter GABA levels can lead to hypersomnia, or daytime sleepiness.7

In extreme cases, GABA can even cause stroke, seizure, and difficulty taking in enough oxygen to meet your cell's needs, leading to death.

Nevertheless, the FDA and United States Pharmacopeia (USP) both say that GABA supplements are generally safe for healthy people when used as directed, although there are no clear guidelines as to what constitutes a safe dose.8 19

The FDA notes that doses up to 750mg of PharmaGABA is safe to take as a digestible ingredient, but the USP recommends no more than 125mg of GABA per day for up to 12 weeks.20 With most GABA supplements, a daily dose amounts to 100–750mg, which makes sense considering the aforementioned limits.

On the other hand, some data from older studies suggests that you can safely take up to 5g (5,000mg) of GABA without experiencing adverse effects.21 In a study from 1980 that gave people up to 18g of GABA and GABA-creating compounds for four days, some participants experienced breathlessness, a burning sensation in the throat, elevated growth hormone levels, and an enhanced response of prolactin to hypoglycemia, but none experienced “overdose” symptoms.21

We advise against taking anywhere near 18g of GABA unless a doctor has explicitly advised you to do so (which they aren’t likely to do). Rather, you ought to hew closely to a minimally effective dose, which you’ll have to experiment to find. First see how 100mg/day works for you. That may be all you’ll ever need. But if you aren’t seeing the results you want, slowly titrate upward, taking note of any discomfort or other side effects the higher you go. Ideally, do this under a doctor’s guidance.

GABA drug interactions

Safe though GABA may be, it poses an elevated side effect risk to anyone taking prescription anxiolytic, hypnotic, sedative, or anti-epileptic medication. Often, such drugs increase the body’s total GABA, so adding a supplement on top could have you end up with an excessive circulating amount.

Examples of these medications include but aren’t limited to:

Alcohol acts on GABA receptors, too, as do certain illicit drugs such as gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). If a substance has a sedative or depressant effect, there’s a good chance it works by increasing the amount of GABA in your brain.

So, to those of you who drink regularly or take any drug, prescription or otherwise, that alters GABA levels: please speak with your doctor and make sure it’s safe to add a GABA supplement to your regimen.

A GABA supplement might be the ticket if you’re struggling with stress or sleeplessness and need a nudge in a calmer direction. It may even be appropriate if you experience mild anxiety or depression but aren’t keen on starting an antidepressant yet.9 Keep in mind that you should always start a supplement under the guidance of a doctor since there are hundreds of ways that medications and supplements can interact.

For several populations, however, GABA is off the table:

• Pregnant or lactating women, as GABA has a direct effect on hormones that can impact the growth and development of a fetus or infant19
• Children, for the same reason as above
• Regular users of alcohol or depressive drugs, which can excessively boost GABA activity
• People on anxiolytic, hypnotic, sedative, or anti-epileptic medication, for the same reason as above

For these contraindicated cohorts, we discuss a wide range of alternative solutions later in this guide.

There’s another cohort to consider, too, and that’s athletes. They aren’t contraindicated for GABA, but they ought to approach supplementation with measured expectations. Although studies suggest that GABA can increase growth hormone secretion, its muscle-building capability has yet to be verified in the research literature. If we’re being optimistic about its potential here, we’d say you’d have to take several grams of GABA for it to make a meaningful difference, when the FDA recommends taking no more than 750mg a day.20 You’d do better to take something specifically formulated for strength gains, which we also discuss later in this guide.

Best for most people

The PharmaGABA used by Thorne is one of the best-studied branded forms of GABA. It has been used to assess potential BBB permeability, as well as in a case study in which a 200–400mg dose helped relieve anxiety symptoms.42 44 24

PharmaGABA is also designated GRAS by the FDA as a food ingredient in doses up to 750mg. Thorne offers two doses — 100mg and 250mg up to three times daily — both of which are within the safe limit.8

It’s the 100mg version we recommend, specifically, and for two reasons. One, it’s what researchers administered, in 2–4 doses in that case study.24 And two, as implied by said case study, a 100mg serving size offers more dose flexibility than 250mg, allowing you to titrate upward in smaller-but-clinically-relevant amounts until you hit your sweet spot.

Pricing, shipping, and returns

Thorne PharmaGABA-100 costs $34 as a one-time purchase. A subscription yields a 10% discount only on refills, so the first order is always $34, and subsequent orders drop to $30.60.

Each bottle contains 60 servings, so you’re looking at a per-serving cost of $0.51–$0.57 depending on your purchasing option. That’s not bad. Among our recommendations, only our dual budget options, Nutricost and NOW, offer better cost-effectiveness.

All Thorne orders to the contiguous United States qualify for free shipping, and the company offers a 60-day satisfaction guarantee. The guarantee period is equal to Nutricost’s and 15 days longer than Quicksilver’s.

Best liquid

To take a serving of Quicksilver Scientific GABA + L-Theanine, you need to administer 2–4 pumps directly into your mouth, under your tongue, and let it absorb for 30–90 seconds. Two pumps equals 125mg of PharmaGABA; four pumps, 250mg. For some people, especially those who can’t tolerate pills, it’s a more convenient administration route: no need to mix a powder or swallow a drink.

In addition to its GABA, a full serving of Quicksilver Scientific gives you 100mg of L-theanine, an amino acid that promotes relaxation.51 So, on paper, it seems to provide not just one but two calming ingredients in a single product. The rub is that Quicksilver’s L-theanine dose is only half the clinical amount shown to be effective for stress relief.3 The total calming effect, therefore, isn’t as great as it could be.

Quicksilver’s liposomal delivery is another thing that may not live up to its potential. Here, we’re talking about a technology in which the active ingredients are wrapped within microscopic fat cells. The idea is to protect the ingredients until they’re ready to be absorbed, theoretically improving bioavailability.55 56 The issue is that it’s unclear whether liposomal delivery actually achieves its intended purpose with GABA. There isn’t a whole lot of research on liposomal GABA, to begin with, and one of the only studies on the topic involves rats being given a brain injection of GABA52 — not exactly comparable to sublingual GABA in a human.

Pricing, shipping, and returns

Quicksilver Scientific GABA + L-Theanine is the least cost-effective product in this guide. A one-time purchase costs $37, and a subscription is $33.30. Following a four-pump daily protocol, you’d get just 25 servings per bottle, amounting to $1.33–$1.48 per serving. The per-serving costs are nearly three times as much as those of Thorne.

Shipping costs $7.95 on orders under $99. The free-shipping threshold is a steep hike from the $50 it was a couple of years ago. But the 45-day satisfaction guarantee is pretty good. It isn’t as long as Thorne’s or Nutricost’s but a far sight better than NOW’s and Quality of Life’s non-guarantees.

Best multi-ingredient solution

By this point we’ve said a great deal about the research behind PharmaGABA, so we’re going to focus instead on the other active ingredients in Quality of Life Serenelle, starting with those that are clinically dosed:

• 250mg Sensoril ashwagandha: In a 2008 randomized clinical trial, a split dose of 250mg Sensoril ashwagandha was among the protocols found to have “reduced experiential feelings of stress and anxiety.”4
• 200mg L-theanine: In a 2019 randomized clinical trial, a single 200mg dose of L-theanine improved scores related to stress and sleep.5

The remaining active ingredient in the Serenelle formulation is lemon balm, which has performed well in some stress studies but at doses greater than the 300mg used here. In a 2004 study, for instance, it was a 600mg dose that “significantly increased self-ratings of calmness,” whereas a 300mg dose did not achieve the same mood outcome.6

There’s also the question of the Serenelle dosing protocol. A full serving is two capsules, but the label says to take one capsule in the a.m. and another in the p.m., before meals — each capsule is a half dose. The Sensoril ashwagandha is the only ingredient in the formulation that has successfully reduced stress measures with such a split-dose method, so it’s unclear how GABA, L-theanine, and lemon balm will perform when administered in this way.

Nevertheless, the ingredients here are good, and the total doses are mostly clinical. Among multi-ingredient GABA products, we’ve not found one that’s better.

Pricing, shipping, and returns

For all that it has to offer, Quality of Life is reasonably priced. A one-time purchase is $24.96 and a subscription is $22.46, price points that are roughly comparable to Nutricost in terms of the base costs. It’s at the per-serving level ($0.75–$0.83 per full dose) that Quality of Life looks costlier, but it’s nowhere near as cost-ineffective as Quicksilver Scientific.

Shipping costs $10, though, and with no opportunities for free shipping whatsoever. The return policy is lousy, too: opened products aren’t eligible for a refund, only merchant credit if the product is at least 50% full. We suppose that’s better than NOW’s policy, which offers you nothing for your dissatisfaction, but only barely so.

Most cost-effective

A serving of Nutricost GABA powder contains 500mg of GABA. That’s more than what clinical studies have used for stress and sleep outcomes, so you could feasibly cut your dose by four-fifths and still have a reasonably effective supplement.

Downward titration should be relatively easy with Nutricost, as it’s a powder supplement. You’ll need something like a jeweler’s scale to consistently measure out a one-fifth serving (100mg), but if that’s an investment you’re willing to make, a single tub of Nutricost could last you over a decade.

That’s just to give you an idea of the cost-effectiveness here, because your GABA supplement is likely to have a shelf-life of around two years, after which it may degrade.8 49 More realistically, Nutricost is the go-to option for multi-user households, where the supplement can flow toward numerous outlets and individuals may have different potency needs.

Pricing, shipping, and returns

At $24.97 as a one-time purchase and $19.98 on subscription, Nutricost GABA Powder sells at a very low price relative to its volume. It’s a 1,000-serving tub, to be precise. With a label-recommended 500mg dose per day, each serving amounts to just $0.02–$0.03. If you go with a one-fifth dose instead, the per-serving cost sinks to sub-cent levels.

Shipping is free on U.S. orders over $59, which you won’t cross unless you buy at least three tubs — really an unconscionable amount of GABA powder. Orders under $59 have shipping costs calculated by destination.

Nutricost has a great return policy, though. It’s a 60-day money-back guarantee, like Thorne’s, so you have plenty of time to decide whether your enormous tub of GABA powder is doing you good.

Lowest up-front cost

NOW’s GABA capsules are a great option if you’re looking for the lowest financial barrier of entry to the GABA space. It’s also cleverly, if simply, formulated. Along with a 500mg dose of GABA, it contains 2mg of vitamin B6 to help your body create more GABA on its own.46

The issue is that the 500mg GABA dose is high. You’d have to be pretty certain that you need that much to start.

But at least, with NOW, you can be confident you’re getting a high-quality product. NOW manufactures its supplements in cGMP-certified facilities, and its in-house testing lab is ISO/IEC 17025 certified, meaning that it meets the requirements for “competence, impartiality, and consistent operation” to ensure the “accuracy and reliability” of any conducted testing.47

Pricing, shipping, and returns

NOW’s 500mg GABA supplement comes in two sizes:

• 100 capsules for $13.99
• 200 capsules for $25.99

Per serving, they amount to $0.15 and $0.14, respectively.

It’s a good thing the up-front costs are so low — even with the $6.95 shipping on orders below $50 — since NOW doesn’t allow for returns of opened items. As soon as you peel back the seal on the bottle, you’re committed to the expense.

As solid as GABA might seem for combating anxiety or stress, it isn’t going to work for everyone. For them, one of the following alternatives may be a better fit: