Best Nootropics: Brain Supplements to Boost Focus, Memory, and Learning

Nootropics are an enticing option for anyone with brain fog, a short attention span, fading memories, or other cognitive difficulties. After all, whether for work, school, or day-to-day living, we can all use a little boost to our brainpower.

The nootropics market certainly reflects the widespread appeal of these “smart drugs,” seeing as they’ve quickly grown in popularity within the last decade.1 But a growing market is a double-edged sword. With more products to choose from, the average consumer has a tougher time distinguishing the good from the bad.

To make your hunt for options a lot easier, we scoured both the nootropics competitive landscape and the relevant scientific research to identify the best nootropic of 2026. If you’re short on time, here’s the rundown of our top picks.

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.

The hours we’ve spent studying nootropics currently number in the thousands. In that time, we’ve read more than 350 clinical studies on the subject, researched both individual nootropic ingredients and combinations, and personally tested a multitude of nootropic products.

Many of the products we’ve tried are excellent, but also left us wanting in one way or another. We wanted something better, so we decided to formulate our own nootropic supplement, and we’re confident that it’s the best on the market. But no supplement is ideal for everybody, and nootropics don't affect everyone in the same ways, so we’re quick to recommend an alternative brand that may better suit specific needs. The purpose of this guide is to offer fair and unbiased comparisons at every turn so that you can decide which product is best for you, be that our supplement or someone else’s.

Additionally, we conferred with members of Innerbody's Medical Review Board to ensure the medical accuracy of this piece. We’ll continue to monitor and analyze scientific developments and changes in the nootropics marketplace, updating this page as any information changes.

Nootropics are complicated supplements, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for the average person to understand them. To simplify things, we considered four basic criteria when evaluating the top nootropics of 2026: safety, efficacy, cost, and convenience.

Safety

Advantage: Ritual Stress Relief

Because your brain is a sensitive organ that controls every part of your life, it’s critical that any supplement acting on it be safe. The more research a product or ingredient has, the more we know about its safety and the better informed we are to make decisions. We consider the following factors to be critical for our safety scores:

• Clarity around ingredient lists (not hiding dosing information in proprietary blends)
• Well-considered formulas and doses (neither too little nor too much of any botanical, vitamin, mineral, or other ingredient)
• Transparent testing and manufacturing conditions

Ritual and Innerbody Labs satisfy all the above criteria, and they are indeed among the safer nootropics manufacturers on the market. They not only do a good job of selecting ingredients with scientific support in human studies, but also avoid ingredients that require cycling, make their products in GMP-certified and FDA-registered facilities, and provide certificates of analysis from their third-party partner labs.

But between the two, Ritual has the edge because it uses fewer ingredients, and its most “dangerous” ingredient, Shoden ashwagandha, is dosed toward the lower end of clinical relevance.59 Compare that with Innerbody’s 15 active ingredients, each at a more standard clinically relevant dose: it has the makings to be more effective than Ritual, but also a greater likelihood of causing side effects. It’s a numbers game here, where lower figures equate to less risk.

Effectiveness

Advantage: Focus Support by Innerbody Labs

To establish the effectiveness of the market’s top nootropics, our team compared each product’s ingredients and doses to those used in clinical research. Some brands rely on ingredients with little to no human research. And even among those that choose good ingredients, they’re more often than not underdosed, with several brands apparently banking on the possibility that a combination of specific ingredients would create something greater than the sum of its parts. There’s no research to support this hopeful-for-synergy approach, so it’s impossible to predict effectiveness.

None of that can be said about Innerbody Labs’ Focus Support. It consists of 15 active ingredients in total, each one dosed in line with what clinical research says should be effective for at least one cognitive concern — focus, memory, stress, neuroprotection. In fairness, it isn’t the only product with a mindfully devised formulation. Ritual and Revive use well-studied ingredients, too; it’s just that the ingredients are sometimes less than ideal. Ritual, for instance, could probably do with 40 additional milligrams of Shoden ashwagandha, and Revive should ideally have more PQQ and rhodiola.

For illustrative purposes, check out this breakdown of ingredients between Innerbody Labs, Revive, and Ritual:

The table makes clear that Focus Support offers the most comprehensive suite of efficacious ingredients, and usually at doses that outperform the other two.

Cost

Advantage: Revive Brain+

Our budget pick isn’t the least expensive on the market, but it certainly is the most affordable in its class.

What we mean is that supplements generally fit into one of two categories —

• $35 or below and lower quality: often lower doses, less effective ingredients, little or no reported manufacturing testing, etc.
• Around $60 or above and higher quality: more likely adequate dosing of more beneficial ingredients, in-house and/or third-party testing, occasional company-funded studies, and so on

— and among nootropics that fall under the second category, Revive Brain+ has the lowest base price, at $59.99. Subscribers pay even less: $44.99 for the first order and $53.99 thereafter. Here’s how its price points compare with our other top-tier recs:

At the one-time level, Revive handily outdoes Innerbody and clears Ritual. The subscription price points are closer, but Revive still ekes past Ritual and beats Innerbody outside of the latter’s six-month bulk-purchasing subscription plan.

As for our lower-tier recs, they’re way more affordable than Revive, but you’d expect that from products that are less robustly formulated. Nootropics Depot Caffeine + L-Theanine Capsules are the most modestly priced of them all, at just $13.99 for the 60ct bottle and $27.99 for the 180ct, so that’s the one we recommend if your priority is simply the lowest financial barrier to entry.

Convenience

Advantage: Avantera Elevate Gummies

Convenience refers to a supplement’s ease of use. Our previous convenience pick was a beverage called TruBrain, but that product is no longer a top rec, and we’ve since found another product to take its once-held place: a gummy supplement called Avantera Elevate.

How did we determine that a gummy is more convenient than a beverage? We asked people, and everyone we asked agreed that gummies are where it’s at.

Their reasoning was varied. With gummies, they said:

• There’s no need to refrigerate or chill with ice.
• There’s nothing to throw away afterward.
• It’s quicker to consume.
• It’s easier to travel with.
• It’s just more fun.

Beverages are still convenient, of course, and we’ve retained a beverage among our favorite nootropics. This time around, it’s a product called Neutonic Productivity Drink, one of the tastiest supplements we’ve had the pleasure to try. Because it’s 12fl oz per serving, most people will need more time to consume it compared with Aventera, but at least the experience should be pleasurable, and its diverse flavors help ensure its appeal to a variety of tastes.

Before we get into the science of nootropics, take a look at this quick-reference chart comparing our top recommendations across key factors (prices have been rounded to the nearest dollar or cent)

Broadly speaking, nootropics are substances that improve your cognitive functioning. This definition is generous, as it applies equally to supplements, prescription medications, and some recreational drugs. To give you an idea of how widely the net is cast: ADHD drugs such as Adderal, dementia drugs such as memantine, and even caffeine all qualify as nootropic substances.62 63

The first nootropic named as such was a drug developed in the 1960s called piracetam.60 61 It was intended to treat anxiety and provide patients with a soothing experience that might even lull them to sleep.2 The effect was quite different than what its creators intended, as users instead reported sharper focus, and later testing pointed toward improved memory. (At the time of writing, the FDA still hasn’t approved piracetam for use in supplements or as a prescription medication, though many still take it.)3

More recently, the supplement industry has grabbed onto the term nootropic to describe any product with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and/or botanicals that are capable of boosting brainpower. Nootropic supplements can consist of one or many ingredients, but they all generally have three main goals:

• Protect your brain from damage
• Improve your memory, learning, and attention
• Regulate your mood

As cognitive enhancers, nootropic ingredients alter how your nerve cells and neurons work. This outcome can be reached via multiple mechanisms, including:64

• Affecting brain circulation
• Positively impacting signaling pathways
• Combating oxidative stress and decreasing cortisol levels
• Regenerating and strengthening neural connections
• Improving mitochondrial function
• Increasing the expression of neurotransmitters, like acetylcholine and dopamine

There are several hundred ingredients used across the nootropics space, and manufacturers claim they all work equally well. That, perhaps obviously, isn’t true. Many ingredients have mixed evidence of their benefits, at best, and even fewer research studies outright validate their potential.

That said, there are some ingredients that research supports wholeheartedly, or close to it. Here are 13 such ingredients to look for when selecting a nootropic supplement.

Know that just because an ingredient works well in one research study, it doesn’t mean the ingredient will work exactly like that in your body. Your brain is just as unique as your fingerprints, shaped by both genetics and your lived experiences. Various factors, including your weight, what you ate for breakfast, and your parents’ reactions to medications, can make individual nootropic ingredients interact differently from person to person.

Research on nootropics is still largely in its infancy, so it’s hard to predict how a specific supplement will work without an independent study of the product. (We take a look at the studies that have been done on specific formulas later in this guide.) So, if you’re new to nootropics, starting with products that have relatively short ingredient lists makes it easier to pinpoint ingredients that do or don’t work for you. And beforehand, we recommend talking to your doctor before adding any nootropic supplement to your routine.

Supporting ingredients in nootropics

Certain other nootropic ingredients may not directly affect your brain in the same ways as those we’ve discussed, but they’re still essential in supporting your overall cognitive health.

Studies on popular nootropics brands

Because nootropic ingredients vary so wildly in their clinical support, and almost no research studies look at ingredients in combination, it’s always nice to see a company run a study on its product. Biases may be possible — a company can repeat a study until it gets favorable results, or the researchers may feel pressured to produce certain results to favor the funding body — but some information is better than none.

A few popular brands have tested their nootropics in some capacity, including Mind Lab Pro, Onnit, and Qualia.

• In general, Mind Lab Pro worked the best on reaction time, anticipation, memory recall, and information processing (particularly among the 30-and-over crowd).33
• Onnit’s Alpha BRAIN produced somewhat mixed results across two studies, but the findings suggest that it may improve verbal memory.
• Qualia Mind’s findings were disappointing. While participants reported improvements across six cognitive categories, they weren’t significant over a placebo.35 36 37

Ultimately, none of these three products has made the cut for the year’s best nootropics, but they remain honorable mentions, and their reported strengths and weaknesses may provide a basis for evaluating other supplements.

You can read more about Mind Lab Pro, Onnit, and Qualia in their respective sections near the end of this guide.

Our top recommendations generally use ingredients in safe doses for most people. They err on the side of caution and aren’t likely to overload your system, which is frustrating in terms of efficacy but better for you in the long term.

This isn’t the case with every supplement, however, or with every user.

Side effects and contraindications are always a possibility, and some ingredients cause more side effects than others. Take note of adverse events such as headaches, stomach aches, and dizziness when you’re starting a nootropic. If you find these symptoms don’t go away after 1-2 days, stop using the supplement and contact your doctor. It may be a poor ingredient fit, or that nootropics generally don’t suit you.

As for any potential long-term effects, they’re still unknown. Research into nootropic ingredients is still relatively young, and the market for nootropic products is even younger. We’ll keep an eye on the evolving science as longer-term administration studies come out, and make adjustments to our recommendations as needed.

Also, a couple of concerns to keep in mind:

• Caffeine: Many nootropic products have at least 90mg of caffeine. As you begin a nootropic regimen, we recommend curtailing your coffee or tea consumption until you know how the new caffeine source affects you.
• Drug interactions: Around two-thirds of all U.S. adults take prescription drugs,38 and for them, a nootropic supplement may interact with their essential medication. The same goes for other supplements. It’s important, therefore, to cross-check ingredient lists and, as always, speak with your doctor before starting a nootropic.

Nootropic ingredients to limit or avoid

Not many common nootropic ingredients are inherently dangerous, but a few pose higher risks than most:

• Vinpocetine can induce miscarriages or birth defects if taken while pregnant77
• Huperzine A can cause acetylcholine toxicity if taken in high doses for too long70
• Ashwagandha may contribute to thyroid complications, as highlighted in case studies.100 34 (Note: Although some anecdotal reports suggest it may induce miscarriage, as well, the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia has found no pharmacological mechanism by which it could do so.)78 118

There’s also the matter of ingredients that are essentially fillers, having little to no research support behind their supposed nootropic effects. Sadly, many nootropic supplements contain at least one such ingredient. Here are some of the worst offenders we’ve found, even in our favorite products:

• Artichoke extract: Only one mouse study has covered artichoke extract as a potential nootropic ingredient.29 The study suggests that it may reduce some biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease, but there’s otherwise no evidence it can otherwise support your brain.
• Oat straw extract: No clinical evidence suggests that oat straw extract does much of anything for your brain.
• Dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE): This antioxidant was sold as an alternative to an ADHD medication called Deanol between 1950 and 1980, but it was recalled due to a lack of scientific evidence on its safety.30 There hasn’t been much, if any, research on it since.
• Coleus forskohlii extract: This mint-like plant is advertised as some sort of remedy for an aging brain, but there’s no evidence it has any cognitive benefits.
• Glutamine: Despite being the most common amino acid and protein building block in the body, it mostly works on rebuilding muscles post-workout. It’s unlikely to do anything for cognition unless you’ve experienced a lack of oxygen to the brain (and even that finding is tentative).31
• Taurine: Though taurine deficiencies are common in people with cognitive dysfunction, there’s no clear evidence that taking taurine improves cognition.32

Tolerance and habituation

Some ingredients require a little more care to use properly. Tolerance (the brain physically adapting to a new situation) and habituation (psychological adaptations) are both factors when using nootropics.

If a nootropic supplement asks you to cycle, it probably contains ingredients that could build up in your system or to which you may more easily develop a tolerance over time. Often, such ingredients affect your brain’s acetylcholine levels, such as huperzine A.

Cycling nootropics

Some nootropics require you to cycle, or take days off in your dosing routine. It can be inconvenient and a bit of a pain to track, but it’s important for your health to follow these instructions. Many nootropics that require cycling have recommendations on how to plan your weeks, which can make things a bit easier.

Cycling keeps nootropic ingredients from building up in your brain, which would either cause you to develop a tolerance/dependence or flood your body with excess acetylcholine that can’t get cleaned up (and can cause problems such as muscle twitching and decreased respiration).70

Cycling requirements are generally associated with ingredients such as huperzine A and other acetylcholinesterase blockers, but they aren’t the only ones. Take caffeine and NAC, for example. The former is an addictive stimulant, and the latter regulates the amount of glutamate released by your body. Cycling, therefore, helps prevent dependency on one substance and tolerance of the other, along with any downstream effects that dependency or tolerance may cause (e.g., mood effects related to NAC).79 And there are other ingredients you may need to cycle, as well. They include but aren’t limited to:

• Noopept
• Piracetam
• Modafinil

Nootropics are best suited for people with cognitive needs related to focus, memory, and/or stress. That’s a broad population. Practically everything we do, whether professionally or recreationally, relates to one or another indicating factor.

That being said, studies on individual products — such as the self-funded studies on Mind Lab Pro — regularly find that nootropics work best for the over-30 crowd. That doesn’t mean they can’t help college students or young professionals, too, but because your 20s are generally some of your healthiest years, there’s less age-related dysfunction for the nootropics to address.

At the same time, there are many cohorts who’d be wise to avoid nootropics at all costs, or at least exercise increased discretion. For example:

Pregnant women, nursing women, and people under 18

We don’t know enough about how nootropics affect developing brains. The impact may very well be negligible or nil, but you don’t want to bank the health of a baby or adolescent on an uncertainty.

We always strongly recommend sitting down with your doctor before starting any new supplement, including a nootropic. Your situation may be unique, and a doctor will have the best sense of how to help you. They can also order lab tests to ensure you don’t have a deficiency, disorder, or other health problem that could be causing your cognitive symptoms.

People with psychiatric or neurological conditions/prescriptions

Anyone with a psychiatric condition, even if it’s mild depression or generalized anxiety disorder, is more likely to experience negative side effects or worsening symptoms if they take a nootropic. This is especially true if there are neurological or psychiatric medications involved, as they act on the same neurotransmitters as nootropics. Having too much of any neurotransmitter is just as bad as not having enough and can lead to unpleasant side effects such as headaches, stomach aches, and tremors, as well as serious complications such as serotonin syndrome.40

Below is a rundown of neurotransmitters affected by prescription drugs.

People taking other prescription drugs

Other prescriptions that may interact with nootropics include:

• Blood thinners like warfarin87
• Levodopa (L-dopa)88
• Cholinesterase inhibitors like Aricept and Reminyl89
• Insulin or other diabetes meds,90
• Immunosuppressants.91

People with other health conditions

Several other health conditions can be exacerbated by nootropic supplements. Not every nootropic will affect all of these conditions, but if you have one of the concerns listed below, be particularly cautious about starting a nootropic, and talk to your doctor:

• Kidney disease92
• Liver disease93
• Thyroid disorders88
• Heart problems87
• Asthma64
• GI blockages94
• Stomach ulcers94
• Urinary tract blockages94
• High blood pressure64
• Diabetes90
• Cancer95
• Phenylketonuria (PKU)96
• Muscular dystrophy97

Nootropics also don’t interact well with drugs or alcohol. Ingredients like green tea extract, for instance, can cause liver inflammation, which is exacerbated by alcohol,39 while others can increase dopamine, serotonin, or glutamate, the same as some recreational drugs. Coadministering nootropic ingredients with these substances can lead to side effects like tremors or worse.

Some nootropics may be safe to have with alcohol in moderation (such as a glass of wine with dinner), but it’s generally best not to combine the two, for your liver’s sake.

Best overall, best for memory

Sometimes, nootropic supplements have too few ingredients to justify their costs, or they have way too many ingredients at suboptimal doses. Some try to live on the bleeding edge of science, using ingredients that haven’t been properly vetted for effectiveness or safety. Some use ingredients that haven’t been studied for nootropic purposes in humans.

Even the nootropic supplements we regard highly are guilty of these pitfalls. That’s why Innerbody Labs made Focus Support — to fill the quality gap with a product that followed a few critical rules:

• Approach cognition holistically, targeting focus, memory, mood, and brain health.
• Exclusively use ingredients with firm backing in clinical research.
• Use only doses that align with successful research for cognitive ends.
• Don’t overcharge just because it offers more than other expensive options.

With these guiding principles, we developed the following formula:

• Cognizin citicoline: 500mg
• Rhodiolife Rhodiola rosea extract (5% rosavins, 1.8% salidrosides): 350mg
• Phosphatidylserine 50%: 300mg
• KSM-66 Ashwagandha: 300mg
• N-Acetyl L-tyrosine (NALT): 200mg
• L-Theanine: 160mg
• Lion's Mane extract (20:1 extract): 100mg
• Caffeine (from Coffeeberry Energy organic whole fruit extract): 80mg
• Saffron extract (2% safranals): 30mg
• Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ): 20mg
• Vitamin B3: 16mg
• Vitamin B5: 5mg
• Vitamin B6: 2mg
• Vitamin B9: 400mcg
• Vitamin B12: 2.4mcg

Innerbody Labs has chosen to include certain branded ingredients where scientific research was noteworthy compared to unbranded alternatives. Cognizin, for example, has been the subject of several studies of cognitive impairment, including one in which 500mg/day led to improvements on numerous memory tests over placebo.5 In another study, 500mg and 2,000mg of Cognizin improved brain ATP levels and increased the speed of brain membrane formation.103

On the current market, the closest thing to Innerbody Labs Focus Support is Revive Brain+. Revive is a less expensive supplement, but it’s also less robust. Its PQQ dose is half that of Focus Support; it uses a smaller dose of a less concentrated rhodiola extract; its saffron extract isn’t standardized, and it lacks ashwagandha, caffeine, L-theanine, and phosphatidylserine.

Pricing

Focus Support is available as a one-time purchase or on a subscription basis. You can choose subscription quantities of one, three, or six months, each tier of which opens up more savings. Here’s how it works out:

The costs have dropped since we last updated this guide. The current $89 one-time-purchase price point is $26 less than before, and the subscription price points are around $16-$19 less per bottle. Notably, at the semiannual (six-month) level, the cost of a single bottle is around $1 less than our other top-tier recs: Ritual Stress Relief ($54 on subscription) and Revive Brain+ ($53.99 after the first subscription month).

All subscriptions ship free, as do one-time orders over $50, a threshold that Focus Support easily crosses. If you’re not satisfied with Focus Support, you can take advantage of Innerbody Labs’ 30-day money-back guarantee. The 30-day window is about standard in the supplements industry, twice as long as Revive’s, and far better than policies that exclude used/opened products.

Best for stress and anxiety

A Ritual Stress Relief capsule looks like a tennis ball can — a transparent cylinder with three spheres lined up inside. The spheres are the active ingredients compressed into tablets, with each tablet designed to release its contents at a different rate. One tablet is instant, another is slow, and the third is even slower. This mixed-release capsule technology helps ensure that you feel Ritual’s calming effects for as long as possible.

The calming effects in question come by way of three well-studied, well-dosed ingredients:

• 80mg Shoden-branded ashwagandha
• 200mg Suntheanine-branded L-theanine
• 28mg Affron-branded Saffron

We’ve discussed how each ingredient can help users manage stress, so here, let’s focus instead on the specific brands that Ritual uses, along with the doses.

Perhaps the one downside of Affron is its relatively low safranal content. According to its patent, it consists of “0.03% to 1% dry weight of safranal,”125 which stands to be significantly less than what you get with Innerbody Labs. Ritual Stress Relief still packs plenty of pacifying power, though, especially with the heavy support of its other two ingredients.

Pricing

As a one-time purchase, Ritual Stress Relief costs $61.36 plus $10.99 shipping. A subscription cuts the price to $54 and removes the shipping charge, a total savings of $18.35. Clearly, subscribing is the way to go. Even if you don’t know whether you’ll maintain the subscription, you can just cancel before your next order ships out, and at no penalty.

All orders, subscription or not, are protected by Ritual’s 30-day guarantee, which is just as good as that of Innerbody Labs or Avantera.

Best caffeine pill

This isn’t the only time we’ve recommended Nootropics Depot’s Caffeine + L-Theanine Capsules: it’s also one of our Best Vitamins for Energy. Simple though it may be, its solid balance of L-theanine and caffeine gives us good reason to like it.

Specifically, we’re referring to the 100/200 formula, which contains 100mg of caffeine and 200mg of L-theanine, a ratio that’s very close to the 160mg and 200mg noted to be effective in a 2021 systematic review.82

With just these two ingredients, Nootropics Depot gives us a powerful stimulant to improve focus and a likewise potent amino acid to reduce stress while counteracting the more unpleasant effects of caffeination.13 15 It’s understandably not as high-grit a sharpening stone as Innerbody or Revive, but it’s more than enough as a honing rod for anyone who needs only a little realignment of their focus to get through the day’s workload.

Pricing

The 100/200mg Nootropics Depot Caffeine + L-Theanine Capsules are sold in two sizes and price points, both significantly lower than anything else among our top recommendations:

The 180ct bottle is probably your best bet, not least of all because it reduces your order frequency and Nootropics Depot doesn’t do direct subscriptions. At $27.99, it’s less than half the cost of our top-tier budget pick, Revive Brain+, and also at least $8 less than Neutonic.

The low cost comes with a downside, unfortunately: no returns on opened products. So, if purchase protection is a great priority, you’d be better off with the 60ct bottle to start, as it would minimize your loss if you decide not to stick with it.

Best caffeine alternative, budget pick

A look at Revive’s ingredient list reveals that it has some common ground with Innerbody Labs Focus Support:

• Niacin (as Niacinamide): 100mg
• Vitamin B6 (as Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate): 20mg
• Folate (as L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate calcium salt): 200mcg DFE
• Vitamin B12 (as methylcobalamin): 500mcg
• Cognizin citicoline: 500mg
• Acetyl-L-Carnitine HCl: 500mg
• L-Tyrosine: 500mg
• Rhodiola rosea (root) Extract (standardized to 3% rosavins, 1% salidrosides): 300mg
• Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA): 250mg
• Saffron (Crocus sativus) [Flower] Extract: 30mg
• Pyrroloquinoline Quinone (as PQQ Disodium Salt): 10mg
• Lithium (from lithium orotate): 400mcg

Namely, its Cognizin and saffron content are identical, and its rhodiola content is similar. These are probably the best-dosed ingredients in the Revive formula. The 30mg of saffron, for example, is the average dose we’ve seen work well for improved sleep and mood, allowing for greater focus in the face of stressors.83

Other ingredients, however, are either at the low end of the effective range or just shy of it. In particular, the phosphatidylserine and PQQ would be better-dosed at 300mg and 20mg, respectively,84 85 and the ALA is 50mg short of the 300mg-600mg dose that’s ideal for most people.110

But Revive also has a couple of qualities in its favor that our overall pick doesn’t:

• Lithium: High-dose lithium, typically around 600-1,200mg, is commonly used to treat psychiatric disorders.86 Revive’s 400mcg dose is about 1,000 times less potent. It’s a microdose, really, one that might help with cognition and mood, though evidence is limited in both quantity and scope.132 133
• No caffeine: Caffeine helps with focus, but it doesn’t jibe with everybody. Anyone seeking a caffeine-free alternative to Innerbody Labs would do well to look at Revive Brain+.

Pricing

A single bottle of Revive Brain+ costs $59.99. For subscriptions, Revive operates a descending discount plan, which looks like this:

Revive used to offer bulk discounts, but seems to have discontinued them since we last checked in.

The free-shipping threshold has changed, too. It’s now $125 instead of $150, but on the one-time-purchase level, you’d still have to buy three bottles to cross it. Subscriptions, at least, ship for free.

As for Revive’s return policy, it isn’t great. You can return only unopened merchandise within 15 days of purchase. There’s no money-back guarantee like you see with Innerbody Labs.

Best drink

One advantage of a drink supplement is its seamless integration into the average person’s day. During work or study, one can crack open a can and down the beverage. Bonus points if it’s a tasty one.

That was our experience with Neutonic Productivity Drink, which is indeed quite tasty. During morning or early afternoon slumps, it was a pleasant pick-me-up that helped get our focus back on the tasks at hand.

Neutonic’s ingredient list is strong. It includes:

• 500mg Cognizin
• 400mg Rhodiola rosea extract
• 400mg L-theanine
• 200mg Panax ginseng
• 120mg caffeine

By now, you ought to know about the merits of Cognizin citicoline and rhodiola, as well as of the synergy between L-theanine and caffeine. The Cognizin and rhodiola doses here are within clinical ranges.5 18 So are the Panax ginseng and L-theanine.126 127 The issue, though, is that with some of these ingredients, Neutonic doesn’t give us enough information by which to assess their true potential.

With rhodiola and ginseng, in particular, efficacy depends on the concentrations of their active compounds. In rhodiola, it’s rosavins and salidrosides; in ginseng, ginsenosides. So, if you look at research on ginseng’s effects on cognitive function at a 200mg dose, something like a 4% standardized concentration of ginsenosides is what has yielded successful results.126

Whether Neutonic provides the clinically relevant concentrations of the active compounds — that’s anybody’s guess. There’s certainly no certificate of analysis on the Neutonic website to help us there, and all of our emails to Neutonic’s customer support team have gone unanswered.

Still, we like Neutonic, not least of all because our testers have seen good results from use. A 12oz can of the stuff quickly sharpened their concentration when they needed it most, and they enjoyed all the flavors they tried: Orange Sunrise, Strawberry Lemonade, Tropical Ice, and Blue Raspberry (a fifth flavor, Wild Citrus, was not part of our variety pack). Orange Sunrise was the standout favorite, by the way. It has bitter-peel notes, like a marmalade — we imagine Paddington would be pleased with it.

Pricing

The price you pay for Neutonic Productivity Drink depends on whether you choose a single-flavor pack or the variety pack.

You’ll find no direct subscription option here. For that, the only route is Amazon, where Subscribe & Save currently costs $34.19 for a single-flavor pack and $38.69 for the variety. These prices are subject to change.

Neutonic does have a 30-day return window, but it applies only to unopened products. It’s the same disappointing sort of policy as Nootropics Depot.

Best gummy

When we reviewed Avantera Elevate back in 2025, we directed most of our positivity not to the gummies but to the capsules. At the time, the two forms were dissimilar, with the gummies having fewer overall ingredients and containing a potentially risky ingredient in huperzine A.70 But Avantera has revisited its approaches, and the gummies have since undergone a major reformulation. That Avantera showed a dedication to improving its offerings — highly uncommon in the supplement industry — reflects well on its trustworthiness and commitment to making good products.

To be sure, Avantera Elevate Gummies are now better than they were. Rather than its previously streamlined formulation of four nootropic ingredients, it now contains:

• L-Theanine: 200mg
• Citicoline: 200mg
• Caffeine: 95mg
• Lion’s mane 10:1 extract: 50mg, standardized to 30% polysaccharides
• Bacopa 10:1 extract: 30mg
• Rhodiola 10:1 extract: 30mg, standardized to 3% salidrosides
• Turmeric 10:1 extract: 10mg

The new formulation resembles that of the capsules, minus the latter’s ginger and BioPerine. And notice that it features multiple extracts, which helps pack more nootropic power into a smaller vessel. These are both steps up from how the gummies used to be, and they help to make Avantera Elevate Gummies the best nootropic gummy product on the market based on our research.

Nothing is perfect, and the gummies aren’t without their downsides. Some of its ingredients are dosed below levels in clinical studies. Namely, the lion’s mane is around one-fourth the amount shown to be effective in research,128 the bacopa is at least 270mg short of a clinically validated dose,129 and the rhodiola would need to be at least five times greater to reach that level.130 Doses that are below the ones clinically shown to provide an effect may not be ineffective, but their effectiveness is less assured because it hasn’t been verified through well-designed human studies.

What really stands out are the L-theanine, caffeine, and citicoline. The L-theanine/caffeine ratio is pretty close to that of Nootropics Depot’s Caffeine + L-Theanine Capsules, and the citicoline amount is similarly close to the minimally effective dose.131 These gummies produce positive effects.

Pricing

Avantera Elevate Gummies cost $49.95 as a one-time purchase. A subscription option is not available at the time of this writing, but may become available in time. Note that a bottle contains only 28 servings.

Avantera’s money-back guarantee lasts 30 days. On that point, Avantera is equal to Innerbody and Ritual, and more customer-friendly than the other brands we recommend.

In this section, we go over some other popular nootropic products. Though they’re commendable in their own rights, and some had earned places of recommendation in years past, they currently don’t make the cut in 2026. Still, you may find that one or another of these satisfies your needs.

Mind Lab Pro

Mind Lab Pro has the most successful self-funded study out of any nootropic on our list, displaying the best results after three months of taking Mind Lab Pro in the following areas:

• Simple choice and reaction time
• Anticipation (predicting the next step in a structure)
• Information processing (especially for people 30+)
• Immediate and direct recall (memory)

The supplement doesn’t use any novel ingredients, and its components all boast research of their own that shows safety and efficacy. These include citicoline, lion’s mane mushrooms, and Rhodiola rosea, among others. Notably, though, only the B vitamins and lion’s mane are dosed in line with supportive external research, and the latter is only at the very low end of clinically relevant dosing.

Because Mind Lab Pro offers only one product, the pricing structure is simple:

Shipping on subscription orders is free, but smaller orders incur a charge of $9.95 for standard shipping or $14.95 for expedited.

The refund policy is confusing. If you haven’t opened the bottle, you can send it back for a full refund within 14 days of delivery. If you have opened the bottle, then the money-back guarantee goes into effect, but it applies only to the first bottle in your first order. On the plus side, the guarantee period technically lasts 60 days, though you’ll have to pay shipping both ways, effectively reducing your expected refund amount to about $40.

You can learn more about Mind Lab Pro’s ingredient profile, and how it’s changed over time, in our full review.

Thesis Stress Reset

Thesis is among the few brands (like Innerbody Labs) that rely on third-party testing rather than internal testing. Their products, therefore, have a more reliable safety profile compared with many others.

Stress Reset is the best of Thesis’ current lineup. It uses Shoden ashwagandha, the same as Ritual, though a higher clinically relevant dose.59 In it, you’ll also find other well-supported anxiolytics such as saffron and L-theanine. Caffeine is optional.

Thesis also provides nootropics coaching to all subscribers, so you can get the most out of your nootropics and find new ways to improve your life and your brain. The thing is, the company no longer advertises this offering. You have to get to the point that you're about to cancel your subscription before you can find the phone number for the service.

As to pricing, you can make a one-time purchase or subscribe at intervals of one, two, or three months (technically, 25, 50, or 75 days since every unit contains just 24 doses).

The subscription prices have dropped significantly. They used to be $78, $148, and $207, respectively.

If you aren’t happy with your Thesis nootropic, you can reach out to the company’s customer service team. They’ll recommend adjustments to a schedule or suggest other products to try first. When you know you want a refund, you’ll need to go to the returns page, which sends you an email link to actually process a return. You can send back any unopened box of Thesis for a full refund within seven days of delivery if you have more than you need, or you can refund one month’s supply within 30 days of purchase. You’ll have to physically mail back whatever you have — even if the box is empty — and Thesis doesn’t cover the cost of return shipping.

TruBrain Personalized Drinks

Designed by UCLA-trained neuroscientists, TruBrain offers a novel delivery method for their most popular nootropics. Each product is available in liquid form and stored in a small pouch. You just crack one open and drink it in short order.

It’s available in seven flavors:

• Sleep: uses GABA, melatonin, and 5-HTP to relax you
• Mellow: an all-around balanced and low-dose nootropic with Noopept, vitamin C, NALT, centrophenoxine, magnesium, L-theanine, and CBD oil
• Matcha: a green-tea-based drink with magnesium, Noopept, and NALT designed to increase mental clarity
• Mushrooms: a botanical blend with four mushrooms and vitamin C intended to promote cognitive health
• Medium: identical to Mellow, but without the CBD oil
• Strong: a caffeinated version of Medium
• Extra Strong: Strong plus 150mg of Adrafinil, a nonprescription version of modafinil

Mellow, Medium, and Strong are all nearly identical. Mellow just adds functional CBD oils, and Strong adds caffeine.

The drinks are easy to take, but you need to be careful with some of them if you can’t take CBD or regularly undergo drug testing. That’s because full-spectrum CBD oil does contain a small amount of THC. It’s not enough to confer psychoactive effects, but potentially enough to trigger a positive urine test.

Overall, the doses are okay, but TruBrain picked somewhat unconventional ingredients. Noopept (or N-phenylacetyl-L-prolylglycine ethyl ester), for example, is a strong, branded nootropic that may come with more risks than others. While it appears to have neuroprotective and cognition-enhancing properties, it also belongs to the nootropic family of drugs known as racetams.98 Other racetams, like Piracetam, can lead to psychomotor agitation, dysphoria, tiredness, dizziness, forgetfulness, headaches, and digestive upset,99 and while there isn’t much safety data on Noopept, specifically, we can assume that it too can cause similar adverse effects.

There’s also very little research supporting most of the mushrooms in the Mushrooms flavor, despite not having any major known side effects.

TruBrain offers multiple purchasing options: one-time, bulk, subscription, and bulk subscription. Additionally, you can choose exactly how many of which flavors you want, which is a nice bonus.

Uniquely, for subscriptions, you can choose to prepay for 3, 6, or 12 months and save 10%, 20%, or 30%, respectively — for example, a ten-drink subscription prepaid for 12 months would cost $375, or $165 less than it would cost if you paid month-to-month.

Free shipping is offered on orders over $55, so every purchase option qualifies.

The return policy is quite strict, however. TruBrain will accept a return only if you send back an unopened box within seven days of delivery — not just the products themselves, but also the container they’re delivered in — and you won’t be refunded the cost of shipping.

Onnit Alpha BRAIN

Onnit is a full-scale fitness brand with four Alpha BRAIN nootropic products among its extensive catalog. Our focus here is its flagship product, the Alpha BRAIN capsules.

Alpha BRAIN has a decent ingredient list, but most of its ingredients are hidden behind proprietary blends. So there’s no telling how much of each ingredient is contained in each dose.

Onnit does well with testing measures, but the lack of greater transparency is a disappointment in terms of Alpha BRAIN’s overall safety. Also, the formulation seems to focus largely on boosting acetylcholine levels as much as possible (which may lead to potentially unwanted effects, such as intense lucid dreaming, and requires a strict cycling routine).57

It’s true that Alpha BRAIN has been subjected to two scientific studies, but the results were mixed. That being said, the studies did find some evidence of improved verbal memory scores, so Alpha BRAIN might be a good option for anyone looking to improve learning and memory specifically.

To buy, you can choose between a 15-, 30-, or 45-day supply (30-, 60-, or 90-count) as either a one-time purchase or a subscription:

Military personnel, first responders, and medical providers qualify for an additional 15% discount.

Onnit ships free on orders of $100 or more. Otherwise, shipping varies depending on your location. Our testers found it averaged between $7 and $11.

Onnit also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, though it’s only for first-time orders.

You can learn more about Alpha BRAIN and its specific ingredient breakdown in our full review.

BrainMD

BrainMD offers both comprehensive nootropics like Brain & Body Power and more targeted combinations like Calm My Brain. The latter supplement provides only magnesium and ashwagandha, whereas Brain & Body Power boasts more than 40 ingredients. Generally speaking, products with shorter ingredient lists tend to be higher in quality, with doses more in line with scientific research. That’s certainly the case with BrainMD.

BrainMD’s website features a short quiz about your lifestyle and cognitive performance, to help you decide which nootropic you should take. After you finish the quiz, an algorithm will identify your brain as one of 16 types. The site then lets you shop by your brain type, showing only the supplements that would provide you with the biggest potential benefit. It’s more comprehensive and less prescriptive than Thesis’ quiz, which is better for people who want a more hands-on approach to their supplement journey.

BrainMD’s prices vary widely depending on the product. Subscribing is a good way to save, as it takes 15% to 25% off your order, but the products are generally a bit expensive for what they offer. They aren’t as high-priced as some other nootropics, like Qualia Mind, but they also don’t offer the same first-time discounts. Instead, you can bundle both subscription and bulk deals for extra savings.

Here’s a look at a few of BrainMD’s most popular supplements, to give you an idea of how much you might spend:

Subscriptions ship free, whereas non-subscription orders cost an additional $7.95 unless you spend at least $75.

Hunter Focus

Hunter Focus is the nootropic component of Hunter’s supplement system, which includes Hunter Burn, a thermogenic fat burner, and a natural testosterone booster called Hunter Test.

Hunter Focus is a relatively straightforward supplement. It contains many of the most popular nootropic ingredients in varying strengths compared to clinical research. For example, its citicoline dose is far lower than we’d recommend, but its caffeine and L-theanine content is well-balanced. It contains too little lion’s mane, phosphatidylserine, and rhodiola, but its ashwagandha, bacopa, and tyrosine doses are fine.

Here’s a brief look at some of its most effective ingredients:

• Acetyl-L-carnitine: 800mg
• L-Tyrosine: 500mg
• Lion’s mane: 500mg
• Bacopa: 300mg
• Ashwagandha: 300mg
• Citicoline: 250mg
• Maritime pine bark extract: 75mg

All told, Hunter Focus contains 20 active ingredients that can directly or indirectly improve cognition, memory, and mood. It’s very similar to Mind Lab Pro but contains more ingredients at slightly higher doses.

But between the two, we think Mind Lab Pro will be better for more people because some of Hunter Focus’ ingredients may inadvertently cancel each other out or cause strange side effects. On the other hand, there’s nothing that stands out as harmful or otherwise strange, so Hunter Focus is still a solid, albeit expensive, option.

Subscriptions aren’t available, but you can save a little bit by buying in bulk (though comparatively much less than other products that offer bulk savings). Here’s how Hunter Focus’ pricing works out:

• One bottle: $90
• Two bottles: $180
• Three bottles (plus one free): $270

You get free shipping as long as you buy two or more bottles at a time. Otherwise, shipping for one bottle costs $7.95.

Hunter has some of the widest-reaching international shipping options available, with depots in London and Tennessee. It can ship to all but 17 countries.

You can return only unopened bottles within 30 days of delivery (or 14 days if you live outside of the United States or Canada). To get the ball rolling, just reach out to the customer service team with your name, email, and order number and tell them you’d like to return your bottle of Hunter Focus, and briefly explain why.

Qualia Mind

Qualia Mind is Qualia’s standard nootropic blend. It contains 27 ingredients, some common and others unique, and requires seven capsules per full serving.

These ingredients are:

Qualia Mind is generally underdosed in these ingredients compared to clinical studies — a key factor in why it didn’t earn a spot in our summary of recommendations. You could make the argument that we don’t know if the ingredients can all boost each other to sufficient efficacy, but we’d have to turn to the self-funded study on Qualia Mind to determine that. This study was thorough and clinically run, but after measuring six major cognitive performance aspects (executive function, attention and focus, inspiration, perceived stress, work engagement, and mindfulness), as well as self-reported sleep quality, immune health, productivity, and mood, researchers found that there was little difference between Qualia Mind and a placebo.

Generally, Qualia Mind isn’t going to be the best option for someone who’s just getting started with nootropics. But If you don’t mind taking a lot of pills, are sensitive to high doses, and are looking for a generalized nootropic with focus- and attention-boosting potential, then maybe Qualia Mind is worth a go.

It costs $159 as a one-time purchase, but a subscription drops the price to $39 on the first order. We repeat, that’s $39 on the first order only. Subsequent subscription orders cost $139 per shipment.

Even if all you want is a one-time purchase, we recommend starting a subscription and then canceling before your next order. That way, you save $120.

Qualia used to offer free shipping on most orders but now charges either $7.98 for standard shipping (3-5 days) or $12.98 for priority shipping (2-3 days) only to a restricted list of English-speaking countries.

Qualia has one of the longest money-back guarantees in its category, offering users 100 days to try the product. A closer look, however, reveals downsides here:

• The refund will apply only to your initial order or the most recent order in a subscription. You could start a subscription and ask for a refund on day 99, but you’ll be refunded only for whatever was part of that last month’s order.
• Your entire household is eligible just once. You won’t qualify for refund if someone in your household happened to try Qualia Mind in the past and returned it.

Learn more about Qualia Mind’s ingredients in depth in our full review.

Focus Factor Original

Focus Factor offers a wide range of relatively inexpensive nootropic products — drinks, gummies, pills — that include vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, and such. Though the brand’s Original formula is available at an impressively low price for a nootropic, we no longer recommend it as a top pick given its use of risky ingredients like vinpocetine (which is particularly harmful for anyone who’s pregnant or nursing) and huperzine A (which can lead to acetylcholine toxicity).70 77 Its proprietary formula may be fairly small, at only 640mg in total, but with these ingredients, significant risks may arise even at low doses.

On the plus side, Focus Factor Original is uncaffeinated and does include a wide range of well-dosed vitamins and minerals. In that regard, it could be a reasonable option if you want a multivitamin with nootropic ingredients.

It’s sold in bottles of 60, 90, and 150 tablets as a one-time purchase or a “flexible plan” (subscription). Since each serving is four tablets, a bottle provides either 15, 22.5, or 37.5 servings, respectively — an awkward arrangement.

Three- and six-pack bulk options are available, as well. Here’s how all the pricing breaks down:

You can learn more about Focus Factor in our full review.

Momentous Focus & Cognition Stack

Momentous combines three of its products into its Focus and Cognition Stack. Each product contains one core ingredient: omega-3 fatty acids, Alpha-GPC, and L-tyrosine. Research supports each ingredient by itself for focus and cognition. They come in separate containers, which makes sense since omega-3s from fish oil are best delivered as softgels, which wouldn't work as well for the other two ingredients.

The major drawback to Momentous' stack is that it's pricey for just three key ingredients. For perspective, Innerbody Labs and Revive provide hefty doses of Cognizin citicoline and L-tyrosine alongside 13 and 10 other ingredients, respectively. Granted, neither of them contain fish oil, but you can separately add a good fish oil supplement without spending too much.

Here's how Momentous prices its Focus & Cognition Stack, which amounts to a 60-day supply:

Shipping is free on all U.S. orders over $75, and the Focus & Cognition Stack easily crosses the threshold. Momentous also provides a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Codeage Brain Focus Vitamins+

Despite the plural form in its name, Codeage Brain Focus Vitamins+ contains only one vitamin: B12. But it does have several non-vitamin cognitive enhancers, including a 500mg dose of Cognizin citicoline.

Many of the other nootropic ingredients are less remarkable. The 100mg dose of phosphatidylserine may provide some benefit, and the 25mg of Sceletium tortuosum extract is in line with many studies, but the ginseng, resveratrol, and gotu kola all leave something to be desired. Either they lack sufficient human data to be recommendable, or they aren't dosed highly enough to matter.

Considering the unremarkable formulation, we think the $59.99 price tag is high. Your money would be better spent on Revive Brain+, which has a larger list of better ingredients at higher doses.

At least Brain Focus Vitamins+ qualifies for free shipping, and Codeage offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Thorne Memoractiv

Thorne Memoractiv contains eight active ingredients:

• KSM-66 ashwagandha: 300mg
• Acetyl-L-carnitine: 250mg
• Gingko Phytosome: 240mg
• Pterostilbene: 66mg
• Caffeine: 50mg
• Bacopa extract: 100mg
• Lutein: 10mg
• Zeaxanthin: 2mg

The bacopa content is only one-third of an effective dose, and pterostilbene doesn’t have much (if any) research into its nootropic potential, but the other ingredients are more or less solid. The ashwagandha is the same brand and dose as used in Innerbody Labs, the ginkgo is clinically dosed,117 the caffeine is enough to provide a jolt of alertness, and the lutein/zeaxanthin aligns with amounts used in a 2022 study that showed improved visual memory and learning.135 The acetyl-L-carnitine may be low, but Thorne recommends taking 1-2 doses per day, and a double-dose regimen would bring the amount to match that of Innerbody Labs and Revive. But then you’d risk oversupplementation with ginkgo, so there’s a tradeoff here, and you’d be better off with a slightly underdosed amount of acetyl-L-carnitine than an excessive dose of ginkgo.

Memoractiv costs $70 as a one-time purchase. If you subscribe, the first order costs $56, and subsequent orders are $63. It’s all quite pricey considering the dosing issues. Thorne ships U.S. orders for free, though, and offers a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Notable Focus

Sometimes, we're left wondering whether a company fully reads the studies on which it bases its formulas. In Notable's case, the formula appears to be informed in part by willful ignorance or wishful thinking. Sound science seems only rarely to factor in.

A breakdown of its ingredients can show what we mean:

• Sabroxy Oroxylum indicum bark extract: Notable provides 500mg per serving, recommending one serving a day, when a clinically relevant dose would be 500mg twice daily, for a daily total of 1,000mg.112
• enXtra Alpinia galanga extract: Notable delivers 300mg, the low end of a clinical range running from 300mg up to 500mg in studies.113 114
• Polygala tenuifolia root extract: Limited human studies support a 300mg dose, three times the 100mg given here.115
• L-Theanine: 100mg is on the low end of a typical 100-200mg dose, but it should still be effective at mitigating stress.116
• Ginkgo biloba extract: There’s a lot of conflicting research here, but most studies rely on higher doses than the paltry 80mg seen here — typically between 120mg and 240mg.117

So, out of five ingredients, two are delivered at the low end of potentially effective doses, while the other three are underdosed by as much as 66% compared to effective amounts used in clinical studies.

We don't think that's quite worth $59.99 per bottle (or $49.99 if you subscribe).

Your brain is the control center of the rest of your body, but there’s a two-way connection. What you eat, how you sleep, and hundreds of other small decisions influence how well your brain works. Not every factor is something you can control, but there are still plenty of things you can.

So, for an alternative to nootropics, we generally recommend taking an inventory of your daily habits before seeing a doctor and then moving on to other supplements.

Seeing a doctor

We always recommend talking to a doctor before trying any supplements, especially nootropics, as there may be an underlying cause for your brain fog that needs to be treated professionally.

Depending on your experiences, you may be given:

• Stimulants like Adderall or Ritalin
• Dopaminergic medications like L-dopa
• Antidepressants like Paxil
• Anti-anxiety medications like Xanax
• Sleep medications like Ambien

It can be difficult to identify the root cause of a cognitive issue because cognitive issues are symptomatic of many different health conditions. So it’s broadly in your best interest to check in with a medical professional. It may help you catch something like hypothyroidism or anemia, or a more serious issue such as MS or Alzheimer’s. From there, you can undertake an evidence-based treatment protocol for your diagnosis.

Lifestyle changes

We know: this is the last thing you want to hear. But it’s always worth reexamining your daily routine to find ways you can address factors that impact cognition.

For example:

Other supplements

Many of the ingredients we’ve discussed can be purchased on their own. There are also other kinds of supplements that may help with common complaints commonly addressed with nootropics: