Cheapest Electrolytes 2026: Cost per Serving and per Sodium
Not medical advice. Prices are current Amazon prices for the exact container and move week to week; doses are each label’s.
Quick answer
Electrolyte mix costs between $1.50 and $9.69 per 1,000 mg of sodium across the 10 products we track, a 6.5× spread for the same sodium.
Cheapest: LMNT Recharge Electrolytes, Citrus Salt, $1.50 per 1,000 mg of sodium ($1.50 a serving). Cheapest certified: Transparent Labs Hydrate, Tropical Punch, $1.50 per 1,000 mg of sodium, in the NSF/ANSI 173 registry. See the table →
On this page
Every electrolyte mix we track, ranked by cost per 1,000 mg sodium
Original research10 electrolyte mix products priced on the same day (2026-09-27) from the current Amazon price of the exact container and the dose on each Supplement Facts panel; 1 of the 10 are in an independent certification registry per our registry check of 10 products against 3,053 NSF, 159 USP and 2,105 Informed Sport listings.
Method: every electrolyte mix product in our catalog with a live Amazon offer (10 of them). Price is the current Amazon price of the exact container (by ASIN), verified 2026-09-27; dose is the Supplement Facts serving; cost per 1,000 mg sodium = price ÷ (servings × mg sodium per serving) × 1,000. The verification rung comes from our registry snapshots (NSF/ANSI 173, USP Verified, Informed Sport; 2026-08-25) and brand-site certificate checks (2026-09-19). Products with no buyable Amazon offer are left out rather than priced from memory.
| Product | Cost per 1,000 mg sodium | Per serving | Active per serving | Serving on label | Servings | Price | Quality signal | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LMNT Recharge Electrolytes, Citrus Saltno sugar | $1.50 | $1.50 | 1,000 mg sodium | 1 stick pack | 30 | $44.97 | Rung 4: unverified | Check price |
| Transparent Labs Hydrate, Tropical Punchno sugar | $1.50 | $0.75 | 500 mg sodium | 1 scoop | 40 | $29.99 | Rung 1: NSF/ANSI 173 listing | Check price |
| Nuun Sport Electrolyte Tablets, Lemon Lime1 g sugar | $1.75 | $0.53 | 300 mg sodium | 1 tablet | 40 | $21.00 | Rung 4: unverified | Check price |
| Redmond Re-Lyte Hydration, Strawberry Lemonadeno sugar | $1.89 | $1.53 | 810 mg sodium | 1 stick pack | 30 | $45.94 | Rung 4: unverified | Check price |
| Liquid I.V. Sugar-Free Hydration Multiplier, Lemon Limeno sugar | $2.74 | $1.45 | 530 mg sodium | 1 stick pack | 14 | $20.36 | Rung 4: unverified | Check price |
| BUBS Naturals Hydrate or Die Electrolytes7 g sugar, glucose-paired | $2.85 | $1.85 | 650 mg sodium | 1 stick pack | 20 | $37.00 | Rung 2: lot-specific public COA | Check price |
| Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier, Lemon Lime11 g sugar, glucose-paired | $3.00 | $1.50 | 500 mg sodium | 1 stick pack | 16 | $24.00 | Rung 4: unverified | Check price |
| DripDrop ORS Hydration, Watermelon7 g sugar, glucose-paired | $3.12 | $1.03 | 330 mg sodium | 1 stick pack | 32 | $32.99 | Rung 4: unverified | Check price |
| SaltStick FastChews Chewable Electrolytes, Lemon Lime2 g sugar | $6.65 | $0.66 | 100 mg sodium | 2 chewable tablets | 30 | $19.95 | Rung 4: unverified | Check price |
| Ultima Replenisher Electrolyte Powderno sugar | $9.69 | $0.53 | 55 mg sodium | 1 scoop | 90 | $47.99 | Rung 4: unverified | Check price |
Cost per 1,000 mg sodium = current Amazon price for the exact container (verified 2026-09-27) divided by total active content in the container, times 1,000. The spread from LMNT Recharge Electrolytes, Citrus Salt to Ultima Replenisher Electrolyte Powder is 6.5× for the same active. Prices move week to week.
Why the number is per 1,000 mg sodium, and what the price actually buys
Electrolyte sticks are priced per stick, but sodium per stick runs from 55 mg to 1,000 mg across the products we track, a 18-fold range for the mineral the products exist to replace. So the table shows two prices: per serving, which is what a stick costs you, and per 1,000 mg of sodium, which is what the sodium costs you. Sodium is the right unit for a sweat-replacement buyer. It is the wrong unit for someone choosing a glucose-paired rehydration formula for illness, where the sugar is the point. That is why every row carries a sugar flag instead of ranking the sugared formulas as poor value.
Across the 10 products the spread is 6.5× per 1,000 mg of sodium. 5 of the 10 have no sugar; the rest carry 1 to 11 g a serving. 1 of them is in an independent certification registry (the quality column, from our third-party-tested check). At one serving a day, a year costs $191.63 to $675.25, depending on the product.
Cost per 1,000 mg sodium, product by product
Each line is the arithmetic behind the table: container price divided by servings, then scaled per 1,000 mg of sodium, then multiplied out to a year at one dose a day. Cheapest first.
- LMNT Recharge Electrolytes, Citrus Salt: $44.97 for 30 servings of 1,000 mg sodium is $1.50 a serving and $1.50 per 1,000 mg of sodium, or $547.13 a year at one serving a day. Rung 4: unverified. Note: no sugar.
- Transparent Labs Hydrate, Tropical Punch: $29.99 for 40 servings of 500 mg sodium is $0.75 a serving and $1.50 per 1,000 mg of sodium, or $273.66 a year at one serving a day. Rung 1: NSF/ANSI 173 listing. Note: no sugar.
- Nuun Sport Electrolyte Tablets, Lemon Lime: $21.00 for 40 servings of 300 mg sodium is $0.53 a serving and $1.75 per 1,000 mg of sodium, or $191.63 a year at one serving a day. Rung 4: unverified. Note: 1 g sugar.
- Redmond Re-Lyte Hydration, Strawberry Lemonade: $45.94 for 30 servings of 810 mg sodium is $1.53 a serving and $1.89 per 1,000 mg of sodium, or $558.94 a year at one serving a day. Rung 4: unverified. Note: no sugar.
- Liquid I.V. Sugar-Free Hydration Multiplier, Lemon Lime: $20.36 for 14 servings of 530 mg sodium is $1.45 a serving and $2.74 per 1,000 mg of sodium, or $530.81 a year at one serving a day. Rung 4: unverified. Note: no sugar.
- BUBS Naturals Hydrate or Die Electrolytes: $37.00 for 20 servings of 650 mg sodium is $1.85 a serving and $2.85 per 1,000 mg of sodium, or $675.25 a year at one serving a day. Rung 2: lot-specific public COA. Note: 7 g sugar, glucose-paired.
- Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier, Lemon Lime: $24.00 for 16 servings of 500 mg sodium is $1.50 a serving and $3.00 per 1,000 mg of sodium, or $547.50 a year at one serving a day. Rung 4: unverified. Note: 11 g sugar, glucose-paired.
- DripDrop ORS Hydration, Watermelon: $32.99 for 32 servings of 330 mg sodium is $1.03 a serving and $3.12 per 1,000 mg of sodium, or $376.29 a year at one serving a day. Rung 4: unverified. Note: 7 g sugar, glucose-paired.
- SaltStick FastChews Chewable Electrolytes, Lemon Lime: $19.95 for 30 servings of 100 mg sodium is $0.66 a serving and $6.65 per 1,000 mg of sodium, or $242.72 a year at one serving a day. Rung 4: unverified. Note: 2 g sugar.
- Ultima Replenisher Electrolyte Powder: $47.99 for 90 servings of 55 mg sodium is $0.53 a serving and $9.69 per 1,000 mg of sodium, or $194.63 a year at one serving a day. Rung 4: unverified. Note: no sugar.
Why 1,000 mg of sodium is the unit, and how much you actually lose
The unit is a comparison scale, and the right daily amount depends on sweat. The American College of Sports Medicine position stand on fluid replacement makes the point that sweat rate and sweat electrolyte content vary widely between individuals, sets the goal of avoiding more than 2% body-weight loss during exercise, and recommends a customised replacement plan built from weighing yourself before and after (American College of Sports Medicine 2007, PMID 17277604). Over-drinking plain water is its own risk: 13% of 488 Boston Marathon finishers tested had hyponatremia, associated with weight gain during the race and drinking at every mile (Almond 2005, PMID 15829535). The glucose-paired sticks work by a different mechanism, sodium-glucose cotransport across the gut wall, which is the basis of medical oral rehydration solutions (Wright 2011, PMID 21527736); pricing them per milligram of sodium understates what they are for.
Reading the quality column
The quality column is the same four-rung ladder as the third-party-tested page, compressed to a phrase. Rung 1 means the exact product appears in an independent certification registry in our snapshots; rung 2 means the brand publishes a lot-specific certificate of analysis you can match to the number on your container; rung 3 means a representative or undated report; rung 4 means a claim on the label or website with nothing behind it that we could open, or a brand site that blocked our check. The rung does not change the cost per dose, but it changes what the cost per dose is buying: at rung 4 you are paying for the molecule and the brand’s word; at rung 1 you are paying for the molecule and someone else’s test of it.
How to run the same calculation on any pack
- Take the price and the servings count from the container: $44.97 and 30 servings for LMNT Recharge Electrolytes, Citrus Salt.
- Divide price by servings: $44.97 ÷ 30 = $1.50 a serving.
- Scale the serving to the dose you actually take: the label serving is 1,000 mg sodium, so per 1,000 mg of sodium the cost is $1.50 × 1000 ÷ 1000 = $1.50.
- Multiply by 365 for a year at 1,000 mg of sodium a day: $547.13. Compare that number, never the sticker price.
What moves this ranking is sodium per serving, then box size. A 30-stick box of a 1,000 mg product and a 20-stick box of a 300 mg product can look alike on price and differ five-fold here. Sugar is flagged on every row but is not in the unit; potassium and magnesium are covered in the formulas comparison. Subscribe & Save is not included. Every figure is computed from the catalog and the label table at build time, none is typed.
Which electrolyte mix to buy
Product links go to Amazon and we may earn a commission if you buy. It never changes which product we pick or what we say about it. How we choose.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest electrolyte mix per dose?
LMNT Recharge Electrolytes, Citrus Salt at $1.50 per 1,000 mg sodium at current Amazon prices ($44.97 for 30 servings), or about $547.13 a year at 1,000 mg of sodium a day. The most expensive pack we track, Ultima Replenisher Electrolyte Powder, is $9.69 per 1,000 mg of sodium, 6.5 times as much, for the same sodium.
What is the cheapest electrolyte mix that is actually third-party certified?
Transparent Labs Hydrate, Tropical Punch at $1.50 per 1,000 mg sodium, listed as "Hydrate Tropical Punch" in the NSF/ANSI 173 registry. That is $0.001 per 1,000 mg of sodium more than the cheapest uncertified pack. The full verification ladder is on the third-party-tested page.
Why price electrolyte mix per 1,000 mg sodium instead of per serving?
Because a stick is not a dose of anything: one product's serving carries 55 mg of sodium and another's 1,000 mg. The per-serving price tells you what a drink costs; the price per 1,000 mg of sodium tells you what you pay for the mineral. Read the sugar flag before applying either to an oral-rehydration formula, where the sugar is part of how it works.
Is expensive electrolyte mix better?
Sometimes, for a reason the table names. A higher price per 1,000 mg buys either a glucose-paired formula built for rapid rehydration, a certification listing for tested athletes, or a flavour system; it never buys better sodium. The cheapest per unit is the plain high-sodium stick.
How much does a year of electrolyte mix cost?
At 1,000 mg of sodium a day: $547.13 for LMNT Recharge Electrolytes, Citrus Salt, $547.32 for the cheapest certified product, and $3538.66 for Ultima Replenisher Electrolyte Powder.
Related guides
- Third-party tested electrolytes
- Best electrolyte powder: the sodium census
- LMNT vs Liquid I.V.
- Electrolyte formulas compared
Sources
- American College of Sports Medicine. “Position stand: exercise and fluid replacement.” Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007. PMID: 17277604
- Almond CS, et al. “Hyponatremia among runners in the Boston Marathon.” N Engl J Med. 2005. PMID: 15829535
- Wright EM, Loo DDF, Hirayama BA. “Biology of human sodium glucose transporters.” Physiol Rev. 2011. PMID: 21527736
- Product labels and current Amazon prices for each container, verified 2026-09-27; verification rungs from our registry and brand-site check (see the third-party-tested page).