Creatine and Coffee

Creatine and coffee are already in most fighters' kitchens, and a 1996 study gave a lot of lifters a reason to worry about taking them together. The short answer is that you can mix them. The longer answer is that one small early trial found caffeine erased creatine's benefit, later trials mostly didn't, and the difference seems to come down to dose, timing and your stomach.

Here is what each study actually found, how to time the two if you want to play it safe, whether you can stir creatine into a hot cup, and what's on our own labels.

Where the "Caffeine Cancels Creatine" Idea Came From

The worry traces back to one Belgian study. Nine healthy men went through three six-day blocks: placebo, creatine at 0.5 g per kilogram of body weight a day, and the same creatine plus 5 mg of caffeine per kilogram a day. For an 80 kg (176 lb) man, that is about 40 g of creatine and 400 mg of caffeine daily.

Both creatine blocks raised the phosphocreatine stored in the calf muscle by 4 to 6%. Creatine alone then improved torque during repeated maximal knee extensions by 10 to 23%. Creatine with caffeine improved nothing. The authors wrote that caffeine "completely eliminated" creatine's effect.

The same lab followed up in 2002 with a possible reason. In ten men, four days of creatine shortened the time it took a fatigued thigh muscle to relax between contractions by about 5%. Three days of caffeine lengthened it by about 10%. Taken together, the two cancelled out. Faster relaxation between efforts is part of why creatine helps in repeated sprints and rounds, so caffeine pulling the other way is a plausible explanation.

Keep the context in mind. The first study had nine people, used a heavy loading dose, and gave caffeine as a daily supplement on top of that. Neither study tested a normal 3 to 5 g daily creatine dose taken with a morning coffee.

What Later Research Found About Creatine and Coffee

A 2016 trial at the University of North Carolina tested the question with actual coffee. Fifty-four active men loaded creatine for five days (5 g, four times a day) either alone, with 300 mg of caffeine as a pill, or with coffee providing 303 mg of caffeine. A fourth group took placebo. Bench press, leg press and sprint power improved in every group, including placebo, and no group beat another. Four people in the creatine-plus-caffeine-pill group reported mild stomach discomfort. Nobody in the coffee group did.

That trial is reassuring on side effects but limited on performance, since creatine alone didn't beat placebo either, so there was little benefit for caffeine to cancel.

A 2022 systematic review pulled together ten studies on the combination. When people loaded creatine first and then took a single dose of caffeine before exercise, three studies found caffeine still worked and one found the combination didn't help. When people took both every day, two studies found caffeine interfered with creatine, three found no interaction, and one found the pair worked better together. The reviewers concluded that creatine loading doesn't seem to blunt an acute dose of caffeine, but that daily caffeine during a loading phase could blunt creatine.

Put plainly, the interference signal shows up mainly in loading phases with substantial daily caffeine. For someone taking a steady maintenance dose of creatine and drinking a normal amount of coffee, there is no good evidence it's costing you anything.

Can You Put Creatine in Hot Coffee?

Yes, with one habit. Creatine monohydrate powder is very stable in the tub. Once it's dissolved, it slowly converts into creatinine, which your body can't use the same way, and that conversion runs faster in warmer and more acidic liquid. A 2011 review of creatine chemistry reported that after three days at room temperature, about 4% was lost at pH 5.5 and 21% at pH 3.5.

Those losses build up over days, not the few minutes it takes to drink a cup. Warm liquid actually dissolves creatine better than cold water. So stir it in and drink it. Don't mix a thermos in the morning and sip it all afternoon.

The other old worry, that coffee dehydrates you, doesn't hold up at moderate intake. In a 2014 crossover study, 50 men who habitually drank coffee had four cups a day for three days, then water for three days. Total body water and every blood and urine hydration marker came out the same.

How to Time Creatine and Coffee

• Not loading: take 3 to 5 g of creatine a day, whenever you'll remember it. Consistency matters more than the clock, as our guide to the best time to take creatine explains. With your morning coffee is fine.
• Loading: this is where the interference studies sit. If you load at around 20 g a day, the cautious move is to keep caffeine moderate that week and take creatine with meals rather than with coffee. Or skip loading entirely. Our breakdown of the creatine loading phase shows a steady daily dose reaches the same place in about a month.
• Caffeine for performance: the sports nutrition research uses 3 to 6 mg per kilogram, usually about 60 minutes before training. For an 80 kg athlete that's 240 to 480 mg. The FDA cites 400 mg a day, about two to three 12-ounce cups of coffee, as an amount not generally linked to negative effects in most adults.
• Upset stomach: if the combination bothers you, split them by a few hours. Our article on creatine side effects covers the stomach issues in more detail.
• Safety: if you are pregnant or nursing, under 18, have a heart or blood pressure condition, or take prescription medication, talk to your healthcare provider before adding either one.

Timing caffeine around training matters more than timing it around creatine. Most adults who train with us come to evening martial arts classes, and in more than fifty years of running our school we've seen a 6 p.m. coffee turn into a midnight that won't end. The caffeine research flags sleep disruption as a common downside. Lost sleep costs you more recovery than any supplement can give back, so move the coffee earlier and keep the creatine wherever it fits.

Pre-Workouts With Both: Read the Label

Many pre-workouts already pair creatine with caffeine, which raises a fair question: is one scoop enough? We read the supplement-facts panel on our own GMA Pre-Workout Watermelon for this article. One 7.7 g scoop has 175 mg of caffeine, 1,125 mg of creatine monohydrate, 750 mg of beta-alanine and 1,500 mg of L-arginine AKG.

That creatine is less than a quarter of a 5 g daily dose, so a pre-workout doesn't replace your creatine scoop. That's common across the category; our guide to pre-workout for athletes found most products underdose creatine. And if you drink coffee and take a pre-workout on the same day, count both. A scoop plus two large coffees can put you past 400 mg before dinner.

The simple setup: one scoop of creatine every day, caffeine before training when you want it, and an honest count of your total caffeine. You'll find both in our sports nutrition collection.

Sources & Research

• Vandenberghe K, Gillis N, Van Leemputte M, et al. "Caffeine counteracts the ergogenic action of muscle creatine loading." Journal of Applied Physiology, 1996;80(2):452–457. PMID 8929583
• Hespel P, Op't Eijnde B, Van Leemputte M. "Opposite actions of caffeine and creatine on muscle relaxation time in humans." Journal of Applied Physiology, 2002;92(2):513–518. PMID 11796658
• Trexler ET, Smith-Ryan AE, Roelofs EJ, et al. "Effects of Coffee and Caffeine Anhydrous Intake During Creatine Loading." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2016;30(5):1438–1446. PMID 26439785
• Elosegui S, López-Seoane J, Martínez-Ferrán M, Pareja-Galeano H. "Interaction Between Caffeine and Creatine When Used as Concurrent Ergogenic Supplements: A Systematic Review." International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2022;32(4):285–295. PMID 35016154
• Trexler ET, Smith-Ryan AE. "Creatine and Caffeine: Considerations for Concurrent Supplementation." International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2015;25(6):607–623. PMID 26219105
• Jäger R, Purpura M, Shao A, Inoue T, Kreider RB. "Analysis of the efficacy, safety, and regulatory status of novel forms of creatine." Amino Acids, 2011;40(5):1369–1383. PMID 21424716
• Killer SC, Blannin AK, Jeukendrup AE. "No evidence of dehydration with moderate daily coffee intake: a counterbalanced cross-over study in a free-living population." PLoS One, 2014;9(1):e84154. PMID 24416202
• Kreider RB, Kalman DS, Antonio J, et al. "International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine." Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2017;14:18. PMID 28615996
• Guest NS, VanDusseldorp TA, Nelson MT, et al. "International society of sports nutrition position stand: caffeine and exercise performance." Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2021;18(1):1. PMID 33388079
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Spilling the Beans: How Much Caffeine Is Too Much?" fda.gov