Every product on Expensive Powder gets two grades. Neither is a vibe — both come from stated rules and public data, so you can check our work.
Formula grade — how well it's dosed
Each disclosed ingredient is compared to a clinical target dose drawn from human research, in three bands: 85% or more counts as fully dosed (✓ — label rounding shouldn't fail a formula), 70–84% is "close" (◐ — just under the dose, credited proportionally), and below 70% is a real underdose (⚠). A hidden or absent ingredient scores zero. Two guardrails keep it honest:
- Weakest link: a single ingredient below 70% of its studied dose caps the grade at B — a formula can't ace it while whiffing a headline ingredient.
- A+ is reserved for products with every ingredient at or above its studied dose.
- Proprietary blends (hidden doses) cap the grade at C, because an unverifiable dose can't be graded.
Doses are read on the right basis — magnesium as elemental, omega-3 as EPA+DHA, bonded forms by their active yield. Each ingredient also carries an evidence tier (Clinical, Studied, or Experimental); experimental compounds with no solid human dose can't earn full credit.
Deal grade — price vs. building it yourself
Open any product and you'll see an itemized "make it yourself" receipt: every active at its real bulk price, plus — for anything you drink as a flavored mix — a flavoring line (~$0.20/serving for sweetener and flavor), because unflavored raw powder isn't a fair equivalent to a ready-to-mix tub. That total is your true make-it-yourself cost. We divide the brand's price by it to get the markup, and grade that: roughly up to ~2× is A+, ~3.5× an A, ~5× a B, then C, D and F. Capsules and single powders you take in water get no flavoring credit, so a plain-creatine tub marked up 5× is still exposed. The receipt means the cost isn't our opinion — it's a line-by-line total you can audit. What's left to judge is only where the grade lines fall, and those are stated right here.
Three grading modes
Every card says which mode it used. Computed means every dose is disclosed, so the dose engine grades it — and this is the default, including for products with 10+ ingredients like fully-labeled fat burners and test boosters. Proprietary blend means the label hides at least one amount inside a combined weight, so it's computed but capped at C. Label-based is reserved for the few products we can't reduce to a dose score at all — greens with 30–90 ingredients, or formulas built entirely on proprietary blends — and it's rated on transparency, formula design and price, clearly flagged as a judgement call. The test here is disclosure, not ingredient count: a long but fully-disclosed label is always computed.
Where the numbers come from
Clinical doses are sourced — NIH Office of Dietary Supplements for vitamins and minerals, ISSN position stands and landmark trials for performance compounds, and evidence aggregators for the rest. Open any ingredient to see the exact citation. Where human evidence is thin, we say so instead of inventing a number.
Grades are our assessment based on published clinical doses and public pricing, for education only — not medical advice, and not a claim about any company. Prices and formulas change; always check the current label.