NAD+ Dosage: What Actually Determines Your Injection Protocol

The honest answer to "what's the right NAD+ dose" is that it depends — and that's not a dodge, it's the actual clinical reality. NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is a coenzyme your cells use in core energy-metabolism and repair pathways (Covarrubias et al., 2021; Rajman et al., 2018). How much supplemental NAD+ a person is prescribed, though, varies with several individual factors. A prescriber generally weighs:

• Body size and composition — larger individuals are often started differently than smaller ones.
• Your goals — a general wellness protocol is dosed differently than a more intensive one.
• Baseline health and labs — a physician reviews your history and may order labs before and during treatment.
• Tolerance and response — NAD+ can cause noticeable sensations during administration, so the dose is often titrated to what you tolerate comfortably.
• The route — a subcutaneous injection and an IV infusion are dosed on very different scales (more on that below).

Because these factors differ from person to person, two people can end up on genuinely different protocols — which is exactly why dosing is a physician decision, not a self-serve calculation.

In clinical practice, compounded subcutaneous NAD+ injections are typically used in doses on the order of tens of milligrams up to a couple hundred milligrams per injection, given a few times per week. IV NAD+ infusions work on a larger scale — often several hundred milligrams or more per session, infused slowly over time.

Two important caveats sit on top of those ranges. First, they're wide and approximate — protocols differ meaningfully between clinics and between patients. Second, injectable NAD+ is a compounded preparation, not an FDA-approved drug, which means there is no official, standardized dose the way there is for an approved medication (FDA, compounding). So any range you read online — including this one — is directional context for a conversation with a prescriber, not a dose to act on.

Frequency is as individualized as the amount. Subcutaneous NAD+ protocols are commonly structured around a few doses per week rather than daily, though some are spread out differently depending on the dose per injection and how a person responds. IV protocols are usually spaced further apart because each session delivers much more per sitting.

The reason "per day" and "per week" both show up so often in searches is that there genuinely isn't one schedule — the total exposure over a week matters more than any single number, and a prescriber balances the amount per dose against how frequently you take it. That balance is part of what an evaluation is for.

Many NAD+ protocols aren't static. A common structure is an initial, more frequent loading approach followed by a lighter maintenance schedule once you've been established on it. The logic is straightforward: start conservatively, let your tolerance and response guide adjustments, then settle into a routine that's sustainable. This is one more reason a fixed chart doesn't capture reality — your dose at week one and your dose at month three may not be the same, and that evolution is guided by a provider tracking how you're doing.

The single biggest reason NAD+ dosage numbers look so different from one source to the next is route of administration:

• Subcutaneous (SubQ) injection — smaller amounts, given more often; the format most telehealth NAD+ programs use for at-home dosing.
• IV infusion — much larger amounts per session, delivered slowly in a clinical setting; the amount per sitting is far higher than a typical injection.
• Other routes (intranasal, oral precursors like NMN and NR) exist and are dosed on entirely different scales, and aren't directly comparable to injectable NAD+.

So a "500 mg" figure for an IV and a much smaller figure for a SubQ injection aren't a contradiction — they're two different delivery methods. Comparing them without noting the route is where a lot of online confusion comes from. We break the routes down further in our NAD+ IV therapy guide and NAD+ injections guide.

Search results are full of "NAD+ dosage charts" and calculators, and it's worth being clear about why we don't publish one. A chart implies a fixed input-to-dose formula, but NAD+ dosing depends on the individual factors above and on a medical evaluation that screens for whether it's appropriate for you at all. A number pulled from a table skips the two things that actually make dosing safe: a prescriber's judgment and a look at your specific situation.

The better tool isn't a calculator — it's an evaluation. What a chart can't do, a physician can: confirm you're a candidate, choose a starting point, and adjust it based on how you respond. If a source is willing to hand you a precise NAD+ dose without knowing anything about you, that's a reason for caution, not convenience.

Dose and pace matter partly because NAD+ administration can come with side effects, especially when given too quickly or at too high an amount for a given person. Reported effects are usually mild and tied to administration — flushing, nausea, or a feeling of pressure during a rapid infusion, and injection-site reactions with SubQ dosing — which is a large part of why protocols favor starting lower and titrating. We cover this in depth in our NAD+ side effects and safety guide; the short version is that thoughtful dosing and pacing, under supervision, is how the experience is kept tolerable.

Protocol MD's NAD+ is physician-prescribed and dosed by a licensed provider after an evaluation — not selected from a chart and not sold before a clinician has reviewed your case. A prescriber determines your starting dose and frequency, and adjusts them based on your goals, your labs where indicated, and how you tolerate and respond to treatment over time. That individualized, supervised approach is the entire point: the "right" NAD+ dose is the one a physician has determined is right for you. If you're considering NAD+, the first step is an evaluation, not a dose. See how Protocol MD's physician-prescribed NAD+ works.

So what's the right NAD+ dosage? The honest answer is that there isn't a universal one — injectable NAD+ is individualized, dosed and adjusted by a licensed physician based on your goals, body size, labs, and how you respond, rather than a number from a chart. General ranges exist and are useful context, but they're the starting point for a conversation with a prescriber, not a dose to self-select. The safest, most effective NAD+ dose is the one a physician has determined is right for you.