What to ask a NAD⁺ seller before you buy
The questions that separate an open NAD⁺ seller from an evasive one — what each really tests, what a straight answer sounds like, and how many of the sellers we track actually answer it.
We have read 149 NAD⁺ sellers’ own pages line by line. The differences between them are almost never about the product — it is the same compounded molecule from a similar set of pharmacies — and almost always about what they will tell you before you pay.
Only 66 publish a milligram figure. 10 name the compounding pharmacy. 37 publish state coverage, 40 state whether bloodwork is included, and 27 of the 144 we rank will not put a price on the page at all. These are the questions that close those gaps, one call at a time.
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These are two questions and sellers answer them as one. Compounded means a pharmacy mixed it to order, and that the FDA has not reviewed it for safety, efficacy or quality before it reaches you. That is not the same as illegal or unsafe — it is the regulatory status of almost everything injectable in this category — but a seller who will not say the word is managing you.
- A straight answer
- “It is compounded, which means it is not FDA-approved. Here is our pharmacy's licensure.”
- An evasion
- “It is made in an FDA-registered facility.” That describes the building, not the drug.
In our roster: 113 of the 149 sellers we have reviewed are compounded, and the plainest language we have found about it is on this one: read The Edit's review →
This is the question the category is built to avoid. Without a quantity, a monthly price is a number you cannot compare against any other number — not against another seller, not against an infusion, not against a supplement. A seller who publishes the milligrams has made itself checkable. One who will not has made itself incomparable, and that is a choice rather than an oversight.
- A straight answer
- A figure, in milligrams, with the period it covers: “that is a month's supply.”
- An evasion
- “Dosing is personalized to you.” Then ask what your personalized dose is, in milligrams.
In our roster: Only 66 of 149 reviewed sellers publish a milligram figure anywhere. The best disclosure we have seen is here: read System Labs' review →
A milligram figure without a frequency is still not an amount. “500 mg” can mean one vial that lasts a month or a weekly shot, and the two differ fourfold in what you actually receive for the same price. Ask for both numbers in the same sentence and you have something you can divide.
- A straight answer
- “One vial a month, and here is how many doses you draw from it.”
- An evasion
- A milligram number with no period attached, quoted fast, as if the question is answered.
In our roster: The clearest statement of a monthly quantity range in our roster belongs to a seller whose marketing copy we do not otherwise endorse: read Embody's review →
The pharmacy is the part of the supply chain that actually determines what is in the vial, and it is almost never named. A seller who names it is inviting you to check a license and a record, which is real transparency rather than the appearance of it. A seller who will not is asking you to trust a brand rather than a manufacturer.
- A straight answer
- A pharmacy name you can look up, and its state licensure.
- An evasion
- “We work with a network of licensed US pharmacies.” That is every seller in the category.
In our roster: 10 of 149 reviewed sellers name the pharmacy. Here is one that does: read Breeze Meds' review →
State coverage is not uniform and is rarely on the pricing page. You can complete an intake, pay, and only then discover your state is excluded — or, worse, find out at the refill. Ask before you hand over a card, and ask for the exclusions rather than the inclusions, because a list of states served is easier to pad.
- A straight answer
- A named list of states not served, volunteered before payment.
- An evasion
- “We serve most of the country.” Most is not yours.
In our roster: Only 37 of 149 reviewed sellers publish their state coverage at all. This is the longest exclusion list we found: read Enhance MD's review →
The headline price on a NAD⁺ page is very often a first-month rate, and the step-up is somewhere below the fold or nowhere at all. It is the single most common way a published price misleads, and it is entirely legal. Ask for the standing rate and write it down; that is the number your year is built on.
- A straight answer
- Both figures in one sentence: the intro month and the rate after it.
- An evasion
- A single price with no mention of a first month — then a different charge four weeks later.
In our roster: We record the standing rate rather than the intro rate for every seller, precisely because of this. Here is a seller that discloses the step-up plainly: read Maves' review →
The lowest number on a pricing page frequently belongs to a six- or twelve-month plan billed up front, and it sits in the largest type. That is a different product from a month-to-month subscription: it is a prepayment, and it converts a cancellable monthly cost into a lump sum you cannot get back. Ask what the price is if you stop after one month.
- A straight answer
- “Month-to-month is this; the discounted tiers require this commitment, billed this way.”
- An evasion
- A big discounted figure with the billing term in small print beside it.
In our roster: Several sellers in our roster run discount ladders of exactly this shape. This one publishes the whole ladder, which at least lets you see it: read iThriveMD's review →
Reading a per-session infusion price against a monthly subscription is the easiest mistake in this category, and it always runs in the clinic's favor. A course is rarely one session, and how many sessions a protocol runs is almost never published — so a per-visit price is not a cost until you know the frequency. Ask for both, then multiply.
- A straight answer
- “That is per infusion. A typical course is this many, so your first year is this.”
- An evasion
- A number with no unit beside it, in a category where both units are common.
In our roster: 8 of the 144 sellers we rank bill per session rather than per month. The only one that also publishes a dose is here: read The IV Doc's review →
Make the seller say it out loud, then check it against the trials. Oral precursors have randomized human data showing they raise blood NAD⁺; the injections, sprays, patches and drips have no controlled outcome trials for any of the benefits they are sold on. A seller who slides from one to the other is borrowing evidence that does not belong to the product in front of you.
- A straight answer
- A claim narrow enough to check, with the format and the population it was shown in.
- An evasion
- “Clinically proven” with no trial named — or a trial that used a different format entirely.
In our roster: 122 of 149 reviewed sellers require a prescription, which does not make the claims on the page true. This is the strongest set of claims in our roster: read Viking Man's review →
Why an evasion is an answer
None of these questions is hard to answer. Every one of them has a short, true reply that a well-run seller already has to hand — the milligrams are on the label, the pharmacy is on the license, the excluded states are in the software. When a seller cannot produce one, you have not learned nothing. You have learned that the company either does not know or would rather you did not.
None of this speaks to whether NAD⁺ will do anything for you, which is a separate question with a separate answer — grade the claim you were shown for that. Once you have a dose out of a seller, the cost-per-milligram table will place it against every other seller that publishes one, and the cheapest route into NAD⁺ is where the prices live.