The 6 best B12 supplements in 2023

Adding one of the best B12 supplements to your daily routine can keep you topped up on this essential nutrient to improve your health and wellbeing. It's also especially important if you follow a vegetarian or plant-based diet, as it's often harder to hit your recommended dose. 

This vitamin plays a crucial role in our bodies, from forming DNA and red blood cells to helping process the protein we eat. This is why weight loss is a common symptom of B12 deficiency. But aside from those functions, there are many benefits of vitamin B12 (opens in new tab), including supporting your nervous system and mental wellbeing. 

To help you find an easy-to-swallow capsule you can easily add to your diet, we've tested the best B12 supplements you can buy right now. Most of the options we've reviewed contain at least two months' worth of capsules, so you won't have to add them to your weekly grocery shop either. 

Although each supplement comes with plenty of vitamin B12, some differences exist. Most are vegan-friendly, but not all, and the amount of B12 in each one varies, as does the serving size. To help you decide between them, you can check out our quick glance summary of the best B12 supplements below. 

The best B12 supplements you can buy right now

While brands such as Ritual are kind of like the pricey hipster coffee shop of supplements, Natrol is more like the dependable no-frills local cafe. The brand has been around since 1980 and has since become one of the most recognizable supplement suppliers on the market — you will find their products just about everywhere supplements are sold.

It comes as no surprise that this brand's packaging isn't particularly stylish. The capsules come in a white bottle with a purple lid and a purple and green label. The Vitamin B12 Fast Dissolve in strawberry offers vitamin B12 as cyanocobalamin at a rate of 5,000 mcg per serving — that's 208,330% of the daily recommended value. 

There are some known side effects of taking too much vitamin B12. However, even if you don't need this much B12, you should always speak to your doctor before starting a new supplement. The capsules also contain wheat, xylitol, starch, malic acid, beetroot extract, and citric acid.

We found these capsules an interesting alternative to other B12 options. The fast dissolve technology means the small round capsules dissolve on the tongue — in other words, you don't need to wash them down with water.

The strawberry flavor is quite pleasant and makes it easy to wait the 30 seconds or so it takes the capsule to dissolve.  The Natrol B12 supplements are a cost-effective option that will last you for just over three months. However, while we enjoyed the experience of taking these capsules, we're still not sold on the idea that 5,000mcg is really necessary.

As with the Ritual supplements, the Natrol option is vegan-friendly. You do get 100 capsules to a unit, however, and you only need to take one a day so they offer better value than the Ritual supplements. 

Ritual is a well-known supplement brand known for its promise to bring you ethical, vegan vitamins with traceable ingredients. Unlike some other supplement brands, Ritual has a modern, stylish approach to packaging. The Multivitamin comes in a clear, minimalist package with simple white accents. Even the capsules themselves, with their tiny white 'beadlets' are pretty attractive. 

This multivitamin contains 8mcg of vitamin B12 in the form of methylcobalamin, or 333% of your daily value. The supplement is suitable for vegans. This vitamin also contains a range of other vitamins to support healthy bodily functioning including folate, Omega-3 DHA, vitamin D, iron, and vitamin K2.

What makes this vitamin unique is the patented 'beadlet in oil' technology. The technology allows oily and dry ingredients to be effectively stored together in one capsule. The capsules are delayed-release which means they dissolve in the small intestine rather than the stomach, which in turn means your body can absorb the nutrients more easily. 

When we tried the Ritual multivitamin, we were impressed. The chic packaging initially caught our eye. And we found the capsules fairly easy to swallow thanks to their shape, although they do have a slightly oily texture.

The bottle also contains a mint tab giving the capsules a minty, fresh flavor. However, there was some post-vitamin after tastes with a pretty unpleasant flavor. And we also found the capsules repeated on us for a while after taking them.

There are small indications on the side of the package that helps you discern how many days' worth of capsules remain in the bottle. At $33 a bottle, these pills are more expensive than most other vitamin B12 options — in fact, it comes to exactly $1 per serving.

But, if you're willing to pay more for a nice bottle, ingredient transparency, and promising delayed-release technology, these might just be the best vitamin B12 supplements for you.

Now Foods is a family-owned US-based brand that has been offering all-natural supplements for over 50 years. Its B12 supplement comes in a small white bottle with a purple lid with an orange and purple label. Each capsule contains 1,000mcg of vitamin B12 in the form of methylcobalamin, which is just over 40,000% of your recommended daily intake. It also contains folate.

The capsules are suitable for vegans and we found them fairly easy to take — you simply let one dissolve on the tongue per day, or, it can be chewed. Though we weren't thrilled with the slight medicinal sweet taste and that they took a little longer to dissolve than expected. 

At $12.99 per 100 servings, Now Foods is a relatively good value option. Like Natrol, this vitamin dissolves on the tongue and contains a very high quantity of B12 — this large amount of B12 is probably not necessary for most people. However, if you have a B12 deficiency, this option may help you to restore your B12 levels quickly. 

Ancient Nutrition is a newer supplement brand that aims to combine ancient Chinese medicine with modern science. The packaging is stylish — the B12 supplement comes in a black bottle with a black label with gold, white and purple accents.

The Ancient Nutrition B12 has 30 capsules, each of which contains 20 mcg of vitamin B12 in the form of methylcobalamin — that's 833% of your daily recommended intake.

It also contains the brand's 'TCM (Traditional Chinese Method) Blend', which aims to bring "a holistic approach to your daily vitamin B-12 supplement" and to "support the body as a complete system rather than separate organs, a larger concept known as 'Qi.'"

It includes bovine liver, Fo-Ti Root, Chicken Bone Broth, Beef Bone Broth, and other food-based ingredients. According to Ancient Nutrition, this blend can help to support endurance during high-intensity exercise, support the functioning of the immune system and balance and support 'the life force'. While TCM is certainly full of possibilities, more studies are needed (opens in new tab) to determine the full effects on our health. 

We found the capsules weren't that easy to swallow, as you can feel them going down your throat. Plus, we were also struck by the slight foody smell in the bottle. However, the capsules are completely tasteless. At $29.95 a bottle for 30 servings, this is a more expensive option. However, if you are interested in adding TCM to your daily dietary routine, this brand could be one for you. 

Ancient Nutrition’s B12 isn’t suitable for vegans, so that may be a problem for some, but the real benefit here was that the capsules are tasteless, so there weren’t any aftertastes to contend with. 

HUM was founded by two friends “on a mission to make people feel good in their skin and bodies”. All of its products come in a black jar, with a bold colored label. In the case of the B12 Turbo, this is red with white accents. The tablets themselves are round and light pink.

Each tablet contains 1,000 mcg of vitamin B12 in the form of methylcobalamin — that’s 41,667% of your daily value. The brand claims the product “boosts energy levels” and “supports nervous system function”. It also contains 30 mg of calcium (3% of your daily value) to “promote healthy bone mass to keep your body strong”. One unit contains 30 tablets and costs $10, lasting you one month.

A real draw of Hum’s B12 turbo is that it is vegan-friendly, particularly as those following a vegan diet are more at risk of B12 deficiency. All of HUM’s products are manufactured in facilities that follow Good Manufacturing Processes (GMPs), required by the FDA. They are also gluten-free and non-GMO. 

While the tablets aren’t coated, they are really small. We found them super easy to swallow and completely tasteless. However, we couldn’t believe how little of the packaging 30 tablets took up. Even though the container is fairly small, the supplements don’t even take up ⅛ of the unit. This seemed like a waste of plastic to us.

Thorne is a trusted supplement company that aims to “empower individuals to live healthier for longer through personalized scientific testing and solutions”. Its vitamin B12 supplement comes in a small white container with blue accents.

Each tablet contains 1,000 mcg of vitamin B12 as methylcobalamin, which is 41,667% of your daily value. According to Thorne, “clinical evidence indicates that the body uses methylcobalamin more efficiently than cyanocobalamin”, which is used in some B12 supplements. This makes the nutrients highly bioavailable.

Thorne recommends taking one capsule, one to three times daily or as recommended by your health professional. Good news for those who don’t really like swallowing tablets; we were pleased that the capsules are tiny, and therefore super easy to swallow. We can also confirm that they are completely tasteless.

One unit contains 60 capsules (lasting you around two months) and retails at $20. This supplement is gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and vegan-friendly, as well as being derived from natural flavors and colors.

How we tested the best B12 supplements

Each of the products included in this guide was tested by our expert journalist. Supplements will affect each and every person slightly differently so we’ve been using these vitamins to give you a better idea of what they contain, and anything you need to be aware of before taking them. Below are the criteria we tested each product for. 

Ingredients

It’s super important to us that you know exactly what we tested and why and our first starting point is always to find out exactly what ingredients are in a B12 supplement, especially if it’s a multivitamin. We then compare this against your daily recommended dosage and decipher whether you can get enough B12 from these supplements. 

Recommended dosage

We made sure to note how much of each supplement you are required to take and how much often. This gave us a clear indication of whether a product offered good value for money or not.

Suitability 

Not all vitamins and supplements will be suitable for everyone which is why we take note of whether a B12 supplement is suitable for vegans or have gluten-free diets. 

Cost and value for money 

Getting the nutrients you need shouldn’t have to cost any more than necessary so we compared pricing across all the B12 supplements we tested to see whether the more expensive capsules were worth the money and if the cheaper supplements still contain everything you need.  

Easiness to swallow & taste

For some, taking capsules or tablets can be very challenging so we test each and every B12 supplement by taking them ourselves and observing how easy they are to swallow. Some supplements are dissolvable on your tongue so we time how long this process takes.

The taste, while subjective, is another important factor we test. We try each capsule and note down whether they taste like the intended flavor or anything else you may need to know about after tastes too.

Features
When we test B12 supplements, we note anything that makes one supplement stand out over the others. We ask if any of the supplements claim to do something that others don’t, and we also consider the overall aesthetics of the product as well as whether 

FAQs