# Energy & Focus Britain searches this topic as a superlative. Best supplements for energy, best vitamin for tiredness, best focus supplements: the winning pages are high-street round-ups and own-brand collections, and every one of them ends on a pick rather than a figure. The searches then split by person and by situation, which is a British pattern: energy supplements for women, energy supplements for men, focus supplements for ADHD, supplements for chronic fatigue. The packs behind those phrases are the same ten ingredients in different marketing. A ranking cannot pick between them; it can put each one on the unit its pack is sold in. Best and median price per ingredient, updated 18 October 2026 | Ingredient | Best price | Product | Median price | Shops | Products | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Vitamin B / B-complex](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/vitamin-b) | £0.03 /capsule | [Vitamin B Complex Tablets – 180 tablets / [Multibuy 1]](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/simply-supplements-vitamin-b-complex-tablets-180-tablets-multibuy-1-133194) (Simply Supplements) | – | 9 | 63 | | [Caffeine](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/caffeine) | £0.04 /capsule | [Pure Caffeine Tablets](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/myprotein-pure-caffeine-tablets-125515) (Myvitamins) | – | 5 | 8 | | [Pre-Workout](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/pre-workout) | £0.20 /serving | [Tanked SMASH - 50 Servings (Slightly Clumpy***) – Grape Bubblegum](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/tanked-tanked-smash-50-servings-slightly-clumpy-grape-bubblegum-133020) (Bodybuilding Warehouse) | – | 9 | 259 | | [Coenzyme Q10](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/coq10) | £0.04 /capsule | [Co Enzyme Q10](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/myvitamins-co-enzyme-q10-125693) (Myprotein) | – | 9 | 20 | | [L-Theanine](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/l-theanine) | £0.14 /capsule | [Theanine 90 capsules](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/predator-nutrition-theanine-90-capsules-127785) (Predator Nutrition) | – | 1 | 1 | | [Taurine](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/taurine) | £8.98 /kg | [Taurine](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/bulk-taurine-125443) (Bulk) | – | 5 | 5 | | [Iron](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/iron) | £0.04 /capsule | [New Era No. 4 Ferr. Phos. - 240 Tablets](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/new-era-new-era-no-4-ferr-phos-240-tablets-128929) (Vitamin Planet) | – | 8 | 26 | | [Magnesium](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/magnesium) | £0.04 /capsule | [New Era No.8 Mag Phos - 240 Tablets](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/new-era-new-era-no8-mag-phos-240-tablets-144775) (Vitamin Planet) | – | 12 | 94 | | [Rhodiola Rosea](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/rhodiola) | £0.42 /capsule | [Salidroside 60 Capsules](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/hydrapharm-salidroside-60-capsules-127345) (Predator Nutrition) | – | 2 | 2 | | [Ginseng](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/ginseng) | £0.01 /capsule | [Ginkgo & Ginseng Complex](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/simply-supplements-ginkgo-ginseng-complex-132246) (Simply Supplements) | – | 6 | 15 | ## Folic acid is B9 in Britain and B11 on a Dutch pack The NHS writes: "Do not take more than 10mg of vitamin B6 a day in supplements unless advised to by a doctor." On a [vitamin B and B-complex](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/vitamin-b) pack, B6 is printed in milligrams and B12 in micrograms, so the units shift within a single tablet, and folic acid is numbered B9 on a British pack and B11 on a Dutch import: same substance, different number. The percentage column shifts names too. A British pack heads it NRV, for nutrient reference value, where a European one prints RI. It is the column that exposes a gap between two packs whose front labels list the same ingredients. ## Gentle iron and magnesium glycinate are shelf names, not doses British shelves rename these two minerals rather than redescribe them. "Gentle iron" is the trade phrasing for iron bisglycinate, and magnesium glycinate and magnesium bisglycinate are the same compound under two spellings. Neither phrase carries a dose, so on [iron](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/iron) and [magnesium](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/magnesium) the figure to find is the one further down the panel. The iron forms are set out on [iron](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/goal/iron), and what the magnesium compound does to a price per capsule is worked through in buying magnesium. Both also sell as gummies. A gummy pack declares its amounts per serving, and a serving is often two gummies, so the per-piece figure is one the reader has to work out before a price per gummy means anything. ## A THR number puts rhodiola or ginseng in another class Some [rhodiola](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/rhodiola) and [ginseng](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/ginseng) packs carry a THR number, which marks a registered traditional herbal medicine rather than a food supplement: a different product class, printed on the box. Sold as supplements, both are priced by percentage rather than by weight. A rhodiola extract is standardised on rosavins and salidroside, commonly at 3 per cent and 1 per cent, and a pot stating only a milligram figure has left both off. Ginseng is standardised on ginsenosides, and its packs also settle a species question: Panax, red or white, against so-called Siberian ginseng, botanically Eleutherococcus senticosus. ## Coenzyme Q10 outnumbers caffeine on the British results Across the British pages ranking on energy and tiredness, coenzyme Q10 is named on more of them than caffeine is, which is the reverse of the Dutch picture. [Coenzyme Q10](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/coq10) comes as ubiquinone or ubiquinol, in an oily softgel or a dry capsule, and a British pack may print the pharmacopoeia name ubidecarenone. Four presentations, all in milligrams, none interchangeable. ## Caffeine, pre-workout, taurine and theanine: four packs, three units [Caffeine](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/caffeine) states milligrams per tablet and is ranked per tablet, while a [pre-workout](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/pre-workout) is ranked per serving. A tub advertising thirty servings is advertising the maker's own scoop, so the caffeine per scoop is the figure that sets it beside a tablet. [Taurine](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/taurine) is a powder compared per kilo, and capsules of it need a net weight on the pot to earn that price. Packs combining caffeine and [L-theanine](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/l-theanine) print two milligram lines while sitting in a single category. ## What the ranking lines up, and what it leaves to you The ranking does one thing: each category on its own unit, cheapest first. It does not level the doses, and nothing filters on dose, so that reading stays yours. Every seller also keeps its own row at its own price, because we do not tie two shops to one product record. "Brain supplements" and "brain health supplements" are the other large British cluster around this topic, and they land on these same L-theanine, ginseng and Q10 packs under a different heading. Boots and Holland & Barrett sit in the searches as places rather than as products, and neither is a shop we scan. Beyond that there is reading a supplement label, [sleep](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/goal/sleep) for magnesium and L-theanine, [weight loss](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/goal/weight-loss) for caffeine and [muscle mass](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/goal/muscle-mass) for the pre-workout tubs. ## Sources - [NHS: B vitamins and folic acid](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-b/) ## Frequently asked questions ### What vitamin am I lacking if I feel tired all the time? A blood test answers that. The names people search for under that question are mainly iron, vitamin B12 and magnesium, and for each one it is a single line on the back of the pack, the form and the dose, that makes two pots of the same name comparable. ### What is the best vitamin for tiredness? British pages ranking on that search list the B numbers, and folic acid is numbered B9 in Britain where a Dutch pack prints B11 for the same substance. A B-complex pack states each number in milligrams or micrograms, beside a percentage headed NRV. A price ranking picks none of them. ### What is the best thing to take for extreme fatigue? That is a question for a GP, not for a price ranking. A label settles narrower things: whether the iron is bisglycinate or fumarate, whether the Q10 is ubiquinone or ubiquinol, whether the rhodiola states its rosavins, and how many capsules the pack holds. ### What supplement gives you the most energy? Of the ten ingredients searched for around energy and focus, eight are ranked per capsule, pre-workout per serving and taurine per kilo of powder. A ranking on those three units names no best and does not level the doses, which come off the label. --- Source: Supplementscanner, https://supplementscanner.co.uk/goal/energy-focus (live prices per product) Information for comparison, not medical advice. Ingredients are chosen based on what people often search for, not as a treatment.