You’ve bought yourself a bottle of CBD oil and you’re all ready to go, but the next question is how much do you take in order to get optimal results. You’re not alone in asking this question. In fact, 5,400 people search for ‘CBD dosage’ on Google in the US every month.
Each bottle you look at will offer differing amounts, often in split dosages, so it can be very confusing, so I wanted to provide some details on the subject.
Contributing Factors
There isn’t a set dosage you should take, as there are a number of factors that can affect the answer. Some of the main culprits are highlighted below:
- Your weight – the more you weigh, often it will take a greater amount to yield the best results.
- Your reason for taking CBD – one person might be taking medical cannabis in order to prevent seizures while suffering from epilepsy, while another person might be taking it to ease anxiety before a meeting, they obviously won’t require the same amount as each other.
- Your body – Quite simply, everyone is different and it is impossible to offer a blanket answer to a question such as how much you should take, therefore all I can do is offer a general breakdown.
- Your tolerance levels – If you have had quite a bit of CBD, over time you will build up a bit of a tolerance level.
- Gender – there have been a few studies into how your gender might affect how much CBD you should take.
- Age – sadly, as we get older, our metabolism slows down (hence why I’m starting to get a bit of a gut). For this reason, as you get older it can take longer for CBD to take effect. Give your body time to allow it to take effect rather than taking more straight away if you don’t feel the results you want.
How Much CBD Oil Do People Start With?
Many people start with 10mg per day, either as a single dosage or as two 5mg doses split through the day.
It’s then common to add 5mg per day until you find the right amount for you.
With Epidiolex, an FDA approved CBD oil, the starting dosage is 2.5mg per kilo of body weight, twice daily, making 5mg per kilo per day. For example, a 60kg person would take 300mg per day in two 150mg doses. This is a much higher amount due to the reason for treatment, given to people suffering from epilepsy.
How Much Is In A Dropper?
Many of the droppers can contain 1ml of liquid. If you were to take a full 1ml dropper from a 1,000mg CBD oil in a 10ml tincture, this would provide 100mg of CBD, which is a bit too much. For this reason, you normally count the drops landing under your tongue.
A single drop will normally contain 0.05ml of liquid. Based on this, a normal 10ml dropper will contain approximately 200 drops. If you have a 30ml dropper, you will get approximately 600 drops in a bottle.
Using the above example of a 1,000mg CBD oil in a 10ml tincture, this would make a single drop contain 5mg of CBD. This is also why you have to adjust your calculations if you get a different strength CBD oil or a different size bottle. In the UK, most CBD oil’s are 10ml, while in the USA most are 30ml.
CBD Graph Calculator
The table below highlights the amount of CBD in each drop based on what strength you’ve purchased.
| strength | Form | quantity |
| 250mg | drops | 1.25mg per drop |
| 500mg | drops | 2.5mg per drop |
| 1,000mg | drops | 5mg per drop |
| 1,500mg | drops | 7.5mg per drop |
| 2,000mg | drops | 10mg per drop |
| 2,500mg | drops | 12.5mg per drop |
| 3,000mg | drops | 15mg per drop |
| 4,000mg | drops | 20mg per drop |
The table below highlights the quantity of CBD in each drop based on the size and strength:
| strength | size | quantity per 1ml |
| 250mg | 10ml | 25mg |
| 500mg | 10ml | 50mg |
| 1,000mg | 10ml | 100mg |
| 1,500mg | 10ml | 150mg |
| 2,000mg | 10ml | 200mg |
| 2,500mg | 10ml | 250mg |
| 3,000mg | 10ml | 300mg |
| 4,000mg | 10ml | 400mg |
| 250mg | 30ml | 8.33mg |
| 500mg | 30ml | 16.66mg |
| 1,000mg | 30ml | 33.33mg |
| 1,500mg | 30ml | 50mg |
| 2,000mg | 30ml | 66.66mg |
| 2,500mg | 30ml | 83.33mg |
| 3,000mg | 30ml | 100mg |
| 4,000mg | 30ml | 133.33mg |
How Much Is The Maximum?
The Food Standards Agency in the UK state that you shouldn’t have more than 70mg of CBD in a 24 hour period.
This study on the safety and side effects of cannabidiol tested subjects taking up to 1,500mg of CBD per day (a very high amount) and there were no real side effects.
One study that provided a bit of a negative backlash in the media was around how mice that were consuming large quantities of CBD were getting liver damage. Obviously, you have to keep in mind that they are small creatures and were given huge amounts of CBD, that would undoubtedly be a lot to consume.
How Many CBD Gummies Per Day?
Gummies are very easy to work out the dosage, as each bear will have a precise amount of CBD contained within it. I state ‘bear’, however CBD gummies now come in all shapes and sizes.
If you were to opt for a Mother CBD gummy, the gummy would contain 20mg of CBD, therefore you just need to work out how much you want to consume in a day or in a serving and have the appropriate amount of gummies. I choose to have 40mg per day, but I have high tolerance levels, so one 20mg gummy might be perfect for someone starting out.
It is important to remember when having a CBD gummy that you should place it under the tongue for 1-2 minutes before chewing and swallowing.
How Much CBD Topical Per Day?
CBD doesn’t just come in oils and gummies, it now comes in various topical treatments, from balms to creams.
These topical ointments only provide an effect at skin level, normally used to target a certain area, such as after a workout. Any form of CBD topical cream or balm will detail the amount of CBD within the pack. You can then work out how much you should use per day, while they will normally offer some form of guideline on the packaging.
One example product is the Fika Recovery Cream, which contains 500mg of CBD in the 50ml tube. Each pump contains 2.2mg of CBD, meaning you get around 227 pumps from a single tube. The amount you use is again down to you personally, but during the testing period I used 3 pumps, being 6.6mg of CBD.
Other Ingredients
We talk about CBD dosage, but you also have to consider what other ingredients are included. If you’re going for a normal CBD oil, you don’t need to consider this, but there are a number of other products which contain various other ingredients, of which you don’t want to take too much.
For example, if you were to use Kiara Deep Sleep, the bottle contains 450mg of CBD and a single serving contains 13.63mg of CBD. While you might want a higher dosage, this bottle also contains humulus lupulus, valeriana officinalis and ziziphus jujube, so you would have to work out the max dosage for all of these ingredients.
