Liquid IV Review: Sugar, Sodium and Price vs 5 Alternatives

Reviewed by Sarah Law, Dip CNM, Naturopathic Nutritionist

Published 5 November 2026. Every Liquid I.V., LMNT, Nuun and Pedialyte figure on this page comes from the brand's own website, nutrition panel or ingredients image, read on 5 November 2026, including both the US (liquid-iv.com) and UK (liquid-iv.co.uk) versions of Liquid I.V. Our own prices were read live from our UK and US stores on 6 November 2026.

Ultimate Electrolytes: 500 mg sodium, 500 mg potassium and 150 mg magnesium per 500 ml serving, no sugar, sweetened with stevia, six flavours including Unflavoured.

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What is in Liquid I.V.? The label, stick by stick

Liquid I.V. comes in two main versions, the original Hydration Multiplier and Hydration Multiplier Sugar-Free, and the panels differ between the US and UK stores. The original US stick is 16 g of powder: 50 kcal, 500 mg sodium, 370 mg potassium, 11 g of total sugars (all added), plus vitamin C, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and pantothenic acid. The ingredients start with cane sugar and dextrose, then citric acid, salt, potassium citrate, sodium citrate and dipotassium phosphate, with stevia leaf extract (Rebaudioside A) for extra sweetness. You mix one stick into 16 fl oz (about 473 ml) of water.

Source: liquid-iv.com Lemon Lime nutrition facts panels and ingredient lists; liquid-iv.co.uk Lemon Lime and White Peach ingredients images (average values per daily dose), all read 5 November 2026. The US store also offers 30% off on subscription. Prices are list prices before any subscription discount.

Two things stand out. First, the vitamins are generous: the US panel shows 240% of the Daily Value for vitamin B12 and 190% for pantothenic acid, and the UK panel 272% and 190% of the NRV. Second, the "Liquid I.V." you buy depends on which side of the Atlantic you are on. A buyer reading an American review of the sugar-free stick (allulose, glutamine and alanine) is reading about a different product from the UK sugar-free stick (amino acid blend led by 1,500 mg glutamine, with calcium and magnesium added and no allulose).

Is Liquid I.V. good for you?

Liquid I.V. is a reasonable choice when you have lost fluid and salt through sweat, heat or travel, and a poor fit as an all-day habit for most people. The reason is the same in both directions: it is built like an oral rehydration solution, with sodium plus glucose. Glucose switches on a sodium uptake route in the small intestine, and water follows the sodium; that mechanism is why oral rehydration solutions became the standard approach for dehydration from acute diarrhoea some 40 years ago.¹ Liquid I.V. describes its own Hydration Multiplier as an oral rehydration solution on its US product page.

That formula pays off when there is something to replace. Endurance athletes in a dataset of 1,303 people lost on average 1.28 litres of sweat and 51.7 mmol of sodium an hour (roughly 1,190 mg by our arithmetic), with wide variation between individuals.^3,7 After that kind of session, a drink with around 1,000 mg of sodium per litre is in a sensible range. On an ordinary day at a desk, the same stick mostly adds sodium and sugar to a diet that usually has enough of the first already. The NHS advises adults to eat no more than 6 g of salt a day (about 2.4 g of sodium), and the US FDA uses a Daily Value of 2,300 mg of sodium.^8,9 One US stick is 22% of that Daily Value.

The other ingredients are unremarkable: no caffeine in the Hydration Multiplier, gluten free, vegan on the UK site. The US site says the original is designed for ages one and up; the UK pack says not to exceed one stick a day.

"When clients ask me about hydration sachets, I ask what their day looks like first. After a long, sweaty session or a hot day travelling, a drink with sodium and a little sugar can be useful. On a normal desk day, water and regular meals usually cover it, so a sugary stick every morning is not something I would build a routine around."

Sarah Law, Naturopathic Nutritionist | Optimised Female

How much sugar is in Liquid I.V.?

One original US stick contains 11 g of sugar, all of it added, and 50 kcal. That is 22% of the US Daily Value for added sugars (50 g) and about 37% of the NHS guidance that adults have no more than 30 g of free sugars a day.^10,11 The UK original lists 13 g of carbohydrate per stick, with sugar and dextrose as its first two ingredients; the UK panel does not split out sugars, so we have not guessed a figure. The UK pack's own footnote says the sugar and salt "are in our formula for function, not for taste", which matches the oral rehydration principle above.

The sugar-free versions get their sweetness and their "function" in different ways. The US Sugar-Free stick lists allulose first, with a footnote that it adds a dietarily insignificant amount of sugar; US labelling rules let allulose be left out of the total and added sugars lines, which is why the panel shows 0 g sugars but 5 g carbohydrate.¹² Liquid I.V. says the glutamine and alanine are there to support water and electrolyte absorption without sugar. The UK Sugar-Free stick prints under 0.5 g of sugars per stick and relies on an amino acid blend led by 1,500 mg of L-glutamine.

If sugar is the reason you are looking at alternatives, the comparison table below shows three options with no sugar or close to none: LMNT, Nuun Sport (1 g) and Ultimate Electrolytes.

Does Liquid I.V. hydrate better than water?

A sodium-rich oral rehydration solution is retained better than plain water, and Liquid I.V. sits in that sodium range, but no published trial of Liquid I.V. itself is cited on its product page that we could check. The best independent evidence is the beverage hydration index study: 72 men drank 1 litre of one of 13 drinks, and over four hours an oral rehydration solution left them producing less urine than still water (1,038 g vs 1,337 g), as did full-fat and skimmed milk. A sports drink, cola, tea, coffee, lager and orange juice were no different from water.²

Sodium is what makes the difference. When men drank 1.5 times their sweat loss after exercise, drinks with 2 or 26 mmol/l of sodium left them in negative fluid balance by 689 ml and 359 ml, while drinks with 52 or 100 mmol/l brought them back to roughly even.⁴ A second study found that drinking more than your sweat loss only helps when the drink has enough sodium; otherwise the extra simply comes out as urine.⁵ As mixed, Liquid I.V. is about 46 mmol/l of sodium (around 1,057 mg per litre in the US, 1,060 mg in the UK), and ours is about 43 mmol/l (1,000 mg per litre), so both sit above the 20 to 30 mmol/l the American College of Sports Medicine suggests for drinks taken during exercise.⁶

One point the marketing skips: if you are already well hydrated, holding on to more fluid is not a benefit in itself. The advantage shows up when you are replacing a real loss.

In GB, carbohydrate-electrolyte drinks can carry the authorised claim that they "enhance the absorption of water during physical exercise", but only within set ranges of carbohydrate energy and sodium.¹³ On the figures the UK pack prints, the original Liquid I.V. stick sits inside those carbohydrate and sodium ranges, and the UK site uses that claim. A sugar-free drink, ours included, cannot, because the claim depends on the carbohydrate. What we can say for ours is that magnesium contributes to electrolyte balance and to normal muscle function, and potassium contributes to normal muscle function.

Liquid I.V. vs the alternatives: label comparison

Liquid I.V. is in the middle of the pack on sodium, near the top on potassium, and the only product here, with Pedialyte, that relies on sugar. LMNT doubles the sodium with no sugar, Nuun Sport is a lighter tablet with 1 g of sugar, Pedialyte is a medical-style oral rehydration solution with more sugar than Liquid I.V., and ours gives the most potassium and magnesium per serving with no sugar.

Sources: liquid-iv.com panels; drinklmnt.com product page; nuunlife.com nutrition facts; pedialyte.com Powder Packs nutrition information (which also states "Use under medical supervision"); our printed labels (Raspberry and Orange & Lime v5, 5 g; Watermelon 4 g; Unflavoured v7, 3.2 g, same minerals). All read 5 November 2026.

Pedialyte is worth a separate word because "Pedialyte vs Liquid I.V." is a common search. Pedialyte Powder Packs carry slightly less sodium (490 mg) and slightly more sugar (12 g) per packet, plus 570 mg of chloride, and use sucralose and acesulfame potassium alongside dextrose. Its page frames it around fluid loss from vomiting, diarrhoea, exercise, travel and heat and says to use it under medical supervision, while Liquid I.V. is sold as an everyday and active hydration drink. For illness-related fluid loss, follow your doctor's or pharmacist's advice on which oral rehydration product to use.

Is Liquid I.V. worth it? Cost per serving and per 1,000 mg of sodium

On price, Liquid I.V. is the dearest way to buy sodium in this comparison: $3.12 per 1,000 mg in the US, roughly double LMNT. Part of what you pay for is the vitamins and, in the sugar-free version, the amino acids. If sodium and minerals are what you want, the table shows where your money goes.

List prices read 5 November 2026 (ours rechecked 6 November 2026) from each brand's own store; per-serving and per-sodium figures are our arithmetic from those prices and the panels above. We have not converted between pounds and dollars. Subscription discounts at other brands (for example 30% at Liquid I.V. US) are not included.

So is Liquid I.V. worth it? If you want a ready-made sugar and salt drink after hard, sweaty training, in heat or on a long journey, and you like the taste, it does that job well and the single sticks are convenient. If you drink one most days, the cost and the sugar add up, and a sugar-free mineral powder gives you the same sodium for less.

Liquid I.V. alternatives: which one fits you?

The right alternative depends on why you are reaching for a hydration drink. Here is how the options above line up by use.

For a deeper look at the head-to-heads, see our LMNT vs Liquid I.V. comparison, DripDrop vs Liquid I.V. and our round-up of the best sugar-free electrolyte powders.

How much sodium, potassium and magnesium a day? UK and US guidance

UK and US guidance use different reference values, so here they are side by side with what one serving of Liquid I.V. and of ours provides. Sodium has no UK NRV; the NHS gives a maximum for salt instead.

Sources: NHS salt and sugar guidance; FDA sodium and added sugars guidance; NIH Office of Dietary Supplements potassium and magnesium fact sheets; UK NRVs from Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 Annex XIII as retained in GB law.^{8,9,10,11,14,15,16}

Can you drink Liquid I.V. every day?

The UK pack says not to exceed one stick a day, and that is a sensible ceiling wherever you buy it. One stick a day is unlikely to matter for a healthy, active adult, but it adds 500 to 530 mg of sodium (about a fifth to a quarter of the NHS salt maximum or the US Daily Value) and, for the original, 11 to 13 g of sugar or carbohydrate. If you drink one every morning out of habit rather than after sweating, the sugar-free stick or an unsweetened mineral powder is the lighter option. Our article on whether you can drink electrolytes every day goes into more detail.

"I always read the back of the pack with clients, not the front. Look at the sodium, the sugar and how many a day the label allows, then add up anything else you already have, such as a sports drink, salty snacks or a second sachet. If you have been told to watch your salt or your blood pressure, check with your GP before adding any electrolyte drink."

Sarah Law, Naturopathic Nutritionist | Optimised Female

Who should check before using Liquid I.V. or any electrolyte drink?

Most healthy adults can use an electrolyte drink occasionally without concern. Check with a doctor or pharmacist first if any of these apply:

• You have been told to limit salt, or you have high blood pressure, heart failure or kidney disease.
• You take medicines that affect potassium or fluid, such as some blood pressure tablets (ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers), potassium-sparing diuretics or other diuretics.
• You manage your blood sugar: the original stick has 11 to 13 g of sugar or carbohydrate.
• You are pregnant or breastfeeding: Liquid I.V.'s own FAQ refers this question to your doctor.
• It is for a child, or for fluid loss from illness, where your doctor or pharmacist should guide the choice of product.

How we compared these drinks

We read every competitor figure from the brand's own website on 5 November 2026: the Liquid I.V. US nutrition panels and ingredient lists for the Lemon Lime original and sugar-free, the Liquid I.V. UK ingredients images for Lemon Lime and White Peach, LMNT's product page, Nuun's nutrition facts and Pedialyte's product nutrition information. Prices are list prices from each brand's own store that day, and per-serving costs are simple division. Our own figures come from our printed labels (Ultimate Electrolytes Raspberry v5, Orange & Lime v5 and Unflavoured v7) and the Certified Group lab report for lot 33447931. Where a brand does not publish a figure, the table says so rather than estimating it. Formulas change, so check the pack you buy.

Frequently asked questions

About the Reviewer: Sarah Law, Dip CNM

Sarah Law is a Certified Naturopathic Nutritionist and Functional Practitioner specialising in hormonal health, gut health, and evidence-based nutrition. She holds a Diploma in Naturopathic Nutrition from the College of Naturopathic Medicine (CNM, London) and is a Certified Functional Health Coach. Sarah combines naturopathic principles with modern functional nutrition science to help her clients make informed health decisions.

Learn more about Sarah.

About the Author: Ben Law

Ben Law is the founder of Love Life Supplements and host of the Optimised Health Show. He is a qualified Advanced Dietary Supplement Advisor and Primal Blueprint Certified Expert, and has spent 14 years building transparent, research-led formulations manufactured to GMP and BRC standards. He wrote this review from each brand's own product pages, nutrition panels and ingredient lists, the published rehydration and sweat research, NHS, FDA and NIH guidance, and our own label and lab data.

Liquid I.V., Hydration Multiplier, LMNT, Nuun and Pedialyte are trademarks of their respective owners and are not affiliated with Love Life Supplements. Learn more about Ben.