AG1 (formerly Athletic Greens) is one of the most recognizable supplement brands in the world. If you listen to podcasts, watch YouTube, or scroll health influencer content, you have almost certainly seen it promoted. The marketing is polished, the branding is premium, and the price reflects it: $79 per month on subscription ($99 one-time). But strip away the sponsorship deals and influencer endorsements -- does the product itself hold up to scientific scrutiny?
We went ingredient by ingredient through the entire AG1 formula, cross-referencing each against published clinical evidence, effective dosing thresholds, and bioavailability data. Here is what we found.
The formula at a glance
AG1 contains 75 ingredients organized into proprietary blends totaling 12 grams per scoop. The blend categories include a "Raw Superfood Complex," "Nutrient Dense Extracts, Herbs & Antioxidants," "Digestive Enzyme & Super Mushroom Complex," and a multivitamin-mineral base. The ingredient list is publicly available, which is better than many competitors. However, the proprietary blend structure means we know what is in the product but not how much of most ingredients.
This is the fundamental tension with AG1: 75 ingredients in a 12g scoop means the average ingredient gets roughly 160mg. For many of the included compounds, effective clinical doses are 500mg to several grams.
The vitamins and minerals: genuinely useful
The multivitamin component of AG1 is its strongest suit. It provides meaningful doses of vitamin C (420mg, 467% DV), vitamin E (83mg, 553% DV), thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B6, folate (as methylfolate, 680mcg DTE), B12 (as methylcobalamin, 768mcg), biotin, pantothenic acid, zinc (15mg), selenium, chromium, and copper. These are at or above 100% Daily Value and in quality forms.
For someone not currently taking a multivitamin, this component alone provides legitimate nutritional insurance. A 2019 systematic review in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that multivitamin supplementation may modestly reduce cancer risk in men and has a generally favorable safety profile, though the evidence for cardiovascular benefit remains inconclusive.
The vitamin and mineral component is worth approximately $15-20 per month if purchased separately as a standalone multivitamin of comparable quality. This is where AG1 delivers real, quantifiable value.
The greens and superfoods: mostly window dressing
Here is where the math gets uncomfortable. The "Raw Superfood Complex" includes spirulina, lecithin, apple powder, wheat grass juice, barley grass, broccoli flower, papaya, pineapple, bilberry extract, beet root, rosehip, carrot, spinach, and more. Each of these foods has genuine nutritional merit -- as whole foods consumed in meaningful quantities.
But at fractional doses within a 7.3g proprietary blend shared among dozens of ingredients? The clinical relevance diminishes rapidly. Spirulina, for example, shows antioxidant and lipid-lowering effects in studies using 1-8g daily. AG1's spirulina dose is almost certainly well below 1g. Beet root powder for nitric oxide production and exercise performance requires roughly 6-12g (or 300-600mg nitrate equivalent). The amount in AG1 is a rounding error.
A 2020 review in the journal Nutrients examined greens powder supplements broadly and found that while many contain measurable antioxidant activity in vitro, few have been tested in human clinical trials at the doses typically provided. The conclusion: greens powders are not a substitute for actual vegetables, and the clinical evidence for their proprietary blends remains thin.
The adaptogens and mushrooms: underdosed
AG1 includes ashwagandha, rhodiola, astragalus, reishi, and shiitake mushrooms. Each of these has varying levels of clinical evidence -- ashwagandha and rhodiola being the strongest, with multiple RCTs supporting stress reduction and cognitive performance.
The problem, again, is dose. Ashwagandha clinical trials typically use 300-600mg of standardized KSM-66 or Sensoril extract. Rhodiola studies use 200-680mg of standardized SHR-5 extract. The "Nutrient Dense Extracts" blend is 3.6g total, shared among roughly 15 ingredients. Even if ashwagandha and rhodiola were the majority of this blend (unlikely given they are listed mid-way through), achieving clinical doses is implausible.
A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis in the Journal of Clinical Medicine found that ashwagandha at clinically validated doses (300mg+ KSM-66) significantly reduced cortisol levels and self-reported stress. But "at clinically validated doses" is doing heavy lifting in that sentence, and AG1 almost certainly does not meet that threshold.
The digestive enzyme and probiotic component
AG1 includes digestive enzymes (amylase, lipase, protease) and a probiotic blend with Lactobacillus acidophilus (7.2 billion CFU). The probiotic dose is reasonable -- many clinical trials use 1-10 billion CFU -- and Lactobacillus acidophilus is among the more studied strains. A 2018 meta-analysis in BMJ Open Gastroenterology found that L. acidophilus supplementation modestly improved bloating and bowel regularity symptoms.
However, a standalone quality probiotic with multiple well-studied strains at 10-50 billion CFU costs $15-30 per month. AG1's single-strain, modest-CFU approach is functional but not exceptional.
The price analysis
Let us break down what you are actually getting and what it would cost separately:
Quality multivitamin (comparable forms and doses): $15-20/month. Single-strain probiotic at comparable CFU: $10-15/month. Greens powder (antioxidant base, even without clinical dosing claims): $15-25/month. Adaptogens at clinical doses (purchased separately): $20-30/month. Digestive enzymes: $8-12/month.
If you wanted every single thing AG1 claims to provide at actually effective doses, you would spend roughly $70-100 per month -- so AG1's $79 price point is competitive if and only if every ingredient were at a clinical dose. They are not. The ingredients that are properly dosed (vitamins and minerals) are worth $15-20 per month. The remaining $60 is paying for underdosed greens, underdosed adaptogens, and a modest probiotic.
The AG1 clinical study
AG1 funded a clinical trial (published 2024) showing their product improved self-reported energy and gut health versus placebo over 90 days. This is better than most supplement companies, who fund zero research on their actual products. However, it was a single industry-funded study with subjective endpoints and a small sample size. It is a start, not a definitive answer.
Who AG1 actually makes sense for
AG1 is not a scam. It contains real ingredients, the vitamin and mineral doses are legitimate, the probiotic count is reasonable, and it tastes better than most greens powders. If you meet all of these criteria, it might work for you: you are not currently taking a multivitamin, you want a single-product solution, you value convenience extremely highly, and the price does not strain your budget.
But if you are already supplementing with a quality multivitamin and a probiotic, AG1 adds minimal value for significant cost. And if your budget is limited, a $20 multivitamin plus a $15 probiotic delivers more evidence-backed value than AG1 at a fraction of the price.
Our verdict
AG1 scores a 61 on Biorank -- "Mixed" evidence rating. The multivitamin component is solid. The probiotic is adequate. The greens, adaptogens, and mushroom extracts are almost certainly underdosed relative to clinical evidence thresholds. At $79 per month, you are paying a significant premium for convenience and marketing. For most people, a targeted supplement stack based on actual deficiencies will deliver more measurable results for less money. The evidence does not support AG1 being worth three to four times the cost of a quality multivitamin, which is ultimately what the underdosed blend ingredients reduce to.