NAD+ vs NMN vs NR: differences, evidence and cost
NAD+ is nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, a coenzyme involved in cellular metabolism. NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) and NR (nicotinamide riboside) are different molecules used in pathways that make NAD+. They are not alternative names for the same product. A change in a blood NAD+ marker does not by itself prove more energy, slower aging or a longer life.[3][4]
The comparison has two parts: what human research establishes about each intervention, and what a particular purchase costs. The research summary below explains the first; the price records that follow answer the second using 377 offers from107 sellers read in September 2026. That historical price inventory is not a survey of every NMN or NR supplement.[1]
NAD+, NMN and NR: molecule versus delivery route
Molecule and route describe different things. NAD+, NMN and NR identify the substance; oral, intravenous, subcutaneous and nasal identify how a preparation is given. An oral NR study is therefore not automatically evidence for injected NAD+, and matching milligram figures do not make those products interchangeable.
A randomized oral NR trial[3] examined safety and NAD+ metabolism in healthy overweight adults. A separate randomized NMN trial[4] studied postmenopausal women with prediabetes who were overweight or obese and found an improvement in muscle insulin sensitivity. These are findings about particular interventions, populations and outcomes, not proof that either supplement produces broad anti-aging benefits in everyone.
The 2019 IV NAD+ pilot[5] tracked metabolites during and after an infusion. It did not establish longer lifespan or equivalence with oral precursors. Ask what a study actually measured before treating a rise in a laboratory marker as the benefit you hope to buy. Our guide to whether NAD+ is worth the cost offers a way to connect that evidence question to a specific budget and goal.
What this roster is, and what it is not
The distinction matters because the honest finding here is narrow and the dishonest version is one word away. “Only one of the prices we read is an oral precursor” is true and checkable. “Almost nobody sells NMN” would be a claim about a market we did not read.
What these sellers actually sell
of the 377 prices in the roster
Counted from the route each seller names on its own page, read in September 2026, sorted into 9 forms. The bar scale is the roster total, so the empty space is part of the finding. Duplicated figures are included here because the question is how often each form is offered, not how many distinct prices exist.
subcutaneous injection dominates at 177, nasal spray is a real second tier at 46, and intravenous infusion — the route the category is best known for — is 6 prices from 2 of the 107 sellers. IV NAD+ is famous and rarely priced in public; there is a page working through the ones that are.
The oral precursor is a single product from Bloom MD, and it is worth printing in full because it is the entire overlap between this roster and the NMN/NR question:
$32.95 — a one-time purchase, with no dose printed beside it.
$32.95 against a roster whose injected products run into the hundreds is exactly the price gap that makes the oral precursor question interesting, and it is also why the gap cannot be read as a bargain. The price states no dose, so there is no milligram figure to divide, and it is left off the cost-per-milligram board rather than estimated onto it.
Why cost per milligram will not settle this
A cost per milligram delivered is the right tool for comparing two injections. It is the wrong tool for comparing an injection with an oral precursor, and it is worth being explicit about why.
A milligram of injected NAD+ and a milligram of an oral NMN capsule are not the same quantity of the same thing. One is the molecule itself, placed under the skin. The other is a different molecule, swallowed, and the amount of NAD+ it eventually yields is a biological question with an answer this site has no way to establish. Dividing both by milligrams and putting the two numbers in one column would produce a comparison that looks rigorous and means nothing.
The route most prices do not state
There is a larger problemsitting underneath the NAD+-versus-precursor question, and it shows up the moment you try to sort this roster by form.
Prices that name a route of administration
267 of 377
Prices that state a dose
127 of 377
Prices a reader can actually see on the page
336 of 377 — 41 are in the markup only
From the prices read in September 2026. “States no route” and “states no dose” identify information missing beside the advertised figure. Ask the seller to confirm it before comparing purchases.
110 prices name no route. 250 state no dose. For a reader trying to decide between an injection and a capsule, a price that states neither is not a data point — and 86 of the 377 state neither. The commonest shape in the roster is a different failure: 164 of them name a route but state no dose.
- subcutaneous injection (177)
- route not stated (110)
- nasal spray (46)
- sublingual or oral (26)
- intramuscular injection (7)
- IV infusion (6)
- topical (2)
- transdermal patch (2)
- oral precursor (1)
What we will not print
We also will not put an oral precursor and an injection in the same ranked column, and we will not name a cheapest anything. Where a price states enough to divide, the division is printed beside the answer so you can check it; where it does not, the price is left out rather than estimated in.[2]
How the route of every price was decided
Route was typed by a person from the seller’s own words — a product name, a form description, an instruction — into one of nine values, and the wording that decided it is carried beside the classification wherever the seller supplied any. Where the seller said nothing that identified a form, the row reads “route not stated”, which is their silence rather than our uncertainty.
It was not pattern-matched out of page text, and that is deliberate. A seller who also sells a nasal peptide will say “nasal spray” on a page whose NAD+ product is an injection, and a word-matcher cannot tell which product the phrase belongs to. Reading the page is slower and it is the only method that gets this right.
1 of 377
prices for an oral precursor
190 of 377
prices for an injected product
46 of 377
prices for a nasal spray
110 of 377
prices naming no route at all
Does this mean NMN and NR are not worth buying?
No, and this page makes no claim of that kind. It says what 107 sellers of NAD+ pricing were selling in September 2026: overwhelmingly the molecule itself, by injection or nasal spray, with 1 oral precursor among 377 prices. Who sells precursors, and at what price, is a different list, and this is not it.
Can I compare an NMN capsule with an NAD+ injection on cost per milligram?
Not meaningfully. Cost per milligram is comparable within one molecule and one route. A milligram of a precursor is not a milligram of NAD+, and the conversion is a biological question this site cannot answer, so putting both in one ranked column would give a rigorous-looking number with nothing behind it.
Why do so many prices not say what form they are for?
110 of 377 prices name no route because the seller printed none near the figure. That is recorded as the seller’s silence, not guessed at from elsewhere on the page — a page can be selling several products, and inferring a form from a nearby word attaches the wrong one.
Where can I see the prices themselves?
The cost-per-milligram board lists every price in this roster that states enough to divide, with its route, its billing cycle in the seller’s own words, and the arithmetic printed underneath. The sellers that publish nothing divisible are named there too, as a count.
Sources
- nadcost provider price records Historical seller observations captured in September 2026. Individual records distinguish later checks; these prices do not establish clinical safety or effectiveness.
- nadcost editorial policy and calculation method How stated quantities, qualifications and dates are preserved, and when a cost-per-milligram calculation is possible.
- Conze et al. (2019): randomized oral nicotinamide riboside trial
- Yoshino et al. (2021): NMN trial in postmenopausal women with prediabetes
- Grant et al. (2019): six-hour intravenous NAD+ metabolism pilot