CBD Dosage Calculator & Chart: How Much Should You Take?

In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about dosing Cannabidiol (CBD).

We’ll cover how to determine your CBD dosage, what types of CBD products are out there, and more. We’ve also provided a CBD dosage calculator and chart for easy dosing!

Want to quickly determine your CBD dosage? Use our calculator below:

What is CBD?

CBD is a cannabinoid found in the hemp plant. It’s one of more than 100+ cannabinoids that naturally occur in hemp, and it’s also one of the most popular.

Preliminary research indicates that CBD may have therapeutic potential for addressing pain, inflammation, anxiety, stress, sleep, and more.

How Much CBD Should You Take?

The average starting CBD dose is between 20 and 50 milligrams (mg.) per day. However, the amount of CBD that you need, specifically, depends on a variety of factors.

The main factors to account for are 1.) the condition or situation you’re taking CBD for and 2.) your body weight.

Different situations call for different strengths of CBD dosage, and your body weight determines how much CBD you’ll need to take to see good results.

Other factors to account for (that aren’t easily measurable) include:

• Severity of symptoms — Even if you use a specific dosage strength for a given purpose, depending on your symptoms, you may need a larger or smaller dosage of CBD.
• Body chemistry and tolerance — Everyone has different body chemistry, and CBD tolerance varies. You might need more to feel the same effects, or you might only need half of what people normally take. It depends.

CBD Dosage by Condition or Use

Different situations call for different dosages. In this section, we’ll cover the recommended strength of CBD dosage for all of the main reasons you might be using it.

Note that CBD hasn’t been FDA-verified as a treatment for specific medical conditions, save for some types of epilepsy and cancer (and only in pharmaceutical grade).

Rather, these are conditions that people have found CBD beneficial for, and rough estimates of doses they found success with.

Once you determine your dosage strength, see our calculator (above) or chart (below) to determine your dosage.

CBD Dosage for Anxiety & Stress

For anxiety and stress, it’s best to start out with a low dosage of CBD and slowly increase it.

Since anxiety and stress will feel different for you than it will for anyone else, dosing CBD for it requires some experimentation. You’ll need to closely observe how you respond and adjust accordingly.

For a low-strength dosage, you can use the following formula:

(0.1) x (your body weight in lbs.) = your daily CBD dosage in mg. for anxiety or stress

CBD Dosage for Pain & Inflammation

You’ll need to take a somewhat high dose of CBD for pain and inflammation. This will ensure you get the desired effects and physical relaxation.

Starting out, we recommend taking a medium-strength dose of CBD, which you can calculate using this formula:

(0.3) x (your body weight in lbs.) = your daily CBD dosage in mg. for pain or inflammation

As you go, depending on the severity of your symptoms, you may realize you need to gradually increase your daily CBD dosage.

Still, starting at a lower amount ensures you receive the dose well, especially if you haven’t used CBD very much before.

CBD Dosage for Sleep

For sleep, you’ll likely need to experiment with your dosage amount quite a bit, because of the way CBD works for sleep.

You may be looking for a dose that gets you into a relaxed mood and makes your nightly routine and your bed more appealing, or you may be looking for a stronger dose to address discomfort that’s keeping you from falling asleep.

Starting out, we recommend a low-strength dosage of CBD, which you can then adjust as needed:

(0.1) x (your body weight in lbs.) = your daily CBD dosage in mg. for sleep

CBD Dosage for Other Conditions & Uses

Here are our recommended CBD dosage strengths for other conditions and uses.

Keep in mind that for medical conditions, you should consult with your doctor beforehand to determine the best CBD dosage (and, due to drug interactions, if using CBD would be safe for you).

Still, we’re able to provide rough benchmarks from anecdotal evidence:

General Relaxation & Wellness – low

Depression – medium

Sore Throat – medium

Muscle & Joint Support – low

Migraine – medium

Nerve Pain and Sciatica — medium

Tendonitis — medium

Epilepsy – high strength or pharmaceutical strength

Cancer – high strength or pharmaceutical strength

Nausea — low

Insomnia – medium

ADHD – medium

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBDs) – medium

Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome (IBS) — medium

Gout – medium

Menopause Support – low

CBD Dosage Chart

With your ideal strength in mind, find your weight on the chart below to determine your CBD dosage:

CBD Dosage Best Practices

Although getting the amount right goes a long way, here’s what you need to remember in order to have the best experience with CBD that you possibly can:

Talk To Your Doctor First

If you want to take CBD for a condition that you’re receiving medical treatment for, you need to speak with your doctor first. This is to ensure that CBD will work for you, and that it won’t interfere with any treatment or medication you’re already receiving.

Be Consistent

Taking one-time doses of CBD isn’t effective unless you combine it with cannabinoids such as THC.

Instead, you need to take it for several days before you start seeing results. Our body has a built-in endocannabinoid system, so in some respect, CBD is designed for us, but your body needs time to adjust to the external cannabinoids you’re giving it.

Start Low and Slow

Unless you’re an experienced cannabis or hemp user, it’s best to start with a small dosage just once a day. This will also help if you have any anxiety surrounding how your body will react to CBD and how it will make you feel.

Remember: CBD Dosing Isn’t an Exact Science

The insights in this article are estimates based on anecdotal evidence. While we’re confident that this information is the best out there, it hasn’t been medically verified. Remember to listen to your body and customize your dosage based on what’s best for you.

How To Take CBD: Types of Products

When it comes to how you can take CBD, you have options. Here’s a bit about each.

For reference:

• Average Bioavailability — The percentage of the CBD you consume that your body actually uses. In other words, the efficiency of a given delivery method.
• Onset Time — The time it takes to feel the effects of CBD through a certain delivery method.

Oil

Average Bioavailability: 20-30%

Onset Time: 15-20 minutes

CBD oil, which consists of cannabinoids and carrier oil, is taken under the tongue and absorbed through the blood vessels in the mouth, rather than swallowed.

As a result, it’s slightly more bioavailable than other CBD delivery methods.

Edibles

Average Bioavailability: 10-20%

Onset Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour

The most common type of CBD edibles are gummies, which provide a great-tasting and fixed-dose way to take CBD — great for therapeutic use if you consistently need to take the same amount.

There are also CBD drinks out there, which are a fun way to relax (and a great replacement for alcohol if you’re at a party).

Softgels/Capsules

Average Bioavailability: 10-20%

Onset Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour

Capsules (or softgels) are CBD oil enclosed in a gel capsule, similar to Advil, for example. Capsules are quick and tasteless and, like edibles, offer a fixed-dose consumption method.

Flower & Vapes

Average Bioavailability: 30-40%

Onset Time: 5-10 minutes

Smoking CBD-rich hemp flower, or inhaling CBD in vape form, are two additional ways you can consume CBD.

Although there is the obvious health risk, flower and vapes have an edge over other consumption methods when it comes to onset time.

CBD Oil Dosage: How Much CBD Per Dropper?

Generally, the packaging on the edibles, drinks, or gel capsules you buy will provide straightforward dosing advice.

But CBD oil can be confusing to dose, because you have to figure out how many mg of CBD are in 1 milliliter (ml) of oil, which is one dropper.

It varies depending on the total amount of CBD in the bottle (based on the standard 1 oz/30 ml. bottle):

100mg bottle = 3.3 mg CBD per 1 ml.

250 mg bottle = 8.3 mg CBD per 1 ml.

500 mg bottle = 16.7 mg CBD per 1 ml.

1000 mg bottle = 33.3 mg CBD per 1 ml.

1500 mg bottle = 50 mg CBD per 1 ml.

3000 mg bottle = 100 mg CBD per 1 ml.

5000 mg bottle = 166.6 mg CBD per 1 ml.

3 Steps to Determining Your Perfect CBD Dosage

Alright. That was a lot. Let’s sum it all up in three simple steps to take in order to find your perfect CBD dosage:

1. Figure Out Why You’re Taking It

Find your condition or use for CBD in the section above about CBD dosage strengths. With your strength in mind, go to step two.

2. Calculate Your Dosage

Based on your dosage strength, you can either use our CBD dosage calculator or our dosage chart to determine your dosage.

Or, you can use the formula for your strength that the resources in this article are based on:

Low strength: (0.1) x (your body weight in lbs.) = your daily CBD dosage in mg.

Medium strength: (0.3) x (your body weight in lbs.) = your daily CBD dosage in mg.

High strength: (0.5) x (your body weight in lbs.) = your daily CBD dosage in mg.

3. Pick The Right Product

With your dosage figured out, it’s time to pick the perfect product to go along with it. Review the section above about the different ways to take CBD to gain insight into which option is the best for you.

Then, click here to explore products!

Conclusion: Determining Your CBD Dosage

Although we have rough guidelines to go by, the truth is that everyone will respond to CBD differently.

The research that’s been done on CBD dosage has rendered very mixed results, as some studies have looked at chronic illnesses, while others have investigated CBD use for thing like sleep and anxiety.

As a result, most of what we know is based on anecdotal evidence, or firsthand experience. So if CBD doesn’t work for you right away, feel free to experiment until you find the right dosage and product.

CBD Dosage: Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some questions customers commonly ask us about determining their CBD dosage.

Can you take too much CBD?

There isn’t research showing that CBD is fatal, however, you can take too much. If you take hundreds of milligrams of CBD (think 500, 600, or 700), especially in the beginning, you’ll likely experience negative side effects, including nausea, dry mouth, drowsiness, diarrhea, reduced appetite, and fatigue.

Does CBD get you high?

No, even full-spectrum CBD, which contains up to 0.3% THC, doesn’t contain enough THC to produce a high.

Is CBD safe?

Yes. Apart from short-term side effects, there is no long-term negative health impact of using CBD — at least not if you take it in the recommended amounts.

Is CBD legal?

CBD is federally legal in all 50 states as long as it is extracted from hemp and not marijuana. It’s all the same plant, but plants containing less than 0.3% THC by dry weight are considered hemp.

Note that some states may have restrictions on different forms or uses of CBD:

• Arizona
• Delaware
• Hawaii
• Iowa
• Idaho
• Louisiana
• Massachusetts
• Montana
• New Hampshire
• Pennsylvania
• Utah