How to Take Methylene Blue: Drops, Dosage and Timing Guide for Australia (2026)

Last updated: November 1, 2026 · Originally published: April 23, 2026 · By Eternal Elixir Editorial

Short answer: the methylene blue dosage on our label is 0.5 to 1 mL of 1% drops (5 to 10 mg) once a day, diluted in a glass of water, or one 10 mg capsule a day. The serve is the same for a 60 kg, 70 kg or 90 kg adult, because a supplement label isn’t worked out by body weight. Measure the drops in millilitres rather than counting them, since drop size changes from one dropper to the next.

This guide covers how to take methylene blue orally, how many drops that works out to, what the mg/kg charts online actually refer to, timing, food, and who should not take it at all. Eternal Elixir makes the drops and capsules recommended here. If you’re new to the compound, the Methylene Blue Bible explains how it works, and our comparison of methylene blue supplements in Australia covers the wider market.

Quick answer: how much methylene blue to take each day

Start with the label on the bottle in your hand. Ours gives these serves:

A 1% solution holds 10 mg of methylene blue in every millilitre. That makes the maths simple: half a millilitre is 5 mg and a full millilitre is 10 mg. Our drops label says to take 0.5 to 1 mL a day, and the capsule label says one 10 mg capsule a day. Neither label goes higher, and neither changes with body weight.

How many drops of methylene blue per day?

There is no fixed number of drops, and that is the main reason to measure by volume. A review of dropper bottles found they deliver drops of anywhere from 25 to 70 microlitres each (Van Santvliet and Ludwig, 2004). At 1% strength, one drop could hold as little as 0.25 mg or as much as 0.7 mg of methylene blue. So “20 drops” could mean 5 mg from one bottle and 14 mg from another.

How you hold the dropper matters too. In a pharmacy study of oral droppers, tilting the dropper towards 45 degrees made the drops smaller and less consistent, and volunteers who weren’t told how to hold it dispensed less than the lab measurement. Holding the dropper straight up fixed most of the error (Brown and colleagues, 2004).

Two ways to get your dose right:

• Use a 1 mL oral syringe. Chemists sell them for children’s medicine. Draw up 0.5 mL or 1 mL, squirt it into water, and you know exactly what you took.
• Check your dropper once. Holding it straight up, count how many drops of plain water it takes to reach the 1 mL mark on an oral syringe or dosing cup. If it takes 20 drops, each drop of a 1% solution is 0.5 mg, so 10 drops is 5 mg and 20 drops is 10 mg. Use your own count, not someone else’s.

How many drops of methylene blue for a 70 kg man?

The same as for anyone else on our label: 0.5 to 1 mL a day, which is 5 to 10 mg. How many drops that is depends on your dropper, so count it once as described above. For a 70 kg adult, 5 to 10 mg works out to roughly 0.07 to 0.14 mg per kilogram.

How many drops of methylene blue for a 90 kg man?

Still 0.5 to 1 mL (5 to 10 mg) a day. A heavier body doesn’t change the label serve. At 90 kg, that range is about 0.06 to 0.11 mg per kilogram. If you weigh more and want a bigger dose than the label gives, that is a conversation to have with your doctor, not a sum to do at home.

Why the mg/kg dosing charts don’t apply to a supplement

Many methylene blue dosage charts online multiply your weight by a figure between 0.5 and 4 mg/kg. That range comes from research, not from supplement labels. In a University of Texas brain imaging trial, 28 participants took a single 280 mg oral dose or a placebo, and the authors chose 280 mg as roughly 4 mg/kg for a 70 kg adult. They described 0.5 to 4 mg/kg as the low-dose range with mitochondrial effects, and noted opposite, negative effects at doses above 10 mg/kg in the earlier research they cited (Rodriguez and colleagues, 2017).

Run the chart numbers and they get large quickly. At 70 kg, 0.5 to 4 mg/kg is 35 to 280 mg a day. At 90 kg it is 45 to 360 mg. That is 3.5 to 36 times the 10 mg top of our label serve. These were single supervised doses in a trial, or injected doses in hospital calculated by a medical team, and they aren’t a guide to what to take at home every day.

The other search result you’ll see for “methylene blue dose” is hospital prescribing information for the injection. That is a medicine given into a vein by clinicians for specific emergencies, with its own weight-based sums. It has nothing to tell you about a daily oral supplement.

How to take methylene blue orally, step by step

1. Check the safety list first. If you take an antidepressant or any other serotonergic medicine, stop here and read who should not take it.
2. Measure the dose. Draw 0.5 mL (5 mg) into an oral syringe, or use your checked drop count. For capsules, take one.
3. Dilute the drops. Our label says to take the drops diluted in water. A small glass is enough. Straight onto the tongue, the dye stains your mouth blue.
4. Drink it, then rinse. A mouthful of plain water after the glass clears most of the colour from your teeth and tongue.
5. Keep the same time each day. Once a day with breakfast is the simplest routine to stick to.
6. Expect coloured urine. Blue or green urine is a normal sign the dye is passing through, not a problem.

Stay at 0.5 mL for the first week. If you tolerate it and want the full label serve, move to 1 mL (10 mg), or switch to one 10 mg capsule a day. The guide to micro-dosing methylene blue lays out three plans built on these label serves.

When to take methylene blue: timing and half-life

Two small human studies give most of what’s known about how methylene blue behaves after you swallow it.

• How much gets in: in 16 healthy adults, about 72% of a 500 mg oral dose, taken as a water-based liquid, reached the bloodstream compared with an injected dose (Walter-Sack and colleagues, 2009).
• How long it stays: in seven volunteers given 100 mg by injection and by mouth, the estimated terminal half-life after the injection was 5.25 hours. The same study measured whole blood and found much lower levels after the oral dose than after the injection, so the two studies don’t fully agree on uptake (Peter and colleagues, 2000).

You may also read that methylene blue peaks at 16 hours and has a half-life of 14 to 27 hours. Those figures come from a colon-release tablet made for staining the bowel during colonoscopy, given at 200 mg to healthy volunteers who also drank a bowel-preparation solution (Repici and colleagues, 2012). That tablet is built to release late in the gut, so its numbers don’t carry over to a plain liquid or capsule.

No trial has compared morning and evening doses of a 5 to 10 mg serve. We suggest the morning for practical reasons: a once-a-day serve is easier to remember with breakfast, and if you notice any change in alertness, you’ll have it during the day rather than at bedtime. In the University of Texas imaging trial, the second scan was run 60 minutes after the dose (Rodriguez and colleagues, 2017), which is a useful marker for when researchers expected it to be working.

With food or on an empty stomach?

Our labels don’t require either. The drops go into water and the capsule goes down with water. If an empty stomach leaves you queasy, take it with breakfast. The imaging trial participants were asked to eat a very light meal on the morning of their dose (Rodriguez and colleagues, 2017).

Can you take methylene blue with coffee?

Plenty of people take their serve with the morning coffee. There’s no study of the two together at supplement doses. Our guide to methylene blue and coffee covers caffeine limits and timing if you want the detail.

Drops or capsules: cost per dose in Australia

Prices as of Sep 2026, checked on each seller’s product page. “Cost per 10 mg” divides the bottle price by the total methylene blue in it, so different strengths compare fairly.

For a dosage guide, the label column matters as much as the price. A bottle with no serve size leaves you guessing, and a product sold as not for human consumption isn’t meant to be taken at all. Blue Brain is the stronger liquid at 15 mg per mL, so the same number of drops delivers more methylene blue than a 1% solution. Keep that in mind if you switch brands.

Our pick: Eternal Elixir Methylene Blue drops and capsules

Eternal Elixir makes both products, and they are our pick for anyone following this guide because the label gives a clear daily serve in milligrams. Here is what the labels say:

• Drops: USP-grade methylene blue at 10 mg per mL in purified water, 50 mL per bottle, 50 servings of 1 mL. Suggested use is 0.5 to 1 mL (5 to 10 mg) daily, diluted in water. At $49.99, that’s $1.00 per 10 mg, or $0.50 a day at the 0.5 mL serve. A bottle lasts 100 days at 0.5 mL and 50 days at 1 mL.
• Capsules: 10 mg of USP-grade methylene blue per capsule, 60 capsules per bottle, one a day. At $59.99, that’s $1.00 a day for 60 days, with no blue tongue.

Both are dispatched in 1 business day, with a 30-day money-back guarantee and free shipping on orders over $100. Buying two bottles saves 10%, three saves 15% and five saves 20%. Our product pages show a sample certificate of analysis from our testing program, and you can ask us for the current batch certificate. For a closer look at the two formats side by side, read methylene blue liquid vs capsules.

Who each format suits, and who it doesn’t

• Drops suit you if you want to start at 5 mg, adjust in half-millilitre steps, or pay the lowest cost per day. They don’t suit you if you dislike measuring or mind a blue-tinged glass and tongue.
• Capsules suit you if you want the same 10 mg every day with nothing to measure, or you take your serve at work or while travelling. They don’t suit you if you want a dose below 10 mg.
• Neither suits you if you are on any of the medicines in the safety list below, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are under 18.

Who should not take methylene blue

Methylene blue is a potent, reversible inhibitor of the enzyme MAO-A (Ramsay and colleagues, 2007). That is why it can interact badly with medicines that raise serotonin. Do not take it if any of these apply:

• You take SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOIs or any other serotonergic medicine. The combination carries a risk of serotonin syndrome. If you aren’t sure whether a medicine is serotonergic, ask your pharmacist before your first dose.
• You have G6PD deficiency. A pharmacy review lists methylene blue among the medicines to avoid until a G6PD test has been done (Belfield and Tichy, 2018).
• You are pregnant or breastfeeding.
• You are under 18.

Methylene blue can colour your urine blue or green. That is expected and harmless. If you take any prescription medicine at all, talk to your doctor before you start. Our methylene blue safety guide covers the interactions in more depth.

What to expect after you start

The best-known human result comes from a randomised, placebo-controlled trial of 26 healthy adults aged 22 to 62. One hour after a single oral dose, brain scans showed more activity during attention and short-term memory tasks, and correct answers in the memory-retrieval task rose by 7% compared with placebo (Rodriguez and colleagues, 2016). That was a one-off research dose well above a 10 mg serve, measured in a scanner. Nobody has run the same trial at supplement doses, so treat it as a lead, not a promise.

What you will notice for sure is the colour. In the companion trial, only the people who took methylene blue reported coloured urine afterwards (Rodriguez and colleagues, 2017). Drops can also tint your tongue for a short time. If you’re wondering about workplace testing, see whether methylene blue shows up on a drug test.

Do you need to cycle methylene blue?

No human study has tested cycling at supplement doses, so there is no evidence either way. Some people take weekends off to see whether they notice a difference. That is a reasonable personal check, not a requirement.

Stacking methylene blue with other supplements

Methylene blue is often paired with NAD+ precursors. Our NMN 500mg capsules come in 90-capsule bottles at 500 mg per capsule, one a day. The methylene blue and NMN stacking guide explains the reasoning and what hasn’t been tested. For how it compares with other cognitive supplements, see methylene blue vs other nootropics.

The bottom line on methylene blue dosage

Take 0.5 to 1 mL of a 1% solution (5 to 10 mg) in water, or one 10 mg capsule, once a day in the morning. Measure drops with an oral syringe or a dropper you’ve checked, because drop size varies. Ignore mg/kg charts built from research and hospital doses. Check the safety list before your first serve.

Frequently asked questions

How many drops of methylene blue should I take daily?

On our label, the daily serve of 1% drops is 0.5 to 1 mL (5 to 10 mg), diluted in water. Drop size varies between droppers, from about 25 to 70 microlitres, so the same number of drops can hold very different amounts. Measure with a 1 mL oral syringe, or count how many drops your dropper takes to fill 1 mL and work from that.

Add Methylene Blue drops to cart · $49.99

How many drops of methylene blue for a 90 kg man?

The label serve doesn’t change with weight: 0.5 to 1 mL of 1% drops (5 to 10 mg) a day, the same as for a 70 kg adult. Weight-based charts of 0.5 to 4 mg/kg come from research doses and would mean 45 to 360 mg at 90 kg, far above any supplement label. Talk to your doctor before going past the label.

How do you take methylene blue orally?

Measure 0.5 mL (5 mg) of 1% drops with an oral syringe, stir it into a small glass of water, drink it, then rinse your mouth with plain water. With capsules, swallow one 10 mg capsule with water. Take it once a day, ideally at the same time each morning.

Add Methylene Blue capsules to cart · $59.99

Is it better to take methylene blue in the morning or at night?

Morning is the practical choice. No trial has compared the two at supplement doses, but a once-a-day serve is easy to pair with breakfast, and any change in alertness then happens during the day.

Can I take methylene blue every day?

Our labels give a once-daily serve: 0.5 to 1 mL of drops or one 10 mg capsule. No human study has tested whether taking breaks helps, so cycling is optional. Don’t take it daily, or at all, if you use serotonergic medicines, have G6PD deficiency, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are under 18.

Does methylene blue need to be taken with food?

No. Our labels don’t require food. Take the drops in water and the capsule with water. If it unsettles your stomach, have it with breakfast.

What is the best methylene blue to buy in Australia?

Our pick is Eternal Elixir Methylene Blue: 1% drops at 10 mg per mL (50 mL, $49.99) or 10 mg capsules (60 per bottle, $59.99). Eternal Elixir makes both, and both labels give a clear daily serve in milligrams. Blue Brain is a stronger 1.5% liquid at 15 mg per mL, but its listing doesn’t state the serve size.

Add Methylene Blue drops to cart · $49.99

Can I mix methylene blue with coffee?

Many people take their serve with morning coffee. No study has looked at the two together at supplement doses, so keep your usual caffeine intake steady when you start and see how you feel.

Related reading

• Best methylene blue supplements in Australia, compared
• Liquid or capsules: which format fits your routine
• Serotonin syndrome, MAO inhibition and who should avoid methylene blue
• Browse the full Eternal Elixir range

Sources

• Rodriguez P, Zhou W, Barrett DW, et al. Multimodal randomized functional MR imaging of the effects of methylene blue in the human brain. Radiology. 2016;281(2):516-526. PubMed 27351678
• Rodriguez P, Singh AP, Malloy KE, et al. Methylene blue modulates functional connectivity in the human brain. Brain Imaging Behav. 2017;11(3):640-648. PubMed 26961091
• Walter-Sack I, Rengelshausen J, Oberwittler H, et al. High absolute bioavailability of methylene blue given as an aqueous oral formulation. Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 2009;65(2):179-189. PubMed 18810398
• Peter C, Hongwan D, Küpfer A, Lauterburg BH. Pharmacokinetics and organ distribution of intravenous and oral methylene blue. Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 2000;56(3):247-250. PubMed 10952480
• Repici A, Di Stefano AF, Radicioni MM, et al. Methylene blue MMX tablets for chromoendoscopy: safety, tolerability and bioavailability in healthy volunteers. Contemp Clin Trials. 2012;33(2):260-267. PubMed 22101227
• Van Santvliet L, Ludwig A. Determinants of eye drop size. Surv Ophthalmol. 2004;49(2):197-213. PubMed 14998692
• Brown D, Ford JL, Nunn AJ, Rowe PH. An assessment of dose-uniformity of samples delivered from paediatric oral droppers. J Clin Pharm Ther. 2004;29(6):521-529. PubMed 15584940
• Ramsay RR, Dunford C, Gillman PK. Methylene blue and serotonin toxicity: inhibition of monoamine oxidase A (MAO A) confirms a theoretical prediction. Br J Pharmacol. 2007;152(6):946-951. PubMed 17721552
• Belfield KD, Tichy EM. Review and drug therapy implications of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2018;75(3):97-104. PubMed 29305344
• Product pages checked September 2026: Eternal Elixir Methylene Blue Liquid 1% and Capsules 10mg, Blue Brain Methylene Blue at Supplement Mart, Blootropic Methylene Blue 1% Liquid.