OptimalDosages.com publishes reference material for laboratory and educational use. Nothing here is medical advice, a prescription, or a recommendation for human administration.
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Pick a compound, enter your vial size and diluent volume, and OptimalDosages converts every published research dose range into the exact draw volume and syringe units for your mix — with the underlying literature one click away.
Reconstitution arithmetic only · research use only · not a dosing recommendation
Most peptide calculators stop at "mL per dose." Ours starts there and keeps going — mapping your specific reconstitution against the dose ranges that actually appear in the literature for that compound.
Select a peptide and the calculator loads its documented research range, typical vial sizes, administration route, and half-life — then renders every tier of that range as a draw volume for your mix.
Try it →Published protocols report ranges and titration schedules, not one magic dose. Every compound page shows the low, standard, and upper bounds separately — plus how confident the underlying evidence is.
See the chart →An indexed literature table of contents sits behind every number, grouped by compound class, with the study, journal, year, and what that paper actually established.
Open the library →Fifty-two compounds organised into ten research categories.
Dose ranges on this site are pulled from three tiers of evidence, and we label which tier a compound sits in rather than flattening them together:
| Tier | Compounds | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical | — | Human trial dosing published |
| Preclinical | — | Preclinical research only |
| Limited | — | Sparse or community-reported |
Three short guides that cover the mechanics before any number matters.
Diluent choice, injection technique into the vial, swirl-don't-shake, concentration arithmetic, and worked examples for common vial sizes.
Read →Why one "unit" is 0.01 mL, how U-100/U-50/U-30 barrels differ, and the mg → mcg → IU → units conversion chain that trips most people up.
Read →Lyophilised vs reconstituted stability, temperature windows, light protection, freeze-thaw, and realistic beyond-use windows.
Read →Choose a compound, enter your vial strength and diluent volume, and every documented research dose for that compound is converted into a draw volume and syringe unit reading for your exact mix.
| Protocol Tier | Reported Dose | Frequency | Volume | Syringe Units | Vial Lasts |
|---|
Every compound in the database with its class, common vial strengths, reported research range, cadence, route, half-life, and evidence tier. Sort or filter, then jump straight into the calculator.
| Compound | Class | Vial Sizes | Reported Range | Cadence | Route | Half-life | Evidence |
|---|
Ranges reflect figures reported in the cited literature. They are not recommendations, and the presence of a compound in this table is not an endorsement of its use.
An indexed bibliography organised by compound class. Each entry names the study, the journal and year, and what that paper actually established — so you can judge the strength of the evidence yourself rather than taking a number on faith.
The mechanical background the calculator assumes you already know.
Lyophilised peptide arrives as a dry cake or powder under vacuum. Reconstitution is the act of dissolving that cake into a known volume of sterile diluent so that a measurable fraction of it can be withdrawn.
Bacteriostatic water is sterile water containing roughly 0.9% benzyl alcohol, which suppresses microbial growth and makes multi-draw vials viable for a matter of weeks under refrigeration. Sterile water for injection contains no preservative and is generally reserved for single-draw work. A handful of compounds — copper peptides and some acetate salts among them — have documented compatibility quirks with benzyl alcohol, so check the compound profile before defaulting.
The diluent volume is a free choice, and it is the only lever you have over measurement precision. A 5 mg vial in 1 mL gives 5 mg/mL, which puts a 250 mcg dose at 5 units — legible, but every half-unit of error is a 10% dosing error. The same vial in 2.5 mL gives 2 mg/mL and puts that dose at 12.5 units, where the same absolute error matters far less. Dilute enough that your target lands somewhere in the mid-range of the barrel.
An insulin syringe marked U-100 is calibrated for insulin at 100 international units per millilitre. That calibration is what defines the unit: 1 unit = 0.01 mL. This holds regardless of barrel size — a 0.3 mL barrel simply stops at 30 units, a 0.5 mL at 50, a 1 mL at 100.
This is the single most common source of error in peptide work. A "unit" is a volume, not a quantity of peptide. Ten units of a 2 mg/mL solution and ten units of a 10 mg/mL solution are the same volume and five times different in content.
| Barrel | Capacity | Total units | Smallest graduation | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U-30 | 0.3 mL | 30 | 1/2 unit | Microgram doses, GH secretagogues |
| U-50 | 0.5 mL | 50 | 1 unit | Mid-range volumes |
| U-100 | 1.0 mL | 100 | 1–2 units | Large-volume or dilute solutions |
Four units of measure show up constantly and they are not interchangeable:
Lyophilised peptide is comparatively robust: kept dry, dark, and at −20 °C, most compounds in this database are stable for a year or more, and many tolerate 2–8 °C for months. The moment water is introduced, that changes.
| State | Temperature | Typical window | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lyophilised, sealed | −20 °C | 12–24 months | Protect from light and moisture |
| Lyophilised, sealed | 2–8 °C | 1–3 months | Acceptable short-term |
| Reconstituted, bacteriostatic | 2–8 °C | 2–4 weeks | Compound-dependent; some far shorter |
| Reconstituted, sterile water | 2–8 °C | ~24 hours | No preservative — single session |
| Any state | Room temp | Hours | Degradation accelerates sharply |