Skip to content
Free Will — home GET EARLY ACCESS
Salt crystals
ENERGY & PERFORMANCE

ELECTROLYTE BLEND

NA 200 · K 98 · MG 200 · CL 400 MG

Electrolytes are the charged minerals your nerves, muscles and fluid balance run on. Free Will, a dietary supplement, carries a labeled 200 mg sodium, 98 mg potassium, 400 mg chloride and 200 mg magnesium (as dimagnesium malate) per scoop, plus 5 mg zinc and 200 mcg vitamin B12.

These are everyday amounts, not a rehydration dose: the sodium is about 9% of the Daily Value and roughly a fifth of what an average hour of hard training sweats out. 1,7 They are here so a caffeinated drink you sip daily also puts back a little of what sweat and a typical diet leave short, especially magnesium, which about half of Americans under-consume. 4 If you need to replace heavy sweat losses, this is not that product, and we say so.

Written by Riley Kopelman, founderSources checked September 25, 2026Not yet reviewed by a clinician

Key facts

FactDetail
In Free WillPer scoop, on the Supplement Facts panel: chloride 400 mg, sodium 200 mg, potassium 98 mg, magnesium 200 mg (as dimagnesium malate). Also on the label: zinc 5 mg (bisglycinate chelate) and vitamin B12 200 mcg (methylcobalamin). The exact salt forms of the sodium, potassium and chloride will be published once the supplier documents are in hand.
As a share of the Daily ValueSodium about 9% of 2,300 mg; chloride about 17% of 2,300 mg; potassium about 2% of 4,700 mg; magnesium about 48% of 420 mg; zinc about 45% of 11 mg. B12 is many times the 2.4 mcg DV. 1
Compared with sweatIn 506 athletes, predicted whole-body sweat sodium averaged 35.9 mmol/L (about 825 mg per litre; range 18–71) and sweating rate 1.21 L per hour (range 0.26–5.73). 7 One scoop's 200 mg of sodium is about a fifth of an average hour of hard training.
Compared with foodA medium banana has 422 mg of potassium; 5 an ounce of pumpkin seeds has 156 mg of magnesium. 4 One scoop's potassium is about a quarter of a banana.
Reference intakesSodium: Adequate Intake 1,500 mg/day; reduce if above 2,300 mg/day; Americans average about 3,400 mg. 2,3 Potassium: AI 3,400 mg (men), 2,600 mg (women); no Tolerable Upper Intake Level. 3,5 Magnesium: RDA 400–420 mg (men), 310–320 mg (women); UL for supplemental magnesium 350 mg/day. 4
Pairs with150 mg of caffeine per scoop. Caffeine's diuretic effect is minor at moderate doses and disappears with exercise. 11,12
Close-up of coarse white sea salt crystals on a dark surface
Sea salt: sodium chloride, the two most abundant electrolytes in sweat. Representative photo, not our supplier's material. Photo: ajay_suresh, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0; resized.

Why it's in Free Will

Free Will is a daily energy and focus drink built around 150 mg of caffeine, not a sports drink. The electrolyte blend is sized to match: modest, everyday-hydration amounts that make a scoop in water a little more useful than caffeinated water, without becoming a salt bomb on a desk-bound Tuesday.

Sodium 200 mg. About a twelfth of a teaspoon of table salt. 2 Americans already average about 3,400 mg a day against a 2,300 mg limit, over 70% of it from packaged and restaurant food, 2 so we saw no reason to add a large sodium dose to a daily drink. Two hundred milligrams keeps it from being sodium-free, which matters when you sweat, and fits inside almost anyone's day.

Potassium 98 mg. Small on purpose, and the number is not ours. FDA treats oral potassium-salt products supplying 100 mg or more per tablet as needing drug-style warning labels, after reports of small-bowel lesions with coated potassium chloride tablets, 6 so most supplement makers, including us, stay at 99 mg or below. 5 It is about 2% of the Daily Value, a quarter of a banana. 1,5 Get potassium from food.

Magnesium 200 mg as dimagnesium malate. The one electrolyte here at a meaningful share of the Daily Value (about 48%), because it is the one most people are short on: NHANES 2013–2016 found 48% of Americans get less magnesium from food than their Estimated Average Requirement, 4 and a 2024 analysis of 15 years of NHANES data lists it among the nutrients U.S. adults under-consume even counting supplements. 34 We chose the malate salt because it dissolves well and because "organic" magnesium salts such as citrate have out-absorbed magnesium oxide in people. 4,20 We do not claim malate is the best-absorbed form: the malate-specific data are in rats and disagree, 21,22 and EFSA concluded in 2018 that magnesium from di-magnesium malate is likely available to about the same degree as other permitted sources. 23 Two hundred milligrams sits under the 350 mg/day Tolerable Upper Intake Level for supplemental magnesium, a level set on the diarrhea threshold, not on toxicity. 4

Chloride 400 mg. Sodium's partner ion; table salt is sodium chloride, and chloride leaves in sweat alongside sodium. It arrives as the partner ion of the mineral salts in the blend, about 17% of its Daily Value. 1

Zinc 5 mg and vitamin B12 200 mcg. Two micronutrients on the label beside the electrolytes. Zinc is about 45% of the DV, well under the 40 mg UL, as a bisglycinate chelate, which out-absorbed zinc gluconate by 43% in a 12-woman crossover study. 29,30 B12 is far above its 2.4 mcg DV; it has no UL, and above a few micrograms absorption falls to a small fraction, so a large label number is not a large absorbed amount. 32 We chose methylcobalamin for its "active form" reputation, but the evidence does not show it beats ordinary cyanocobalamin, and we won't claim it does. 33

Our honest read: a sensible daily top-up, not a performance dose. Magnesium is the one with a real research base near our amount; the sodium, potassium and chloride are there for completeness and taste balance, not because 200 mg of sodium has been shown to do anything on its own.

Safety, and who should watch the sodium

Sodium. The 2019 National Academies report set an Adequate Intake of 1,500 mg/day and advises reducing intake above 2,300 mg/day, on moderate-to-high strength evidence linking sodium to blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. 3 A meta-analysis of 85 trials found an approximately linear relationship between sodium intake and blood pressure, steeper in hypertension. 28 One scoop adds 200 mg; two add 400 mg. If you have high blood pressure, kidney disease or heart failure, or have been told to restrict sodium, count Free Will in your daily total and ask your prescriber.

Potassium. Healthy kidneys clear excess potassium, and no UL has been set. 3,5 But people with chronic kidney disease, or taking ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers or potassium-sparing diuretics, can develop high blood potassium from ordinary intakes. 5 Ninety-eight milligrams is small, but in those groups any added potassium is a conversation with your doctor.

Magnesium. Supplemental magnesium can cause diarrhea, nausea and cramping; the UL for supplemental magnesium is 350 mg/day, and the label's two-serving maximum puts you at 400 mg, above it. 4 The UL marks where loose stools begin, not where harm begins; toxicity is described at several grams a day, mostly with impaired kidneys. 4 Treat two scoops as a ceiling, add up any separate magnesium supplement, and with kidney disease do not add magnesium without medical advice. 4

Caffeine and fluids. The evidence does not support the idea that 150 mg of caffeine dehydrates you: across 16 studies caffeine raised urine output by about 109 mL, an effect that vanished with exercise, 11 and three days of moderate coffee left total body water unchanged versus water in 50 men, though it raised urinary sodium excretion. 12 See the caffeine page.

Do not use it to over-drink. Exercise-associated hyponatremia (low blood sodium) comes mainly from drinking far more than you lose; the consensus advice is to drink to thirst. 10 A 200 mg sodium drink does not protect against that.

Pregnancy, nursing, under 18. Free Will is not recommended for those groups; that is on the label, driven mainly by the caffeine.

What the research shows

Grades are our editorial read of the human evidence for each specific outcome, not a regulatory rating. MODERATE = several randomized trials pointing the same way, or a meta-analysis. LIMITED = one or two small trials, mixed results, or trial doses far from ours. NOT SHOWN = tested and not found. MECHANISM = a measured biological effect, not a felt benefit. Study details are quoted from published abstracts unless a reference says "page read" or "full text read".

Electrolytes, sweat and caffeine

Swipe sideways to see the whole table.
OutcomeEvidenceGrade
Replacing sweat sodium in long or hot sessionsACSM: sweat rate and electrolyte content vary widely, so replacement should be customized; electrolyte-and-carbohydrate drinks "can provide benefits over water alone under certain circumstances". 9 506 athletes: about 825 mg sodium per litre and 1.21 L/h on average, wide range. 7,8 One scoop replaces roughly a fifth of an average hour's sodium.DOSE MATTERS
Caffeine as a diureticMeta-analysis, 16 studies, median 300 mg: urine output up 109 ± 195 mL (about 16%) at rest, no significant effect during exercise. 11 50 habitual coffee drinkers, 4 × 200 mL coffee/day for 3 days: no difference from water in total body water, urine volume or blood markers; urinary sodium excretion higher with coffee. 12MODERATE
Electrolyte drinks holding fluid better than water, at rest72 fasted men, 1 L of each of 13 drinks: an oral rehydration solution and milk produced less urine over 4 h than still water; a sports drink, cola, tea, coffee and juice did not differ from water. 13 The ORS is a medical product with far more sodium than Free Will; the finding does not transfer to our dose.LIMITED
Over-drinking and low blood sodiumExercise-associated hyponatremia spans heavy over-drinking to modest sweat-sodium loss with dilution; vasopressin-driven water retention is the unifying mechanism; drinking to thirst is the recommended prevention. 10MECHANISM

Magnesium (200 mg as dimagnesium malate)

Swipe sideways to see the whole table.
OutcomeEvidenceGrade
Blood pressure34 double-blind trials, 2,028 adults, median 368 mg/day for 3 months: systolic down 2.00 mmHg and diastolic down 1.78 mmHg versus placebo. 14 2024 umbrella analysis, 8,610 participants: 1.25/1.40 mmHg, larger at 400 mg/day or more. 15 Our 200 mg is below most trial doses; a structure/function note, not a treatment claim.MODERATE, SMALL
SleepSystematic review, 9 studies: observational studies link magnesium status to sleep quality, but the randomized trials were contradictory. 16 Three RCTs, 151 older adults with insomnia: sleep-onset latency 17 minutes shorter than placebo, total sleep time not significantly different, low to very low quality evidence. 17 Free Will contains 150 mg of caffeine and is not a sleep product.MIXED
Muscle crampsCochrane 2020, 11 trials: magnesium is "unlikely" to give meaningful cramp prophylaxis in older adults; no randomized trials for exercise-associated cramps; more minor side effects (mostly diarrhea) than placebo. 18NOT SHOWN
Malate as a formHuman head-to-head data are citrate versus oxide: 46 adults, 300 mg/day for 60 days, citrate absorbed better than oxide, which did not differ from placebo. 20 Malate specifically: in rats, one study found the highest area-under-the-curve for malate, 21 another found no relevant difference among eight compounds including malate. 22 EFSA 2018 could not assess di-magnesium malate for lack of data. 23 A placebo-controlled study of a timed-release dimagnesium-malate tablet (with B vitamins) in 91 adults reported red-cell magnesium up 6% at 30 days and 30% at 90 days; the abstract does not report the placebo comparison. 24 The "magnesium malate benefits" claim usually traces to fibromyalgia research: a 1995 pilot in 24 patients found no clear effect in its blinded phase, 25 and a 2019 summary found little or no difference to pain. 26 Free Will treats nothing; this is here so you can see where the claim comes from.LIMITED

Potassium and sodium

Swipe sideways to see the whole table.
OutcomeEvidenceGrade
Potassium supplements and blood pressure32 randomized trials, mostly in hypertension, at 30–140 mmol/day (about 1,170–5,470 mg): U-shaped, with BP-lowering that weakens above 30 mmol/day and a rise above about 80 mmol/day in drug-treated patients. 27 Trial doses are 12–56 times our 98 mg; expect no effect from ours.DOSE MATTERS
Sodium and blood pressure85 trials, 0.4–7.6 g/day: an approximately linear relationship between achieved sodium intake and blood pressure, no flattening at either end, steeper in hypertension. 28 The reason our sodium is modest, and the reason sodium-restricted people should count it.MODERATE

Not covered here on purpose: oral rehydration in diarrhoeal illness, intravenous electrolyte therapy, and potassium or magnesium in people with diagnosed deficiencies or heart disease. Free Will is a dietary supplement, not a treatment, and those studies do not tell you what a scoop will do for a healthy adult.

How it works

Dissolved in water, these minerals split into ions. Sodium is the main regulator of the fluid outside your cells; potassium is the most abundant ion inside them, at about 30 times the concentration outside. That gradient, maintained by pumps in every cell membrane, is what nerve impulses and muscle contractions run on. 5 Sweat is the body's coolant and takes sodium and chloride with it; how much depends on the person, heat, fitness and acclimatization, which is why sports scientists measure it rather than assume it. 8

Magnesium is a cofactor in more than 300 enzyme systems, including the ones that make and use ATP, and helps move calcium and potassium across cell membranes. 4 Roughly 30–40% of dietary magnesium is absorbed; forms that dissolve well in liquid tend to be absorbed more completely than poorly soluble ones like oxide. 4 "Dimagnesium malate" is two magnesium atoms bound to malic acid, the acid that gives apples their tartness; the label lists elemental magnesium (200 mg), not the weight of the compound. 4 About 90% of ingested potassium is absorbed, and healthy kidneys excrete what the body does not need, which is why every safety note above starts with kidney function. 5

History

The idea that salts split into charged particles in water was Svante Arrhenius's, and it earned him the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his electrolytic theory of dissociation". 35 The practical breakthrough came in medicine: sodium, potassium, chloride and glucose in clean water, drunk by mouth, became the World Health Organization's standard treatment for dehydration from diarrhoea; a 2001 review of 15 trials in 2,397 children found a reduced-osmolarity version cut the need for intravenous fluids further. 36 Sports drinks and today's "hydration powders" borrow the concept at widely varying sodium amounts. Free Will sits at the low, everyday end of that spectrum on purpose: the oral rehydration solution that beat still water in the hydration-index study 13 is a medical product for replacing large losses, and a daily energy drink is not.

Bunches of ripe yellow bananas piled on a market stall
Bananas: a medium one carries 422 mg of potassium, more than four scoops of Free Will. Food, not supplements, is where potassium should come from. Representative photo. Photo: Wilfredor, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0; resized.

Questions people ask

Why is the potassium only 98 mg?

A U.S. regulatory line, not a formulation choice. FDA treats oral potassium-salt products supplying 100 mg or more per tablet as requiring drug-style warning labeling, after reports of small-bowel lesions with coated potassium chloride tablets. 6 Most supplement makers stay at 99 mg or less, 5 and so do we. It is about 2% of the Daily Value, a quarter of a banana; get potassium from food. 1,5

How much sodium is in Free Will compared with an electrolyte powder?

200 mg per scoop, about 9% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value and roughly a twelfth of a teaspoon of salt. 1,2 Dedicated hydration powders and oral rehydration solutions are built to replace large sweat or illness losses and carry several times more sodium per serving. Free Will is a daily energy drink with a modest electrolyte top-up, not a replacement for those.

Do electrolytes with caffeine make sense, or does caffeine dehydrate you?

Caffeine's diuretic effect is small and disappears with exercise: about 109 mL of extra urine at rest across 16 studies, none during activity. 11 Three days of moderate coffee left total body water unchanged in 50 men, though it raised urinary sodium excretion. 12 A caffeinated drink does not need a large electrolyte dose to be hydrating; a little sodium and magnesium is a reasonable addition, not a fix.

What are the benefits of magnesium malate?

Magnesium itself has moderate evidence for a small blood-pressure reduction at roughly 300–400 mg/day, 14,15 mixed evidence for sleep, 16,17 and no good evidence for cramps. 18 Malate as the form: the human absorption data are citrate versus oxide, not malate; 20 the rat data disagree; 21,22 EFSA expected availability similar to other magnesium sources. 23 The "magnesium malate for fatigue or pain" claim comes from small fibromyalgia studies that a 2019 review found showed little or no difference. 25,26 We chose malate for solubility and taste, and we say only that.

Can I use Free Will as my sports drink?

For an ordinary workout, drinking to thirst with water or Free Will is fine. For long, hot or heavy-sweat sessions, no: an average athlete loses roughly 825 mg of sodium per litre of sweat at about 1.2 litres an hour, 7 and ACSM recommends customized replacement for people with high losses. 9 One scoop replaces about a fifth of an average hour's sodium, and two scoops a day is the label maximum.

Who should watch the sodium, potassium or magnesium in Free Will?

Anyone on a sodium-restricted diet or treated for high blood pressure or heart failure should count the 200 mg per scoop. 3,28 Anyone with chronic kidney disease, or taking ACE inhibitors, ARBs or potassium-sparing diuretics, should check with their prescriber before adding any potassium. 5 Anyone with kidney disease or already taking a magnesium supplement should add up the magnesium: two scoops are 400 mg, above the 350 mg/day UL for supplemental magnesium. 4

References

Every source below was opened before it was linked. Study sizes, doses and results are quoted from the published abstracts, except where a reference says "page read" or "full text read". Two magnesium-form studies are in rats and are labeled as such.

  1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels. fda.gov. Page read (sodium 2,300 mg; chloride 2,300 mg; potassium 4,700 mg; magnesium 420 mg; zinc 11 mg; vitamin B12 2.4 mcg).
  2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sodium in Your Diet. fda.gov. Page read.
  3. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2019. Summary chapter. nationalacademies.org. Page read.
  4. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Magnesium: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. ods.od.nih.gov. Page read.
  5. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Potassium: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. ods.od.nih.gov. Page read.
  6. 21 CFR § 201.306, Potassium salt preparations intended for oral ingestion by man. ecfr.gov. Full text read.
  7. Baker LB, et al. Normative data for regional sweat sodium concentration and whole-body sweating rate in athletes. J Sports Sci 2016. PubMed 26070030.
  8. Baker LB. Sweating rate and sweat sodium concentration in athletes: a review of methodology and intra/interindividual variability. Sports Med 2017. PubMed 28332116.
  9. Sawka MN, et al. American College of Sports Medicine position stand: exercise and fluid replacement. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2007. PubMed 17277604.
  10. Hew-Butler T. Exercise-associated hyponatremia. Front Horm Res 2019. PubMed 32097926.
  11. Zhang Y, et al. Caffeine and diuresis during rest and exercise: a meta-analysis. J Sci Med Sport 2015. PubMed 25154702.
  12. Killer SC, Blannin AK, Jeukendrup AE. No evidence of dehydration with moderate daily coffee intake: a counterbalanced cross-over study in a free-living population. PLoS One 2014. PubMed 24416202.
  13. Maughan RJ, et al. A randomized trial to assess the potential of different beverages to affect hydration status: development of a beverage hydration index. Am J Clin Nutr 2016. PubMed 26702122.
  14. Zhang X, et al. Effects of magnesium supplementation on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trials. Hypertension 2016. PubMed 27402922.
  15. Alharran AM, et al. Impact of magnesium supplementation on blood pressure: an umbrella meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Curr Ther Res Clin Exp 2024. PubMed 39280209.
  16. Arab A, et al. The role of magnesium in sleep health: a systematic review of available literature. Biol Trace Elem Res 2023. PubMed 35184264.
  17. Mah J, Pitre T. Oral magnesium supplementation for insomnia in older adults: a systematic review & meta-analysis. BMC Complement Med Ther 2021. PubMed 33865376.
  18. Garrison SR, et al. Magnesium for skeletal muscle cramps. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2020. PubMed 32956536.
  19. Walker AF, et al. Mg citrate found more bioavailable than other Mg preparations in a randomised, double-blind study. Magnes Res 2003. PubMed 14596323.
  20. Uysal N, et al. Timeline (bioavailability) of magnesium compounds in hours: which magnesium compound works best? Biol Trace Elem Res 2019. PubMed 29679349. Rat study.
  21. Bertinato J, et al. Bioavailability of magnesium from inorganic and organic compounds is similar in rats fed a high phytic acid diet. Magnes Res 2014. PubMed 25635418. Rat study.
  22. EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (Younes M, et al.). Evaluation of di-magnesium malate, used as a novel food ingredient and as a source of magnesium. EFSA J 2018. PubMed 32625931.
  23. Weiss D, et al. Scottsdale Magnesium Study: absorption, cellular uptake, and clinical effectiveness of a timed-release magnesium supplement in a standard adult clinical population. J Am Coll Nutr 2018. PubMed 29425476.
  24. Russell IJ, et al. Treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome with Super Malic: a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, crossover pilot study. J Rheumatol 1995. PubMed 8587088. Diagnosed population.
  25. Ferreira I, Ortigoza Á, Moore P. Magnesium and malic acid supplement for fibromyalgia. Medwave 2019. PubMed 31150373. Diagnosed population.
  26. Filippini T, et al. Potassium intake and blood pressure: a dose-response meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Am Heart Assoc 2020. PubMed 32500831.
  27. Filippini T, et al. Blood pressure effects of sodium reduction: dose-response meta-analysis of experimental studies. Circulation 2021. PubMed 33586450.
  28. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Zinc: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. ods.od.nih.gov. Page read.
  29. Gandia P, et al. A bioavailability study comparing two oral formulations containing zinc (Zn bis-glycinate vs. Zn gluconate) after a single administration to twelve healthy female volunteers. Int J Vitam Nutr Res 2007. PubMed 18271278.
  30. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin B12: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. ods.od.nih.gov. Page read.
  31. Obeid R, Fedosov SN, Nexo E. Cobalamin coenzyme forms are not likely to be superior to cyano- and hydroxyl-cobalamin in prevention or treatment of cobalamin deficiency. Mol Nutr Food Res 2015. PubMed 25820384.
  32. Freedman MR, et al. Temporal changes in micronutrient intake among United States adults, NHANES 2003 through 2018: a cross-sectional study. Am J Clin Nutr 2024. PubMed 38373695.
  33. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1903: Svante Arrhenius, "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered to the advancement of chemistry by his electrolytic theory of dissociation". nobelprize.org. Page read.
  34. Hahn S, Kim Y, Garner P. Reduced osmolarity oral rehydration solution for treating dehydration due to diarrhoea in children: systematic review. BMJ 2001. PubMed 11451782.

Every milligram. On the label.

No proprietary blends, ever. See every ingredient and the full label on the ingredients & testing page.

More ingredients

RHODIOLA ROSEA L-THEANINE ALPHA-GPC SAFFRON CAFFEINE CREATINE HCL FULVIC COMPLEX
GET EARLY ACCESS

†These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.