AG1 Review: Six Months of Daily Use From an Endurance Runner

Introduction

AG1, formerly known as Athletic Greens, is everywhere: advertised on almost every podcast and heavily promoted by runners and wellness personalities. The bold claims around energy, mental performance, immune support and gut health made me curious whether it genuinely lives up to the hype, or whether buyers are mostly funding an enormous marketing budget. So I spent my own money, roughly £400 over six months, and used it daily as part of a broader routine while marathon training. This is an unsponsored, unaffiliated review based purely on my own experience. I am not a scientist or nutritionist, just a plant-based endurance runner averaging around 150km per week when marathon training.

What AG1 Actually Is

AG1 is a green superfood powder that you mix with water and drink once a day, designed to replace a stack of individual multivitamin supplements. It contains multivitamins, minerals, pre- and probiotics, plus antioxidants and superfoods. The official site lists a long set of potential benefits: increased energy levels, improved mental performance, and support for the immune system and gut health. Gut health was my main reason for trying it, as I was dealing with some gut-related issues at the time.

One frustration worth flagging before buying: the full ingredient list is published, but the amounts of many ingredients are not disclosed because the formula is described as a proprietary blend. If you like to know exactly how much of each vitamin you are getting, that lack of transparency is something to weigh up.

How It Made Me Feel

I do not track biomarkers and have no lab results to point to, so this is purely anecdotal. The effects were gradual rather than dramatic. I never woke up a week or two in suddenly bounding with more energy than ever. But over time I did notice an increase in energy levels, less sluggishness, and more motivation to get out running. My running improved substantially over this period, with strong race performances and recovery good enough to handle the training I wanted to do.

Gut health was the clearest win. Thanks to the pre- and probiotics, I felt noticeably less bloated and had far fewer mid-run digestive issues, the kind many runners will recognise. That said, honesty matters here: I was simultaneously improving my diet, cooking more whole foods, and working with a therapist, so correlation does not imply causation. AG1 did not deserve all the credit, though it may have acted as a catalyst for those wider changes. Coming from a fairly healthy baseline, the effects were subtle. Someone starting from a lower base may notice more, sooner.

Taste and Daily Use

AG1 is described as a pineapple and vanilla flavour, but to me it tasted much like an energy drink, which I found surprisingly pleasant. It took about a week to get used to, and my girlfriend could not get it down at all and gave up on hers. For me, it mixed well with just a few shakes, was slightly gritty at the end, and needed a splash more water to finish the last bits. I took it around five to six times a week, mostly forgetting occasionally rather than deliberately skipping.

The Convenience and the Cost

This is a subscription product at £79 per month for a 30-day supply, with no contract; you can cancel anytime or pause a month if you have not used up your supply. New subscribers via influencer links receive a welcome pack with a good-quality shaker bottle, a metal scooper, a storage pot, free travel packs and vitamin D. Every month a new pouch arrives that you use to refill your tub.

The convenience is genuinely excellent: it turns up at your door and slots easily into a daily routine. But you are absolutely paying for it. A year comes to roughly £1,000, and a significant part of the price reflects the large influencer partnerships, with commission rates reportedly as high as 30%. There are many comparable green powders from other companies with different ingredient lists, and AG1 is one of the more comprehensive options out there, but that comprehensiveness carries a steep price.

Will I Keep Using It?

Honestly, probably not as a daily subscription. My six months were broadly positive, but the expense is hard to justify when I believe other changes, like cooking more high-quality meals from scratch, more cost-effective pre- and probiotic options, and continuing therapy, probably did more for my running, energy and mental health. £1,000 a year could go further spent elsewhere.

Where I will keep using AG1 is for travel. The convenience is outstanding when you are on planes, trains, driving to races or without access to a kitchen, and the travel packs were fantastic. I will not keep the monthly subscription running, but I plan to stock up on travel packs as a backup for race trips and travel days.

Conclusion

AG1 is a well-made, genuinely convenient green powder with a surprisingly drinkable flavour and some real-world benefits I noticed around gut health and general energy, though the results were gradual and hard to separate from other lifestyle changes. At £79 per month it is extremely expensive, and much of that price funds marketing rather than ingredients. It is best suited to people who want one comprehensive daily drink, value the convenience above all, or need a reliable option while travelling. If your budget is tighter, food-first alternatives and cheaper probiotic options will likely deliver more value per pound.