How much saw palmetto should you take a day?

There's no official recommended daily amount for saw palmetto — no RDA, no established upper limit. What exists instead is a dose that shows up again and again across the largest human trials: 320 mg a day of standardized extract, split into two 160 mg doses. One large trial went well beyond that, up to three times the standard amount, without an unusual safety signal.

What the largest trials actually used

A 2006 trial in 225 men ran for a full year at 160 mg of standardized saw palmetto extract twice a day — 320 mg/day total. A larger follow-up trial in 369 men (the CAMUS study, 2011) started at that same 320 mg/day and deliberately escalated the dose over time: to 640 mg/day at 24 weeks, then 960 mg/day — three times the standard amount — at 48 weeks, continuing to 72 weeks total. No clearly attributable adverse effects were identified even at the highest dose. A 2012 Cochrane review pooling 32 trials, including these two, confirmed that double and triple the standard dose is a well-studied range, not an unusual or untested one. What those doses were tested for, and whether they did anything measurable, is a separate question, answered in full in saw palmetto benefits: what the research does and doesn't show.

Why the label number and the research number often don't match

Commercial labels for saw palmetto range enormously — searches turn up products listing anywhere from under 100 mg to several thousand milligrams. Part of that gap is real: a 2026 review of the saw palmetto research found that extracts made by different methods (hexane, alcohol, or supercritical CO2) are chemically different from each other, and that raw, unstandardized berry powder isn't comparable to the standardized liposolic extract the trials above used. A "1,000 mg saw palmetto" capsule of plain ground berry isn't the same thing as a 320 mg dose of standardized extract, even though both are labeled "saw palmetto." How to choose a good saw palmetto supplement covers how to tell the two apart on a label.

Splitting the dose

Every trial referenced above split the daily total into two doses rather than giving it all at once. When is the best time to take saw palmetto covers what's known, and what isn't, about timing.

When the number is different for you

• Pregnancy or breastfeeding: ask your doctor before taking saw palmetto at any dose if you're pregnant or nursing — there's no dosing research in that population.
• Prescription medication: a case report has linked saw palmetto to a bleeding-related concern in one patient, so check saw palmetto and medications: what to check before combining any dose with a prescription, especially a blood thinner.
• Kidney or liver conditions: no dedicated dosing study exists for people with a diagnosed kidney or liver condition, so ask a doctor for guidance specific to your situation rather than using the general figures above.
• Pets: this guide covers human dosing research only. Ask a veterinarian for a dose specific to your dog or other animal rather than scaling down a human number.

Questions people ask

How much saw palmetto should I take a day?

There's no official recommended amount. The dose that recurs across the largest human trials is 320 mg/day of standardized extract, split into two 160 mg doses — that's what's been studied, not a universal recommendation.

Is 1,000 mg of saw palmetto too much?

It depends heavily on what that 1,000 mg actually is — standardized extract or raw, unstandardized berry powder, which the label may or may not distinguish. The largest safety data comes from a trial that tested up to 960 mg/day of standardized extract for 72 weeks without an unusual safety signal, but that's a different thing from 1,000 mg of an unstandardized product.

How much saw palmetto is too much?

No official upper limit has been set. The highest dose tested in a large, long-running trial was 960 mg/day of standardized extract for 72 weeks, with no clearly attributable adverse effects identified at that dose — but going meaningfully beyond a dose that's actually been studied isn't something the research can speak to.

How much saw palmetto is in a specific hair or prostate supplement brand?

We don't have visibility into another brand's exact formulation. Check that product's own label for its saw palmetto amount and compare it against the 320 mg/day figure used in the largest human trials, described above.

How much DHT does saw palmetto block, or reduce?

That's a question about what saw palmetto does in the body, not how much to take. Saw palmetto benefits: what the research does and doesn't show covers what the research — including a laboratory study on enzyme activity — actually found.

Is 3,000 mg of saw palmetto safe?

No trial we found tested a dose that high. The largest dose tested in a controlled trial was 960 mg/day of standardized extract for 72 weeks. Going well beyond that is outside what the research covers — don't exceed label directions without talking to a doctor first.

Related reading: what is saw palmetto, how to choose a good saw palmetto supplement, and when is the best time to take saw palmetto.