Peptide Cheat Sheet 2026
· DoseRoutine Editorial Team
Researched by DoseRoutine Research TeamReviewed for accuracy by Nicholas Alexander, RSE, SO, PMPLast updated Educational reference only — not medical advice. Always confirm dosing and safety decisions with a licensed clinician.
This 2026 peptide cheat sheet groups the most-discussed peptides by what they are actually studied for — growth hormone signalling, tissue repair, immune modulation and metabolic control — and marks each one with the strength of the human evidence behind it. Most of these compounds are not approved medicines, and the numbers circulating online are reported community ranges, not prescriptions.
Every January the same thing happens. A new set of screenshots does the rounds, the same six peptides get renamed into a catchy stack, and somebody's coach swears the dose is "standard". Very little of that is standard. What follows is the version I'd actually want pinned to a fridge: what each compound is studied for, what the research quality looks like, and where people most often get themselves into trouble.
One thing to be clear about before the tables. Nothing here is a recommendation to use anything. Several of these compounds are sold as research chemicals, a few are prescription-only medicines in most countries, and purity varies wildly between suppliers. If you are already running something, the useful move is to write it down properly — dose, time, site, vial batch — so that when something changes you can tell whether it was the peptide or the three other things you changed that week.
How to read the evidence tiers
Peptide discussion collapses without a shared scale for "does this work". Four tiers are enough:
- Tier 1 — strong human data. Randomised controlled trials in people, for the use being claimed. GLP-1 receptor agonists sit here.
- Tier 2 — real human data, thin trials. Small or short human studies, or approval in one country only. Sermorelin and thymosin alpha-1 live around here depending on the indication.
- Tier 3 — animal data, human anecdote. Persuasive rodent work, almost no controlled human evidence. BPC-157 and TB-500 are the classic examples.
- Tier 4 — mechanism only. A plausible pathway and a marketing page. Treat claims at this tier as hypotheses.
The tier does not tell you whether something is safe. It tells you how much confidence the claim deserves.
Growth hormone secretagogues
This is the biggest family and the one with the most naming confusion.
| Peptide | Studied for | Reported community range | Typical timing | Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sermorelin | GHRH analogue, GH release | 100–300 mcg | Before bed, empty stomach | Tier 2 |
| CJC-1295 (no DAC) | GHRH analogue, pulsatile GH | 100 mcg | Before bed or post-training | Tier 3 |
| CJC-1295 with DAC | Long-acting GHRH analogue | 1–2 mg weekly | Weekly, day-independent | Tier 3 |
| Ipamorelin | Selective ghrelin receptor agonist | 100–300 mcg | With a GHRH peptide | Tier 3 |
| Tesamorelin | Visceral fat in HIV lipodystrophy | 2 mg (approved indication) | Daily, evening | Tier 1 for its label |
| MK-677 (oral, not a peptide) | GH/IGF-1 elevation | 10–25 mg | Evening | Tier 2 |
Two practical notes that matter more than the exact microgram count. First, GH secretagogues are blunted by food, particularly carbohydrate and fat close to the injection — that is why "empty stomach, before bed" keeps appearing. Second, the combination of a GHRH analogue with a ghrelin agonist is the reason CJC-1295 and ipamorelin are almost always discussed together rather than alone.
Repair and recovery peptides
| Peptide | Studied for | Reported community range | Timing | Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BPC-157 | Tendon, gut and soft-tissue healing in rodents | 250–500 mcg | Once or twice daily | Tier 3 |
| TB-500 / thymosin beta-4 | Cell migration, angiogenesis | 2–2.5 mg | Twice weekly loading | Tier 3 |
| GHK-Cu | Skin remodelling, collagen | Topical or 1–2 mg | Daily | Tier 3 |
| KPV | Anti-inflammatory signalling | 250–500 mcg | Daily | Tier 4 |
The repair family is where the gap between forum confidence and published evidence is widest. The rodent data for BPC-157 is genuinely interesting; the controlled human data is essentially absent, and the safety concerns worth reading before you buy anything apply doubly here because the compound is sold almost entirely through grey-market suppliers.
Metabolic peptides
GLP-1 and dual agonists are the only part of this cheat sheet with unambiguous Tier 1 evidence, and they are also the only part where you should be working with a prescriber rather than a spreadsheet. Semaglutide and tirzepatide have large randomised trials for weight and glycaemic outcomes, standard titration schedules, and known side-effect profiles that get worse when people escalate faster than the label. Retatrutide is in trials and is not an approved medicine anywhere.
The compounded and grey-market versions of these are a different product from the pharmacy version, even when the molecule name matches. Concentration errors in that market are the single most common cause of accidental overdose reports.
Immune and longevity peptides
Thymosin alpha-1 has approval in several countries for hepatitis B and as an immune adjunct, which puts it ahead of most of this list. Epitalon, the various "mitochondrial" peptides and most of the anti-ageing blends sit at Tier 3 or 4 — plausible mechanism, rodent lifespan data at best. Our longer breakdown of longevity peptides ranked by evidence goes through those claim by claim.
The four mistakes that show up over and over
- Reconstitution maths done in a hurry. Most dosing accidents are arithmetic, not pharmacology. A 5 mg vial with 2 mL of bacteriostatic water gives 2.5 mg/mL, so 10 units on a U-100 syringe is 250 mcg. Run it through a peptide reconstitution calculator rather than in your head at 11pm.
- Stacking four new things at once. If everything starts on Monday, nothing is attributable by Friday.
- Ignoring storage. Reconstituted peptides are refrigerated, light-sensitive and time-limited. A vial that has been warm for a weekend is not the same vial.
- No written log. Dose, time, site and batch. Without it, both the good result and the bad one are anecdotes.
What changed going into 2026
Three things are different from the 2024-era cheat sheets still circulating. Regulatory pressure has pushed several compounds off compounding lists, which has moved supply further into the grey market rather than reducing use. Dual and triple agonists have made older fat-loss peptides look obsolete on efficacy. And blend products — the pre-mixed "GLOW" and "KLOW" style vials — have become the default way newcomers buy peptides, which makes per-compound dosing much harder to reason about. If you are looking at one of those, read the GLOW peptide blend breakdown before assuming the label ratio is what is in the vial.
Track whatever you run in one place, with real dates attached. DoseRoutine handles the reconstitution maths, injection-site rotation, vial expiry and dose history together, which is the difference between having a protocol and having a memory of one.
FAQs
- Is there an official peptide dosing chart?
- No. There is no official chart for research peptides because most of them have no approved human indication and therefore no labelled dose. Ranges quoted online, including the ones in this article, are reported community ranges drawn from forums and clinic protocols, not regulator-approved dosing.
- Which peptides actually have strong human evidence?
- Very few. GLP-1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide and tirzepatide have large randomised controlled trials, and tesamorelin has trial evidence for its specific approved indication. Most repair and longevity peptides rest on rodent studies and uncontrolled human reports.
- Do peptides need to be refrigerated?
- Lyophilised (powdered) vials are usually stable at room temperature short-term and are best kept cold long-term. Once reconstituted with bacteriostatic water, peptides should be refrigerated, kept out of light, and used within the window the supplier states — commonly two to four weeks.
- Can you mix two peptides in one syringe?
- People do combine compatible peptides such as a GHRH analogue with a ghrelin agonist, but compatibility is not universal and mixing changes nothing about the individual doses. Blend vials remove the choice entirely, which is a convenience and an accuracy problem at the same time.
- How long before you can tell whether something is working?
- For recovery and body-composition endpoints, most people need eight to twelve weeks of consistent logging plus a stable diet and training block before any signal is readable. Anything faster is usually the rest of the routine changing, not the peptide.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not replace professional medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before changing medications or supplements.