The DailyWellness

The two forms of CoQ10

Ubiquinol vs Ubiquinone: What's the Difference, and Which to Take?

Both are CoQ10. Pick ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form. Ubiquinone is the older form your body changes first.

By The DailyWellness Research Desk

Five CoQ10 bottles on one shelf, EQ10 first: EQ10 Active CoQ10 · Statin Support, Doctor's Best CoQ10 200 mg veggie caps, Jarrow QH-absorb 100 mg, Qunol Mega Ubiquinol 100 mg and Qunol Ultra CoQ10 100 mg.
EQ10 first, then the four other bottles on this page.
Two forms of CoQ10. The label names yours.
Two forms of CoQ10. Ubiquinol: ready to use. Ubiquinone: the older form, your body changes it first.

Ubiquinol and ubiquinone are both CoQ10. Ubiquinol is the ready-to-use form, the one your blood already carries. Ubiquinone is the older form, which your body has to change into ubiquinol first.

So a bottle that just says CoQ10 and a bottle that says ubiquinol both hold CoQ10. They hold it in different forms. For a CoQ10 you take every day, the ready-to-use form is the one to pick.

Softgel, capsule or liquid? Pick one where the CoQ10 is already dissolved in oil. CoQ10 dissolves in fat, not water, so the oil carries it in.

CoQ10, short for coenzyme Q10, is something your own body makes. Your cells use it to turn food into energy. CoQ10 levels drop with age*.

On a label, the two words look almost the same. Ubiquinol ends in -ol. Ubiquinone ends in -one.

The form is one line on the back label, and there are five checks in all. Two others count just as much: how much is in one softgel, and what oil it's dissolved in.

This page reads all five with you. Then it sets two ubiquinol bottles and two ubiquinone bottles next to EQ10. EQ10 is a ubiquinol softgel made for people who take a statin, the daily pill for cholesterol.

Five lines to read

The form is the first of five lines to read

Every CoQ10 bottle has a Supplement Facts box on the back, the panel with the amounts. Under it is a line called Other ingredients.

The back of a bottle with a Supplement Facts panel. Numbers show where to look: 1 form, 2 dose, 3 carrier, 4 GG, 5 clean label.
An example label, with the five checks marked.

Those two spots hold the five checks. The form comes first. The oil, check 3, is the one people forget.

Check 1 of 5 · Form

Ubiquinol or ubiquinone: which form is in the bottle

Form

What it is

CoQ10 comes in two forms. Ubiquinol is the ready-to-use form. It's the form your blood already carries.

Ubiquinone is the older form. Your body has to change it into ubiquinol first.

Some labels use a third word, ubidecarenone. That's another name for ubiquinone, the older form.

Why it matters

Many popular bottles hold ubiquinone. The front of the bottle rarely tells you which form is inside.

Qunol sells both forms, and the names don't tell you which is which. Qunol Ultra 100 mg holds ubiquinone, the older form. Qunol Mega 100 mg holds ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form.

Qunol Mega prints ubiquinol on the front of the box. The Qunol Ultra 100 mg label never names its form. A label with no form named holds the older form.

If you're picking a CoQ10 to take every day, pick the form your blood already carries.

On the label

In the Supplement Facts box, find the CoQ10 line. It starts with Coenzyme Q10, or with the word Ubiquinol.

If that line says ubiquinol, it meets this check. Ubiquinone, ubidecarenone, or no form named at all is the older form.

Many ubiquinol labels also name Kaneka, the Japanese company that made the first ubiquinol. Jarrow QH-absorb names it right on the label.

Check 2 of 5 · Dose

Dose: how much is in one softgel or capsule

Dose

What it is

The dose is the number in mg, short for milligrams. It tells you how much CoQ10 is in one softgel or capsule.

It's counted the same way for both forms. So read it the same way on every bottle.

Why it matters

This check asks for 200 mg or more in one softgel. That's the amount used in many CoQ10 studies.

The Qunol Ultra, Qunol Mega and Jarrow bottles here each hold 100 mg in a softgel. You'd take two a day, and that adds up to the same amount.

This check is about getting it all in one softgel. One a day is easier to keep up than two.

Doctor's Best veggie caps, capsules with a plant-based shell, hold 200 mg in one capsule. That meets this check, even though the form is the older one.

On the label

Find Serving size at the top of the box. If it says one softgel, read the mg on the CoQ10 line.

If the serving size says 2 softgels, halve the number. That gives you the amount in one.

Check 3 of 5 · Carrier

Carrier: oil, or a dry powder

A softgel with CoQ10 dissolved in olive oil, marked with a check, next to a capsule of dry powder with no oil, marked with a cross.
CoQ10 dissolves in fat, whichever form it is.

Carrier

What it is

CoQ10 is a lot like butter. It dissolves in fat, not in water.

So a good CoQ10 comes already dissolved in an oil. That oil is called the carrier. A softgel, a soft capsule filled with oil, is made to hold it.

Why it matters

This line matters for both forms. Your body takes CoQ10 in along with fat.

In head-to-head studies, a capsule of dry powder, with no oil, came last. CoQ10 in oil came first.

Researchers once compared seven bottles with the same dose on the label. The best got four times more into the blood than the worst. What made the difference was the formula: the oil and what else sits in the softgel.

Doctor's Best veggie caps hold a dry powder, with no oil at all. Both Qunol bottles use MCT oil, a refined oil, made here from palm oil. That misses, because palm oil is on the Clean label list in check 5.

Jarrow uses MCT oil too, and its label doesn't name palm oil. Any named oil like that still carries the CoQ10, so it's close, but not quite.

Olive oil is the plain kitchen oil many people prefer, so it gets the check. EQ10 uses olive oil.

On the label

Read the first oil under Other ingredients. Olive oil meets this check.

Another named oil, like MCT oil, is close but not quite. Palm-oil MCT, soybean oil, or no oil at all misses it.

With a liquid CoQ10, read the label the same way. Find which oil it's in.

Check 4 of 5 · GG

GG: a line most CoQ10 labels don't have

GG

What it is

GG is short for geranylgeraniol. It's a building block your body makes on the same pathway as CoQ10.

A pathway is a chain of steps inside your cells. GG comes from the branch that isn't CoQ10.

Why it matters

Many people who look up ubiquinol take a statin, the daily pill for cholesterol. A statin works on that same pathway and turns it down.

Blood CoQ10 goes down on a statin. That has been measured. A statin also blocks GG.

Most CoQ10 bottles, ubiquinol or ubiquinone, only put CoQ10 back. EQ10 adds GG back too. The idea: refill and restart, not just refill.

In other words, put back both CoQ10 and GG, not only CoQ10. None of the four other bottles on this page lists GG.

On the label

Look right under the CoQ10 line in the Supplement Facts box. GG gets its own line, with an amount next to it.

It may say geranylgeraniol or GG. No line means no GG.

Check 5 of 5 · Clean label

Clean label: the rest of the ingredients

Clean label

What it is

Under the Supplement Facts box is a line called Other ingredients. It lists everything else in the softgel.

That's the shell, the oil, and anything added to help the factory.

Why it matters

You'll take CoQ10 every day, maybe for years. A short list, where each part has a reason to be there, is the one to want.

Both Qunol bottles list polysorbate 80, a man-made additive that helps oil and water mix. Both also list palm oil.

Jarrow lists caramel and sunflower lecithin, an additive made from sunflowers. Neither is on the list, but a softgel doesn't need them either. So it's close, but not quite.

Doctor's Best veggie caps meet this check. Nothing on their list is one of the words below.

On the label

Read the whole Other ingredients line. It should have no palm oil, no soybean oil, no polysorbate 80 and no soy lecithin, a soy-based additive.

It should also have no added vitamin E, an extra vitamin a CoQ10 softgel doesn't need. And no titanium dioxide, a white coloring.

Nothing on it should be bioengineered, the word US labels use for genetically modified.

See EQ10, ubiquinol with GG added →

Side by side

Ubiquinol and ubiquinone bottles, side by side

Here are two ubiquinone bottles and two ubiquinol bottles, next to EQ10. Each one is read from its own back label.

EQ10 comes first, in the amber column. Each column head shows how many of the five checks that bottle meets. Read the Form row first, then the rows under it.

The Label Panel

Read off the labelBest first · five checks · then your own bottle
  • Meets the check
  • Partly
  • Misses the check
The checkEQ10 Active CoQ10 · Statin Support bottleEQ10 Active CoQ10 · Statin Support5/5Doctor's Best CoQ10 200 mg veggie caps bottleDoctor's Best CoQ10 200 mg veggie caps2/5Jarrow QH-absorb 100 mg bottleJarrow QH-absorb 100 mg1/5Qunol Mega Ubiquinol 100 mg bottleQunol Mega Ubiquinol 100 mg1/5Qunol Ultra CoQ10 100 mg bottleQunol Ultra CoQ10 100 mg0/5Your bottle of 5
1 · FormUbiquinol is the ready-to-use form. Ubiquinone is the older form.✓Kaneka ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form✕Ubiquinone, the older form your body changes first✓Kaneka ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form✓Kaneka ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form✕Ubiquinone, the older form your body changes firstSays ubiquinol?
2 · DoseIn one softgel or capsule✓200 mg in one softgel✓200 mg in one capsule✕100 mg in one softgel✕100 mg in one softgel✕100 mg in one softgel200 mg or more in one?
3 · CarrierThe oil it sits in✓Olive oil✕No oil. Dry powder in a capsule!MCT oil, not olive oil✕MCT oil made from palm oil✕MCT oil made from palm oilOlive oil?
4 · GGThe building block a statin also blocks✓Has GG, a building block statins also block✕None✕None✕None✕NoneA line for GG?
5 · Clean labelNothing it doesn’t need✓No palm oil, soy or polysorbate 80✓Nothing from the problem list!Has caramel, sunflower lecithin, mixed tocopherols✕Palm oil, polysorbate 80✕Polysorbate 80, palm oil, soy lecithin, vitamin ENone of the words from check 5?
Price, not countedNot part of the scoreHigher per bottle, less on a bundleOne of the lowest-cost optionsMid-pricedMid-pricedOne of the lower-cost options
  1. EQ10 Active CoQ10 · Statin Support bottleEQ10 Active CoQ10 · Statin Support5/5
    • ✓FormKaneka ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form
    • ✓Dose200 mg in one softgel
    • ✓CarrierOlive oil
    • ✓GGHas GG, a building block statins also block
    • ✓Clean labelNo palm oil, soy or polysorbate 80
    • Price, not countedHigher per bottle, less on a bundle
  2. Doctor's Best CoQ10 200 mg veggie caps bottleDoctor's Best CoQ10 200 mg veggie caps2/5
    • ✕FormUbiquinone, the older form your body changes first
    • ✓Dose200 mg in one capsule
    • ✕CarrierNo oil. Dry powder in a capsule
    • ✕GGNone
    • ✓Clean labelNothing from the problem list
    • Price, not countedOne of the lowest-cost options
  3. Jarrow QH-absorb 100 mg bottleJarrow QH-absorb 100 mg1/5
    • ✓FormKaneka ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form
    • ✕Dose100 mg in one softgel
    • !CarrierMCT oil, not olive oil
    • ✕GGNone
    • !Clean labelHas caramel, sunflower lecithin, mixed tocopherols
    • Price, not countedMid-priced
  4. Qunol Mega Ubiquinol 100 mg bottleQunol Mega Ubiquinol 100 mg1/5
    • ✓FormKaneka ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form
    • ✕Dose100 mg in one softgel
    • ✕CarrierMCT oil made from palm oil
    • ✕GGNone
    • ✕Clean labelPalm oil, polysorbate 80
    • Price, not countedMid-priced
  5. Qunol Ultra CoQ10 100 mg bottleQunol Ultra CoQ10 100 mg0/5
    • ✕FormUbiquinone, the older form your body changes first
    • ✕Dose100 mg in one softgel
    • ✕CarrierMCT oil made from palm oil
    • ✕GGNone
    • ✕Clean labelPolysorbate 80, palm oil, soy lecithin, vitamin E
    • Price, not countedOne of the lower-cost options
  6. Your bottle of 5
    • FormDoes the CoQ10 line say ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form?
    • DoseIs there 200 mg or more in one softgel?
    • CarrierIs the first oil under Other ingredients olive oil?
    • GGIs there a line for GG, or geranylgeraniol?
    • Clean labelIs the Other ingredients line free of palm oil, soybean oil, polysorbate 80, soy lecithin, added vitamin E and titanium dioxide, with nothing bioengineered?

Each cell comes from that bottle’s back label. The price row comes from store prices, September 2026.

The Form row isn't the whole story. After EQ10, the best score here goes to a ubiquinone bottle, Doctor's Best veggie caps.

It meets two checks, Dose and Clean label. The two ubiquinol bottles meet only the Form check.

Bottles with the same score are in no particular order.

Get the CoQ10 you have now and read its back label. Start with the CoQ10 line, then go down the five checks.

Give your bottle one mark for each yes.

Plenty of bottles get the form right and still miss the oil or the dose. Each of those has its own line on the label.

Bottle by bottle

What each bottle holds, in a few lines

  1. EQ10 Active CoQ10 · Statin Support bottle
    EQ10 Active CoQ10 · Statin Support5/5 checks met

    EQ10 holds ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form, made by Kaneka. It has 200 mg in one softgel, dissolved in olive oil, with GG added. It meets all five checks.

  2. Doctor's Best CoQ10 200 mg veggie caps bottle
    Doctor's Best CoQ10 200 mg veggie caps2/5 checks met

    It holds 200 mg in one capsule, so one a day meets the Dose check. The list is short, but the form is ubiquinone, the older form. It's a dry powder with no oil, and there's no GG.

  3. Jarrow QH-absorb 100 mg bottle
    Jarrow QH-absorb 100 mg1/5 checks met

    It holds Kaneka ubiquinol, named right on the label. Each softgel has 100 mg, so you'd take two a day. The oil is MCT oil, a refined oil, not olive oil, and there's no GG.

  4. Qunol Mega Ubiquinol 100 mg bottle
    Qunol Mega Ubiquinol 100 mg1/5 checks met

    It holds Kaneka ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form. Each softgel has 100 mg, so you'd take two a day. It's in MCT oil made from palm oil, with polysorbate 80 added, and there's no GG.

  5. Qunol Ultra CoQ10 100 mg bottle
    Qunol Ultra CoQ10 100 mg0/5 checks met

    It's easy to find, and it's the most-rated bottle here on Amazon. Its label never names the form, so it holds ubiquinone, the older form. It misses all five checks.

See EQ10's store page →

Inside EQ10

What one EQ10 softgel holds

EQ10 is a CoQ10 softgel made for people who take a statin. It uses ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form.

The EQ10 bottle next to its Supplement Facts panel: one softgel holds 200 mg of Kaneka ubiquinol and 60 mg of GG, in olive oil, gelatin, glycerin, purified water and ascorbyl palmitate.
The EQ10 bottle and its Supplement Facts box.

Ubiquinol from Kaneka

The first line on the label is ubiquinol, 200 mg. Kaneka, the Japanese company that made the first ubiquinol, makes it. It helps replenish CoQ10 levels*.

GG

The second line is GG, 60 mg. GG is short for geranylgeraniol. It's the building block a statin also blocks.

EQ10 adds GG back. The idea: refill and restart, not just refill.

Olive oil

The ubiquinol and the GG are dissolved in olive oil, the carrier. So the ubiquinol comes with the fat it needs.

Gelatin, glycerin and purified water make the softgel shell. Ascorbyl palmitate, a form of vitamin C, keeps the oil fresh. Nothing else is on the label.

Take one small softgel a day, in the morning with food. Blood levels take about two weeks to settle. It's made to take every day, for months, not days.

Choose your EQ10 supply →

Answers

Ubiquinol and ubiquinone, answered

Is ubiquinol better than regular CoQ10?

For a CoQ10 you take every day, pick ubiquinol. It's the ready-to-use form, the one your blood already carries.

Regular CoQ10 is usually ubiquinone, the older form. Your body changes it into ubiquinol first.

Is CoQ10 the same thing as ubiquinol?

Ubiquinol is one form of CoQ10. Ubiquinone is the other.

If a label says just Coenzyme Q10, with no form named, read it as the older form.

Is ubidecarenone the same as ubiquinone?

Yes. Ubidecarenone is another name for ubiquinone, the older form of CoQ10.

Softgel, capsule or liquid: which is best?

CoQ10 dissolves in fat, not in water. A softgel holds it already dissolved in oil.

Some capsules hold a dry powder with no oil. With a liquid, read the label the same way and look for the oil.

How much ubiquinol should I take a day?

200 mg a day is the amount used in many CoQ10 studies, for either form. Read how much is in one softgel.

One EQ10 softgel holds 200 mg. So one a day is enough.

In short

The form, and the four checks after it

On this page, the two ubiquinol bottles met only the Form check. EQ10 met all five.

Here are the five checks once more:

  • Form: ubiquinol, the ready-to-use form
  • Dose: 200 mg or more in one softgel
  • Carrier: dissolved in olive oil
  • GG: its own line, right under the CoQ10
  • Clean label: none of the additives from check 5

If you'd rather not read every label, EQ10 holds ubiquinol in olive oil and meets all five checks.

Getting EQ10

EQ10 is sold on its own website. EQ10 is not sold on Amazon or eBay.

You pick how many months of EQ10 you want, and you pay once. The choices are just below.

Choose your supply

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One-time purchase. This is not a subscription, so there is nothing to cancel.

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EQ10 · 5 of 5 checks

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