A bottle of CBD oil can last anywhere from a couple of days to over a year. It all depends on how much CBD is in the bottle and how much you take per day.
This is a common question for people who are getting into CBD and deciding on the right CBD oil to buy to save money and the hassle of multiple purchases.
Here’s everything you need to know about how long a bottle of CBD oil will last you, its shelf life, and related questions.
Table of Contents
How Long Will My CBD Oil Last?
To figure this out, you’ll need to know the total amount of CBD in your tincture and how much of it you take daily in milligrams (mg). Then, you can simply divide the CBD amount by your daily dose.
Let’s say your CBD oil contains 900 mg of CBD. If you take a 30 mg CBD dose once a day, this CBD oil will last you 900/30 = 30 days. Alternatively, let’s say you take a 15 mg CBD dose every two days. This means the oil will last you (900/15)x2 = 120 days.
If you need help figuring out how much CBD you’re taking per dose, many CBD products will list how much CBD is in a serving or one dropper, but that’s not always the case.
If the amount is not listed, you should check the volume of your bottle. Most CBD oils come in 30 ml bottles but sizes can range anywhere from 5 ml to 120 ml.
It’s also helpful to know that one full dropper of CBD oil is roughly equal to one ml of liquid or about 20 drops.
So if you have a CBD oil with 900 mg of CBD in a 30 ml bottle, that means one full dropper (1 ml) will contain 30 mg. Meanwhile, one drop of this oil will be roughly 30/20=1.5 mg of CBD.
Now, you can simply multiply the number of drops you’re taking to figure out your daily dose. Then, you can divide the total CBD content by that number to see how many days your 30 ml bottle will last.
How to Choose a CBD Oil That Will Last As Long As You Need
What about when you need to choose a product that will last you a certain length of time?
The amount of CBD in a tincture can vary greatly from as low as 250 mg to as high as 7500 mg. This means you need to find the product whose total CBD content matches your desired dosage and the length of time you need the oil to last.
Let’s say you’re a new CBD user who wants to take 10 mg of CBD per day and have the bottle last for 30 days. In that case, you’ll need an oil that will last 10 mg times 30 days, so it has to contain at least 300 mg of CBD.
Or, if you want it to last 90 days, then you need an oil with at least 10×90 = 900 mg. What about one year (365 days)? 10×365 = 3650 mg.
Meanwhile, if you’re an experienced CBD user, you’ll likely be using larger doses. In that case, simply multiply your daily dose by the number of days you need the bottle to last, and buy oil that contains at least that much CBD.
Again, keep in mind that if you don’t use CBD daily, you’ll need to do some additional calculations. For example, let’s say you use 50 mg of CBD per week and you want your CBD oil bottle to last you 3 months.
One month is roughly 4 weeks, so that’s 200 mg of CBD per month. Times that number by 3 months, which means you need a 600 mg bottle of CBD oil.
How Long is CBD Oil’s Shelf Life?
It’s also helpful to know the shelf life of CBD, especially if you want your product to last for many months.
One 2021 study examined this by comparing the stability of pure CBD powder versus CBD dissolved in sunflower oil. The researchers exposed both to 25 °C (77 F) and 40 °C (104 F) temperatures and 60-75% relative humidity in open and closed vials over the span of a year.
As expected, closed vials of CBD oil at the lower temperature lasted the longest, losing 40% of their CBD content after a year (1). Meanwhile, open vials at the higher temperature lost virtually all CBD by 270 days.
The best way to store CBD oil is in a cool, dark, dry place away from any heat and humidity, which isn’t exactly equivalent to the conditions of the study.
But we can use the numbers to estimate that properly-stored CBD oil should have a shelf-life of about a year. In other words, it will only start to lose significant amounts of CBD (10%+) after a year or so.
We recommend keeping CBD oil in the fridge or in a dark cabinet as long as the room doesn’t get too hot.
A Word on Carrier Oils
Another factor that will affect the shelf life is the carrier oil. All CBD oils contain a carrier oil, which is the ingredient that helps your body absorb CBD better. The vast majority of CBD oils use coconut-derived MCT oil, which is known for its long shelf life of about two years.
Other carrier oils, such as hemp seed oil, have a shorter shelf life, but it’s still more than long enough for most people’s needs. In that sense, as long as you store CBD oil correctly, you don’t have anything to worry about.
Having said that, if your CBD oil smells very different from when you purchased it and the oil looks very cloudy, it may have gone bad and you should throw it away. It’s usually very apparent and easy to tell if your oil is expired.
Gleb is a CBD & cannabis expert from Vancouver, Canada. He’s read thousands of studies on CBD and other supplements, helping him translate complex science into plain language. Gleb has tried and reviewed dozens of CBD brands and products, written third-party testing reports, and knows the CBD industry inside and out. When not writing, he likes to kickbox, travel, and tell everyone how awesome intermittent fasting is.