I Ranked 30 Energy Drinks, From Celsius to Ghost (2025)

The future is here, and it is jacked up on B vitamins, red dye, and taurine. These are the best energy drinks to get from tired to wired. Pete CottellGearMar 4, 2026 7:38 AMI Tried 30 Popular Energy Drinks. Here’s How They RankThe future is here, and it is jacked up on B vitamins, red dye, and taurine. These are the best energy drinks to get from tired to wired.Courtesy of Celsius; Gorilla Mind; NakedCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyBuying energy drinks in public is embarrassing. Every time I see someone scanning the cooler for their favorite flavor of Monster or Ghost, I guess which accompanying vape flavor they've picked out, and I know others are making the same assumption about me when I’m scoring a can of Celsius to beat back a hangover or get lifted before a 10-hour bartending shift.The good news is that it’s easier than ever to purchase your favorite cans from Amazon, and the great news is that you don’t need to put on your Crocs and Cookie Monster jammies to do it. Throw in a nice little discount for buying in bulk and setting up auto-delivery, and you’re basically being paid to not leave your house. The future is here, and it is jacked up on B vitamins, red dye, and taurine.As a devoted coffee drinker, I often feel like the misquoted New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael when I see neon-colored tallboys of high-octane energy drinks usurping shelf space from my favorite Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew variants at my local Sheetz. Energy drinks are big business—they raked in close to $20 billion in the US in 2023—yet I don’t know a single person who drinks them on a regular basis.A good cup of coffee is hard to find at odd hours in the middle of nowhere. Energy drinks, on the other hand, are as no-fuss as it gets. At any hour of the day you can pick out an eye-catching can that boldly advertises its caffeine content, plunk down a few bucks, and shoot into space in just a few swigs. Homebodies and deal junkies don’t even need to leave their domiciles to cop excellent deals with lightning-fast shipping on their most beloved brands, provided they’re Amazon Prime members. I love value, convenience, and caffeine, so I finally caved.Still thirsty? Check out our other drink-related guides, including the Best Mushroom Coffee and Best Coffee Subscriptions.Updated March 2026: We've added new drinks from Bloom, Melting Forest, and Liquid Death; removed some discontinued products; and updated links, tasting notes, and prices throughout.1. Celsius Functional Essential Energy DrinkPhotograph: Pete CottellSave to wishlistSave to wishlistCelsiusFunctional Essential Energy Drink, Sparkling Orange (12-pack)$20 AmazonThough it has less carbonation than most energy drinks, Celsius is punchy without a cloying aftertaste and it does wonders in masking the medicinal notes that are present in similarly potent drinks. This is an absolute unit when it comes to the caffeine-to-volume ratio, and not a single flavor I tried was objectively bad.Celsius is a hot up-and-comer for a reason, and it’s not shocking to see entire fridges stocked with its whole portfolio right next to the checkout counter at a growing number of gas stations. The can has a whole lot of text I will never read, but it’s attractive and not too much in the extreme gaming or health-nut quackery camps to dissuade potential buyers who care about being seen in public with an energy drink. Like the Beatles or In-N-Out, this is a consensus pick everyone agrees on.Notes: Nice mellow thrust of energy with very few jitters or butterflies in the stomach. This is a solid road trip or preworkout beverage. A slight dip in energy around 2 pm, but a few jumping jacks got me back on track.Nutritional Stats (12 ounces)200 milligrams caffeine0 grams sugar10 calories2. C4Photograph: Pete CottellSave to wishlistSave to wishlistC4Cherry (12-Pack)$28 AmazonC4’s marketing materials position its sports fuel as the beverage of choice for the athleisure set. Does C4’s “clinically studied CarnoSyn beta-alanine” compound help you get swole? Do yoga pants increase flexibility? Who knows, and who cares! Halfway through the can I got happy feet and swapped my Aeron chair for the walking pad. Two miles and 35 minutes later I was still zooming, so I took my dog for a 2-mile run and felt like a million bucks at the end. I crushed a gas station salad for lunch and felt like a Healthy Person for one of the first times in my life.Notes: With flavors like Frozen Bombsicle and Mango Foxtrot in C4’s arsenal, concerns of this “NSF-certified” drink tasting like saccharine gloop are valid, but the Midnight Cherry was a pleasant surprise. An intense cherry flavor—imagine a Dr. Brown’s dialed up to 11—hits on the frontend, and only a mild trace of diet flavor lingers in the aftertaste. Marketing be damned, you could add this to the rotation at a Taco Bell and no one would know (or care) about its alleged postgains powers.Nutritional Stats (16 ounces)200 milligrams caffeine0 grams sugar0 calories3. Red BullPhotograph: Martin CizmarSave to wishlistSave to wishlistRed BullOriginal Flavor (24-Pac