Ipamorelin
A selective growth-hormone secretagogue that nudges your own pituitary to release growth hormone in natural pulses. People run it for lean muscle, recovery, and sleep, usually before bed and very often stacked with CJC-1295.
Where to buy Ipamorelin, cheapest first.
Prices from 9 vendors across the market. We link straight to each vendor’s product page and grade vendors on public lab data, so you’re not just chasing the lowest number.
Ipamorelin
What Ipamorelin actually does.
The simple version first, then a little more for the curious. No biochem degree required.
It tells your own pituitary to release growth hormone in a clean, natural pulse, without spiking cortisol or prolactin, so you get a GH bump that mimics how your body already works.
How it works
Ipamorelin binds the ghrelin receptor (GHSR-1a) on the pituitary, the same switch the hunger hormone ghrelin uses. Flipping it triggers a calcium cascade inside the cell that releases stored growth hormone into the bloodstream.
Why it's selective
Unlike older GH peptides, Ipamorelin releases GH without measurably raising cortisol, prolactin, or ACTH at normal doses. That clean profile, and the natural pulse it preserves, is the whole reason people pick it.
What people notice
Reports center on better sleep, easier recovery, slow lean-muscle support, and gradual fat loss. Effects build over weeks of consistent dosing, not overnight, and the bedtime dose lines up with your natural nightly GH surge.
Honest caveat: most human data on Ipamorelin comes from older clinical and animal studies on GH release and gut motility, not from large trials proving body-composition results in healthy adults. It is not an approved medicine and is sold strictly for research use only. None of this is medical advice, talk to a licensed provider before starting anything.
How to take it.
Ipamorelin is an injection, given subcutaneously into fat with a tiny insulin needle, usually before bed on an empty stomach. It isn't an oral peptide, so the injectable form is what people run. The routine is below; for cycling and timing, see the full guide.
Reconstitute the vial
Add bacteriostatic water down the side of the vial (a 5mg vial + 2.5mL = 2mg/mL). Let it dissolve. Swirl gently, don't shake.
Draw your dose
On a U-100 insulin syringe, pull to your unit mark. 300mcg at 2mg/mL is 15 units (0.15mL). Use the calculator if you're unsure.
Pinch and inject
Swab with alcohol, pinch a bit of fat, insert at 45–90°, push slowly. Subcutaneous into the belly is simplest. Dose on an empty stomach, ideally 30 to 45 minutes before bed.
Rotate your sites
Move to a different spot each time so no area gets sore or lumpy. Store the vial in the fridge between doses.
The easiest spots are the belly (about 2 inches either side of the navel), the love handles, the front of the thigh, and the back of the upper arms. Rotate every injection.
Don't do the math, let the calculator do it.
This is Ipamorelin's typical setup, already worked out. Change any value and the draw updates instantly.
Typical Ipamorelin dose: about 200 to 300 mcg once daily, subcutaneously, 30 to 45 minutes before bed on an empty stomach. Many people start near 100 mcg and titrate up. It's run in cycles of roughly 8 to 12 weeks, then a break.
How to cycle Ipamorelin.
How long people run Ipamorelin, when to take a break, and the honest reasoning behind it.
Cycled to keep the GH receptor responsive.
A cycle just means a defined run of time on the peptide, followed by a break. For Ipamorelin the common pattern is daily dosing for roughly 8 to 12 weeks, then a 2 to 4 week pause to let the receptors resensitize, rather than running it indefinitely.
Why not just run it forever? Partly because the receptor can become less responsive over time, and partly because the long-term human safety data does not exist yet. The cautious and widely followed approach is a focused block, then time off.
- Hold the schedule through your cycle, once daily before bed, on an empty stomach, at roughly the same time.
- Take a real break of 2 to 4 weeks after a cycle to let the ghrelin receptor resensitize before starting another.
- Watch how you respond. If water retention or other effects build, ease the dose down rather than pushing through, and bring questions to a licensed provider.
Want the full picture, on and off periods, the washout, stacking, and keeping your results? Read how peptide cycling works →
What's actually in the vial.
For 4 of these vendors we link the per-batch certificate itself (a specific lab report, COA PDF, or certificate image), and the purity below is read straight off that certificate. The rest link to the vendor's general lab-results page. We don't run the labs ourselves and we don't show a purity number unless it's printed on a certificate we link, so you can open the document and check it against the batch yourself.
| Vendor | Purity (per COA) | Batch / report | Certificate |
|---|---|---|---|
| EZ Peptides | 99.157% | EZP-IPA1003282026-14 | Janoshik report ↗ |
| Onyx Biolabs | 99.938% | IPA-2026-0320 | View COA ↗ |
| Midwest Peptide | 99.927% | MPCJP002 | View COA ↗ |
| Swiss Chems | 99.6% | not shown | View COA ↗ |
| Next Gen Peptides | see lab page | not shown | Lab results ↗ |
| Penguin Peptides | see lab page | not shown | Lab results ↗ |
What people pair it with.
Ipamorelin is most often run with a GHRH peptide, which amplifies the same GH pulse. These are the combinations the community reaches for.
Lean muscle & recovery
The classic GH stack. CJC-1295 (a GHRH analog) raises the baseline while Ipamorelin triggers the pulse, so together they produce a larger, more physiologic GH release than either alone. Usually a 1:1 mcg ratio in one shot before bed.
View stack →Body recomposition
A fat-loss leaning version that adds Tesamorelin, a GHRH studied specifically for visceral fat. People run it when leaning out is the priority alongside lean-mass support.
View stack →Recovery focus
Pairs the GH pulse with a soft-tissue repair peptide. Popular with people chasing recovery and sleep quality more than scale weight, run as separate shots on their own rhythms.
View stack →In the same corner.
Other growth-hormone and recovery peptides people compare against Ipamorelin.
Questions, answered straight.
Is Ipamorelin legal?
Ipamorelin isn't an approved drug, and it isn't sold for human use. The vendors we compare offer it strictly for research use only. It's also on WADA's prohibited list as a growth-hormone secretagogue, so competing athletes should steer clear. Rules vary by country, so check what applies where you are.
What does research use only actually mean?
It means the product is sold for laboratory and research purposes, not as a supplement or medicine for people. It hasn't been reviewed or approved for human use by the FDA. We aggregate prices and public lab data so you can see the landscape; what you do with that is between you and a licensed provider.
Why before bed and on an empty stomach?
Most of your natural growth hormone is released during deep sleep, so a bedtime dose stacks with that nightly surge. Food, especially carbs and fat, raises insulin, which blunts the GH response, so people dose on an empty stomach, roughly 30 to 45 minutes before eating or sleeping.
How often do people dose it?
A common pattern is about 200 to 300 mcg once daily, often building up from 100 mcg, run in cycles of roughly 8 to 12 weeks followed by a break. Some people split into two or three smaller daily doses. Use the calculator to turn your vial and dose into exact units.
Why stack it with CJC-1295?
Ipamorelin triggers a GH pulse through the ghrelin receptor; CJC-1295 is a GHRH analog that raises the baseline the pulse fires from. Run together, usually 1:1 in mcg in the same shot, they produce a larger and more natural GH release than either compound on its own.