Jardiance (empagliflozin) comes in two tablet strengths: 10 mg and 25 mg. The standard starting dose is 10 mg once daily, taken in the morning with or without food. Depending on the condition being treated, your prescriber may keep you at 10 mg or increase to 25 mg.
Doses for Type 2 Diabetes
For adults and children age 10 and older with type 2 diabetes, the starting dose is 10 mg once daily. If additional blood sugar control is needed, the dose can be increased to 25 mg once daily. The maximum is 25 mg per day.
The difference between the two doses is modest when it comes to blood sugar reduction. In clinical trials, the 10 mg dose lowered HbA1c (a measure of average blood sugar over three months) by about 0.54% after 12 weeks, while the 25 mg dose lowered it by about 0.6%. That small gap means many people do well staying on 10 mg, and the bump to 25 mg is typically reserved for those who need a bit more help reaching their blood sugar targets.
Jardiance is not recommended for blood sugar control if your kidney filtration rate (eGFR) is below 30, because the drug works by filtering excess sugar through the kidneys. When kidney function is that low, the mechanism simply doesn’t work well enough to make a meaningful difference in blood sugar.
Dose for Heart Failure
For adults with heart failure, the recommended dose is 10 mg once daily. There is no dose increase to 25 mg for this use. This applies regardless of ejection fraction, meaning it covers both the type of heart failure where the heart pumps weakly and the type where the heart pumps normally but doesn’t fill properly.
Do the Two Doses Differ for Heart Protection?
In the landmark EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial, which enrolled over 7,000 people with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, participants were randomized to 10 mg, 25 mg, or placebo. The combined empagliflozin group had a significantly lower rate of cardiovascular death, nonfatal heart attack, or stroke compared to placebo (10.5% vs. 12.1%). Notably, the results were similar for the 10 mg and 25 mg groups, suggesting no added cardiovascular benefit from the higher dose.
Pediatric Dosing
The FDA approved Jardiance for children with type 2 diabetes aged 10 and older in June 2023. The dosing mirrors the adult schedule: start at 10 mg once daily, with the option to increase to 25 mg if needed. Jardiance is not approved for children under 10 or for pediatric heart failure.
How to Take It
Take Jardiance once a day in the morning. It can be taken with or without food, so you don’t need to plan it around a meal. If you miss a dose, take it as soon as you remember the same day. If it’s already close to the time for your next dose, skip the missed one and return to your regular schedule. Never double up to make up for a missed tablet.
Kidney Function and Dose Adjustments
No dose adjustment between 10 mg and 25 mg is needed based on kidney function alone. However, how your kidneys are working does affect whether Jardiance is appropriate in the first place. For blood sugar control specifically, it is not recommended when eGFR drops below 30. For heart failure and kidney protection, the threshold is different: in major clinical trials, patients continued taking the drug even when eGFR fell below 20 or they started dialysis, and they were not required to stop.
This distinction matters because some people are prescribed Jardiance purely for heart or kidney benefits rather than blood sugar control. In those cases, the drug may still be continued at lower kidney function levels under a prescriber’s guidance.
Available Tablet Strengths
Jardiance is available as a standalone tablet in 10 mg and 25 mg. It also comes in a combination product called Synjardy, which pairs empagliflozin with metformin. Synjardy is dosed twice daily and comes in four combinations: 5 mg/500 mg, 5 mg/1000 mg, 12.5 mg/500 mg, and 12.5 mg/1000 mg (empagliflozin/metformin). The empagliflozin doses in Synjardy are split across two daily doses, so they use different tablet strengths than standalone Jardiance.