Does Gatorade have electrolytes, and how many milligrams

Yes, Gatorade contains electrolytes, specifically sodium and potassium. USDA branded-food data for Gatorade Thirst Quencher lists about 46 mg of sodium and 13 mg of potassium per 100 mL, which works out to roughly 163 mg of sodium, 46 mg of potassium, 21 g of sugar, and 82 kcal in a 12 fl oz (355 mL) serving, and about 272 mg of sodium and 77 mg of potassium in a 20 fl oz bottle. Per litre that is roughly 460 mg of sodium, against roughly 1,725 mg per litre in a WHO oral rehydration solution. It contains no meaningful magnesium or calcium. It is built to be drunk in volume during prolonged exercise, not sipped as a concentrated electrolyte dose.

The answer is yes, and the useful version is the concentration. USDA FoodData Central branded-food entries for Gatorade Thirst Quencher list approximately 46 mg of sodium and 13 mg of potassium per 100 mL, alongside about 5.8 g of sugar and 23 kcal per 100 mL. Scaled to the containers people actually buy, a 12 fl oz (355 mL) serving carries roughly 163 mg of sodium, 46 mg of potassium, 21 g of sugar, and 82 kcal; a 20 fl oz (591 mL) bottle carries roughly 272 mg of sodium, 77 mg of potassium, 34 g of sugar, and 136 kcal; a 28 fl oz (828 mL) bottle carries roughly 381 mg of sodium and 108 mg of potassium. Expressed as a concentration, that is about 460 mg of sodium and 130 mg of potassium per litre. Two comparisons put that number in context. The first is clinical rehydration: the WHO and UNICEF reduced-osmolarity oral rehydration solution is formulated at 75 mmol per litre of sodium and 20 mmol per litre of potassium, which is roughly 1,725 mg of sodium and 780 mg of potassium per litre, about 3.7 times the sodium concentration of the sports drink. That gap is deliberate. Oral rehydration solution is designed to correct an established fluid and electrolyte deficit in illness; a sports drink is designed to be palatable enough to drink a litre or more of during exercise, and dialling the sodium up to clinical concentrations would make that unpleasant. The second comparison is sweat loss. Normative sweat data compiled from 1,303 athletes found whole-body sweating rates highest in American football at 1.51 plus or minus 0.70 litres per hour and endurance athletes at 1.28 plus or minus 0.57 litres per hour, with rates of sweat sodium loss of 55.9 plus or minus 36.8 mmol per hour in American football and 51.7 plus or minus 27.8 mmol per hour in endurance, against 34.6 in soccer, 34.5 in basketball, and 27.2 in baseball (Barnes et al. 2019). Converting the football figure, that is roughly 1,290 mg of sodium lost per hour, so a full litre of Gatorade replaces around a third of one hour's sodium loss for an athlete at the top of that range. That is the honest frame: the drink genuinely contains electrolytes and genuinely is not a high-concentration replacement product. The American College of Sports Medicine position stand makes the same point structurally, recommending customised fluid replacement programmes because sweating rates and sweat electrolyte content vary considerably between individuals, and setting the goal of drinking during exercise as preventing more than 2 percent body-weight loss from water deficit rather than matching any fixed formula (Sawka et al. 2007). The sugar is the other half of the product and is not incidental: carbohydrate co-transported with sodium speeds water absorption in the small intestine, which is why oral rehydration solutions contain glucose too. For someone exercising hard for over an hour that carbohydrate is a feature. For someone sipping it at a desk, 34 g of sugar for 272 mg of sodium is an expensive way to obtain a mineral that a quarter teaspoon of table salt supplies at roughly 590 mg. The lower-sugar lines keep the electrolytes: USDA lists a G2 entry at about 45 mg of sodium and 12 mg of potassium per 100 mL with roughly 2 g of sugar. The electrolyte powders comparison on this site ranks products by cost per serving, and the guide to what electrolytes are covers what each mineral does.