Safety
No boxed warning. Never take it with nitrates (such as nitroglycerin or “poppers”) or riociguat: together they can cause a dangerous drop in blood pressure. Don’t combine it with another ED medicine. Get emergency care for an erection lasting more than 4 hours, and stop and call a clinician for sudden vision or hearing loss. Blood pressure can also drop with alpha-blockers, other blood pressure medicines or heavy drinking. Ask a clinician whether your heart is healthy enough for sex.
Legal status
Prescription only; FDA-approved. Tadalafil is FDA-approved for ED and BPH and sold as a generic. Compounded tadalafil products, such as chewables or capsules combined with other drugs, are not FDA-approved.
What tadalafil is
Cialis was approved on November 21, 2003. Generic tadalafil is available for both as-needed and daily use.
FDA-approved for
- Erectile dysfunction, as needed or once daily
- Symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and ED with BPH
- Pulmonary arterial hypertension, as Adcirca and Alyq
Dosing
Tablet, as needed (at most once a day) or once a day at about the same time. As needed: 10 mg before sex, adjusted to 5 mg or 20 mg, no more than once a day. Daily: 2.5 mg at about the same time each day, raised to 5 mg if needed. ED with BPH: 5 mg daily. Your clinician sets the dose for you.
How well it works
In a trial of 348 men taking 20 mg, 61% had successful sex 22 to 26 hours after a dose and 64% at 33 to 39 hours, against 37% on placebo at both times. Individual results vary.
Tadalafil cost
Daily generic tadalafil from $40 a month (one provider sells it at $2 a tablet during a sale, with no regular price published); as-needed tablets $3.33 to $25 each at regular prices at the online providers we checked, the top being a pack PeterMD had on sale at $7.25 a tablet (Oct 18, 2026). For a full breakdown, read Where is generic Cialis cheapest online?.