Understanding Which Metabolic Pathways Produce ATP in Glucose

Glucose sugar molecule
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by Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.
Dr. Helmenstine holds a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences and is a science writer, educator, and consultant. She has taught science courses at the high school, college, and graduate levels.
Updated December 27, 2018

It's important to know how many ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, are produced per glucose molecule by various metabolic pathways, such as the Krebs cycle, fermentation, glycolysis, electron transport, and chemiosmosis. Take a look at how many net ATP are produced per pathway and which yields the most ATP per glucose.

Here is the breakdown of net ATP production:

So, oxidative phosphorylation is the metabolic cycle that produces the most net ATP per glucose molecule.