Your starting dose depends on my factors. Some doctors take a different approach than other doctors. Sometimes your diagnosis makes a difference and it usually is presumptive PMR or maybe something else to begin with. I took 40 mg of prednisone for PMR to start with but that was because my inflammatory markers were still elevated on 30 mg. I was sometimes told to try 100 mg of prednisone if I could tolerate it but that was for another autoimmune condition.