Mertens’ product formula asserts that$$\prod _{p\le x}\left(1-\frac{1}{p}\right)logx\to e^{-\gamma }$$as $x\to \infty$. Calculation shows that the right side of the formula exceeds the left side for $2\le x\le {10}^8$. It was suggested by Rosser and Schoenfeld that, by analogy with Littlewood’s result on $\pi \left(x\right)-\mathrm{li}x$, this and a complementary inequality might change their sense for sufficiently large values of $x$. We show this to be the case.