A GLP-1 bought direct from the manufacturer costs between $149 and $449 a month in October 2026, depending on the drug, the dose and the channel: $149 for the lowest dose of the semaglutide pill, $349 for standard Wegovy injection doses, and $299 to $449 for Zepbound vials from LillyDirect. List prices are around $1,349 and $1,060 a month, and almost nobody pays them.
None of those numbers is what a year costs. Every programme prices by dose, the labelled schedules climb for the first two to four months, and treatment is generally ongoing. Priced properly, year one runs from about $3,338 to about $5,188 depending on which drug and which maintenance dose you land on.
Disclosure: this article is published by GLP1WeightLossCalculator.com, which makes the weight loss calculator linked below. It has no commercial relationship with any manufacturer or pharmacy named here. Every price is quoted from the programme’s own published price guide, checked on 4 October 2026.
- Monthly self-pay prices in October 2026: Wegovy pill from $149, Wegovy injection $349, Ozempic $349 to $499, Zepbound vials $299 to $449.
- Year one costs more than twelve times the starting price, because the first one to three months sit on cheaper low-dose tiers and the rest do not.
- Priced against what the trials achieved, tirzepatide and injectable semaglutide work out at almost exactly the same cost per percentage point of body weight lost, around $347.
- The semaglutide pill is currently the cheapest per percentage point at roughly $305, and generic liraglutide the most expensive at roughly $490 despite a lower monthly price.
- A monthly figure only becomes a budget once it is multiplied by the number of months you expect to be paying it.
What a month costs in October 2026
These are the published direct-to-patient prices, not insurance copays. They reprice often and several tiers carry end dates, so check the current figure before committing. Our separate guide to the cheapest GLP-1 without insurance covers the conditions attached to each programme, including generic liraglutide and what happened to the compounded market.
| Product | Channel | Monthly self-pay price |
|---|---|---|
| Semaglutide pill (Wegovy tablets) | NovoCare Pharmacy | $149 at 1.5 mg, $199 at 4 mg, $299 at 9 mg and 25 mg |
| Wegovy injection | NovoCare Pharmacy | $199 for the first two fills at 0.25 and 0.5 mg, then $349 across 0.25 to 2.4 mg |
| Wegovy HD 7.2 mg | NovoCare Pharmacy | $399 introductory |
| Ozempic (type 2 diabetes) | NovoCare Pharmacy | $349 at 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg, $499 at 2 mg |
| Zepbound single-dose vials | LillyDirect | $299 at 2.5 mg, $399 at 5 mg, $449 from 7.5 mg upward |
| Either drug at list price | Retail, no programme | About $1,349 Wegovy, about $1,060 Zepbound |
Year one, priced month by month
Each labelled schedule starts low and steps up roughly every four weeks, so the first months fall on cheaper tiers. The totals below assume the dose rises at the labelled minimum interval until the stated maintenance dose, then stays there, and that the fills are continuous.
| Path through year one | Months 1 to 3 | Months 4 to 12 | Twelve-month total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semaglutide pill to 25 mg | $149, $199, $299 | $299 a month | About $3,338 |
| Wegovy injection to 2.4 mg, with the introductory fills | $199, $199, $349 | $349 a month | About $3,888 |
| Wegovy injection to 2.4 mg, no introductory fills | $349 a month | $349 a month | About $4,188 |
| Zepbound vials, maintenance at 5 mg | $299, $399, $399 | $399 a month | About $4,688 |
| Zepbound vials, maintenance at 10 mg | $299, $399, $449 | $449 a month | About $5,188 |
| Ozempic to 2 mg | $349, $349, $349 | $499 a month | About $5,538 |
The spread between the cheapest and the most expensive path here is about $2,200 a year, which is larger than the gap between any two monthly prices in the first table. Two things drive it: how many steps the ladder has before maintenance, and whether the maintenance tier is priced above the starting tier. Wegovy injection is flat across its whole labelled range, so the only variation is the introductory fills. Zepbound is tiered all the way up, so the maintenance dose you settle on changes the annual figure by $500 or more.
Cost per percentage point of body weight lost
A monthly price tells you what leaves your account. It does not tell you what you are buying. The figures below divide the self-pay cost over each trial’s own duration by the average percentage of body weight that trial recorded, so the durations match the results rather than being rounded to a year.
We publish a weight loss calculator and no drug, so the comparison below is not a recommendation between products. It is arithmetic on two published inputs: the programme price and the trial endpoint.
| Drug and dose | Trial | Population and duration | Average result | Self-pay cost over that period | Cost per percentage point |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semaglutide tablets 25 mg daily | OASIS 4 (PMID 40934115) | No diabetes, 64 weeks | -13.6% | About $4,145 | About $305 |
| Tirzepatide 15 mg weekly | SURMOUNT-1 (PMID 35658024) | No diabetes, 72 weeks | -20.9% | About $7,253 | About $347 |
| Semaglutide 2.4 mg weekly | STEP 1 (PMID 33567185) | No diabetes, 68 weeks | -14.9% | About $5,179 | About $348 |
| Liraglutide 3.0 mg daily | SCALE (PMID 26132939) | No diabetes, 56 weeks | -8.4 kg from 106.2 kg, about 8% | About $3,870 at $300 a month | About $490 |
The middle two rows are the finding worth sitting with. Tirzepatide costs more per month and produces more weight loss, and the two effects very nearly cancel: $347 against $348 per percentage point. On that measure the expensive drug is not the expensive drug. What separates them is the ceiling, since no amount of semaglutide 2.4 mg buys a 20% average.
The outer two rows move in the opposite directions you might expect. The semaglutide pill is cheapest per point because its $299 maintenance tier sits well below the injection’s $349 while OASIS 4 recorded 13.6%, close to STEP 1. Generic liraglutide has the lowest monthly price of anything here and the worst cost per point, because 56 weeks of daily injections bought about 8%. Cheapest per month and cheapest per unit of effect are different questions with different answers.
What this arithmetic cannot tell you
- These are different trials in different cohorts, not a head-to-head. The one randomised head-to-head between tirzepatide and semaglutide is SURMOUNT-5, covered in our piece on average weight loss across the GLP-1 drugs.
- Trial averages assume reaching and staying on the maintenance dose. Someone who stops at a lower step pays less and loses less, and not necessarily in the same proportion.
- Side effect tolerance, injection frequency and whether a daily tablet suits you are not priced here at all.
- Prices change. Three of the tiers above carry explicit end dates in 2026.
When self-pay beats using your insurance
Having coverage does not automatically make the covered route cheaper. Two situations flip it:
- A high deductible. If a plan applies the drug to a deductible before covering it, the first months can be billed at or near list price. Against $349 a month self-pay, a $1,000 month inside a deductible is worse even though it counts toward the deductible.
- No weight-management benefit. Many plans cover semaglutide for type 2 diabetes and exclude it for weight. A denial is not a price, so the self-pay figure becomes the price.
Working the other direction, manufacturer savings programmes are closed to anyone with Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE or VA benefits under federal anti-kickback rules. That exclusion applies whether or not the benefit covers the drug, and it is not something you can waive.
What the monthly price does not include
Three costs sit outside the number in every table above. None is large next to the drug, and all three are easy to forget when comparing programmes:
- A prescriber. Every one of these products requires a prescription, whether through your own clinician or a telehealth service, and telehealth subscriptions are billed separately from the drug.
- Injection supplies. Zepbound vials are drawn into a syringe rather than metered by a pen, so syringes and needles are a recurring line item. The arithmetic that goes with them is in our mg to units explainer.
- Monitoring. Baseline and follow-up labs are standard practice on these drugs and are billed through whatever covers your care, not through the pharmacy programme.
The cost does not stop when the weight does
The single biggest determinant of what a GLP-1 costs you is not the monthly price but how many months there are. In the STEP 1 trial extension, participants who came off semaglutide regained roughly two thirds of their loss over the following year, and the cardiometabolic improvements moved back toward baseline with it (PMID 35441470). That is why prescribers treat these drugs as ongoing treatment rather than a course, and why a five-year budget is a more honest frame than a monthly one.
At $349 a month, five years is about $21,000. At $449, it is about $27,000. Those are the numbers a decision is actually being made against, and they are worth putting next to what the same five years of untreated weight-related conditions costs you, which no calculator on this site or anywhere else can price for you.
See what the money is buying in pounds
Run your starting weight through the trial percentages and get a pound figure instead of a percentage.
A percentage is hard to budget against. Putting your own starting weight through the GLP-1 weight loss calculator converts the trial averages into pounds, which makes the cost per pound in your own case easy to work out: divide the annual figures above by the pounds the calculator returns.
FAQ
How much does a GLP-1 cost per month without insurance?
Between $149 and $499 a month through the manufacturers’ own pharmacies in October 2026. The semaglutide pill starts at $149, Wegovy injection is $349 across its labelled doses, Ozempic is $349 to $499, and Zepbound vials run $299 to $449 by dose. List prices are around $1,349 for Wegovy and $1,060 for Zepbound.
What does a GLP-1 cost for a full year?
About $3,338 to $5,538 at self-pay prices, depending on the drug and the maintenance dose. The total is always more than twelve times the starting price, because the first one to three months sit on cheaper low-dose tiers and the remaining months do not.
Which GLP-1 gives the most weight loss per dollar?
On published prices and published trial endpoints, the semaglutide pill at 25 mg works out cheapest at roughly $305 per percentage point of body weight lost. Tirzepatide 15 mg and semaglutide 2.4 mg injection land at roughly $347 and $348, which is close enough to call equal. Generic liraglutide is cheapest per month and most expensive per percentage point.
Is Zepbound cheaper than Wegovy?
At the lowest dose, yes: $299 against $349. From 7.5 mg upward Zepbound vials are $449 a month, which is above Wegovy injection’s flat $349. Over a full year the Wegovy path is the cheaper of the two by roughly $800 to $1,300 depending on the Zepbound maintenance dose.
Will insurance cover a GLP-1 for weight loss?
It varies by plan and many plans exclude weight management while covering the same molecule for type 2 diabetes. Where a plan applies the drug to a high deductible first, the self-pay price can be lower than the insured price for the early months.
Do you have to keep paying forever?
Treatment is generally ongoing rather than a fixed course. In the STEP 1 trial extension, participants regained about two thirds of their weight loss in the year after stopping, which is why a multi-year budget is a more realistic frame than a monthly price.
This article is for information only and is not medical advice. Prices are published programme figures checked on 4 October 2026 and change frequently. Which drug is appropriate for you, and at what dose, is a decision for your prescriber.
Sources
- NovoCare Pharmacy published self-pay pricing for Wegovy injection, Wegovy tablets and Ozempic. Checked 4 October 2026.
- LillyDirect published self-pay pricing for Zepbound single-dose vials. Checked 4 October 2026.
- Wilding JPH, Batterham RL, Calanna S, et al. Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adults with Overweight or Obesity (STEP 1). <em>N Engl J Med</em>. 2021;384(11):989-1002. PMID: 33567185
- Jastreboff AM, Aronne LJ, Ahmad NN, et al. Tirzepatide Once Weekly for the Treatment of Obesity (SURMOUNT-1). <em>N Engl J Med</em>. 2022;387(3):205-216. PMID: 35658024
- Wharton S, Lingvay I, Bogdanski P, et al. Oral Semaglutide at a Dose of 25 mg in Adults with Overweight or Obesity (OASIS 4). <em>N Engl J Med</em>. 2025;393(11):1077-1087. PMID: 40934115
- Pi-Sunyer X, Astrup A, Fujioka K, et al. A Randomized, Controlled Trial of 3.0 mg of Liraglutide in Weight Management (SCALE). <em>N Engl J Med</em>. 2015;373(1):11-22. PMID: 26132939
- Wilding JPH, Batterham RL, Davies M, et al. Weight regain and cardiometabolic effects after withdrawal of semaglutide: the STEP 1 trial extension. <em>Diabetes Obes Metab</em>. 2022;24(8):1553-1564. PMID: 35441470