Wegovy injection climbs through five weekly doses on the label: 0.25 mg for weeks 1 to 4, 0.5 mg for weeks 5 to 8, 1 mg for weeks 9 to 12, 1.7 mg for weeks 13 to 16, then 2.4 mg as the maintenance dose from week 17. Since March 2026 the label also permits a maximum of 7.2 mg once weekly for adults who have tolerated 2.4 mg for at least four weeks and need further weight reduction.
The Wegovy tablets are a second, unrelated chart: 1.5 mg, 4 mg, 9 mg and 25 mg once daily, moving up in 30-day blocks rather than four-week ones. Below is every step on both, the pen each strength comes in, and the four label rules that dosage charts usually leave out. All of it is a description of the product labelling, not a schedule to run without a prescriber.
- The injection ladder has five steps and reaches its 2.4 mg maintenance dose at week 17, which is about four months in.
- 7.2 mg is an extension above 2.4 mg rather than a new starting point, approved in the United States on 19 March 2026.
- The tablets run 1.5, 4, 9 and 25 mg once daily in 30-day blocks, and their milligram numbers do not map onto the injection at all.
- Every strength is a separate single-dose pen. The first three deliver 0.5 mL and the top three deliver 0.75 mL.
- The label covers what happens when a dose is missed, when a step is not tolerated, and when someone moves between the tablet and the injection. Those rules are the part of the chart that matters in practice.
The Wegovy injection dosage chart
The four-week block is the unit the whole schedule is built from. What changes at each step is the strength of the pen, not the volume you inject or a setting on the device.
| Weeks | Weekly dose | Pen supplied | Delivered volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 0.25 mg | 0.25 mg/0.5 mL | 0.5 mL |
| 5 to 8 | 0.5 mg | 0.5 mg/0.5 mL | 0.5 mL |
| 9 to 12 | 1 mg | 1 mg/0.5 mL | 0.5 mL |
| 13 to 16 | 1.7 mg | 1.7 mg/0.75 mL | 0.75 mL |
| 17 onward | 2.4 mg maintenance | 2.4 mg/0.75 mL | 0.75 mL |
| After 4 weeks at 2.4 mg | 7.2 mg maximum, if clinically indicated | 7.2 mg/0.75 mL | 0.75 mL |
Two details in that table are worth separating out. First, 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg and 1.7 mg are escalation steps rather than destinations, which is the opposite of how the Ozempic ladder works, where 0.5 mg, 1 mg and 2 mg are all licensed maintenance doses for diabetes. We set the two schedules side by side in the semaglutide dosage chart.
Second, the volume jump at week 13 is not a dose change you control. The 1.7 mg and 2.4 mg pens hold 0.75 mL rather than 0.5 mL because the concentration was chosen for the device, so nothing about the injection technique changes when the strength does. The label adds that the time of day and the injection site can both be changed without any dosage modification.
The tablet schedule is a different chart entirely
Oral semaglutide sold as Wegovy tablets was approved for chronic weight management with a United States launch in early January 2026. The schedule moves in calendar months rather than four-week blocks.
| Days | Once-daily dose |
|---|---|
| 1 to 30 | 1.5 mg |
| 31 to 60 | 4 mg |
| 61 to 90 | 9 mg |
| 91 onward | 25 mg |
The reason 25 mg of tablet sits alongside 2.4 mg of injection is absorption. A peptide taken by mouth is mostly destroyed before it reaches the bloodstream, so the oral product carries an absorption enhancer and a much larger nominal dose to end up with a comparable amount of drug in circulation. Reading the two charts as if 25 mg were ten times 2.4 mg is the single most common mistake made with these numbers.
The tablet also carries administration rules the injection has no equivalent for: taken in the morning on an empty stomach with water only, up to about 4 ounces, then at least 30 minutes before any food, other drink or other oral medicine, and swallowed whole rather than split, crushed, chewed or dissolved. We compared the two formulations and their trials in Wegovy pill vs injection.
Four rules the chart does not show
A grid of weeks and milligrams implies that dosing is a calendar. The label spends more of its text on what happens when it is not.
A missed injection
If one dose is missed and the next scheduled dose is more than two days away, the label says the dose can be given as soon as possible. If the next scheduled dose is less than two days away, the missed dose is not given and the schedule resumes on the usual day. The tablets work the other way round, because they are daily: a missed tablet is skipped and the next one taken the following day.
Two or more missed injections in a row
This is the rule most charts omit and it is the one with real consequences. If two or more consecutive weekly doses are missed, the label says to reinitiate dose escalation at a lower dosage, specifically to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal reactions. Tolerance to these drugs fades with the gap, so restarting at the dose someone left off at is not what the labelling describes.
A step that is not tolerated
The label states that if a dose is not tolerated during escalation, delaying the escalation by four weeks can be considered. That single sentence is why so few real dose histories match the chart. In the STEP 4 run-in, 11.0% of participants never reached the 2.4 mg target dose at all.
Moving between the tablet and the injection
The label gives both directions explicitly, and they are not symmetrical. One week after stopping the 2.4 mg injection, 25 mg tablets once daily can be started. The day after stopping 25 mg tablets, the 2.4 mg injection once weekly can be started. The asymmetry reflects how long semaglutide takes to clear: a weekly injection is still in circulation for days after the last dose, a daily tablet is not.
The 7.2 mg step, and what it was measured at
The higher dose was approved in the United States on 19 March 2026, the first GLP-1 receptor agonist cleared under the Commissioner's National Priority Voucher pilot, 54 days after filing rather than the usual 10 to 12 months. The single-dose pen reached the market in April 2026.
STEP UP is the trial behind it. It randomly assigned 1407 adults with obesity and no type 2 diabetes to semaglutide 7.2 mg, 2.4 mg or placebo for 72 weeks and reported mean weight changes of -18.7%, -15.6% and -3.9% (PMID 40961952). Altered skin sensation, recorded as dysesthesia, was reported by 22% of the 7.2 mg group against 6% on 2.4 mg and 0.3% on placebo.
Read as a dosage chart, that is 3.1 percentage points of additional mean weight loss for roughly three times the dose, with a tolerability signal attached. It is an extension of the ladder for people who have already reached the top of it, which is exactly how the label frames it.
What each dose on the chart has actually been measured at
Only the maintenance doses have weight-loss figures against them. The escalation steps have never been trial endpoints, because nobody stays on them long enough to measure one.
| Dose | Trial | Population | Duration | Mean weight change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.25 to 1.7 mg | Not measured as an endpoint | Escalation steps only | 4 weeks each | No figure exists |
| 2.4 mg injection | STEP 1 (PMID 33567185) | Overweight or obesity, no diabetes | 68 weeks | -14.9% (placebo -2.4%) |
| 2.4 mg injection | STEP 2 (PMID 33667417) | Overweight or obesity with type 2 diabetes | 68 weeks | -9.6% (placebo -3.4%) |
| 7.2 mg injection | STEP UP (PMID 40961952) | Obesity, no diabetes | 72 weeks | -18.7% (2.4 mg arm -15.6%) |
| 25 mg tablet | OASIS 4 (PMID 40934115) | Overweight or obesity, no diabetes | 64 weeks | -13.6% (placebo -2.2%) |
The two 2.4 mg rows are the ones to sit with. Same molecule, same dose, same 68 weeks, and the result differs by roughly a third depending on whether the participants had type 2 diabetes. No step on the dosage chart changes the answer by that much, which is a useful corrective to reading the ladder as a weight-loss dial. The trials behind those numbers are broken down in how much weight you can lose on Wegovy, and a GLP-1 weight loss calculator will turn either percentage into a pound figure from your own starting weight.
Turn a dose schedule into your own numbers
The percentages above are trial averages. See what they work out to in pounds from your starting weight, week by week.
Why the first four months exist
The escalation buys tolerability, not effect. A pooled analysis of STEP 1 to STEP 3 found the cumulative incidence of a first gastrointestinal adverse event plateaued after about week 20, so most people who were going to feel unwell had done so by the time the dose stopped climbing (PMID 34514682). Injection site reactions stayed uncommon throughout, at 1.4% of Wegovy-treated patients against 1% on placebo. What the trials logged in volume is in semaglutide side effects.
What this chart is not
- A schedule to follow on your own. Every number here describes the approved labelling. Which step someone is on, how long they stay there and whether they move up are prescriber decisions.
- A guide to compounded semaglutide. Compounded vials sit outside this label and their concentration varies by supplier, so a dose expressed in syringe units cannot be carried between vials. The arithmetic is in our mg to units explainer.
- A prediction. Half the semaglutide group in STEP 1 lost 15% or more of their body weight and roughly one in seven did not reach 5%, on the identical dose for the identical 68 weeks.
FAQ
What is the Wegovy dosage chart?
The labelled injection schedule is 0.25 mg once weekly for weeks 1 to 4, 0.5 mg for weeks 5 to 8, 1 mg for weeks 9 to 12, 1.7 mg for weeks 13 to 16, then 2.4 mg as the maintenance dose from week 17. For adults who have tolerated 2.4 mg for at least four weeks and need further weight reduction, the label permits an increase to a maximum of 7.2 mg once weekly.
How long does it take to get to 2.4 mg of Wegovy?
Sixteen weeks, or about four months, if every four-week step is taken on schedule. The label also says that if a dose is not tolerated during escalation, the prescriber can consider delaying the next step by four weeks, so a real dose history is often longer than the chart.
What does the label say about a missed Wegovy injection?
If one dose is missed and the next scheduled dose is more than two days away, the label says to administer it as soon as possible. If the next scheduled dose is less than two days away, the missed dose is not given. If two or more consecutive doses are missed, the label says to reinitiate dose escalation at a lower dosage to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal reactions.
Is the Wegovy tablet dosage chart the same as the injection?
No. The tablets are a separate schedule in 30-day blocks: 1.5 mg daily for days 1 to 30, 4 mg for days 31 to 60, 9 mg for days 61 to 90, then 25 mg from day 91. The milligram numbers are not comparable to the injection because only a small fraction of an oral dose is absorbed.
Which Wegovy pen delivers which dose?
Each strength is its own single-dose pen. The 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg and 1 mg pens deliver 0.5 mL, and the 1.7 mg, 2.4 mg and 7.2 mg pens deliver 0.75 mL. The strength changes by concentration rather than by how much you inject, so there is no dose to select on the device.
Does the Wegovy dose predict how much weight you will lose?
Only loosely. STEP 1 recorded a mean loss of 14.9% over 68 weeks on 2.4 mg in adults without diabetes, while STEP 2 recorded 9.6% at the identical dose and duration in adults who also had type 2 diabetes. The population moved the result by about a third, which is more than any step on the chart.
Sources
- WEGOVY (semaglutide) injection and tablets, prescribing information. Novo Nordisk. Sections 2 and 16, dosage and administration and how supplied.
- Wilding JPH, Batterham RL, Calanna S, et al. Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adults with Overweight or Obesity (STEP 1). N Engl J Med. 2021;384(11):989-1002. PMID: 33567185
- Davies M, Féderèr Hansen K, Lingvay I, et al. Semaglutide 2.4 mg once a week in adults with overweight or obesity, and type 2 diabetes (STEP 2). Lancet. 2021;397(10278):971-984. PMID: 33667417
- Rubino D, Abrahamsson N, Davies M, et al. Effect of Continued Weekly Subcutaneous Semaglutide vs Placebo on Weight Loss Maintenance: The STEP 4 Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2021;325(14):1414-1425. PMID: 33755728
- Wharton S, Davies M, Lingvay I, et al. Once-weekly semaglutide 7.2 mg in adults with obesity (STEP UP): a randomised, controlled, phase 3b trial. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2025. PMID: 40961952
- Oral semaglutide 25 mg in adults with overweight or obesity (OASIS 4). PMID: 40934115
- Wharton S, Calanna S, Davies M, et al. Gastrointestinal tolerability of once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg in adults with overweight or obesity, and the relationship between gastrointestinal adverse events and weight loss. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2022;24(1):94-105. PMID: 34514682
This article is for information only and is not medical advice. Dosing, suitability and any change to treatment are decisions for your prescriber.