Every GLP-1 medicine in the United States has at least three prices: the list price the manufacturer publishes for wholesalers, the self-pay price the manufacturer now sells at directly, and whatever an insurance plan, Medicare or an employer leaves the patient to pay. Most confusion about cost comes from comparing one kind of price to another. This page keeps them apart, dates every figure, and links each one to the page it was read from on 2026-09-05. Prices in this market changed four times in the twelve months before that date; the "Sources and dates" section at the end says where to re-check.
This page reports prices and program terms. It does not say which medicine anyone should take; that is a decision for a patient and a clinician, and our editorial standards explain why we leave it there.
Self-pay prices from the manufacturers (read 2026-09-05)
These are the prices Novo Nordisk and Lilly charge when no insurance is used, through NovoCare Pharmacy, LillyDirect, or a pharmacy presenting the manufacturer's self-pay offer. "One month" is one box of four pens, one bottle of 30 tablets, or, for Zepbound, one month's vials or one KwikPen.
| Medicine and form | Dose | Self-pay price per month | Terms stated by the manufacturer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wegovy pen (semaglutide) | 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg | $199 for a new patient's first two monthly fills, then $349 | Introductory offer valid for two fills through 2026-12-31 |
| Wegovy pen | 1 mg, 1.7 mg, 2.4 mg | $349 | Standard offer |
| Wegovy HD pen | 7.2 mg | $399 | Standard offer |
| Wegovy pill (oral semaglutide) | 1.5 mg | $149 | Standard offer |
| Wegovy pill | 4 mg | $199 | Novo's web page had listed $149 through 2026-08-31, then $199 |
| Wegovy pill | 9 mg, 25 mg | $299 | Standard offer |
| Ozempic pen (semaglutide) | 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg | $199 for a new patient's first two fills, then $349 | Offer for two monthly fills through 2026-12-31 |
| Ozempic pen | 1 mg | $349 | Standard offer |
| Ozempic pen | 2 mg | $499 | Standard offer |
| Ozempic pill | 1.5 mg / 4 mg / 9 mg | $149 / $199 / $299 | Standard offer |
| Zepbound (tirzepatide), vial or KwikPen via LillyDirect | 2.5 mg | $299 | Self-pay |
| Zepbound | 5 mg | $399 | Self-pay |
| Zepbound | 7.5 mg, 10 mg, 12.5 mg, 15 mg | $449 | Self-pay; the page also shows a "regular" price of $499 to $699 for these doses without stating, on the page we opened, what separates the two |
| Foundayo (orforglipron), via LillyDirect | Lowest dose | from $149 | Higher-dose self-pay prices were not on the approval release we opened |
| Mounjaro (tirzepatide) | Any | Not found | Lilly's pricing page could not be opened on 2026-09-05; no manufacturer self-pay program was found on an open page |
Sources: Novo Nordisk's Wegovy price guide (document code US26NC00049, April 2026) and Ozempic price guide (US26NC00009, May 2026); the Wegovy cost page; Lilly's Zepbound coverage and savings page; Lilly's Foundayo approval release of 2026-04-01.
Two things the table shows that the headlines do not. First, the Wegovy and Ozempic pens are priced identically for the same semaglutide dose; the brand on the box does not change the self-pay price below 2 mg. Second, the pills are cheaper than the pens at every starting dose and $50 cheaper at maintenance, which is the reverse of the usual assumption that a newer form costs more.
List prices, and why they are not what you pay
A list price (wholesale acquisition cost) is the manufacturer's published price to wholesalers before any rebate, discount or program. It matters for two groups: people whose insurance deductible is charged at something close to it, and anyone reading a headline.
| Medicine | List price per month | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Wegovy | $1,349.02 | TrumpRx.gov Wegovy page, read 2026-09-05; the White House fact sheet of 2026-02-05 gives $1,349 |
| Ozempic | $1,028 | White House fact sheet, 2026-02-05 |
| Zepbound | $1,088 | Same fact sheet |
| Mounjaro, Foundayo, Rybelsus | Not verified | Not stated on any manufacturer or government page we could open on 2026-09-05 |
Novo Nordisk's price guides do not print a list price at all, and Lilly's pricing pages returned errors to our requests, so the government pages are the primary source we can link. The gap between a $1,349 list price and a $349 self-pay price is the whole story of GLP-1 cost in 2026: the same pen, from the same company, at a quarter of the published price, with no insurance involved.
With commercial insurance: the savings cards
If a commercial plan covers the drug, the manufacturer's savings card reduces the copay. The terms, read 2026-09-05:
- Wegovy and Ozempic: "Pay as little as $25, subject to a maximum savings of $100/month. Government beneficiaries excluded." A month is one box of four pens or one bottle of 30 tablets. So a plan whose copay is $125 leaves $25; a copay of $400 leaves $300.
- Zepbound: "Pay as little as $25 for a 1-month, 2-month, or 3-month prescription fill", capped at $100 per month of savings ($200 for two months, $300 for three) and "$1,300 per calendar year", a maximum of 13 fills, and the card "expires and savings end on 12/31/2026". For a commercial plan that does not cover Zepbound, the same card offers the single-dose pen at "as low as $499".
- Foundayo: "as little as $25 per month" with a savings card; terms and conditions apply.
Whether a plan covers weight-management GLP-1s at all is the larger variable, and it is plan-by-plan; many exclude the obesity indication while covering the diabetes brands. Nothing on a manufacturer page changes a plan's formulary.
Medicare: the $50 Bridge and the BALANCE model
Until 2026, Medicare Part D was barred by statute from covering drugs for weight loss. What exists now is a demonstration and a delayed model.
The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge. CMS's page states it runs "July 1, 2026, to December 31, 2027". Novo Nordisk's Wegovy page states that eligible Part D beneficiaries pay "$50 per month for all dose strengths" over that period, and Lilly's Foundayo release says "$50 per month, beginning as soon as July 1, 2026". KFF's explainer notes that Part D sponsors "will not have to opt into the demonstration for eligible beneficiaries to gain access." Eligibility, per KFF, requires a prescriber to attest that the drug is for weight reduction and ongoing maintenance in an adult who falls into "one of three categories related to BMI and other clinical diagnostic criteria"; the thresholds are shown in a figure we could not transcribe, so we do not restate them.
BALANCE. The Better Approaches to Lifestyle and Nutrition for Comprehensive hEalth model was announced as a Medicaid program starting "as early as May 2026" and a Part D program for 2027. Under it, KFF reports, the manufacturers agreed to "a $245 net price per 30-day supply for all model drugs in 2027 for the Medicare program", with Medicaid pricing confidential. The drugs in the model, per CMS: "All formulations of Mounjaro, Ozempic, Rybelsus, and Wegovy, the KwikPen formulation of Zepbound, and Foundayo." Then, on 2026-04-21, CMS announced it would not implement BALANCE in Part D for 2027, citing too few plan sponsors applying by the 2026-04-20 deadline, and extended the Bridge through the end of 2027 instead. Medicaid implementation continues on a rolling basis from 2026-05-01 through 2027-01-01, and participation is voluntary for states.
So for a Medicare beneficiary in September 2026 the operative number is $50 per month through the Bridge, if they qualify; the $245 figure is a price the government negotiated for a program that, in Part D, has not started.
Sources: CMS BALANCE model page; KFF, "What to Know About the BALANCE Model", updated 2026-05-11; Wegovy cost page.
TrumpRx: the same prices through a different door
TrumpRx.gov launched on 2026-02-05. The White House fact sheet describes Wegovy's monthly price falling "from $1,349 to an average price of $350 and as low as $199", the Wegovy pill "to as low as $149", Ozempic "from $1,028 to an average price of $350 and as low as $199", and Zepbound "from $1,088 to an average price of $346 and as low as $299". Those are the manufacturers' self-pay prices in the table above. The Wegovy page on TrumpRx repeats Novo's own wording, including the $199 introductory price "only available for 2 monthly fills between 11/17/2025–12/31/2026", and the Zepbound page says Lilly "manages all Zepbound (Tirzepatide) Vial orders through LillyDirect". The site is a front door to NovoCare and LillyDirect, not a separate price.
Telehealth: what the membership adds
A telehealth service prescribes; the drug is then bought at one of the prices above, or at the service's own price. The add-on is the membership.
- Ro. Ro's press release of 2026-04-02 lists Zepbound KwikPen through its platform at $299 per month for the 2.5 mg dose and $399 for 5 mg, with higher doses at $449 when refilled within 45 days of the previous delivery, and a $199 one-month new-patient offer for Wegovy. Ro's own pricing page states a Body membership of $39 for the first month, then $149 per month or $888 prepaid for a year; we could not open that page directly on 2026-09-05 and take the figures from its search listing, so treat the membership price as reported rather than verified.
- Hims & Hers. Its newsroom release of 2026-04-23 says providers can send prescriptions to LillyDirect so customers "access self-pay pricing" for Zepbound and Foundayo, with Wegovy through Novo Nordisk; the release states no membership fee, and the product pages blocked our request, so we do not quote one.
- Costco. From 2025-10-03, a four-week supply of Wegovy or Ozempic for $499 to members with a prescription, per NBC News; on 2026-09-05 that was $150 more than Novo's own price for most doses, which suggests the offer has not moved with the manufacturer's cuts, or that Costco's member page shows dose-specific prices we could not open.
The arithmetic to do before choosing a telehealth route: membership plus drug, against the manufacturer's price plus a visit with one's own clinician. On the figures above, a $149 monthly membership costs more over a year than the drug's introductory discount saves.
A year's cost, worked
Using the prices read on 2026-09-05 and assuming the standard escalation, with no insurance:
- Wegovy pen, new patient: two fills at $199, then ten at $349 = $3,888 for the first twelve months, before any HD dose.
- Wegovy pill, reaching 25 mg: one month each at $149 and $199, then ten at $299 = $3,338.
- Zepbound via LillyDirect, reaching 10 mg: one month at $299, one at $399, then ten at $449 = $5,188.
- Medicare Bridge, if eligible: twelve months at $50 = $600.
These are the manufacturers' program prices on one day; the introductory offers carry an end date of 2026-12-31 and both companies reserve the right to change or cancel the programs. Anyone budgeting for the medicine should re-read the source pages on the day they decide.
What this page does not do
It does not compare the medicines' effects; our comparison of retatrutide and tirzepatide does that for two of them, from the trials. It does not cover compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide, whose legal status FDA has been changing through 2025 and 2026. It does not recommend a medicine, a pharmacy or a telehealth service.
Sources and dates
All pages were opened on 2026-09-05 unless stated: Novo Nordisk's Wegovy price guide (April 2026) and Ozempic price guide (May 2026), and the Wegovy cost page; Lilly's Zepbound coverage and savings page and its Foundayo approval release (2026-04-01); the White House TrumpRx fact sheet (2026-02-05) and the TrumpRx Wegovy and Zepbound pages; CMS's BALANCE page; KFF's BALANCE explainer (updated 2026-05-11); Ro's Zepbound KwikPen release (2026-04-02); the Hims & Hers newsroom release (2026-04-23); NBC News on Costco (2025-10-03). Pages we could not open, and therefore do not quote: Lilly's pricing pages for Zepbound, Mounjaro and Foundayo (the Zepbound coverage page opened; the corporate pricing pages did not), Ro's and Hims's product pages, Costco's member program page, and GoodRx.
Corrections and newer prices go to the contact page. The about page says who writes this and what we do not do.