glp1ledger

What Wegovy Costs in 2026: Every Dose, Every Route, Dated

Wegovy is the only GLP-1 whose pen price does not rise with the dose, the only one with a $50 Medicare route, and the one whose savings card stops helping at a $125 copay. All three facts come from Novo Nordisk's own guide.

Ronald R · Edited by Caroline S · Published 2026-09-08

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Most GLP-1 price tables get longer as the dose rises. Wegovy's does not: Novo Nordisk charges the same $349 a month for the starting dose and the maintenance dose and every step between them. That single decision makes Wegovy the easiest GLP-1 to budget for and the hardest to compare with anything else.

Every figure below comes from Novo Nordisk's Wegovy price guide, document code US26NC00049 dated April 2026, downloaded and read on 2026-09-08, together with the savings-offer page carrying the card's terms. This page reports prices, not treatment decisions; those belong with a prescriber, as our editorial standards explain.

The published self-pay prices

Form Dose Self-pay per month Terms
Pen 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg $199 New patients only, first two monthly fills, through 2026-12-31
Pen 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 1.7 mg, 2.4 mg $349 Standard offer — one price for the whole ladder
HD pen 7.2 mg $399 Standard offer
Pill 1.5 mg $149 Standard offer
Pill 4 mg $199 Standard offer
Pill 9 mg, 25 mg $299 Standard offer

One month is one box of four pens, or one bottle of 30 tablets. The pens are single-dose; four of them cover four weekly injections.

The flat ladder, and why it is unusual

Titration is the normal experience of starting one of these drugs: four weeks at 0.25 mg, four at 0.5 mg, and so on upward. On most price schedules that journey costs more each time it steps.

On Wegovy's it does not. $349 covers 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 1.7 mg and 2.4 mg alike — a nearly tenfold range of weekly dose at one price. The only increase anywhere in the injectable line is the HD pen at 7.2 mg, which is $399, a $50 step.

Two consequences worth stating. For a patient, the monthly figure after the introductory offer does not move, which makes a year of treatment arithmetically simple in a way this market rarely is: twelve fills at $349 is $4,188, wherever the dose settles. And for anyone comparing brands, the flat ladder is why Wegovy ends up cheaper than Ozempic at the top and identical to it lower down — the divergence is entirely a step in Ozempic's schedule, not a discount in Wegovy's. Our Ozempic cost page sets that comparison out per milligram; the short version is that the higher weekly dose of the same molecule is the cheaper one, by $150 a month.

The $25 that is usually not $25

Novo's card carries the same headline as every other GLP-1 card and the same arithmetic underneath it.

The footnote, verbatim: "Pay as little as $25, subject to a maximum savings of $100/month." Those are two facts, and only one of them is in large type. The card contributes at most $100. So:

  • Copay $125 → card pays $100 → patient pays $25. The headline holds.
  • Copay $250 → card pays $100 → patient pays $150.
  • Copay $500 → card pays $100 → patient pays $400.

The break-even is a $125 copay, which is the same ceiling Zepbound's card produces and $50 below Mounjaro's. Government beneficiaries are excluded from all of them.

One structural difference is worth recording, because it cuts in Novo's favour and is easy to miss. Lilly's cards for Zepbound and Mounjaro publish an annual maximum saving and a limit of 13 fills per calendar year alongside the monthly cap. The Novo footnote we read on 2026-09-08 publishes a monthly cap and neither of the others. We are not claiming no annual limit exists in the full terms — only that the footnote a patient actually reads does not state one, while its Lilly equivalents do.

The Medicare route only this brand has

Wegovy is the semaglutide brand that reaches the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, under which eligible Part D beneficiaries pay $50 a month. The Bridge runs from 2026-07-01 to 2027-12-31, Novo's page states that the $50 applies to all Wegovy dose strengths, and Part D sponsors do not have to opt in for an eligible beneficiary to use it. Eligibility rests on a prescriber attesting that the drug is for weight reduction and maintenance in an adult meeting one of several BMI-and-diagnosis categories.

That is a $299-a-month difference from the self-pay price for anyone who qualifies, and it is the largest single price gap anywhere in this product's schedule. The policy background — including the separate BALANCE model, which CMS announced on 2026-04-21 it would not run in Part D for 2027 — is on our GLP-1 cost page.

The packaging trap

A month of Wegovy is a box of four pens. A month of Ozempic is a box of one. Both are four weekly doses; Wegovy's pens are single-dose devices and Ozempic's is multi-dose.

This is worth knowing before comparing anything. A reader who sees "four pens for $349" against "one pen for $349" and concludes that Wegovy supplies four times the drug has been misled by packaging, not by price. The correct comparison is per month, or per weekly dose, and on either basis the two are identical below 2 mg.

What the price is not

$349 is not Wegovy's list price. That figure, quoted by the White House on 2026-02-05, is $1,349 a month, and TrumpRx.gov shows $1,349.02. A list price is what the manufacturer charges wholesalers before rebates and programmes; the self-pay schedule above exists so that a cash-paying patient does not meet it. It still matters to one group: people whose insurance deductible is charged at something close to list before coverage begins.

And $349 is not what the pharmacy counter will necessarily say. The guide describes these as prices available through the savings offer or NovoCare Pharmacy — a patient who walks in without the offer applied is not quoted them.

Sources, with dates

Prices in this market changed four times in the twelve months to September 2026. Every figure here carries the date it was read; re-check the manufacturer page before relying on any of them.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Wegovy cost per month without insurance?

From Novo Nordisk's own price guide, read 2026-09-08: $349 a month for every pen dose from 0.25 mg through 2.4 mg, $399 for the 7.2 mg HD pen, and $199 a month for a new patient's first two monthly fills of 0.25 mg and 0.5 mg, an offer running through 2026-12-31. The pill is $149 for 1.5 mg, $199 for 4 mg and $299 for 9 mg and 25 mg. One month is one box of four pens or one bottle of 30 tablets. These are self-pay prices through the savings offer or NovoCare Pharmacy, not the roughly $1,349 list price.

Does Wegovy get more expensive as the dose goes up?

Not across the standard pen line, which is unusual in this market. Novo prices 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 1.7 mg and 2.4 mg identically at $349 a month, so a patient titrating from the starting dose to the maintenance dose sees no price change at all once the introductory offer ends. The single exception is the HD pen at 7.2 mg, which is $399. The tablets do rise with dose, from $149 to $299, though they flatten at the top: 9 mg and 25 mg are the same $299.

Does the Wegovy savings card really get you to $25 a month?

Only where the plan's copay is $125 or less. Novo's own footnote reads 'pay as little as $25, subject to a maximum savings of $100/month', so the card contributes at most $100 and the patient pays whatever remains. Against a $300 copay the card pays $100 and the patient pays $200. Government beneficiaries are excluded from the card entirely. The footnote we read publishes a monthly cap only — unlike Lilly's Zepbound and Mounjaro cards, which also publish an annual maximum and a 13-fill limit.

How does Wegovy's price compare with Ozempic's?

They are the same molecule from the same manufacturer, and below 2 mg they are priced identically at $349 a month. At the top of each ladder they diverge sharply and in the direction most people would not guess: Wegovy's 2.4 mg pen is $349 while Ozempic's 2 mg pen is $499, so the higher weekly dose is $150 a month cheaper. Our [Ozempic cost page](/cost/ozempic) works that comparison through per milligram.

Can Medicare pay for Wegovy?

Through a demonstration rather than an ordinary benefit. The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge runs from 2026-07-01 to 2027-12-31 and lets eligible Part D beneficiaries pay $50 a month, with Novo's page stating the $50 applies to all Wegovy dose strengths and that Part D sponsors do not have to opt in for eligible beneficiaries to use it. Eligibility requires a prescriber attestation about BMI and diagnosis. The wider policy background, including the separate BALANCE model that CMS declined to run in Part D for 2027, is on our [GLP-1 cost page](/cost/glp-1).

Is the Wegovy pill cheaper than the pen?

At every dose Novo prices, yes. The tablets run $149, $199 and $299 a month against $349 for the pen after the introductory period — so $50 to $200 a month less, with the largest gap at the starting doses. Oral and injectable semaglutide are absorbed differently and are not milligram-for-milligram equivalent, so this is a comparison of monthly prices for two products, not of value per milligram. Our [GLP-1 pills page](/cost/glp-1-pills) prices every approved tablet dose and sets out the trial results behind them.