Searches for a "Zepbound savings card" treat it as one card. Lilly's own terms describe three, each for a different insurance situation, each with its own price, cap and fill limit. This page reads them as documents — quoted from Lilly's published conditions on zepbound.lilly.com/savings, read on 30 September 2026 — and works out what the caps mean in dollars.
The price ladder for every Zepbound form is on Zepbound cost. This page is about the cards' terms: who qualifies, what they pay, where the savings stop.
The three cards at a glance
| Covered single-dose pen | Uncovered single-dose pen | KwikPen, plan does not cover it | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who | Commercial plan covers the single-dose pen | Commercial plan does not cover the single-dose pen | Commercial plan does not cover the KwikPen |
| Patient pays | "As little as $25" per 1-, 2- or 3-month fill | "As low as $499" per month | $299 (2.5 mg), $399 (5 mg), $449 (7.5–15 mg) per month |
| Savings cap | $100 / $200 / $300 per 1-, 2-, 3-month fill; $1,300 a year | Wholesale price minus $499 | $215 (2.5 mg), $115 (5 mg), $65 (7.5 mg), $271 (10–15 mg) a month |
| Fills per calendar year | 13 | 13 | 11 |
| A "month" is | 28 days, up to 4 pens | 28 days, up to 4 pens | 28 days, 1 KwikPen |
| Expires | 12/31/2026 | 12/31/2026 | 12/31/2026 |
Common to all three, per the eligibility list: an on-label prescription, US or Puerto Rico residence, age 18 or over, and no enrolment in any government-funded programme — "Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Part D, Medicare Advantage, Medigap, DoD, VA, TRICARE®/CHAMPUS, or any state prescription drug assistance program." Vials are not on any card; the terms list the eligible pen NDCs and state that "other methods of administration are not eligible for Program savings."
The cap arithmetic: when $25 stops being $25
The covered-pen card says "as little as $25", but the binding term is the $100 monthly savings cap. The card pays the part of the copay above $25, up to $100. That gives a simple rule: the patient pays $25 when the plan copay is $125 or less, and the copay minus $100 when it is higher.
| Plan copay for a 1-month fill | Card pays | Patient pays |
|---|---|---|
| $50 | $25 | $25 |
| $125 | $100 | $25 |
| $150 | $100 | $50 |
| $200 | $100 | $100 |
| $300 | $100 | $200 |
| $500 (high coinsurance or deductible phase) | $100 | $400 |
glp1ledger arithmetic from Lilly's published caps; it assumes the pharmacy applies the card to the full plan copay.
The annual ceiling is consistent with the monthly one: 13 fills × $100 = $1,300, and 13 × 28 days = 364 days. A person filling every 28 days at a copay above $125 reaches the annual cap on the thirteenth fill, not before. Someone in a deductible phase — where the "copay" is the full negotiated price — gets $100 off each fill and pays the rest.
Lilly also reserves the right to cut the savings if a plan runs an accumulator, maximizer or alternate funding programme — arrangements in which the manufacturer's payments do not count towards the member's deductible, or the plan's cost-sharing is set by the card's availability. Members of those plans are "not eligible" under the terms. Whether a plan runs one is in the plan documents, not on the card.
The uncovered single-dose pen: $499
If a commercial plan excludes Zepbound, the single-dose pen card sets the monthly price at $499 for 28 days. The terms define the savings as the "wholesale acquisition cost minus $499", capped at 13 fills a year. Lilly's own savings page steers this group to the KwikPen instead, which costs less at every strength — the $499 card mainly matters to someone whose prescription is written for the single-dose pen.
The KwikPen card: $299 to $449, and two traps in the terms
The KwikPen is a multi-dose pen holding four weekly doses. Lilly's terms for people whose commercial plan does not cover it set $299 (2.5 mg), $399 (5 mg) and $449 (7.5 to 15 mg).
Trap one: the 45-day refill window. At 7.5 mg and above, $449 is a "purchase offer". To keep it, "you must complete your refill purchase … within 45 days of the delivery/received date" of the previous pen. Otherwise the regular prices apply: $499 for 7.5 mg and $699 for 10, 12.5 and 15 mg. A two-week delay — a holiday, a delivery problem, a pause for side effects — moves the 10 mg price by $250.
Trap two: 11 fills a year. The KwikPen card "may be used for a maximum of up to 11 prescription fills per calendar year." At 28 days per pen, 11 fills cover 308 days. The other 56 days of a 364-day year fall outside the card. The single-dose pen cards allow 13.
What the savings caps imply. Each strength has a maximum monthly saving, and adding it to the card price gives the pharmacy price at which the saving runs out: $514 for 2.5, 5 and 7.5 mg ($299 + $215, $399 + $115, $449 + $65) and $720 for 10 to 15 mg ($449 + $271). If a pharmacy's price is above that, the patient pays the difference. The $514 and $720 figures are our arithmetic from the published caps, not prices Lilly publishes.
People with no insurance, or on Medicare
The cards above require commercial insurance. Lilly's savings page gives separate routes to the other groups, as read on 30 September 2026:
- No insurance: the self-pay KwikPen or four vials at $299 a month at 2.5 mg, "LillyDirect® Pharmacy" or "Other pharmacy". The ladder is on Zepbound cost; how the manufacturer's pharmacy works is on LillyDirect explained.
- Medicare Part D, prescribed for weight management: coverage "through the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge for no more than $50/month", eligibility set by the Bridge's clinical criteria — see how the $50 Medicare programme works.
- VA, DoD, TRICARE and other government programmes: the same $299 self-pay offer is shown. The card itself is excluded.
Why every manufacturer card shuts out government-programme members — a federal civil-penalty statute, not a Lilly preference — is explained on cheapest GLP-1 without insurance.
What the terms do not say
- Anything about 2027. Every card "expires and savings end on 12/31/2026". Lilly can amend or end the programme "at any time without notice and for any reason", so the table above is dated, not permanent.
- Whether the 11-fill KwikPen limit applies to the no-insurance self-pay route. The written terms on the savings page describe the KwikPen card for commercially insured patients without coverage; they do not state a fill limit for the uninsured route.
- Whether a given plan covers Zepbound. That depends on the employer and the plan's formulary — see GLP-1 insurance coverage and one insurer's published approval criteria.
How Zepbound compares on price with its main rival, pen by pen, is on Zepbound vs Wegovy; what the drug did in its own trials is on the tirzepatide review.
This page reports Lilly's published terms. It is not advice on which card or which drug to use; eligibility is decided by Lilly and the pharmacy at the time of each fill, and treatment decisions belong with the prescriber.
Sources
- Eli Lilly and Company, "Savings & Insurance Options | Zepbound® (tirzepatide)", including the Card Eligibility and the Card Terms and Conditions for the single-dose pen and single-patient-use KwikPen, and the Purchase Offer Terms and Conditions, zepbound.lilly.com/savings, read 30 September 2026.
- Eli Lilly and Company, LillyDirect Zepbound page (self-pay prices by strength, the 45-day refill condition and the regular prices), lilly.com/lillydirect/announcing-zepbound-kwikpen, read 30 September 2026.
- Zepbound prescribing information (Eli Lilly and Company), DailyMed set ID 487cd7e7-434c-4925-99fa-aa80b1cc776b, effective 2026-08-28 — presentations (single-dose pen, single-dose vial, KwikPen).