GLP-1 Price Index: What Treatment Costs in the U.S.

The TirzaSema GLP-1 Price Index tracks what weight-loss treatment actually costs in the United States each month: the manufacturers’ own self-pay prices by dose, and the all-in monthly cost of telehealth programmes including every membership fee. Each figure carries the date we checked it against the provider. The full dataset is free to download and reuse with attribution.

What this month’s data shows

The median all-in price is $194 a month across 44 programmes that publish one, ranging from $75 to $450.

Compounded is no longer the obvious saving. The median compounded programme costs $179 a month, against $243 for programmes dispensing FDA-approved medication. But buying the approved medicine direct from the manufacturer now starts at $149 a month for the Wegovy pill and $299 for Zepbound, with no telehealth fee at all. For many people on standard doses, the approved drug is now the cheaper option, which was not true in 2024.

More than half of the market will not tell you the price. Of the 98 programmes we track, only 44 publish a monthly figure we can verify. The rest put it behind an intake quiz, an account, or a consultation.

Published prices often contradict each other. Among the compounded sellers we examined closely this month, Direct Meds lists compounded tirzepatide at $399 on one of its websites and $497 on another; Shed quotes $199 and $249 for the same semaglutide product on different pages; SkinnyRx prices range from $169 to $399 across its own pages and patient reports. Remedy Meds was the exception, quoting the same figures consistently since June.

How to read these numbers

All-in means everything you pay to be treated for a month: the membership or programme fee plus the medication. Where a programme only sells a membership and bills medication separately, we exclude the membership-only figure, because it is not the cost of treatment. Where the cheapest price requires prepaying six or twelve months, we use the monthly equivalent and say so on the brand’s page.

Manufacturer prices are self-pay prices from LillyDirect and NovoCare: what you pay without insurance, direct from the maker’s own pharmacy, with no telehealth company in between.

Methodology

Every price is read from the provider’s or manufacturer’s own public pages and recorded with the date it was checked. Figures older than 60 days are excluded from this index and hidden on the brand page, rather than shown as if current. Where a provider publishes conflicting prices, we record the range and say where each figure came from. Where no price is published, the brand is listed as such rather than estimated. We do not accept payment for inclusion or placement, and no brand can pay to change its score or price. Prices are USD per month; UK and other non-dollar pricing is excluded from the index.

Compounded medications are not approved by the FDA. They are included here because people pay for them, not as an endorsement, and every brand page states the regulatory position.

Using this data

Journalists, researchers and clinicians are welcome to use the dataset, free of charge, with attribution to TirzaSema and a link to this page. If you need a cut we do not publish, such as prices by dose across providers or the history for one brand, email us and we will prepare it. The index updates monthly, and from next month this page will also show what changed since the previous release.

Related: all brand reviews, medication prices by dose, side-by-side comparison tool.