Last updated August 27, 2026

Methodology

Every figure on this site is produced by the same published arithmetic from the same dated records. This page is that arithmetic.

The twelve cost concepts

Advertised starting price

The number a provider puts on its page. Recorded exactly as written, with the page and date.

Introductory price

A discount limited to a first month or first order. Recorded with its duration and the price that follows; never described as the standard price.

Actual recurring price

The post-introductory price at the labelled starting dose, normalised to one month. Plans sold per order over a supply range produce a range.

Medication cost

The portion of the recurring price that pays for the drug when the provider separates it, as with "$25/month plus the cost of medication".

Membership or program fee

Any recurring fee the provider requires beyond the medication. Recorded as published, included, or required-but-unpublished.

Consultation or visit fee

Initial and follow-up clinical fees. Same three states.

Shipping cost

Per order or per month; included or not.

Dose-related price increase

The difference between the starting-tier price and the price in the tier covering the reference maintenance dose.

Maintenance-dose price

The monthly-equivalent price in the tier covering the reference maintenance dose.

True 12-month cost

Twelve months of medication at the recurring price (introductory period applied once) plus every required published charge. Unpublished required charges are named and excluded; the total is marked incomplete.

Upfront payment

The first amount charged: a prepaid term total, or the first month or order plus any one-time fee.

Minimum commitment

None, month to month, a billed term, or a prepaid term, with the cancellation notice period and early-termination terms.

Normalising to a month

Ranking a range. When a provider's price depends on supply length (an "8–10 week" vial), the low end is a best case, not an expectation, so rankings and category leaders use the midpoint of the range while every page shows the full range. Where a range and a flat price overlap, the pages say so.

A plan billed monthly counts twelve charges a year. A plan sold per order for a supply of W weeks is converted at 52 ÷ W orders per year; when the provider states a range (for example 8–10 weeks) we compute both ends and publish the range. A prepaid term is divided by its months. We do not average ranges.

True 12-month cost

True 12-month cost = medication for 12 months at the recurring price (with any introductory period applied once) + membership + consultations + follow-ups + shipping + supplies + any other required charge, each as published. A required charge the provider does not publish is not treated as zero: it is listed by name, excluded from the sum, and the total is marked with a plus sign and the words "plus unpublished required charges".

Ranges, floors and unconfirmed charges

When a provider publishes a range (a membership of $74–$149, medication of $90–$199 by dose, an 8–10 week supply) both ends are carried through every calculation and shown; for ordering only, ranges are ranked by their midpoint, and a flat price that falls inside a range, or a range that overlaps the leader's range, is declared a tie. When a provider advertises a "from" price, the figure is recorded as a floor: the recurring price and the totals derived from it are shown with "from", and the plan is excluded from any lowest-complete-cost category. When a capture did not establish whether a charge exists (most often consultations and shipping), the charge is recorded as not confirmed, listed beside every total, and treated exactly like an unpublished required charge: never as zero. A provider that says its price rises with dose but publishes no tier boundaries is recorded as "varies by dose"; its range is shown and no maintenance-dose price is computed.

First-year cost by target dose

Because most patients titrate, the site also computes a first-year cost for each verified plan under the labelled schedule (tirzepatide 2.5 mg rising 2.5 mg every four weeks) until the dose the patient settles on: 5, 10 or 15 mg for tirzepatide; 1, 1.7 or 2.4 mg for semaglutide. Medication is priced month by month from the plan's tiers (or at the flat price for dose-stable plans), and every published required charge is added. When a scheduled dose falls between two published tiers, the next tier up is used and the month is flagged; no total is estimated where a tier is missing. The cheapest starting-dose price and the cheapest full year can therefore be different providers, and both are shown.

Reference doses

Dose scenarios use the starting dose, a reference maintenance dose and the labelled maximum from the branded prescribing information: tirzepatide 2.5, 10 and 15 mg per week; semaglutide 0.25, 2.4 and 7.2 mg per week (the current Wegovy label permits escalation to 7.2 mg for qualifying adults; the maintenance reference stays at 2.4 mg). These are reference points for comparing tiers, not dosing advice; the dose a patient reaches is decided with their clinician. Microdose programmes are not placed on this scale and are not compared on the maintenance-dose metric.

What "verified" means

A record is verified when a named person has read the price from the provider's own page or checkout on the date shown and recorded the source and a quotation. Verified records older than 30 days become "verification overdue" and leave every ranking automatically. Figures supplied to us by a provider, or seen on another comparison site, are recorded as "supplied, not yet verified" and are never ranked, compared or called cheapest.

Limits of the method

We cannot see prices that vary by state or by patient, we do not know a patient's dose path, and we cannot observe a provider's future price changes. Every published figure is therefore a dated statement about what a page said, and the verification page explains how often that statement is refreshed.