GLP-1 Drug Cost Calculator
A year of a GLP-1, priced both ways
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. Confirm the assumptions, current rules, fees, and rounding that apply to your situation before making a decision.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter how many months you expect to take it this year. Nothing else is needed to get an answer, because the list price, the cash-pay price and the savings-card caps all open on published figures.
- 02
Enter your copay a month once the deductible is met, or your coinsurance percentage if the plan charges a share of the price instead. A coinsurance figure above zero is used in place of the copay.
- 03
Enter the deductible you still have to meet. This is what decides the early months: until it is met you pay the plan's full price for the drug, which is usually far more than the cash-pay price.
- 04
Leave the price and savings-card fields as they are unless you are pricing a different drug or dose. They open on the manufacturers' own September 2026 figures: a $1,349 list price, a $349 direct cash price, and a card that pays at most $100 a month and $1,300 a calendar year.
- 05
Read the headline, then the month-by-month table. The last column names the cheaper route in each month, and the insights price what a mid-year loss of coverage would cost.
Formula
Month by month, for the months you expect to take it. Toward the deductible = the lesser of the plan's price for the drug and the deductible left, subtracted from the deductible as it goes. Your plan share = that amount, plus a share of whatever is left of the price: the coinsurance percentage of it when a coinsurance figure is entered, otherwise the flat copay. Savings card = the smallest of three figures — your plan share minus the card's floor, the card's monthly maximum, and whatever is left of its annual cap — and the annual cap runs down as the card is used. Net on the plan = plan share − savings card, never below zero. The cash-pay route = the direct price every month, with no deductible, no card and no claim. Cheapest route = the lower of the two in each month, added up. If coverage stops, every month from that month on costs the cash price and the card stops with it; the cost to expect = the no-change total × (1 − the chance of a change) + the coverage-stops total × that chance.
Example
A plan charges a $50 copay once the deductible is met, and $800 of deductible is left. The list price the plan is billed is $1,349 a month and the drugmaker's own direct price is $349. In month one the deductible takes $800 and the copay adds $50, so the plan share is $850; the savings card pays its $100 monthly maximum, leaving $750, which is more than twice the $349 cash price, so cash is the cheaper route that month. From month two the copay is $50 and the card brings it to $25. Over twelve months the plan route costs $1,025, an average of $85 a month, against $4,188 paying cash directly, so the plan saves $3,163. The card has covered $375 of the $1,400 billed to the patient. Taking the cheaper route in each month would cost $624. If coverage stopped from month 7 the year would cost $2,969, $1,944 more, and at the 20% chance entered the figure to plan around is $1,414. On a plan charging 25% coinsurance rather than a copay, the same year costs $3,447 and the card pays $1,200.
Definitions
- List price
- The manufacturer's published price for the medication, and the figure a plan is billed before any discount it has negotiated. Wegovy's list price was $1,349.02 a package, one box of four pens, on novocare.com in September 2026.
- Direct cash-pay programme
- A price the drugmaker sells at directly, on the condition that no insurance or government benefit is billed. NovoCare Pharmacy and LillyDirect both run one, priced by dose rather than by drug.
- Manufacturer savings card
- A commercial-insurance discount that lowers a copay to a floor, subject to a maximum per fill and a maximum for the calendar year. It cannot be used with Medicare or Medicaid, and it ends if the plan stops covering the drug.
- Annual cap
- The most a savings card will pay in a calendar year, whatever the monthly maximum is. Lilly publishes $1,300 for the Zepbound Savings Card; Novo publishes a monthly maximum for Wegovy but no annual cap.
- Coinsurance
- A share of the drug's price rather than a flat copay, charged after the deductible. It makes a high-cost drug far more expensive than a copay does, and it is why a cash-pay programme can beat insurance outright.
Good to know
Why the same medication has four different prices
A GLP-1 medication does not have one price, it has at least four, and which one you meet depends on how you buy it rather than on the drug itself. The first is the list price, the manufacturer's published figure and the amount a plan is billed before any discount it has negotiated. Novo Nordisk publishes a list price of $1,349.02 a package for Wegovy, where a package is one box of four pens, which is what makes it a monthly figure. Almost nobody pays that. The second is the price your plan has negotiated, invisible to you but the number your deductible and coinsurance are calculated against. The third is what you actually pay at the counter: a flat copay after the deductible on some plans, a percentage of the price on others. The fourth is the manufacturer's own direct cash-pay price, sold on the condition that no insurance or government benefit is billed for it at all. Read in September 2026, NovoCare Pharmacy sold Wegovy self-pay at $349 a month for the standard pen doses and $399 for the HD 7.2 mg pen, with $199 for the first two fills of the starting doses for patients new to the offer through the end of 2026. Lilly sold the Zepbound single-patient-use KwikPen and vial self-pay at $299 for 2.5 mg, $399 for 5 mg and $449 for 7.5 mg and above. The gap between these prices is the whole reason this page exists. A plan with a modest copay beats cash-pay easily: in the page's example twelve months cost $1,025 through the plan against $4,188 paying directly. A plan charging 25% coinsurance on the same drug costs $3,447 for the year, close enough to the cash price that the comparison becomes a real decision rather than an obvious one. The two routes cannot be combined, so the question is which one to use, and it is worth re-asking whenever a plan year or a dose changes.
How a savings card is capped, and why it runs out
Manufacturer savings cards are advertised with a single striking number, usually that you will pay as little as $25 a month, and that number is true only inside limits most people never read. Lilly's published terms for the Zepbound Savings Card, read in September 2026, let a patient with commercial coverage pay as little as $25 for a one-month fill, subject to a maximum monthly saving of up to $100 per one-month prescription, and separately to a maximum annual saving of up to $1,300 per calendar year, for up to 13 fills. Novo's Wegovy offer is structured the same way at the monthly level: pay as little as $25, subject to a maximum saving of $100 a month. Novo publishes no annual cap for Wegovy, which is why this page's annual-cap field is labelled with Lilly's figure rather than presented as an industry standard. Three caps therefore apply at once, and the binding one changes with your plan. If your share is already near the card's floor, the monthly cap never binds: in the page's example a $50 copay means the card pays $25 a month, $375 across the year, and never approaches the $1,300 annual limit. If your share is large, the monthly cap binds immediately and the annual cap arrives quickly: on a 25% coinsurance plan the same card pays its full $100 every month and reaches $1,200 over the year. A card is therefore not a discount on the whole year, it is a fixed quantity of help, and the more expensive your plan makes the drug the faster you exhaust it. Two further limits matter. Cards cannot be used with Medicare or Medicaid at all, which is why a page like this one has nothing to say to someone on Part D. And the card depends on the plan covering the drug, so it ends the moment that coverage does. Both manufacturers state that they can modify or cancel these programmes at any time.
The deductible decides the first months, not the copay
The single most common surprise with a high-cost medication is that the copay printed on the insurance card does not apply yet. Until the deductible is met you pay the plan's negotiated price for the drug, and for a medication in this class that is usually several hundred dollars or more a month. Only after the deductible is satisfied does the copay or coinsurance take over. This is why the page runs month by month rather than multiplying one figure by twelve, and why the table has a column naming the cheaper route in each individual month. The example makes the pattern plain. With $800 of deductible remaining, month one takes the whole $800 plus the $50 copay, a plan share of $850; the savings card pays its $100 monthly maximum and the patient pays $750. The manufacturer's direct price that month is $349, so cash is less than half the cost of using insurance. From month two the deductible is gone, the copay is $50, the card brings it to $25, and the plan costs a fraction of the cash price. Over the whole year the plan wins comfortably, $1,025 against $4,188, but it loses the first month badly. That pattern has a practical consequence worth thinking through before the first fill. Someone starting a medication in January, with a full deductible ahead of them, may be better off buying the first month or two directly from the manufacturer and switching to insurance once the deductible is met by other care. Someone starting in October, with the deductible already satisfied by a year of medical bills, should use the plan immediately and expect the arithmetic to reverse in January. The page's deductible field is the one to revisit each time a plan year rolls over, because a deductible that reset yesterday changes the answer completely, and a cost that was $25 a month in December can be several hundred in January.
Coverage that can end mid-year, and planning around it
Coverage for these medications has been less stable than coverage for most drugs. Employers and plans have added, restricted and removed it, sometimes partway through a plan year, and the change often arrives with little notice. That instability is why this page carries a field for the chance your plan drops the coverage and a field for the month a change would take effect, both clearly labelled as your own estimate: no source can price the odds for your particular employer, and a calculator that pretended otherwise would be inventing a number. What the page can do is show what the outcome costs. When coverage for a drug ends, the manufacturer savings card ends with it, because the card requires a commercial plan to be covering the medication. The fallback is therefore not the list price but the manufacturer's direct cash-pay programme, which anyone can use, and that is what the page assumes because it is the cheaper of the two. In the example, coverage ending from month seven takes a year that would have cost $1,025 to $2,969, which is $1,944 more. Weighted by the 20% chance entered, the figure to plan around is $1,414. That middle number is usually the most useful one. Planning on the best case leaves a household exposed to a mid-year bill it has not saved for; planning on the worst case overstates a cost that probably will not arrive. Two practical steps follow. Ask your benefits administrator whether coverage is confirmed for the whole plan year or subject to change, and get the answer in writing if you can. And keep the manufacturer's direct price in mind as a floor, since it caps how bad the outcome can be. If you are on Medicare, none of the commercial card arithmetic applies; Lilly publishes a separate Medicare route at no more than $50 a month, and drug costs under Part D belong on the Medicare Part D page instead.
Frequently asked questions
Is it cheaper to use insurance or pay cash for a GLP-1?
It depends almost entirely on your deductible and copay, and it can change from month to month. In this page's example the plan costs $1,025 over twelve months against $4,188 paying the drugmaker directly, so the plan saves $3,163. But in the first month, with $800 of deductible left, the plan costs $750 and the cash price is $349, so cash is cheaper that month. On a plan charging 25% coinsurance instead of a $50 copay, the year costs $3,447 through the plan, much closer to the $4,188 cash price.
How much does the manufacturer savings card actually save?
Less than people expect, because it is capped three ways. Lilly's Zepbound Savings Card lets an insured patient pay as little as $25, but pays at most $100 toward a one-month fill and no more than $1,300 in a calendar year, for up to 13 fills. Novo's Wegovy offer is $25 with a maximum saving of $100 a month. In the example the card covers $375 of $1,400 billed to the patient across the year. On a coinsurance plan, where each month's share is larger, the same card pays $1,200.
What is the direct cash-pay price for these drugs?
Read September 2026 from the manufacturers' own sites. Novo Nordisk's NovoCare Pharmacy sells Wegovy self-pay at $349 a month for the 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.7 and 2.4 mg pens and $399 for the HD 7.2 mg pen, with $199 for the first two fills of the two starting doses for patients new to the offer through December 31, 2026. Lilly sells the Zepbound single-patient-use KwikPen and vial self-pay at $299 for 2.5 mg, $399 for 5 mg and $449 for 7.5 mg and above. A month means one box of four pens.
Can I use the savings card and the cash-pay price together?
No, and this is the part that catches people. A manufacturer's direct programme is sold on the condition that no insurance or government benefit is billed for it, and the savings card works only when a commercial plan is covering the drug. They are two separate routes, which is why the page prices them side by side rather than adding them together. Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries cannot use manufacturer copay cards at all.
What happens if my employer drops coverage for weight-loss drugs mid-year?
The card goes with the coverage, so the fallback is the cash-pay price rather than the list price. In the example, coverage ending from month 7 takes the year from $1,025 to $2,969, which is $1,944 more. At the 20% chance the example assumes, the figure to plan around is $1,414 rather than the best case. Employers and plans have been dropping this coverage, so the chance field is deliberately yours to set.
Why is the first month so much more expensive?
Because the deductible comes first. Until it is met you pay the plan's negotiated price for the drug, not your copay. In the example, month one takes the remaining $800 of deductible plus the $50 copay, so the plan share is $850; the card pays its $100 monthly maximum and you pay $750. From month two the copay is $50, the card brings it to $25, and the plan is far cheaper than paying cash.
Does this page tell me whether I should take a GLP-1 medication?
No. It prices what a plan and a manufacturer charge for a medication you and a clinician have already decided on. It takes no view on whether anyone should start, continue or stop one, makes no comparison between medications on anything but price, and is not medical advice. Both manufacturer programmes can change or end at any time and say so, so check the price for your own dose on the maker's own site.