Decision guide · Every route, priced

What Is Actually the Cheapest Way to Get a GLP-1 in 2026?

Prices dated through August 15, 2026, each figure carrying its own check date · 5 routes covered · 3 of them pay RangeYourself nothing

RangeYourself may earn a commission when a reader signs up with a telehealth program through our links. It does not change what is on this page: the ranking is computed from verified prices, and the routes we earn nothing from are the ones this page leads with. See our methodology and how we verify.

The cheapest published route is $50 a month, and it pays us nothing

Most “cheapest GLP-1” pages, including several of ours, answer a narrower question than the one you asked: given that you have already decided to buy compounded medication from a telehealth company, which company is cheapest. This page answers the wider one. There are 5 routes to a GLP-1 prescription in the United States right now, 3 of them pay us nothing, and one of those 3 is the cheapest thing on the page.

Routes that publish a per-month figure, cheapest first. Each row carries its own check date rather than one blanket date for the table.
Route	Lowest published price	Where the figure comes from	Last checked	Pays RangeYourself?
Medicare GLP-1 Bridge	$50/mo	CMS press release, May 6, 2026: flat copay under a federal demonstration running July 1, 2026 through December 31, 2027	August 15, 2026	No
Compounded GLP-1 through a telehealth program (not an FDA-approved product)	$99/mo	computed from the 17 programs in our registry that include medication and publish an all-in monthly price	August 8, 2026	Yes, on some programs
Buying the brand direct from the manufacturer (the FDA-approved product)	$149/mo	NovoCare Pharmacy self-pay Wegovy, pill 1.5 mg, one month: standard self-pay offer	August 15, 2026	No

Two routes are missing from that table on purpose, because neither publishes a number we could honestly rank:

Your own insurance. A copay is set by your plan, so there is no figure we could publish that would be true for you. For readers whose plans do cover it, this is usually cheaper than anything else on this page.
A telehealth program that prescribes the brand. These programs charge on incompatible bases: a cash list price at one, a membership fee with the drug billed to your plan at another, nothing published at all until intake at a third. A single ranked number would imply they are comparable, so our page for them is alphabetical and shows each program’s own basis instead.

The list below is in a different order from the table. The table is by price; the list is by who can actually use it, narrowest gate first. Work down it and stop at the first route you qualify for, because a route you can use almost always beats a slightly cheaper one you cannot.

Your own insurance: Do you have commercial or employer coverage that includes weight-loss medication? No published figure.
Medicare GLP-1 Bridge: Are you on Medicare Part D, and does a prescriber judge that you meet the demonstration’s clinical criteria? From $50 a month.
Buying the brand direct from the manufacturer (the FDA-approved product): Do you want the FDA-approved product, and are you paying cash rather than using insurance? From $149 a month.
A telehealth program that prescribes the brand: Do you want the brand plus clinical support, or a program that will run your insurance for you? No published figure.
Compounded GLP-1 through a telehealth program (not an FDA-approved product): Is a compounded preparation, which is not an FDA-approved product, acceptable to you and your prescriber? From $99 a month.

Insurance: the route we will not put a number on

If you have commercial or employer coverage that includes weight-management medication, and a prior authorization is approved, your out-of-pocket cost is a copay set by your plan. That is frequently lower than every figure on this page, and it is also unknowable to us: the same drug, the same month, costs different people different amounts depending on their formulary, their deductible phase, and whether their employer carved weight-loss drugs out of the benefit entirely.

So we are not going to publish an average and call it your price. What we can tell you is where to look: the number on the back of your insurance card, before you pay any program a membership fee. Novo Nordisk publishes a savings offer for commercially insured patients that it describes as “Pay as little as $25, subject to a maximum savings of $100/month. Government beneficiaries excluded.” That is a discount on top of your plan's copay with a cap on it, not a price you are quoted, which is why it is not ranked above.

Medicare GLP-1 Bridge: $50 a month, through December 31, 2027

This is the cheapest published route on the page, it started on July 1, 2026, and RangeYourself earns nothing from it. CMS describes it this way: “Eligible Medicare beneficiaries may now get certain GLP-1 medications for $50 per month through the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, a new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initiative designed to expand access to innovative treatments and test the impacts of increased access to GLP-1 drugs for weight management on the Medicare program.”

It is a demonstration, not a permanent benefit. CMS states that it runs to December 31, 2027. Your own Part D plan does not have to participate for you to use it: CMS states that “Part D sponsors will not carry risk for eligible GLP-1 drugs furnished under the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, and Part D sponsors do not have to opt in to the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge for eligible beneficiaries to access these drugs beginning July 1, 2026.”

Which drugs it covers

CMS states: “At this time, for the purposes of the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, an eligible GLP-1 drug is any of the following products when used to reduce excess body weight and maintain weight reduction: Foundayo®, Wegovy® (injection and tablets), and Zepbound® (KwikPen®).” The formulation matters. CMS also states: “The single-dose vial and single-dose pen formulations of Zepbound® will not be available through the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge.”

Who qualifies, in CMS’s own words

These are quoted regulatory criteria, not our medical opinion, and they are not a self-assessment. CMS requires a prescriber to submit the request: “For a beneficiary to qualify for the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, a provider must submit a prior authorization request that attests the beneficiary meets the following criteria:”

The beneficiary is prescribed the requested drug to reduce excess body weight and maintain weight reduction in combination with current and ongoing lifestyle modification including structured nutrition and physical activity consistent with the applicable FDA approved label, AND
The beneficiary is at least eighteen (18) years of age and has a BMI greater than or equal to thirty-five (≥35) at the time of initiation of GLP-1 therapy, or
The beneficiary is at least eighteen (18) years of age and has a BMI greater than or equal to thirty (≥30) at the time of initiating GLP-1 therapy with a diagnosis of one or more of the following: (A) heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, (B) uncontrolled hypertension (defined as systolic blood pressure above 140 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure above 90 mm Hg, despite concurrent treatment with two antihypertensive medications), or (C) chronic kidney disease stage 3a or above, or
The beneficiary is at least eighteen (18) years of age and has a BMI greater than or equal to twenty-seven (≥27) at the time of initiating GLP-1 therapy with a diagnosis of one or more of the following: (A) pre-diabetes (as defined by American Diabetes Association guidelines), (B) previous myocardial infarction, (C) previous stroke, or (D) symptomatic peripheral artery disease.

Quoted from CMS, Medicare GLP-1 Bridge FAQs for Part D Plans, read 2026-08-15. Whether you meet them is a clinical judgment for the prescriber who has to attest to it. RangeYourself does not provide medical advice.

Four things that disqualify people who assume they qualify

It is for weight management only. CMS states: “Eligible GLP-1s are only furnished under the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, with the $50 co-pay, when prescribed for a weight management indication. If a Medicare Part D beneficiary has a prescription for a GLP-1 drug for an indication covered under Medicare Part D, they should continue to obtain their GLP-1 through their Part D plan.”
Diabetes, sleep apnea and MASH route elsewhere. CMS states: “Type 2 diabetes, moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, and noncirrhotic metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) with moderate to advanced liver scarring (fibrosis) indications are eligible for Part D coverage. Beneficiaries with these diagnoses are eligible to receive GLP-1s through their Part D plan and therefore are ineligible to receive them through the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, even if they otherwise meet the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge clinical criteria.”
A GLP-1 already filled through Part D this year. CMS states: “If the beneficiary has previously filled a prescription for a GLP-1 through their Part D plan in 2026, they are not eligible for coverage through Medicare GLP-1 Bridge in 2026, even if that coverage was supplemental coverage of weight management by their Part D plan.”
The copay is outside your Part D math. CMS states: “no part of the $50 copay would count toward the beneficiary's true out-of-pocket costs (TrOOP) under their Part D plan. In addition, the $50 copay for eligible beneficiaries would remain the same, regardless of the phase of the Part D benefit an eligible beneficiary is in when they fill a prescription for an eligible GLP-1 drugs covered under the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge. Similarly, low-income cost-sharing subsidies would also not apply to any portion of the copay.”

And there is no stacking: CMS states that “Coupons and discount programs may not be applied to Medicare GLP-1 Bridge claims.”

CMS points beneficiaries at Medicare.gov/glp1bridge and at their own doctor. The full program documentation is on cms.gov. We have no relationship with either, and there is nothing for us to sell you here.

Buying the brand direct from the manufacturer: from $149 a month at the lowest dose

Both manufacturers now sell cash-pay, and this is the route most people do not know exists: Eli Lilly sells Zepbound direct, and Novo Nordisk sells Wegovy through its own pharmacy and savings offer. You get the FDA-approved product, at a price set by the company that makes it, with no insurance involved. RangeYourself earns nothing on this route either, and we are naming the programs anyway, because a page that only names the things it is paid for is not worth citing.

Read the price type in the third column before you plan a budget around a number. Several of these are introductory or conditional, and the sponsor’s own wording for the catch is quoted there.

Manufacturer-direct cash prices for weight-management products, as published by the manufacturers themselves.
What you are buying	Price	What kind of price it is	Source
Zepbound 2.5 mg single-patient-use KwikPen, one month	$299/mo	Ongoing price. Self-pay price per one-month fill.	zepbound.lilly.com, coverage and savings, read 2026-08-15
Zepbound 5 mg single-patient-use KwikPen, one month	$399/mo	Ongoing price. Self-pay price per one-month fill.	zepbound.lilly.com, coverage and savings, read 2026-08-15
Zepbound 7.5 mg through 15 mg single-patient-use KwikPen, one month, refilled within 45 days	$449/mo	Conditional on refill timing. Self-pay price that holds only if each refill is purchased within 45 days of the previous fill. Eli Lilly and Company states: “You must complete your refill purchase of the Zepbound single-patient-use KwikPen within 45 days of the delivery/received date of your previous Zepbound single-patient-use KwikPen prescription fill.”	zepbound.lilly.com, coverage and savings, read 2026-08-15
Wegovy pill 1.5 mg, one month	$149/mo	Ongoing price. Standard self-pay offer.	NovoCare Wegovy price guide (US26NC00049, April 2026), read 2026-08-15
Wegovy pill 4 mg, one month	$149/mo	Limited-time offer. Limited-time offer that ends August 31, 2026, after which this dose is $199 a month. Novo Nordisk states: “Patients pay $149 for each month of 1.5 mg and 4 mg. 4 mg offer only available until August 31, 2026, then $199 per month for 4 mg.”	NovoCare Wegovy price guide (US26NC00049, April 2026), read 2026-08-15
Wegovy pill 9 mg and 25 mg, one month	$299/mo	Ongoing price. Standard self-pay offer.	NovoCare Wegovy price guide (US26NC00049, April 2026), read 2026-08-15
Wegovy pen 0.25 mg and 0.5 mg, one month	$199/mo	Introductory offer. Introductory price for the first 2 fills, new patients only, through December 31, 2026. Novo Nordisk states: “Patients new to Wegovy® Savings Offer & NovoCare® Pharmacy pay $199 for each month of 0.25 mg and 0.5 mg. Offer for 2 monthly fills through December 31, 2026, then $349 per month for Wegovy® 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 1.7 mg, or 2.4 mg and $399 per month for Wegovy® HD (semaglutide) injection 7.2 mg.”	NovoCare Wegovy price guide (US26NC00049, April 2026), read 2026-08-15
Wegovy pen, every dose, one month	$349/mo	Ongoing price. Standard self-pay offer.	NovoCare Wegovy price guide (US26NC00049, April 2026), read 2026-08-15
Wegovy HD pen 7.2 mg, one month	$399/mo	Ongoing price. Standard self-pay offer.	NovoCare Wegovy price guide (US26NC00049, April 2026), read 2026-08-15
Wegovy with commercial insurance, all doses	$25/mo	Best case, not a price. A floor, not a price: what you pay is your plan's copay minus at most $100 of savings, and government beneficiaries are excluded. Novo Nordisk states: “Pay as little as $25, subject to a maximum savings of $100/month. Government beneficiaries excluded.”	NovoCare Wegovy price guide (US26NC00049, April 2026), read 2026-08-15

Zepbound: Eli Lilly and Company states “Regular pricing ranges from $299-$699 monthly depending on dose.” (zepbound.lilly.com, coverage and savings, read 2026-08-15).

One thing readers ask that belongs here rather than in the ranking: Ozempic also has published cash prices, but it is labeled for type 2 diabetes rather than weight management, so it is not one of this page’s weight-loss routes. Same molecule as its weight-management sibling, different approved use, and the prescription your clinician writes has to match the use.

A telehealth program that prescribes the brand

If you want the FDA-approved drug plus clinical support, or you want a program to run your insurance for you, this is the route. We do not rank it by price, and the reason is a real one rather than a hedge: these programs charge on bases that are not comparable to each other. One publishes a cash list price. Another charges a membership fee and bills the drug to your plan, so your total depends on your coverage. A third publishes nothing until you finish intake. A single ranked number across those would imply they are the same kind of thing.

So our page for them is alphabetical, and it shows each program’s own basis and its own verified figure.

Compounded GLP-1 through telehealth: from $99 a month, and it is not an FDA-approved product

This is the route with the widest availability and the one RangeYourself can earn a commission on, so here is the honest framing before the numbers. Compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide are prepared by licensed pharmacies. They are not FDA-approved finished products and are not individually reviewed by the FDA for safety, effectiveness, or quality. The price gap between this route and the manufacturer-direct one above is not a discount on the same product.

We track 17 programs that include medication and publish an all-in monthly price. The cheapest is $99 a month (a 4-way tie: Strut Health, bmiMD, Trimi, and HealthRX), and the most expensive we rank is $249. Latest price check August 8, 2026. Those figures come from the same registry our Price Index ranks, re-verified on a nightly schedule, which is why this page does not restate them program by program.

The regulatory question hanging over this route

The FDA has proposed removing the ingredients this route depends on from the list outsourcing facilities may compound from. In the agency’s own words: “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced it is proposing to exclude semaglutide, tirzepatide, and liraglutide on the 503B bulks list, finding no clinical need for outsourcing facilities to compound these drugs from bulk substances.” The comment period closed on July 30, 2026 (91 FR 38719, Docket No. FDA-2018-N-3240). The FDA also states: “The agency will consider submitted comments before making a final determination.” As of August 15, 2026, no final determination has been published.

The proposal concerns the 503B bulks list, which governs what outsourcing facilities may compound from bulk drug substances. Patient-specific compounding by 503A pharmacies is not what this proposal addresses. Sources: FDA news release, April 30, 2026; Federal Register, 91 FR 38719, extension of comment period, read August 15, 2026.

About compounded GLP-1 medicationsCompounded semaglutide and tirzepatide are not FDA-approved finished products. They are prepared by state-licensed 503A pharmacies or 503B outsourcing facilities and are not individually reviewed by the FDA for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Compounders describe these preparations as using the same active ingredient as the approved medicines; the FDA has warned that some compounded products use salt forms, semaglutide sodium or semaglutide acetate, that it considers different active ingredients from the approved drug, and has issued warning letters over marketing that presents a compounded preparation as interchangeable with an approved one. The FDA declared the semaglutide shortage resolved on February 21, 2025 and the tirzepatide shortage resolved in December 2024, so the shortage-era pathway for broad compounding of these drugs has ended. Compounding now proceeds under the ordinary rules: a 503A pharmacy compounding for an individual patient on a prescription, or a 503B outsourcing facility, which compounds in bulk under CGMP and FDA registration rather than per patient. Those rules generally do not cover a product that is “essentially a copy” of an approved drug unless a prescriber documents a change that makes a significant difference for an individual patient. Talk to a clinician about contraindications including personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or MEN 2. RangeYourself does not provide medical advice, does not guarantee a prescription, and does not guarantee weight-loss results.

What RangeYourself earns on each route

Publishers who make money on one of these routes have an obvious reason to write a page where that route wins. Here is ours, laid out, so you can discount our conclusions accordingly.

Your own insurance: we earn nothing, and there is no link on this page that could pay us.
Medicare GLP-1 Bridge: we earn nothing, and there is no link on this page that could pay us.
Buying the brand direct from the manufacturer: we earn nothing, and there is no link on this page that could pay us.
A telehealth program that prescribes the brand: we may earn a commission when a reader signs up with one of the programs we link to.
Compounded GLP-1 through a telehealth program: we may earn a commission when a reader signs up with one of the programs we link to.

The cheapest published route on this page is one of the ones we earn nothing from. Saying so is the point: our ranking method reads verified prices and nothing else, and a page that quietly steered you past a cheaper route would be worth less to you, and to the systems that cite us, than the commission would be worth to us.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest way to get a GLP-1 in 2026?

If your insurance covers a GLP-1 for weight management, that is usually the cheapest route, and no publisher can price it for you because a copay is set by your plan. Of the routes that publish a figure anyone can quote, the lowest is the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge at $50 a month for eligible Medicare Part D beneficiaries, then compounded GLP-1 through a telehealth program from $99 a month, which is not an FDA-approved product, then buying the FDA-approved brand direct from its manufacturer from $149 a month, that figure being its lowest dose. Figures dated through August 15, 2026, each carrying its own check date on the page.

Does Medicare cover GLP-1s for weight loss?

Through a time-limited demonstration, yes. CMS states: "The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will provide eligible Medicare beneficiaries access to certain GLP-1 medications for $50 per month beginning July 1, 2026, through December 31, 2027." It is called the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, it runs to December 31, 2027, and a prescriber has to submit a prior authorization attesting that you meet the clinical criteria. It covers a named set of drugs only, and only when the prescription is for weight management.

Can I stack a manufacturer coupon on top of the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge?

No. CMS states: "Coupons and discount programs may not be applied to Medicare GLP-1 Bridge claims." CMS also states that the copay does not count toward your Part D true out-of-pocket total and that low-income cost-sharing subsidies do not apply to it, so the $50 is the same figure in every phase of the Part D benefit.

Is compounded semaglutide cheaper than buying Wegovy direct from Novo Nordisk?

On our verified figures, yes, and it is not the same product. The cheapest compounded program in our registry that includes medication is $99 a month (a tie between Strut Health, bmiMD, Trimi, and HealthRX, latest price check August 8, 2026), against $149 a month for the cheapest ongoing manufacturer-direct price. Compounded semaglutide is not an FDA-approved finished product and is not reviewed by the FDA for safety, effectiveness, or quality; Wegovy is. The price gap is buying you a different regulatory status, not a discount on the same thing.

Why do the manufacturers advertise a price that then goes up?

Because several of the headline figures are offers with an end date or a condition attached, which is why every price on this page carries its type. 4 of the manufacturer figures we track are promotional or conditional rather than ongoing: an introductory rate for your first fills, an offer with a stated expiry, a maintenance price that holds only if each refill lands inside a set window, or a "pay as little as" floor that depends on what your own plan charges. We rank only the ongoing, unconditional figures and show the rest with the sponsor's own wording for the catch.

Will compounded GLP-1 still be available?

That is genuinely unsettled. The FDA has proposed excluding semaglutide, tirzepatide, and liraglutide from the 503B bulks list, which governs what outsourcing facilities may compound from bulk substances. The comment period closed July 30, 2026 (91 FR 38719) and, as of August 15, 2026, the FDA has not issued a final determination. The proposal addresses the 503B list; patient-specific compounding by 503A pharmacies is not what it covers. We are not going to guess how it lands, and neither should a plan you make around it.

Which of these routes does RangeYourself get paid on?

3 of the 5 routes on this page pay us nothing, including the cheapest one: insurance, the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, and buying direct from a manufacturer. We may earn a commission when a reader signs up with a telehealth program through one of our links, which covers the two telehealth routes. That is disclosed on every page and it does not change the order of anything here, which is computed from verified prices.

This page is for information, not medical advice, and it has not been reviewed by a clinician. Eligibility rules quoted above are CMS’s and the manufacturers’ own published terms as of the dates shown, and they change. Talk to a licensed provider about whether a GLP-1 is appropriate for you; no page can tell you that, and no program can guarantee a prescription. Prices carry the date they were verified and may have changed since.