Half of the people surveyed are priced out on brand-name GLP-1s
Key findings, glp·helper GLP-1 price survey, October 2026
Half of the people we surveyed would not pay even $149 a month for a brand-name GLP-1.
We asked 28 US adults who take, took, or plan to take a GLP-1 the most they would pay each month for a brand-name drug with no insurance help. That is 14 of 28, and $149 is the lowest brand-name self-pay price as of October 5, 2026, the Wegovy pill at 1.5 mg. Only 3 of 28 would pay the $349 Wegovy pen.
Until the FDA declared the tirzepatide shortage resolved in December 2024 and the semaglutide shortage resolved in February 2025, compounding pharmacies sold GLP-1s for $150 to $230 a month. That route is closing, and although Novo Nordisk cut the Wegovy pen from $499 to $349 in November 2025, the open question was what the people on these drugs would pay for a brand-name one. So we asked them.
We surveyed 30 US adults on Prolific on October 3, 2026, and 28 of them take a GLP-1, took one, or plan to start within a year. Each named the most they would pay each month for a brand-name GLP-1 with no insurance help, and we read every answer against two prices: $149, the lowest brand-name price and the median compounded semaglutide price across 11 sellers on October 16, 2026, and $349, the Wegovy pen.
Dr. Fahad Akhtar, M.D., a diabetes specialist with g1v.me, a telemedicine practice, commented, "With so many people struggling with diabetes, it's unfortunate to find that so many would not be able to afford the price for this medicine."
Half would not pay even $149, the lowest brand-name price
The highest maximum anyone in this group named was $140, so for these 14 no brand-name price works, not even the $149 pill.
The most each person would pay a month for a brand-name GLP-1, n=28
Eleven of the 14 take or took a GLP-1, and all 11 paid $50 a month or less, which looks like an insurance copay, although we did not ask about insurance. Coverage is the worry here. Two of the 7 who stopped named a change in coverage as the reason, and for anyone in this group who loses it, the cheapest maker price starts at $149, a price none of them would pay. Prices checked October 5, 2026.
Price and coverage also drove the decisions people had already made. Of the 12 who stopped or want to start, 6 named a price or coverage reason as the main one, and the other 6 named a goal reached, side effects, a prescription they could not get, or a source that stopped offering the drug.
Why people stopped, and what holds back people who want to start
Who would pay $149 but not the $349 pen
The 11 people in between named a ceiling of $149 or more and under $349, which makes them the group a price cut could win back. Nine would pay the $199 pill dose, and three of those would also pay $299. Only 4 of the 11 take a compounded GLP-1 today, while the other 7 take a brand-name drug (3), stopped (2), or want to start (2).
Who would pay each price, n=28
The reference price changes the size of that gap, so we show three. At $149, the median listing, 11 people sit in the gap, 39 percent. At $99, the lowest price a compounded user paid, 16 do, 57 percent. At $199, the 2024 and 2025 median, 9 do, 32 percent. We use $149 because it is both the current market median and the lowest brand-name price.
Compounded and brand-name prices in October 2026
Brand prices checked October 5, 2026. Compounded prices checked October 16, 2026.
Share who would pay each monthly price, n=28
| Option, per month | Price | Would pay it |
|---|---|---|
| Compounded semaglutide, median of 11 telehealth sellers, Oct 16, 2026 | $149 | 50% |
| Compounded tirzepatide, median of the standard monthly price at 10 sellers, Oct 16, 2026 | $284 to $299 | 21% |
| What our four compounded users paid | $99 to $150 | All four named a ceiling under $349 |
| Wegovy pill, 1.5 mg | $149 | 50% |
| Wegovy pill, 4 mg | $199 | 43% |
| Wegovy pill, 9 mg and 25 mg | $299 | 21% |
| Zepbound KwikPen or vial, 2.5 mg | $299 | 21% |
| Wegovy pen, 0.25 to 2.4 mg | $349 | 11% |
| Wegovy HD pen, 7.2 mg | $399 | 11% |
| Zepbound KwikPen or vial, 7.5 to 15 mg | $449 | 11% |
Compounded tirzepatide does not produce the same gap, because its median standard price across ten sellers is near $290 and Zepbound at 2.5 mg costs $299. The same 6 of 28 would pay either, so the gap in this survey is a semaglutide result.
Two of those prices carry conditions. Lilly charges $449 for 7.5 to 15 mg on a first purchase and any refill within 45 days, then $499 for 7.5 mg and $699 for 10 to 15 mg. Novo Nordisk charges new patients $199 for the first two months of Wegovy at 0.25 mg or 0.5 mg through December 31, 2026, then $349, which is the price we use because it is what a patient lives with after the intro.
Novo Nordisk lists Wegovy self-pay prices on its Wegovy pricing page. Lilly lists Zepbound prices on its Zepbound coverage and savings page. Our Zepbound cost guide breaks that price down by dose and device.
What changed for compounded GLP-1s
Compounders could copy semaglutide and tirzepatide while both drugs sat on the FDA shortage list, and when a shortage ends, that permission ends with it. A state-licensed pharmacy can still compound for one patient when the prescriber documents a significant difference from the approved product, which is far more limited than the open market of 2023 and 2024. The FDA set out the dates on its GLP-1 compounding policy page.
| Date | What the FDA did |
|---|---|
| December 19, 2024 | Declared the tirzepatide shortage resolved |
| February 21, 2025 | Declared the semaglutide shortage resolved |
| March 5 to May 22, 2025 | Grace periods ended. State pharmacies: March 5 for tirzepatide, April 24 for semaglutide. Outsourcing facilities: March 19 and May 22 |
| April 30, 2026 | Proposed to keep semaglutide, tirzepatide, and liraglutide off the 503B bulks list |
| July 30, 2026 | Comment period closed, after a one-month extension. No final decision published yet |
The April proposal targets 503B outsourcing facilities, the large compounders, because the FDA said in its 503B proposal announcement that it found no clinical need for them to compound these drugs from bulk ingredients. Compounded GLP-1s are not FDA-approved, and the FDA lists its safety concerns on its page on unapproved GLP-1 drugs.
What happened to prices
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| August 27, 2024 | Lilly launches Zepbound vials at $399 and $549 |
| March 5, 2025 | Novo Nordisk opens Wegovy self-pay at $499 |
| November 17, 2025 | Wegovy and Ozempic pens cut to $349 |
| December 1, 2025 | Zepbound cut to $299, $399, and $449 |
| January 5, 2026 | Wegovy pill launches at $149 |
| 2023 to 2026 | No tracked compounded seller raised its standard price after 2023. OrderlyMeds fell from $249 to $149, Eden from $296 to $99 |
The crackdown changed who may sell, not what the drugs cost. Brand self-pay prices fell toward the compounded level and compounded prices held or fell, but 25 of 28 respondents still named a maximum under $349, so the cuts have not reached the number most of these people will pay.
What compounded users told us
Four of the 16 current users take a compounded GLP-1, and at their lowest price they paid $99, $125, $149, and $150 a month, each within $4 of a telehealth price listed on October 16, 2026, from Eden and Sprout at $99 to OrderlyMeds and Sprout at $149. The form did not ask which drug or dose they take. Asked about a brand-name drug, their ceilings were $199, $200, $200, and $300, and not one reached $349. So if their compounded supply ends, the $349 pen sits above every one of their budgets, and these are the people who have already shown they will pay.
What compounded users pay, and the most they would pay for a brand-name drug, n=4
A 2026 study by Katz, Gearhardt, and Griauzde in Obesity Science and Practice, of US adults on once-weekly injectable semaglutide or tirzepatide for three months or more, recruited through Prolific, had coders review photos of each medication and classified 25.78 percent, 83 of 322 people, as using a compounded product, although 65 percent of those 83 had reported a branded drug. Our 25 percent is self-reported, so the true share may well be higher.
How we ran the GLP-1 price survey
We ran the survey on Prolific on October 3, 2026, using Prolific's GLP-1 prescreener, and checked the prescreener answers against the form because profiles can be months old. All 30 respondents live in the United States, 21 women and 9 men aged 21 to 75, and each was offered $1.00. Two quality checks screened for careless answers, and all 30 passed, so we removed no one. Three profiles conflicted with the form, and we kept the form answer. Two were not interested in a GLP-1, so the price results cover 28 people.
Who answered, n=30
We call a person priced out when the most they said they would pay is lower than the price. The survey measured willingness to pay, not ability, and did not ask about income or insurance.
We read the live price pages of 14 telehealth sellers on October 16, 2026. Eleven listed compounded semaglutide, from $77 to $299 a month, median $149. A 2025 study in JAMA Health Forum found a $231 median first-month price in mid 2024, so compounded prices have come down since.
The questions never mention the FDA or compounding rules. We drew the link afterward by reading each answer against the two prices. This is a small, unweighted sample of people already in the GLP-1 market, not a national poll, so at 28 people a share near 50 percent carries a rough range of 19 points either way and a share near 11 percent about 12. Treat each share as a direction. A larger wave is planned, and this page will update with it.
Download the data and cite this survey
Download the anonymized answers (CSV). Prolific IDs removed. Age, sex, and pay come from Prolific's export and are not in the file. Columns: response, status, stop_reason, start_barrier, paid_per_month_usd, brand_ceiling_per_month_usd, and first_visit_ceiling_usd. The status values are takes_brand_name, takes_compounded, took_and_stopped, never_took_wants_to_start, and never_took_not_interested. paid_per_month_usd is the answer to "What did you pay per month for the medication, at the lowest price you had?" brand_ceiling_per_month_usd is the answer to "With no insurance help, what is the most you would pay each month for a brand-name GLP-1 such as Wegovy or Zepbound, for as long as you stayed on it?" first_visit_ceiling_usd is the answer to "What is the most you would pay for that first visit?" The form asked it about an online visit with a licensed clinician who can prescribe. A 0 there can mean nothing, or included in the drug price. This page does not use that column.
Cite as: glp·helper, "GLP-1 price survey," October 2026, https://glphelper.com/blog/glp1-price-survey
Media contact
glp·helper Media Team
Cheyenne, Wyoming
press@glphelper.com
(855) 502-0037
How many people in our survey are priced out of brand-name GLP-1s?
Half, 14 of 28, named a maximum under $149, the lowest brand-name self-pay price on October 5, 2026, and only 3 would pay the $349 Wegovy pen. Priced out means the most a person said they would pay is lower than the price.
Is compounded semaglutide still legal in 2026?
Not as widely as before. The FDA declared the semaglutide shortage resolved on February 21, 2025, which ended wide copying, and the grace periods ended on April 24 and May 22, 2025. A state-licensed pharmacy can still compound for one patient when a prescriber documents a significant difference from the approved drug. On April 30, 2026 the FDA proposed to keep semaglutide off the list large outsourcing facilities may compound from, and no final decision had been published when we checked on October 5, 2026.
How much does a brand-name GLP-1 cost without insurance in 2026?
Prices checked October 5, 2026. Through the maker, Wegovy pens cost $349 a month after a $199 two-month intro at the two lowest doses, the 7.2 mg HD pen $399, and the Wegovy pill $149 for 1.5 mg, $199 for 4 mg, and $299 for 9 mg and 25 mg. Zepbound costs $299 for 2.5 mg and $399 for 5 mg, then $449 on a first purchase or a refill within 45 days for 7.5 to 15 mg, and $499 to $699 after that. Our Wegovy dosage guide lists each step, and our Wegovy vs Zepbound page sets the two side by side.
How reliable is a survey of 28 people?
It shows a direction, not a national rate, because 28 people from a Prolific panel is a small sample that is not random. Self-reported medication type can also be wrong: in a 2026 study by Katz, Gearhardt, and Griauzde of US GLP-1 users recruited on Prolific, 65 percent of people whose photos showed a compounded product had reported a branded drug.