Compounded GLP-1 true-cost calculator
Advertised prices routinely omit mandatory memberships, consultation and lab fees, shipping, and dose surcharges — and prepaid "monthly equivalents" hide the real amount due today. Enter any program's required charges below to get its effective monthly cost, first-month cost, and total commitment. The calculator runs entirely in your browser, stores nothing, recommends no medication, and cannot determine eligibility or replace medical advice.
Effective monthly cost = total mandatory cost ÷ months of treatment supplied. Coupons, referral credits, FSA/HSA effects, and financing are deliberately excluded (methodology §9). Unknown fees are not zero — if a provider won't disclose a fee, treat the result as a floor, not the price.
How to use it
Gather one program's numbers from the provider's pricing page and, ideally, its checkout: the advertised medication price, the plan length, whether you're billed monthly or prepaying, any required membership, one-time consultation or lab fees, per-shipment shipping, how many shipments the plan includes, and any dose surcharge at the dose you expect to reach. Enter them and the tool returns three figures — effective monthly cost, total mandatory cost, and the amount due at the start. Price the dose you'll actually be on at maintenance, not the starter dose, since dose-tiered providers charge more as you titrate up.
Definitions
Effective monthly cost is total mandatory cost divided by the months of treatment the plan supplies — the one figure that lets you compare providers with different fee structures. Total mandatory cost is everything the plan requires you to pay across its full length. Amount due at start is what leaves your account first: on a prepaid plan that's the entire term, on a monthly plan it's roughly one month plus any one-time fees. Mandatory is the key word — a fee counts only if you can't avoid it, but "optional" coaching that's required to get the medication is mandatory in substance.
How the calculation works
The tool computes total mandatory cost as (medication × months) + (membership × months) + one-time fees + (shipping × shipments) + (dose surcharge × months), then divides by months to get the effective monthly figure. It deliberately excludes savings the site's methodology treats as non-comparable: coupons, influencer codes, referral credits, FSA/HSA tax effects, conditional rebates, financing, and insurance savings unavailable to a general shopper. Excluding them yields a higher but more honest number — the amount most people actually pay — rather than a best-case figure. The month-count is assumed to be real treatment supplied; if a plan bills for months that a single vial's beyond-use date can't cover, the true months supplied may be fewer than billed, and the effective cost correspondingly higher.
Tested scenarios
These reference cases were verified against the calculator's formula; on every prepaid case the amount due today equals the full-term total, confirming that no mandatory charge is omitted.
| Scenario | Effective monthly | Total mandatory | Due today |
|---|---|---|---|
| $99 med + $79 required membership, monthly | $178.00 | $178.00 | $178.00 |
| $99 med + $79 membership + $50 dose surcharge, monthly | $228.00 | $228.00 | $228.00 |
| $145 med × 12mo, prepaid, no fees | $145.00 | $1,740.00 | $1,740.00 |
| $145 med × 12mo + $15 shipping × 4 shipments, prepaid | $150.00 | $1,800.00 | $1,800.00 |
| $200 med × 6mo + $50 one-time + $10 ship × 6, prepaid | $218.33 | $1,310.00 | $1,310.00 |
For introductory-vs-renewal pricing, use the first-month calculator; for installment billing and early-stop exposure, use the commitment calculator. This tool prices a single plan's steady-state mandatory cost.
Worked example
Take a provider advertising "$99/month" compounded semaglutide with a required $79 monthly membership, free shipping, no dose surcharge, on a month-to-month plan. Enter $99 medication, 1 month, monthly billing, $79 membership, $0 one-time, $0 shipping, 1 shipment, $0 surcharge. The tool returns $178.00 effective monthly cost — 80% above the headline — because the mandatory membership is part of the real price. Now compare a bundled provider at $145/month with no membership on a 12-month prepaid plan: $145 medication, 12 months, prepaid, $0 membership, and the tool returns $145.00 effective but $1,740.00 due today. Same market, and the "cheaper" $99 headline is the more expensive program month to month.
Interpreting your result
Use the effective monthly cost to compare providers, the total mandatory cost to understand the full commitment, and the amount-due-at-start to check whether you can absorb the upfront hit — a prepaid plan's first payment is its entire term. A low effective cost paired with a large amount due today is a bet on staying in treatment the full term against refund terms you should confirm first. If your figure looks implausibly low, you've probably left out a mandatory fee; if it looks high, a membership or dose surcharge is likely driving it. Cross-check the biggest prepaid commitments with the commitment calculator.
Limitations
The result is only as complete as your inputs, and providers don't always disclose every fee up front — an undisclosed lab or refill fee entered as zero understates the true cost, so treat any result built on incomplete disclosure as a floor. The tool can't see renewal pricing, so a low introductory effective cost may not reflect month 13 onward. And the authoritative number is always the provider's actual checkout total; this calculator estimates it, it doesn't replace it. It offers no medical guidance and can't tell you whether a program is clinically appropriate.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use the starter dose or maintenance dose price?
Maintenance. Weight-management maintenance doses are typically well above the starter dose, and dose-tiered providers charge more at higher doses. Pricing the starter dose makes a tiered provider look cheaper than it will be once you titrate up. If a provider offers flat pricing across doses, the distinction doesn't matter — but confirm the flat-pricing claim covers your full dose range.
Do I include shipping if the provider says it's free?
Enter $0 only if free shipping is confirmed for your plan and state. "Free shipping" sometimes applies to certain plans or first orders only. If you're unsure, enter a placeholder and treat the result as a floor. Unknown shipping is not free shipping until verified.
Why exclude coupons and insurance savings?
Because they aren't reliably available to a general shopper comparing providers, so including them turns the comparison into a lottery. A coupon may be one-time, an influencer code may expire, and insurance coverage varies per person. The tool gives you the sticker-honest number; apply your own durable discounts afterward, knowing they're specific to you.