Doses and injecting
The manufacturer's own ladder, week by week, and what each step costs.
The cheapest GLP-1 we track today is $69/mo at SnagRx, checked October 2026. Every GLP-1 price
Doses and injectingMicrodosing GLP-1s: what it saves you, and what it doesn'tMicrodosing a GLP-1 does not save money at a compounded seller: none of the compounded programs we track charges less for a smaller dose. Microdosing is not a medical term, and no dose below the label's starting dose has been studied for this. The one microdosing product on our board costs more a month than full-dose compounded tirzepatide at the cheapest seller we track. Where dose really moves the price is the brands; the provider table, per-mg costs and live numbers are below.Doses and injectingTirzepatide dosage chart: the 2.5 to 15 mg ladder, week by week, and what each step costsTirzepatide starts at 2.5 mg weekly for 4 weeks, then climbs in 2.5 mg steps of at least 4 weeks to 15 mg max. The chart, the units and the cost per step.Doses and injectingGLP-1 dosage chart: every brand's starting dose, step-ups and top dose, straight from the FDA labelsEvery GLP-1 label starts low and climbs. The weekly shots start at 0.25 mg (Wegovy, Ozempic) or 2.5 mg (Zepbound, Mounjaro) and step up no faster than every 4 weeks, to a top dose of 7.2 mg, 2 mg or 15 mg. The daily pills climb in 30-day steps: Wegovy pill 1.5 to 25 mg, Ozempic pill 1.5 to 9 mg, Rybelsus 3 to 14 mg, Foundayo 0.8 to 17.2 mg. No label converts one drug's milligrams into another's.Doses and injectingStopping a GLP-1: what the withdrawal trials found, and what a maintenance dose actually isTwo trials have measured what happens when you stop. On semaglutide, people who lost 17.3% over 68 weeks regained two-thirds of it in the year after stopping, ending 5.6% below where they started. On tirzepatide, people who lost 20.9% in 36 weeks regained 14% over the next year on placebo while those who continued lost a further 5.5%. Both labels are explicit that these drugs are for maintaining weight reduction long term, which is a different claim from finishing a course. A maintenance dose is simply the dose you stay on; the labels do not define a lower one to step down to at goal.Doses and injectingZepbound dosage chart: every tirzepatide dose, the escalation rule, what each rung lost in the trial, and what it costsZepbound has six doses, 2.5 to 15 mg, taken once a week. The label's rule is four weeks at 2.5 mg, then 2.5 mg steps with at least four weeks on each, to a maintenance dose of 5, 10 or 15 mg. In SURMOUNT-1 those three doses lost 15.0, 19.5 and 20.9 percent of body weight over 72 weeks. Direct from Lilly each rung has a price, $299 at 2.5 mg rising to $699 at 10 mg and above, so the chart below carries the dose, the rule, the trial result and the bill in one place, plus the vial and KwikPen concentrations for anyone measuring in units.Doses and injectingThe semaglutide dose ladder, and what each step costsSemaglutide is titrated upward over months rather than started at the target dose, to let gastrointestinal side effects settle. For Wegovy the pen ladder runs 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 1.7 mg and 2.4 mg, with a 7.2 mg high-dose strength above it. The part most charts leave out is the money: Novo's own self-pay price is flat at $349 a month across every pen dose from 0.25 to 2.4 mg, so climbing the ladder does not raise the brand price, while many compounded sellers do charge more at higher doses. Here is the ladder, what each step costs at the cheapest verified seller, and which sellers hold one price the whole way.Doses and injectingWhere to inject a GLP-1, and the one thing the labels disagree aboutAll the weekly GLP-1 injections go into the same three places. The Wegovy label says to inject subcutaneously in the abdomen, thigh or upper arm, rotating sites with each dose, once weekly at any time of day with or without meals. Zepbound's label says the same about the abdomen and thigh but adds something nobody mentions: the back of the upper arm should be injected by another person. If you are on a compounded vial rather than a pen, the task is different again, because you are drawing the dose yourself.Doses and injectingThe Wegovy dosing chart, and what year one actually costsThe Wegovy pen ladder is 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 1.7 mg and 2.4 mg, with a 7.2 mg high-dose strength above it, stepped up over months rather than started at the target. Novo's self-pay price is flat at $349 a month across the whole standard range, so climbing costs nothing extra. What that flat number hides is the first year: a new self-pay patient gets two fills at $199 before the $349 starts, and a box is a 28-day supply, so a year takes 13 boxes: $4,237 for the first year rather than the $4,537 the sticker implies.Doses and injectingMounjaro dosage chart: the label's schedule, every pen and vial, and what each dose costsMounjaro starts at 2.5 mg injected once a week. If more blood sugar control is needed, the dose goes up in 2.5 mg steps after at least four weeks on the current dose, to a maximum of 15 mg a week for adults and 10 mg for children 10 and older. Lilly sells every strength self-pay starting at $499 a month, so on the brand the price does not climb with the dose.Doses and injectingOzempic dosage chart: 0.25 mg to 2 mg, every pen, the missed-dose rule, and what each dose costsOzempic starts at 0.25 mg once a week for four weeks, then goes to 0.5 mg. If more blood sugar control is needed after at least four weeks, it can go to 1 mg, and after four more weeks to 2 mg, the maximum. Paying cash through NovoCare it is $199 for each of the first two months, then $349 a month up to 1 mg and $499 at 2 mg.Doses and injectingHow long do Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound take to work? The label calendar and the trial timepointsGLP-1s act from the first dose, but the labels start low on purpose and step up every 4 weeks, so most people do not reach a full dose for 3 to 5 months. Each dose reaches steady levels in the blood after about 4 to 5 weeks. In the trials, people averaged 10.6% weight loss after 20 weeks of Wegovy's escalation and 20.9% after 36 weeks of Zepbound, with the full trial results at 68 to 72 weeks. For type 2 diabetes, Ozempic's A1C results were measured at week 30.Doses and injectingWegovy 7.2 mg (Wegovy HD): what the higher dose adds, and what it costsWegovy HD is semaglutide at 7.2 mg, three times the standard 2.4 mg dose, in its own pen. In the STEP UP trial it took 18.7% off body weight at 72 weeks against 15.6% for 2.4 mg and 3.9% for placebo, in 1,407 adults with obesity. That puts it within 1.5 points of tirzepatide's head-to-head result and makes it the strongest semaglutide there is. Novo sells it direct for $399 a month, $50 above the standard pen, and it sits above the normal ladder rather than replacing it.
