Across the 25 programs we track, nine advertise a price to start that is lower than their ongoing maintenance price, by anywhere from about $49 to $200 a month. We do not name and shame here, the point is the pattern, and how to read past it.
Five ways the headline number misleads
- The first-month membership rate. The advertised number is a one-month introductory membership fee that auto-renews much higher. We see programs market a $39 or $45 first month that renews at $145 to $149 a month, and medication is billed on top of that.
- The first-fill or first-cycle promo. The low number covers only the first supply. The next charge is the ongoing rate. With quarterly billing this matters twice over, because the first post-intro charge is a full 12-week block, not another single month.
- The entry dose you titrate past. The headline is the price of a low starting dose. As you titrate up to a maintenance dose over a few weeks, the price steps up too. A pill or injection advertised at one rate can be a meaningfully higher rate at the dose you actually settle on.
- The new-member cycle rate that rises. Some programs charge a discounted first 28-day cycle, then the fine print says the price increases to the regular rate. A 28-day cycle also means roughly 13 charges a year rather than 12, so the annual cost is higher than the monthly number implies.
- The free trial that auto-converts. A 30-day free trial that quietly converts to a monthly membership is the same trap in reverse: $0 to start, a recurring charge you have to remember to cancel.
How to find the real price
Ignore the price to start. Find the ongoing maintenance price, the figure you pay once you are titrated to a steady dose, and check how it is billed: monthly, quarterly, or per 28-day cycle. Then add medication if the membership fee does not include it. That all-in maintenance number is the only one worth comparing across programs.
This is exactly the number our chart uses. Every program on the comparison chart is listed at its ongoing maintenance all-in, not its intro rate, and we verify it against the program's published page every Monday.
Why it is worth the effort
The same compounded semaglutide, the identical active molecule, ranges from about $99 a month (a sublingual program with no membership) to about $299 a monthat a maintenance dose across the tracked cash-pay programs. That is a roughly threefold spread for the same drug, before any program's intro price is even factored in. Picking well, on the real number, is worth real money.
Compare all 25 programs on maintenance price or read how GLP-1 pricing works.
