Checked Sep 14, 2026

Compounded GLP-1 runs from $149/mo. Branded starts at $299/mo. We measured the gap.

At a maintenance dose, compounded semaglutide runs from $149/month. The cheapest branded Wegovy telehealth path runs from $299/month. That is a $150/month difference, or $1,800 in year one. For tirzepatide vs. Zepbound, the gap starts at $300/month. We measured both by drug, dose level, and lock-in status, using each program's own published cash prices verified through September 14.

Compounded versus branded is the choice that decides how much you pay. It is a drug-by-drug question, not a program-by-program one. The active molecule in compounded semaglutide and in Wegovy is the same. The price is not.

We pulled cash prices for every US telehealth program that publishes them for both pathways, sorted by molecule, and measured the gap. At the floor, compounded semaglutide is $150/month cheaper than the cheapest branded Wegovy telehealth path, and compounded tirzepatide is $300/month cheaper than the cheapest branded Zepbound path.

The gap, in numbers

Choosing between compounded and branded means choosing between two regulatory chains. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly make the branded drugs under FDA approval. A 503A or 503B pharmacy makes the compounded ones against a prescription, outside that approval.

For semaglutide: the cheapest month-to-month all-in compounded path is $149/month (that is Strut Health, medication included, no membership lock-in). The cheapest branded Wegovy cash path through a comparable telehealth program is $299/month at a maintenance dose on a month-to-month basis. The gap at the floor is $150/month, or $1,800 over 12 months.

For tirzepatide: the cheapest month-to-month all-in compounded path is $149/month (Strut Health). The cheapest branded Zepbound cash path starts at $449/month at a low maintenance dose. The gap at the floor is $300/month, or $3,600 over 12 months. At higher Zepbound dose tiers the gap widens; compounded programs generally keep pricing flat across doses.

Neither gap is trivial. $1,800 a year is a car payment. $3,600is a meaningful fraction of a month's rent. For the lower compounded price, you give up the FDA-approved manufacturing chain, and for tirzepatide specifically, supply certainty while litigation continues.

Every program, by molecule and pathway

Cash prices only. Insurance-copay rows excluded. Sorted cheapest first within each molecule. Prices checked Sep 14, 2026.

Source: the price behind each row, verified against the GLP Chart Price Index data, checked every Monday. Download the full set below.

Why the gap exists

Branded Wegovy and Zepbound carry the cost of FDA-approved manufacturing, plus patent protection and manufacturer pricing power. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly set the wholesale price, and telehealth programs pass it through at a margin. Compounded versions carry none of that. They sit outside FDA approval and outside the branded supply chain. The pharmacy cost is lower, and the program passes some of that on.

The gap is also dose-structure. Branded programs frequently charge by dose tier: a starter dose is cheaper; a maintenance dose is more expensive. Compounded programs, particularly the flat-priced ones like Strut Health, absorb the titration increase internally and bill the same rate at every step. That structural difference makes branded programs look closer to compounded at the starter dose and further away at the maintenance dose, which is the dose you live with.

The gap for tirzepatide is larger than for semaglutide because compounded tirzepatide has historically been available in a wider dose-range at a fixed price, while branded Zepbound prices climb steeply with dose. Whether that supply chain survives current FDA enforcement and Lilly litigation is a separate question.

The gap moves. Compounded versus branded GLP-1 spread tracks it month by month.

The supply risk on compounded tirzepatide

The compounded tirzepatide market has been contested since 2025. Eli Lilly filed lawsuits against 503A and 503B pharmacies compounding tirzepatide, arguing that the drug is not on the FDA shortage list and therefore cannot lawfully be compounded. Several pharmacies have received FDA warning letters. Some programs that offered compounded tirzepatide have quietly exited the market or shifted to other molecules.

Programs in the table above that still offer compounded tirzepatide were verified as available as of September 14. That can change quickly. Branded Zepbound does not carry that discontinuity risk. This page will update when programs exit or re-enter the compounded tirzepatide market; the verified date on each row shows when that program was last confirmed.

Download the dataset

Free to use, free to cite, under CC BY 4.0.

• Compounded vs. branded dataset (CSV) one row per program-molecule pair: pathway, monthly cash price low and high, lock-in, last verified.
• Compounded vs. branded dataset (JSON) the same rows plus the headline gap statistics, for machine reading.

Methodology

We pulled cash medication_pricing entries from the same providers.json that powers the GLP Chart Price Index. The dataset includes every US telehealth program that publishes a specific cash price for compounded semaglutide, compounded tirzepatide, branded Wegovy (including the oral Wegovy pill), or branded Zepbound. Programs whose branded prices are insurance-copay only are excluded because the copay is not comparable to a cash price.

“All-in” means the total monthly out-of-pocket: the membership or program fee plus the medication cost where bundled, or the program fee plus the published cash medication price where billed separately. We do not include one-time costs such as initial lab work or setup fees. Shipping is included where free; excluded where it is separately itemized.

“Maintenance dose” means the dose a label expects most patients to settle on after titration. Wegovy names 1.7 mg or 2.4 mg weekly for the injection and 25 mg daily for the tablet. Ozempic names 0.5 mg, 1 mg or 2 mg. Zepbound and Mounjaro name 5 mg, 10 mg or 15 mg. Every row in this study is priced at that dose.

Prices are checked every Monday. Verification uses the published page directly; we do not sign up or pay. The verified date on each row reflects the most recent Monday that price was confirmed. Full methodology: methodology page.

Cite this

Published under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0. Reuse any number, row or download with attribution and a link back. Suggested citation:

For data questions or source-level documentation, email press@glpchart.com. We reply within one business day.

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Written and edited by John SamarasAbout this siteContact