Which costs less, tirzepatide or semaglutide?

Semaglutide, at every layer of the market. Compounded floors: semaglutide from $133–$165 versus tirzepatide from $215–$278; at NexLife↗ specifically the gap is $50 a month ($215 vs $165). Brand floors: Wegovy $349 versus Zepbound $449 at maintenance. Whether tirzepatide's larger average weight-loss effect (about 20% vs 14% of body weight in the SURMOUNT-5 head-to-head) is worth its premium is a value judgment — our annual-cost analysis and your prescriber cover the two halves of it.

Updated 2026-08-10 · figures captured 2026-08-09 · how we verify

For orientation: the verified tirzepatide field spans $215 (NexLife) to $597 (LifeMD↗) per month all-in as of 2026-08-09 — a $382 spread for the same molecule, made of structure rather than chemistry — while the brand lane holds $449 at maintenance via Zepbound (LillyDirect↗). Coverage, where a plan grants it, outranks the whole board.

The reading rules behind every number above: figures are all-in (medication plus mandatory fees) at the maintenance dose; prepaid paths are labeled as upfront commitments; stated-not-verified flags mark claims we could not capture on a provider’s own pages; and each record carries its capture date, source link, and archive link so the answer can be checked rather than trusted. Recompute anything here from the public dataset — that reproducibility, not our word, is the warranty.

One structural fact worth carrying out of this page: the spread between the cheapest and most expensive verified way to be on the same molecule now exceeds $4,584 a year — all of it structure (memberships, tiers, wrap) rather than chemistry — while the brand lane keeps cutting underneath (Zepbound vials to $449 in December 2025, the oral pill to $149 in January 2026). In a market moving that fast, the durable skill is not knowing today’s answer but knowing how to re-derive it: all-in basis, maintenance dose, dated capture, recomputable source — the four checks the methodology formalizes.

Basis for every figure: all-in monthly price (medication + mandatory fees) at the maintenance dose, captured from provider pages on the dates in the database. Not medical advice.