How Much Does Medical Weight Loss Cost? What 1,025 Clinics Actually Charge

The short answer

If you walk into a medical weight loss clinic and pay for yourself, expect about $200 a month. That is the middle of what 1,025 clinics across the country publish on their own websites: half of them start at $200 or less, a quarter start at $149 or less, and a quarter start at $300 or more. A few charge under $100 and a few charge $800 or more, and the difference between those two is almost never the clinic. It is what the price includes.

Those are the clinics' own numbers, read from their own pages on October 28, 2026, not estimates. You can see every one of them, with the page it came from, on medical weight loss prices by state.

The one question that moves the price most: is the medication in it?

Most programs today are built around a weekly GLP-1 injection (semaglutide or tirzepatide, the medicines in Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound and Mounjaro). Whether that injection is part of the monthly price is the single biggest thing to find out.

Among the clinics that say so plainly:

• Medication included: half start at $270 a month or less. That number is your whole bill most months.
• Medication not included: half start at $125 a month or less. That number is the visits and the oversight; the medicine is billed on top, and the medicine is usually the bigger half.

So a clinic advertising "$99 a month" and a clinic advertising "$299 a month" can cost you the same by the end of the month. Before you compare two prices, ask each clinic the same question: *does that include the medication, every month, at every dose?* The honest ones answer in one sentence.

What the medication itself costs

If the clinic bills the medicine separately, here is what it tends to run.

Compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide, mixed by a pharmacy to the clinic's prescription, is what most cash-pay clinics use. Clinics that name the medicine in their price list it at a median of about $259 a month for semaglutide and $230 for tirzepatide, with the lowest published starting prices around $63 and the upper quarter at $350 or more. Many prices climb with the dose, so the month-four price is often not the month-one price.

Brand-name pens or pills bought from the maker, if you pay cash, are published by the makers themselves: Wegovy runs $149 to $399 a month through Novo Nordisk's self-pay program depending on the form and dose, and Zepbound $299 to $449 through Lilly's. Our Wegovy, Zepbound and Ozempic price page has each figure with its source and the date we read it. A clinic that prescribes brand-name medicine usually adds its own monthly fee on top of what you pay the pharmacy.

The first visit

Most clinics charge for the first appointment, where you get bloodwork, a medical history and the prescription. The median published first-visit fee is $140, and 211 clinics in the directory say the first visit is free. A free first visit is usually a sign the clinic makes its money on the monthly program, which is fine; just make sure the monthly program price is on the website before you book. What a first visit costs lists every published fee by state.

Membership programs

About one in ten clinics that publish a price sell a membership: a flat monthly fee, median $150, that covers visits, check-ins and sometimes labs, with the medication billed separately or discounted. Memberships are worth it if you expect to be in the program for six months or more and want a person checking on you. They are not worth it for a three-month trial. Ask whether you can cancel month to month; the clinics that let you say so on the page.

Online versus a local clinic

The online providers listed on this site charge $99 to $548 a month, and most of them include the medication at the lower end of that range. The cheapest local clinics beat the cheapest online prices, and the most expensive local clinics cost far more than any online provider. What the local clinic gives you for the difference is a person who sees you: in-person bloodwork, a physical exam, someone to call when a side effect shows up at 9 pm. If you have a medical history that makes a GLP-1 more complicated (thyroid, pancreatitis, gallbladder, a long medication list), that person is worth paying for. If you are otherwise healthy and want the lowest price, online is usually it. Online vs. local GLP-1 provider walks through the trade-off.

Where you live changes it less than you'd think

Published starting prices by state, median of the clinics that publish one:

California and the Northeast run higher. Most of the rest of the country lands right at the national $200. Within any one state the spread between the cheapest and the dearest clinic is far wider than the spread between states, so it pays to look at your own state's list rather than assume.

Does insurance cover it?

Usually not for a cash-pay clinic, and that is by design: these clinics set their prices for people paying themselves. Insurance sometimes covers brand-name GLP-1s for a diagnosis of obesity or type 2 diabetes, with prior authorization and a fight, and almost never covers compounded versions. If you have coverage worth using, start with your own doctor and the pharmacy, not a cash-pay clinic. If you do not, the prices on this page are the real ones.

Five questions to ask before you pay

1. Does the monthly price include the medication, at every dose, every month?
2. What happens to the price in month three and month six, when the dose goes up?
3. Is the first visit, the bloodwork and the follow-up labs in the price or extra?
4. Can I stop month to month, or am I signing up for a term?
5. Who do I call if I have a side effect, and is that call free?

A clinic that answers all five on its website is a clinic you can compare. A clinic that will only tell you on the phone is a clinic that wants you in the chair first.

The bottom line

Budget $200 a month for a medical weight loss program, $270 or so if the medication is in the price, plus a first visit around $140. The cheapest honest option is usually an online provider at $99 to $199 with the medicine included; the most expensive local clinics charge $400 and up and should be able to tell you exactly what that buys.

See what every clinic in your state publishes →