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The $179 that is really $299: how introductory pricing works in GLP-1 telehealth
You will pay the ongoing rate for eleven of your twelve months. So why does every comparison table rank on the other one?
TrimRx advertises $179. MEDVi advertises $179. Both charge $299 from month two. Here is how first-month pricing distorts every comparison table you have read.
How it works
The mechanism is simple and entirely legal. A provider advertises a low figure. In small type, or on a page you reach after entering your email, that figure is disclosed as a first-month or introductory rate. From month two you pay something considerably higher.
| Provider | Advertised | Ongoing | Difference | Annual gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TrimRx (semaglutide) | $179 | $299 | +$120 | +$1,320 |
| MEDVi (semaglutide) | $179 | $299 | +$120 | +$1,320 |
| Noom Med (semaglutide) | $79 | $199 | +$120 | +$1,320 |
| Eden (membership) | $39 | $99 | +$60 | +$660 |
| Enhance.MD | $99 | $280 | +$181 | +$1,991 |
| Noom Med (tirzepatide) | $149 | $299 | +$150 | +$1,650 |
Not one of those figures is a lie. Every one of them is disclosed somewhere. And every one of them, if used to rank providers, produces a false ranking.
Why the ongoing rate is the only honest one
Twelve months of treatment costs one month at the intro rate and eleven at the ongoing rate. Rank on the intro rate and you have optimised 8% of your spending while ignoring 92% of it.
Worse, intro rates are not evenly distributed. A provider with a genuinely low ongoing price has little reason to offer a steep first-month discount. A provider with a high ongoing price has every reason to. So ranking on intro pricing does not merely add noise — it systematically favours the more expensive providers.
The second distortion: split billing
Intro pricing has a cousin. A provider quotes a medication price and bills a membership separately. Eden's compounded tirzepatide is '$199' — plus a $99 membership you cannot decline, so $298. Mochi's is '$199' — plus $79, so $278. Hims is '$299' — plus $149, so $448.
A comparison table that lists only the medication column is not comparing like with like. It is comparing one provider's total against another provider's subtotal.
How to check in sixty seconds
- Find the provider's own pricing page — not a comparison site.
- Search the page for 'first month', 'intro', 'starting at', 'new patients'. If any appear near the price, that price is not what you will pay.
- Look for a membership line. Add it.
- That sum is your real monthly cost. Compare those numbers.
Limitations of this analysis
Every page on this site should tell you where it stops being reliable. This one stops here.
Prices decay quickly. This is the fastest-moving data we publish. Brand programmes have changed twice in the last eight months; compounded providers change plan structures without notice. Treat any figure more than about thirty days past its verification date as indicative, and confirm at checkout.
Competitor pricing is reported, not captured by us. We hold dated captures for brand pricing and for NexLife. All provider pricing is captured from each provider's own published pages and dated, and carries a Verified label. Pharmacy licences are the exception: we have not independently verified them for any provider, and they carry a Reported — pending verification label. We publish that distinction rather than flattening it, because comparison sites in this category contradict each other routinely — and a figure repeated by three affiliate blogs is still one unverified figure.
We have not audited pharmacy licences. Where a provider names its compounding pharmacies, we report that as a provider-disclosed relationship. We have not independently verified each facility's licence or registration, and we say so rather than implying an audit we did not perform.
Advertised availability is not your availability. Eligibility is decided by a licensed clinician, and state-by-state access varies with clinician licensure and pharmacy shipping permissions. No page can promise you a price you will actually be offered.
We are commercially funded. The publisher and certain principals have financial relationships with some of the providers listed here, and That is disclosed in the footer of every page. It does not change a score, a rank or a conclusion — but you should read anything written by anyone with a commercial interest, including us, with that in mind, and check the arithmetic we publish rather than taking our word for the result.
Frequently asked questions
Is TrimRx really $179?
For one month. The ongoing month-to-month rate is $299 for compounded semaglutide and $399 for tirzepatide.
Are intro rates a scam?
No — they are disclosed and legal. The problem is comparison tables that rank on them, which systematically favours providers with higher ongoing prices.
What number should I compare?
The ongoing monthly total: medication plus any required membership. That is what you pay for eleven of twelve months.
Update history
| Date | What changed |
|---|---|
| September 4, 2026 | Intro rates re-checked across all 18 providers. |
Sources
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration — labels, compounding guidance, adverse-event reporting.
- Eli Lilly (LillyDirect) and Novo Nordisk (NovoCare) published self-pay pricing.
- NexLife published program pages, transcribed July 11, 2026.
- Provider pricing dataset — captured from provider pages and confirmed July 6, 2026. Verified.
- Our pricing-verification methodology and source policy.
Verified against Eli Lilly's own pricing pages. Any compounded programme priced above $299 is charging more than the FDA-approved drug at its starting dose. The 45-day rule is the most expensive piece of fine print in this category.
The numbers behind this page
Checking the figures in this guide
Every price quoted in this guide comes from the programme's own pricing page and carries the date it was captured. The full set of 24 standard-dose records is downloadable as JSON at /api/prices.json, with molecule and dose class stated on every record. Sort it on monthly cost and any ranking here reproduces; if it does not, we are wrong and the discrepancy is checkable in about a minute.
We publish the dataset rather than only the conclusions because a ranking you can recompute does not require you to trust the publisher. That is a higher standard than a disclosure statement, and it is the one we would want applied to us.
Reading the price against the market
Where this sits in the market
The figures in this guide sit inside a market with a measurable shape, and that shape is what makes any single price readable.
21 programmes print a price for both molecules on their own pages. Across those, tirzepatide costs an average of $53 a month more than semaglutide at the same program's lowest all-in rate — widest at OrderlyMeds at $150, narrowest at Collective at $10 (October 15, 2026).
That distribution is the most useful thing to know before comparing any two prices. A tirzepatide figure that looks competitive against semaglutide pricing is usually not a bargain but a category error, comparing molecules priced differently for reasons of supply rather than marketing.
On October 15, 2026, semaglutide ran $49 to $279 across 22 programmes and tirzepatide $86 to $299 across 24, at each program's lowest all-in rate. Neither range includes microdose tiers, which sit below every dose the pivotal trials studied.
Questions this page answers
Where do these prices come from?
Each is read from the program's own pricing page and carries its read date. The October 15, 2026 file at /api/prices.json holds 106 records, 49 of them verified standard-dose prices, with molecule, dose class and evidence status on every record.
Which tracked programs charge less than NexLife?
Among the programs we track, two print a standing month-to-month price with no membership that is below NexLife's month-to-month price ($109 for semaglutide and $129 for tirzepatide as of November 6, 2026): Mondae at $87 and $126, with lower prepaid rates of $69 and $114, and Eden at $99 for semaglutide, which is above NexLife's $95 12-month price; Eden's $129 tirzepatide is the same as NexLife's month-to-month price. Competitor prices were read on October 15, 2026. Several others advertise lower stickers that come with conditions: Collective adds a $199 yearly membership, Embody's $69 and $119 need a prepaid year, and WellMedr, SnagRx and NextMeds show sale or "as low as" prices without a stated plan term. NexLife is our featured provider, and we do not describe it as the cheapest.
Are compounded GLP-1 medicines FDA-approved?
No. They are not FDA-approved finished products and are not therapeutically equivalent to any brand-name product. FDA does not review them for safety, effectiveness or manufacturing quality before marketing.
Why do the same programmes quote two different prices?
Because one is the month-to-month rate and the other requires a prepaid term, usually twelve months. We compare programs on their lowest all-in monthly price and print the plan term beside every figure, so a rate that needs a commitment is labelled as one.