How many doses does Wegovy have, and what does the schedule look like?

You've just started Wegovy and someone mentions 'titration', here's what that actually means

Imagine you've been prescribed Wegovy and your first pen arrives. The dose printed on it is 0.25 mg. That surprises some people, who were expecting to feel an immediate change in appetite. The thing is, that first pen isn't the therapeutic workhorse, it's the introduction. Its job is to give your digestive system time to adjust to semaglutide before the dose climbs to levels where the appetite-reducing effect becomes pronounced.

This step-by-step progression is called dose titration. It's a formal part of how Wegovy is licensed and prescribed in the UK, not a preference some doctors have and others don't. According to the NHS semaglutide medicines guidance, the schedule moves through five stages: 0.25 mg for the first four weeks, then 0.5 mg, then 1.0 mg, then 1.7 mg, and finally 2.4 mg as the standard maintenance dose. Most people spend a minimum of four weeks at each level, though a prescriber can slow things down if side effects make a faster pace uncomfortable.

A question our prescribers hear most weeks is whether it's possible to skip a step if the side effects seem manageable. The short answer is that the schedule exists for a reason, even if you feel fine at 0.5 mg, jumping straight to 1.7 mg bypasses the settling-in period that makes the overall course easier to stick with. That decision belongs with your prescriber, not with the temptation to fast-track results.

If you want a clear summary of what changes at each step, the Wegovy dose guide on this site walks through the clinical rationale behind each increment.

The newer 7.2 mg level: what it is, and who it's actually for

In January 2026 the MHRA approved a higher maintenance dose of 7.2 mg for Wegovy, and on 14 April 2026 they followed that with approval of a dedicated single-dose 7.2 mg pen. That pen delivers one pre-set weekly injection with a covered needle that locks after use, making it straightforward to use at home. In the trials supporting this approval, average weight loss over 72 weeks at 7.2 mg was around 20.7%, narrowing the gap with the highest doses of tirzepatide (Mounjaro) seen in the SURMOUNT programme.

It's worth being clear about what 7.2 mg is not. It isn't a routine next step that everyone progresses to after 2.4 mg. The licensed indication for the 7.2 mg dose specifies adults with a BMI of 30 or above, it isn't approved for lower BMI thresholds in the way the standard schedule can be. And it's reached only after tolerating and stabilising at 2.4 mg, with a prescriber deciding whether the additional dose increase is clinically appropriate.

For context on exactly how high the Wegovy dose can go under UK licensing, the page on the maximum licensed Wegovy dose covers the detail. The precise dose increments between each level are explained on the dose increments page.

How many doses are in each Wegovy pen, and why that matters practically

Each Wegovy injection pen is pre-filled and comes with four once-weekly doses. So one pen covers one four-week period at whatever strength it's prescribed at. As the dose increases, you move to the next-strength pen, the 0.25 mg pen for your first month, then the 0.5 mg pen, and so on up through the schedule.

This matters in a practical sense because it shapes how you think about supply. Running short mid-month isn't just inconvenient, missing doses or delaying a step disrupts the titration pattern your prescriber designed. The doses per Wegovy pen page goes into more detail on how the four-dose structure works across the different strengths. If you're specifically on the 1.7 mg pen and want to know its dose count, there's a dedicated page on the 1.7 mg pen too.

People also ask about the starting 0.25 mg pen in particular, how many doses it carries and how long it lasts. That page on the 0.25 mg Wegovy pen covers exactly that. And if you've read about a so-called "golden dose" (the idea that one level works especially well for most people) the golden dose page looks honestly at what the evidence actually shows.

One thing worth flagging: the cost of Wegovy in the UK changes as the dose goes up, because each higher-strength pen carries a different price. The Wegovy price comparison page gives a factual breakdown of how UK private costs vary by dose and provider, useful context if you're planning ahead. It's also worth knowing that any legitimate private price for a prescription medicine like Wegovy includes the prescription itself and clinical assessment; if a price seems unusually low, that's worth questioning.

The Wegovy tablet schedule is different (and it's easy to confuse the two

Since June 2026, semaglutide is also available as a daily oral tablet under the Wegovy name in the UK) the first oral GLP-1 medicine licensed here for weight management. The tablet schedule is entirely separate from the injection schedule and has its own dose levels: 1.5 mg, 4 mg, 9 mg, and 25 mg as the maintenance dose. Those are not the same as injection doses and shouldn't be compared directly.

The tablet is taken once a day, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, with a small amount of plain water, at least 30 minutes before eating, drinking anything other than water, or taking other oral medicines. It doesn't need refrigeration, which makes it easier for travel. The STEP clinical data behind the injection and the OASIS 4 trial data behind the tablet are separate bodies of evidence with different weight-loss figures, so it's important not to mix them up when making sense of what Wegovy can do.

The full picture on both forms (injection and tablet) is on the main Wegovy overview page. And if you're thinking about whether semaglutide is the right route for you, or how it compares to other options, the weight-loss treatment overview sets out what's available through a regulated UK private pharmacy. As with the injection, the tablet is a prescription-only medicine. A prescriber reviews whether it's suitable for you individually, the dose schedule is a framework, not a self-serve menu.