Tirzepatide vs semaglutide cost: what you're actually comparing

Step 1: understand what the headline price is quoting (and what it usually isn't)

Both medicines are dispensed as once-weekly injection pens. A single pen covers four weekly doses, so private pricing is usually stated per pen or per four-week supply. Tirzepatide comes in six UK strengths (2.5mg through to 15mg) and semaglutide (Wegovy) runs from 0.25mg up to 2.4mg, with a higher 7.2mg dose approved in the UK since early 2026. Lower doses cost less; maintenance doses cost more. That means a quoted figure without a stated dose is almost meaningless.

What headline prices frequently leave out: the consultation to assess whether you're suitable, the prescription itself, clinical review before a dose change, and aftercare support if side effects occur. A provider charging £X for the pen but then billing separately for a doctor's letter, a prescription fee, or each support call is not offering a lower price, they're splitting the same number differently. That is worth checking carefully before you compare figures side by side. Our FAQs cover what to look for when reviewing any provider's pricing structure.

For a fuller breakdown of how semaglutide pricing sits relative to tirzepatide, the Wegovy vs Mounjaro cost page goes into more detail on how the two medicines' price trajectories differ by dose.

Step 2: weigh what the clinical evidence actually shows before deciding on price

Price per month only makes sense alongside what each medicine delivers. In the SURMOUNT-5 head-to-head trial (published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2025, involving 751 adults with obesity and no diabetes, over 72 weeks) tirzepatide produced greater average weight reduction than semaglutide 2.4mg. NICE's appraisal of tirzepatide (TA1026) reviewed this evidence and recommended it for adults meeting specific BMI and comorbidity criteria.

Semaglutide has strong evidence behind it too. The STEP 1 trial, published in the NEJM, reported around 15% average body-weight reduction over 68 weeks at the 2.4mg maintenance dose. The newer 7.2mg Wegovy pen approved in April 2026 narrows the gap further. Which medicine suits you is a clinical question, not a price question. If you are trying to understand how tirzepatide vs Ozempic cost plays out across dose stages, that is a more useful starting point than comparing headline figures without knowing which dose you'd reach, and over what period.

You can read a broader comparison of how the two medicines work and what the evidence shows on the Wegovy vs Mounjaro page.

Step 3: factor in what a legitimate all-in price actually covers

At nume, we are not trying to win a price comparison. There are cheaper listings out there for both medicines. That is a deliberate choice on our part, not an oversight. One transparent price covers the free consultation, the prescription, the treatment itself, and free next-working-day DPD delivery, your pen arrives in a plain box, tracked on your phone, with no surprise charges at the door. There is no subscription and no auto-renewal; every repeat order goes back in front of a prescriber before it ships.

Every consultation at nume is personally reviewed by a GPhC-registered Independent Prescriber, you can verify our pharmacy on the GPhC register at registration number 9012878. A named clinician reads your answers, not a queue-management algorithm. For anyone curious about the clinical oversight behind that process, our clinical team page sets out who is involved.

If you want to see what current treatment pricing looks like, the treatment overview lists what's available. Prices there reflect the full cost, nothing is added later.

Step 4: why the cheapest listing is the wrong thing to optimise for

Mounjaro and Wegovy are Prescription-Only Medicines. The MHRA has warned publicly about counterfeit weight-loss pens being sold through social media and unverified websites, in 2025, enforcement operations recovered roughly 20 million doses of illegally traded weight-loss medicines worth around £45 million at street value, including the first UK manufacturing site producing fake tirzepatide pens. Fake pens have in some cases contained insulin, with serious consequences for the people who used them.

A price that looks significantly below the market range for a prescription medicine is a red flag, not a deal. Sellers offering these medicines without a clinical assessment, or through channels you cannot verify against the GPhC register, are not a cheaper version of the same thing, they are a different thing entirely. Suspected sellers can be reported to the MHRA via the Yellow Card scheme.

For more on how tirzepatide and semaglutide costs compare when Ozempic enters the conversation, a medicine licensed for diabetes rather than weight loss, our Mounjaro vs Ozempic cost page explains where the confusion tends to arise and why it matters. It is also worth knowing that Mounjaro does not actually contain semaglutide, a distinction that affects how you interpret any like-for-like price comparison. If you are weighing up the two semaglutide-based options on cost, our Mounjaro vs Wegovy price UK page breaks down what the difference looks like at each dose stage.