GLP-1 Titration Planner
Both of these drugs start below the dose that was studied and climb for months. That has a clinical consequence and a financial one, and the financial one is the part nobody puts in a headline: the opening dose is the dose you are on for the fewest weeks of the year, so a seller’s price at the top of the ladder matters more than its price at the bottom.
| Weeks | Dose | What the label calls it |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | 0.25 mg | initiationStarting dose. Not intended to produce weight loss — it is there to let the gut adjust. |
| 5–8 | 0.5 mg | escalation |
| 9–12 | 1 mg | escalation |
| 13–16 | 1.7 mg | escalation |
| 17+ | 2.4 mg | maintenanceThe dose STEP 1 studied, where the −14.9% mean change was measured. |
Reaching 2.4 mg takes 17 weeks on this schedule, so a buyer spends roughly 31% of a first year below it. The label also lists 7.2 mg as a maintenance option above this ladder; the weeks to reach it are not carried here, so it is not priced above. Source: Wegovy prescribing information, DailyMed.
What the ladder costs, two ways
The same escalation, priced by a seller that holds one figure across every dose and by one that raises it at each step. Put in any two numbers you are comparing.
Flat at every dose
$1,788
across a first year
Priced by dose
$2,351
across a first year
On these figures the dose-indexed seller costs $563 more across the year, despite opening $50 lower a month.
These are the approved products’ schedules
Every step above comes from the prescribing information for Wegovy and Zepbound, not from a seller’s page. Most sellers on this site dispense a compounded preparation, and a compounding pharmacy is free to supply a different ladder entirely — which is exactly what a microdose protocol is. If a seller does not publish the strengths it dispenses, this schedule tells you what the approved product does and not what will arrive in your vial.
It is also not a prescription. Escalation is decided by a clinician against how you are tolerating the drug, and both labels allow holding a dose longer or stepping back down. The schedule here is the default path, not an instruction — escalation is a clinical decision, and the ladder exists because of how the drug is tolerated on the way up.