Costco begins selling Wegovy and Ozempic for $499 a month cash

Costco announced in October 2025 that it would offer Wegovy and Ozempic to cash-paying members for $499 a month, joining a wave of retailers moving into discounted sales of GLP-1 weight loss and diabetes drugs. Walmart has set up a comparable arrangement with Eli Lilly to sell Zepbound. Specific terms of the Costco and Walmart deals, including which doses are covered and how members enroll, are not detailed in the reporting reviewed for this story, so those particulars are not yet known.

What is documented is the direction of pricing across the GLP-1 market heading into 2026. Novo Nordisk has said the lowest dose of the Wegovy injection costs $349 a month for people paying cash without using insurance ^[1]. That figure gives some context for where Costco's $499 cash price for Wegovy and Ozempic sits relative to the manufacturer's own direct-to-consumer cash rate, though it is not clear from available sources whether Costco's price covers the same lowest dose or a different one.

Novo Nordisk is also rolling out a new oral version of Wegovy. The two lowest-dose pills will cost $149 a month in cash, and the two higher-dose pills will be priced at $299 a month starting in the same period ^[1]. For patients with insurance that covers the drugs, out-of-pocket costs could be as low as $25 a month, according to the company ^[1]. Dr. Daniela Hurtado Andrade, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, said lower prices will likely expand access, but noted that the biggest weight loss in clinical trials came from the highest dose, meaning some patients may need to pay more to get results closer to what trials showed ^[1]. She added that even $149 a month is still too expensive for some people ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

Cash prices matter most for people whose insurance does not cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, or who have high deductibles. A retailer offering $499 a month is still a substantial monthly cost, but it sits below some list prices and reflects growing competition among pharmacies, drugmakers and retailers to capture cash-paying customers ^[1]. Dr. Shauna Levy, medical director of the Tulane Weight Loss Center, said she hopes broader competition will keep pushing prices down further as more products, including pills, reach the market ^[1].

Patients considering a switch to buy through a retailer like Costco or Walmart should know that the sources reviewed here do not specify whether these retail cash prices apply to every dose, whether insurance can be combined with the discount, or how they compare dose-for-dose with manufacturer coupons. Those details are not yet known based on current reporting.

The pill vs. injection choice also carries a practical wrinkle unrelated to price: adherence. In a late-stage trial of the Wegovy pill, people who took it exactly as directed, every morning on an empty stomach, lost 16.6% of their body weight on average, compared with 13.6% among those who didn't follow the schedule closely ^[1]. Lilly's competing pill has more flexible timing, since it can be taken any time of day, though it still requires a daily dose ^[1].

What happens next

Novo Nordisk's oral Wegovy pill was expected to be widely available starting this month, with the two higher-dose pills priced at $299 a month for cash-paying customers ^[1]. A separate GLP-1 pill from Eli Lilly is expected to gain regulatory approval later this year ^[1]. Whether Costco's and Walmart's cash-pay programs expand to cover these newer oral options, or whether other retailers follow with their own discount arrangements, is not addressed in the sources available and remains to be seen.