GLP-1 Cost Calculator Ireland

What this GLP-1 cost calculator does

This calculator is for people in Ireland who already have a current quote from a pharmacy, clinic or prescriber and want to understand what that quote could mean over a longer treatment period. It is a budgeting tool, not a medicine-selection tool. It does not decide whether a treatment is suitable, licensed for a particular purpose, available, reimbursed or clinically appropriate for you.

Choose Mounjaro, Wegovy, Ozempic or “Other”, then enter the amount you have actually been quoted. The calculator deliberately does not hard-code a private medicine price because private charges can differ between providers, services can be bundled differently, dose changes may affect cost, and prices can change.

You can tell the calculator whether the quoted medicine price covers four weeks or one calendar month. That matters because a four-week billing cycle occurs 13 times in a 52-week year, while a calendar-month charge occurs 12 times. The calculator converts both structures onto the treatment horizon you enter so that the totals are comparable.

The basic calculation includes the medicine and any recurring consultation or prescription fee. Advanced mode adds an initial setup fee, monitoring or blood-test costs and other recurring monthly treatment costs.

For a broader view of weight-related numbers, you can also use the Weight Loss Calculator. For food and energy estimates, see the Nutrition Needs Calculator. Those tools answer different questions and should not be treated as predictions of how a prescription medicine will affect an individual person.

Why four-week and calendar-month prices differ

A common budgeting mistake is to hear a four-week price and mentally treat it as a monthly price. Four weeks is 28 days. A year contains 52 weeks, so there are 13 complete four-week periods in a 52-week year. A calendar year, by contrast, contains 12 calendar months.

If a medicine or service is quoted at €250 every four weeks, the medicine component alone would be €3,250 across 13 billing periods in a 52-week year. If the same amount were genuinely charged once per calendar month, the annual medicine component would be €3,000.

That €250 difference is not caused by a different medicine price. It comes entirely from the billing frequency. The calculator therefore asks you to identify the billing period explicitly rather than assuming that “monthly” and “every four weeks” mean the same thing.

For treatment periods shorter or longer than one year, the calculator scales the number of billing periods proportionally. This is a planning convention designed to make scenarios comparable. Real billing dates can fall differently depending on when treatment starts, dispensing arrangements and provider practices.

What costs to include

The medicine price is usually the largest number in a private treatment budget, but it may not be the only one. Some people may also face separate consultation, prescription, monitoring, delivery, administration or other service charges. Whether these apply depends on the provider and the individual arrangement.

Start with the price that is actually quoted to you for the medicine or treatment package. If the quote already includes consultations or another service, do not add the same charge again in a separate field. The aim is to model the total amount you expect to pay, not to count one fee twice.

The ongoing consultation field is intended for a recurring review or prescription charge that is separate from the medicine price. Enter how much one consultation costs and how many such consultations you expect per year. If there is no separate recurring consultation fee, leave the amount at zero.

Advanced mode is useful where there are additional costs. The initial fee is applied once. Monitoring costs are calculated from the cost per visit multiplied by the expected annual number of visits and scaled to the treatment duration. “Other recurring treatment costs” can represent a regular service cost that is not already included elsewhere.

Use only costs you reasonably expect to pay. Adding hypothetical charges “just in case” can make the estimate look more precise while actually making it less useful.

Reimbursement and out-of-pocket cost in Ireland

Your personal out-of-pocket cost can differ from a headline private price because reimbursement depends on the medicine, its approved use, the relevant scheme and your individual eligibility. These rules can also change.

The HSE describes Wegovy as a medicine that may be prescribed for weight management for eligible patients. The HSE describes Ozempic as a medicine prescribed for type 2 diabetes, with reimbursement controls applying to approved diabetes use. Mounjaro, Wegovy and Ozempic are prescription-only medicines listed by the HPRA.

The calculator does not try to determine reimbursement entitlement. Instead, it asks for the amount you actually expect to pay after any reimbursement or scheme treatment that applies to you. That keeps the arithmetic separate from the eligibility decision.

If your circumstances change, rerun the calculation using the new out-of-pocket amount. The same applies if a provider changes its fee structure, if your billing period changes or if a separate consultation fee starts or stops.

Worked example: a 12-month treatment budget

Suppose a person has been quoted €250 for each four-week medicine supply. They expect four separate review appointments during the year at €50 each. In Advanced mode they also enter a €100 initial setup fee, two monitoring visits at €75 each and €10 per month of another recurring cost.

The medicine calculation is 13 four-week periods × €250 = €3,250.

The ongoing consultation calculation is 4 × €50 = €200.

The additional-cost calculation is €100 initial fee + €150 monitoring + €120 recurring costs = €370.

The modelled 12-month total is therefore €3,820. The average cost per calendar month is about €318.33, while the equivalent average cost per four weeks is about €293.85.

This example is arithmetic only. It is not a statement that €250 is a current price for any named medicine, and it does not imply that the number of consultations or monitoring visits is appropriate for any individual.

Comparing two quotes fairly

When comparing providers, first make sure you are comparing like with like. One quote may describe only the medicine, while another may bundle reviews, prescriptions, delivery or monitoring. A lower headline medicine price can therefore produce a higher total cost once separate fees are included.

Use the same treatment horizon for both scenarios. If one quote is every four weeks and another is per calendar month, keep the billing-period field accurate rather than converting the prices mentally.

Then check which charges are one-off and which recur. A higher initial fee can matter a lot over a three-month horizon but much less over a two-year horizon. A small recurring fee can have the opposite pattern: it may look unimportant initially but become significant over time.

The most useful comparison is usually total expected out-of-pocket cost over the same period, supported by the breakdown into medicine, consultations and extras. The calculator provides those components so that a single headline number does not hide the assumptions underneath it.

Cost should not be used as the sole basis for choosing a prescription medicine or clinical provider. The calculator is designed to clarify the financial side of a decision that also has medical, practical and eligibility considerations.

How changes in treatment duration affect the result

Treatment duration has a direct effect on recurring costs. If the medicine, consultation frequency and other monthly costs stay the same, extending the treatment horizon increases the modelled total proportionally.

A one-off initial fee behaves differently. It is included once whether the entered horizon is three months or 24 months. As a result, the average monthly cost of a scenario with a setup fee usually falls as the horizon gets longer, even if the recurring charges stay unchanged.

The annualised output should be read carefully when the treatment period is not exactly 12 months. It takes the average monthly cost across the scenario and expresses that average on a 12-month basis. It does not mean that the treatment will necessarily continue for a full year.

Similarly, the four-week-equivalent figure is a comparison measure derived from the annualised average. It is not a forecast of the exact amount that will appear on every four-week invoice.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Mounjaro cost in Ireland?

Private out-of-pocket prices can vary by provider, dose, services included and timing. This calculator does not publish a fixed Mounjaro price. Enter the current amount you have actually been quoted and specify whether it covers four weeks or one calendar month.

How much does Wegovy cost in Ireland?

The calculator does not assume a national private price for Wegovy. Use your own current pharmacy, clinic or prescriber quote. If consultations, monitoring or another service are charged separately, add those costs in the relevant fields.

How much does Ozempic cost in Ireland?

Personal cost depends on the circumstances, including reimbursement eligibility. The HSE describes Ozempic as a medicine for type 2 diabetes and applies reimbursement controls. The calculator should therefore use your actual expected out-of-pocket amount rather than a generic online price.

Why does a four-week price produce 13 billing periods per year?

A year contains 52 weeks. Dividing 52 by four gives 13. Treating a four-week charge as though it occurred only 12 times would understate the annual medicine cost.

Does the calculator estimate weight loss or treatment success?

No. It calculates costs only. It does not predict weight change, treatment response, side effects, dose changes, treatment duration or clinical suitability.

Are Mounjaro and Wegovy the same type of medicine?

They are different medicines. Wegovy contains semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist. Mounjaro contains tirzepatide, which acts at both GIP and GLP-1 receptors. They should not be treated as interchangeable merely because they are often discussed together.

Should I enter the full pharmacy price or what I personally pay?

Enter the amount you reasonably expect to pay out of pocket for the billing period selected. If a reimbursement arrangement changes your personal cost, use the post-reimbursement amount that applies to your scenario.

Method and limitations

For a four-week medicine quote, the calculator uses 13 billing periods per 12 months. For a calendar-month quote, it uses 12. The number of medicine billing periods is scaled by the treatment duration in months.

Ongoing consultation cost is calculated as the consultation price multiplied by the expected number of consultations per year and then scaled to the treatment duration. In Advanced mode, the initial fee is added once, monitoring cost is calculated from the monitoring price and annual frequency, and other recurring costs are multiplied by the number of treatment months.

Total estimated treatment cost is the sum of medicine spend, ongoing consultation fees and the modelled extra costs. Average monthly cost divides that total by the treatment months entered. Annualised cost multiplies that average by 12. The four-week-equivalent amount divides the annualised figure by 13.

The model assumes the entered prices and frequencies remain constant throughout the scenario. It does not model dose-specific pricing, future price changes, missed doses, treatment interruptions, dispensing constraints, clinical outcomes, adverse effects or changes in reimbursement. It also does not determine whether a medicine is appropriate, licensed for an intended use or available to a particular person.

The result is therefore best used as a transparent budgeting scenario. Keep the inputs current, use the price actually quoted to you, and rerun the calculation whenever the real-world assumptions change.