How to compare prescription prices before you pay

Why the same prescription costs different amounts

Two pharmacies can charge very different prices for the same medicine on the same day. Each pharmacy sets its own cash price, which is the price you pay when you do not use insurance. Cash price is also called the self-pay price. Because prices vary, a single phone call cannot tell you whether you found a good deal.

Another reason for the gap is the choice between a brand-name drug and a generic. A generic drug is a copy of a brand-name medicine. The FDA, the federal agency that approves medicines, says the active ingredient in a generic is the same as in the brand-name drug. The agency also says generics have the same risks and benefits. It reports that one generic competitor can lead to price reductions of 30 percent. It adds that five generics competing is associated with price drops of nearly 85 percent.

This page is general information and is not medical advice. Your doctor or pharmacist decides which medicine and strength are right for you. If you have an emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.

Compare prices in five steps

1. Write down the exact name of the medicine, its strength and the number of pills or the amount of liquid on your prescription. Prices only match when all of those details match.
2. Ask your doctor whether a generic is available, and ask for the prescription to be written so a generic can be used.
3. Call two or three pharmacies, including one that is not in a big chain if your town has one. You can say, "I do not have insurance, so what is your cash price for this prescription?"
4. Ask whether a 90-day supply costs less per pill than a 30-day supply. Write down each total and the date you called.
5. Pick the lowest price from a licensed pharmacy that you can reach, and ask that pharmacy to fill the prescription.

Our guide on how to ask for the cash price has a phone script that works for medicines as well as visits. It also helps to ask the pharmacist, "Is this the lowest price you can give me?" Pharmacists hear this question often, and asking costs nothing.

Please do not skip or split a medicine to save money without talking to your doctor or pharmacist first. If cost is the problem, tell them, because they may know a lower-cost option.

Use the government price list as a reality check

Medicaid keeps a national survey of what pharmacies pay to buy drugs. It is called NADAC, short for National Average Drug Acquisition Cost. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal health agency, updates the data every week. The survey does not list what you will pay, because the pharmacy must also cover its own costs. It does show how cheap many generics are to buy.

The examples below are generic tablets from the week of October 7, 2026. They show the prices pharmacies paid per tablet, and your counter price will be higher.

• Atorvastatin 20 mg, a cholesterol medicine, cost about 2.8 cents per tablet.
• Amlodipine 5 mg, which is used for blood pressure, cost about 1.0 cent per tablet.
• Sertraline 50 mg, a medicine used for depression and some anxiety conditions, cost about 3.5 cents per tablet.
• The brand-name version of sertraline 50 mg was priced at about $14.91 per tablet in the same survey.

To use the survey, multiply the price per tablet by the number of tablets. For 30 tablets of atorvastatin 20 mg, the survey price comes to under one dollar. A pharmacy may quote many times more than that for a generic. In that case, ask why, and call a second pharmacy. We did not find a government list of counter prices, so we cannot say what a fair counter price is.

Our guides on metformin, sertraline, gabapentin and estradiol show what pharmacies pay for those medicines.

Does mail order or a 90-day supply cost less?

MedlinePlus, a health site from the National Library of Medicine, says you can find a good mail-order pharmacy for your long-term medicines. It says a 90-day supply may come with a lower copay, which is a fixed amount a person with insurance pays. MedlinePlus advises searching online for good mail-order prices and checking coverage with your health plan before ordering.

If you pay cash, ask whether the mail-order price beats your local cash price, and whether shipping adds a cost. MedlinePlus also says to only buy medicines from a licensed US pharmacy. A low price from a website that will not show a license is not worth the risk.

A longer supply helps only if your doctor says it is safe, because some medicines change after a lab test or a visit. Ask your doctor before you buy 90 days at once.

Community health centers and 340B pricing

HRSA, the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, runs the 340B Drug Pricing Program. Under it, drug makers that take part in Medicaid agree to provide outpatient drugs to certain organizations at much lower prices than usual. Health centers are among the organizations HRSA lists.

HRSA does not say that patients get a discount automatically. Each center decides how it passes savings along, so ask about it. A good question to ask is, "Do you have a pharmacy, and what would I pay for this medicine on your sliding scale?" A sliding scale means your price depends on your income. Our guide on community health centers shows how to find one.

If you also need a visit to renew a prescription, a cash-pay doctor can help. Direct primary care is a membership that usually costs $50 to $200 a month. Our directory lets you search for a cash-pay doctor near you, and you can ask how refills are handled. For more ideas, read our guide on prescriptions without insurance.