What losartan costs if you have no insurance

What losartan is for and what pharmacies pay

MedlinePlus, a health site from the National Library of Medicine, says losartan treats high blood pressure. It is also used for kidney disease in people who have type 2 diabetes.

Medicaid, the joint federal and state health program, runs a weekly price survey called NADAC. It asks drugstores what they paid their suppliers and then publishes the national average for each drug. The figures below are for the week of October 21, 2026.

• The 25 mg generic tablet cost pharmacies about $0.022 each.
• The 50 mg generic tablet cost about $0.033 each.
• The 100 mg generic tablet cost about $0.045 each.
• The brand-name 50 mg tablet cost about $4.49 each, which is more than 130 times the generic.

Multiply the price per tablet by the number of tablets on your prescription. At the survey price, 30 tablets of the 50 mg generic come to about $1. Your doctor picks the strength and the count. We show this only to give you a sense of how small the base cost is.

The price at the counter is higher, because a pharmacy must also cover its staff and its rent, and it adds a profit. How much higher the price is can vary a lot. Two stores on the same street can charge you very different amounts.

What Medicare plans and members spent on losartan

We found no government list of counter prices, so we looked at Medicare's public drug spending files. Medicare is the federal health plan for people 65 and older and some younger people with disabilities. For 2024 it shows what its drug plans and their members spent in total on each drug. This is not a cash price, and it does not show what an uninsured person pays at a store.

• Generic losartan averaged about $9.80 per prescription fill. That came from about 36 million fills, and the average fill held about 79 tablets.
• Brand-name losartan averaged about $362 per fill, from about 12,000 fills.

Each fill is one prescription picked up at the pharmacy. The data does not say how many days each fill lasted. In plain terms, a generic fill cost about 37 times less than a brand fill. Almost everyone who filled losartan through Medicare in 2024 got a generic, and generic fills outnumbered brand fills by about 3,000 to 1.

Generic losartan is widely available

The FDA's drug database lists dozens of approved generic versions of losartan, and the survey above prices them as generics. You do not have to buy the brand. A generic has the same active ingredient, and the FDA says generics tend to cost less than the brand-name medicine.

We found no program from the company that makes the brand-name version.

Because the generic is so cheap, your best step is usually to ask pharmacies for their cash price on the generic. A losartan and hydrochlorothiazide tablet, which combines two blood pressure medicines in one pill, is also sold as a generic at a low survey price.

Ways to pay less for losartan

Call three or four pharmacies and ask for the cash price of a 30-day and a 90-day supply. Some stores charge less per tablet for the larger amount. Our guide on how to compare prescription prices walks through this, and our guide on prescriptions without insurance covers other options.

Community health centers may help too. The Health Resources and Services Administration, or HRSA, says they can buy outpatient drugs at lower prices through a federal program called 340B. HRSA does not say how much of that saving reaches patients, so ask what the center charges. Our guide on community health centers explains how to find one.

A cash-pay doctor with a monthly membership can handle refills and blood pressure checks for a known fee. Direct primary care usually costs $50 to $200 a month, and you can search for a cash-pay doctor near you. You can also try our free health center finder. If you take a similar blood pressure medicine, our page on lisinopril costs may help too.

Asking your doctor about cost

Other medicines can treat high blood pressure, and some cost more or less than losartan. Whether another one is safe for you depends on your health and your other medicines. That choice belongs to you and your doctor. Please tell the office that cost is a problem, and ask what the choices are and what each one costs.

Please do not stop losartan on your own

MedlinePlus says to keep taking losartan even if you feel well, and not to stop without talking to your doctor. High blood pressure often causes no symptoms, so feeling fine does not mean the medicine is not needed. If the cost is the problem, call your doctor or pharmacist before you run out and say so.

The FDA puts a boxed warning on losartan, which is a special warning at the top of the label. It says the medicine can injure or kill a developing baby, and that a doctor should stop it as soon as a pregnancy is found. MedlinePlus says not to take losartan if you are pregnant. If you are pregnant or could become pregnant, talk to your doctor right away. Please do not make any change to your medicine on your own. MedlinePlus also says not to use salt substitutes that contain potassium without talking to your doctor.

MedlinePlus lists swelling of the face, throat, tongue or lips, trouble breathing or swallowing, and chest pain as serious signs. In an emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. This page gives general information and is not medical advice.