Fraxel is one of the few laser treatments where you can price-shop from your couch. Because no insurer is involved, practices publish a number on a web page instead of negotiating a rate behind the scenes, and five minutes of clicking gets you a real spread rather than a guess.
The catch is that “Fraxel” is a family, not a single treatment. Fraxel Dual 1550/1927 and Fraxel Restore are non-ablative fractional lasers that leave the skin surface intact, and they are sold in a series. That is a different purchase from a one-and-done ablative CO2 session, and it is the single biggest reason quoted prices look so far apart. This guide separates the per-session number from the course total, prices the smaller areas, and shows where Fraxel lands against CO2.
What Does Fraxel Laser Treatment Cost Without Insurance?
Figures below are posted cash prices from practices that publish a price list, alongside national averages from CareCredit and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, all current as of August 2026.
| Service | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fraxel, full face, one session | $850 | about $1,150 | $1,500 |
| Fraxel, neck | $450 | $700 | $990 |
| Fraxel, chest | $600 | $800 | $1,250 |
| Fraxel, hands | $500 | $500 | $580 |
| Fraxel, peri-oral or peri-orbital only | $500 | n/a | $500 |
| Fraxel, face and neck | $1,600 | $1,700 | $1,850 |
| Fraxel, face, neck and chest | $2,000 | n/a | $2,500 |
| Fraxel, package of four (full face) | n/a | $5,000 | n/a |
| Non-ablative laser resurfacing, national average | n/a | $1,445 | n/a |
| Skin resurfacing, ASPS average physician fee | n/a | $1,829 | n/a |
| Fraxel, CareCredit national range | $100 | n/a | $3,900 |
| Ablative laser resurfacing, national average | n/a | $2,509 | n/a |
Sources: the $850 face, $450 neck and $600 chest are Radiance Medical Spa’s posted Pasadena prices; $1,150 face, $700 neck, $800 chest, $500 hands, $500 peri-oral, $500 peri-orbital, $1,600 face and neck, and $2,000 for face, neck and chest are Southlake Dermatology’s posted list; $1,250 face, $550 neck, $1,250 chest, $1,700 face and neck, and $2,500 for face, neck and decolletage are Derm Specialists’ posted list; $1,300 face, $990 neck, $1,115 chest, $580 hands and $1,850 face and neck are Wilmington Dermatology Center’s posted prices; $1,500 per treatment and $5,000 for a package of four are Washington Square Dermatology’s posted New York prices; the $1,445 non-ablative average, $2,509 ablative average and $100 to $3,900 Fraxel range are CareCredit’s; $1,829 is the ASPS average physician fee for skin resurfacing procedures.
The two families of data do not line up neatly, and it is worth saying why rather than splitting the difference. Posted per-session prices for a full face cluster tightly at $850 to $1,500. CareCredit’s $100 to $3,900 Fraxel range is so wide because it lumps a tiny scar spot treatment in with a multi-area session. The ASPS figure of $1,829 is a physician fee for skin resurfacing as a whole, which includes chemical peels and dermabrasion, so it runs above the Fraxel-only numbers. Treat $850 to $1,500 as the per-visit price and $2,500 to $5,000 as the realistic course total.
What Drives the Price
How much skin is in the treatment
This is the largest factor by a wide margin, and it is the one that quietly doubles a quote at the consultation. Southlake Dermatology posts $1,150 for the face alone, $1,600 once the neck is added, and $2,000 for face, neck and chest. Derm Specialists follows the same shape: $1,250 face, $1,700 face and neck, $2,500 for face, neck and decolletage.
Small areas are the cheap entry point. Peri-oral (around the mouth) and peri-orbital (around the eyes) treatments are $500 each at Southlake, and hands run $500 to $580 across the lists we checked. If your actual complaint is one zone rather than a whole face, ask to be quoted that way.
The series, not the session
Non-ablative fractional lasers work by accumulation. CareCredit reports that dermatologists typically recommend three non-ablative treatments spaced about a month apart, and that Fraxel Restore patients usually undergo two to three treatments within a six-month period. Wilmington Dermatology Center tells patients most people need four to six sessions four to six weeks apart.
That turns a $1,150 headline into a $3,450 to $6,900 project. Package pricing takes some of the sting out but not all of it. Washington Square Dermatology posts $1,500 per treatment and $5,000 for four, an effective $1,250 each. Radiance Medical Spa discounts a series of three by 10 percent and a series of five by 15 percent. Those are real savings, and they are also the reason the package total is the only number worth comparing between practices.
Which device, and how aggressively it is run
Fraxel Dual carries two wavelengths, 1550 nanometers for texture and deeper remodeling and 1927 nanometers for surface pigment. Practices sometimes price a light-touch resurfacing device separately: Washington Square Dermatology posts Clear + Brilliant at $600 per treatment and $2,000 for four, well under its $1,500 Fraxel price. If a quote comes back far below the posted market, confirm which device and which wavelengths are actually included.
Where the treatment happens and who performs it
The five posted full-face prices we found span $850 in Pasadena to $1,500 in Manhattan for the same device category. Rent and local wage rates explain most of that. A dermatology office typically folds a clinician consult into the visit, which has value on its own if the reason you are here is scarring or sun damage rather than general glow. Our dermatologist cost guide covers what that visit costs on a cash basis.
Consultation and product fees
These are small but they are real, and they show up after the quote. Some practices charge a booking or consultation fee applied toward treatment, and nearly all sell a post-procedure skincare kit. Ask whether aftercare products are included in the number you were given or billed separately.
Fraxel vs. CO2: What the Price Difference Buys
Per session, Fraxel is the cheaper laser and it is not close. CareCredit puts non-ablative laser skin resurfacing at a $1,445 national average against $2,509 for ablative, and prices CO2 specifically at $2,446 to $6,700 per treatment.
Per result, the math tightens considerably. CO2 is usually sold as a single treatment. Three Fraxel sessions at $1,150 is $3,450, which lands squarely inside the CO2 range. What you are actually buying with the higher CO2 price is compression: one visit, one recovery, deeper effect. What you buy with Fraxel is a schedule you can work around, since non-ablative recovery is short enough that many people return to work the same week.
The honest way to compare the two is total spend against total downtime, not sticker against sticker. Our CO2 laser resurfacing cost guide prices the ablative side by area, and our HALO laser cost guide covers the hybrid device that sits between them.
Cash Price vs. Insurance
There is no insurance angle here. CareCredit states directly that neither ablative nor non-ablative laser skin resurfacing is typically covered by health insurance, with the only exceptions falling around a precancerous or cancerous skin condition that has been surgically addressed. Expect to pay in full at the time of service.
Two consequences follow. Nothing you spend on Fraxel counts toward a deductible or an out-of-pocket maximum, because no claim is ever filed. And the HSA and FSA workaround that helps with some medical spending generally does not apply either: IRS Publication 502 defines cosmetic surgery as any procedure directed at improving appearance that does not meaningfully promote the proper function of the body or prevent or treat illness, and excludes it from deductible medical expenses. Plan administrators follow the same definition.
The narrow exception worth knowing: if a laser is being used on a disfiguring scar from an accident, trauma, or a disfiguring disease, Publication 502 does allow it as a medical expense. That is a documentation question for your dermatologist and your plan, not something to assume.
How to Pay Less
- Compare package totals, never session prices. Every practice we checked discounts a series. Washington Square Dermatology’s four-pack is $5,000 against $6,000 a la carte, and Radiance discounts three sessions 10 percent and five sessions 15 percent. Ask for the three-session and five-session totals in the same breath as the single price, then sanity-check the number against our fair price checker.
- Get quoted by area, in writing. Face alone versus face plus neck plus chest is a $1,150 to $2,000 swing at a single practice. A quote that says “the treatment” is not a quote. Insist on an itemized figure per area and per session before you put down a deposit.
- Price the small area if the small area is the problem. Peri-oral and peri-orbital treatments are $500 at posted rates and hands are $500 to $580. Buying the full face when you care about crow’s feet is a common and expensive default.
- Shop across the metro, not just the nearest office. The same non-ablative device is $850 in one posted list and $1,500 in another. These are retail transactions with no network holding you anywhere, so the price spread is yours to exploit.
- Negotiate the quote, especially for a series. A five-session commitment is a large sale to a practice with a fixed-cost laser sitting idle. The tactics in our medical bill negotiation guide transfer cleanly to a cosmetic quote, and your leverage is better than it is on a hospital bill because the provider wants the booking.
- Watch for a facility fee if the practice is hospital-affiliated. Some cosmetic dermatology clinics sit inside a hospital system and add a facility charge on top of the treatment price. Our hospital price transparency guide explains how to pull the posted cash rate for that location before you are billed for it.
- If the underlying problem is medical, price the medical path first. Active acne, precancerous spots and pigment changes that need a diagnosis have routes that insurance does engage with. Federally funded health centers charge on a sliding scale for dermatology visits, and our guide to free clinics and sliding-scale care covers how to find one.
Bottom Line
A full-face Fraxel session costs $850 to $1,500 at practices that post prices, small areas start at $450 to $580, and adding neck and chest takes a single visit to $2,000 or more. Because non-ablative lasers are sold in a series of three to six, the honest budget is $2,500 to $5,000 for a course, and package pricing shaves roughly 10 to 17 percent off that.
None of it is insured, and none of it is HSA or FSA eligible for purely cosmetic use. That makes this a straight retail purchase where the entire savings opportunity lives in the package total, the area list, and how far you are willing to drive. For the adjacent numbers, our microneedling cost guide covers the cheaper resurfacing route, our IPL photofacial cost guide covers pigment-only treatment, and our chemical peel cost guide covers the non-laser alternative that often gets quoted at the same consultation.