Furosemide is about as cheap as a prescription gets in the United States. It has been on the market since 1966, every major generic maker produces it, and a month of tablets costs a pharmacy under a dollar at wholesale. If you are paying more than about $10 a month for it, something other than the drug is driving your price.
Two things still surprise people. The first is that brand Lasix, which is the same molecule, can cost fifty times the generic. The second is that the recurring blood work that goes with a loop diuretic often costs more per year than the pills do. This guide prices both, plus the two comparator diuretics a prescriber might switch you to. Every figure was researched on September 4, 2026.
What Does Furosemide Cost Without Insurance?
Acquisition costs come from the CMS National Average Drug Acquisition Cost survey, all rows effective August 19, 2026. Cash prices come from Walmart, Cost Plus Drugs and Drugs.com, read September 4, 2026. Lab figures are national averages from 2024 Medicare claims released May 21, 2026.
| Option | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| CMS NADAC acquisition cost, one tablet | $0.02676 (20 mg) | $0.02929 (40 mg) | $0.05075 (80 mg) |
| CMS NADAC, 30 tablets of drug | $0.80 (20 mg) | $0.88 (40 mg) | $1.52 (80 mg) |
| Walmart Prescription Program, any strength | $3.33/mo (90 days at $10) | $4.00/mo | $4.00/mo |
| Cost Plus Drugs, 30 tablets | $5.59 (20 mg) | $5.66 (40 mg) | $5.76 (80 mg) |
| Drugs.com cash price, 30 tablets | $5.15 (40 mg) | $5.45 (20 mg) | $6.06 (80 mg) |
| Furosemide oral liquid, 10 mg/mL | $9.33 (60 mL) | $14.40 (120 mL) | $14.40 |
| Brand Lasix, 30 days (CMS acquisition) | $22.46 (20 mg) | $31.48 (40 mg) | $31.48 |
| Brand Lasix, 30 days (Drugs.com cash) | $25.31 (20 mg) | $34.52 (40 mg) | $56.72 (80 mg) |
| Torsemide 20 mg, 30 days | $1.95 (CMS acquisition) | $9.00 (Walmart) | $9.00 |
| Bumetanide 1 mg, 30 days | $3.23 (CMS acquisition) | not on the Walmart list | not on the Walmart list |
| Hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg, 30 days | $0.35 (CMS acquisition) | $4.00 (Walmart) | $4.00 |
| Electrolyte panel (CPT 80051), per draw | $6.83 Medicare allowed | $23.38 average billed charge | $23.38 |
Three independent sources put a month of generic furosemide between $4 and $6, which is unusually tight agreement for a cash drug price. Walmart is the cheapest at $4 for a 30-day supply, Cost Plus Drugs and Drugs.com land within about two dollars of that, and the drug itself accounts for under a dollar of any of them.
The oral liquid and the injection are separate products with separate prices. Drugs.com lists furosemide oral liquid 10 mg/mL at $9.33 for 60 mL and $14.40 for 120 mL, and the 10 mg/mL injectable solution at $11.48 for 40 mL. If you receive the injection, it usually arrives as a line on a facility bill rather than as a prescription you fill.
What Drives the Price
Brand versus generic, which is the whole story here. CMS acquisition data effective August 19, 2026 prices a 40 mg Lasix tablet at $1.04930 and a 40 mg generic furosemide tablet at $0.02929. That is roughly 36 times the money for the same active ingredient at the same strength. At retail the gap narrows but stays enormous: Drugs.com lists 100 Lasix 40 mg tablets at $115.07 against $7.24 for 100 generic.
Whether brand Lasix is even still on the shelf. This one has a genuine contradiction in the record. Drugs@FDA lists all three Lasix tablet strengths under Validus NDA 016273 as Discontinued, each annotated with a Federal Register determination that the product was not withdrawn for safety or effectiveness reasons. But the FDA National Drug Code directory, last updated September 2, 2026, still carries three active Validus Lasix listings with no marketing end date, and CMS published Lasix acquisition prices effective August 19, 2026. The honest reading is that brand Lasix still reaches some pharmacies even though the approval record shows it as discontinued, so do not assume a brand fill is impossible or that it is a bargain.
Strength, which barely matters. The spread from 20 mg to 80 mg is $0.80 to $1.52 of drug per month at wholesale, and 17 cents at Cost Plus Drugs. Walmart charges the same $4 for all three strengths. Dose titration is not what moves your bill.
Which loop diuretic you were prescribed. Furosemide is the cheapest of the three at every level. Torsemide 20 mg costs $0.06502 a tablet in CMS data against $0.02929 for furosemide 40 mg, and Walmart puts torsemide 20 mg and 100 mg in its $9 for 30 days tier rather than the $4 tier. Bumetanide 1 mg is $0.10752 a tablet and does not appear on the Walmart list at any tier. Hydrochlorothiazide, a thiazide rather than a loop diuretic and a different clinical decision, is cheaper still at $0.01165 a tablet and sits in Walmart’s $4 tier.
The monitoring, which is the real recurring cost. Loop diuretics move potassium, sodium and kidney numbers, so prescribers order repeat blood work. In 2024 Medicare claims, providers billed an average of $23.38 nationally for an electrolyte panel (CPT 80051) in an office setting against a $6.83 allowed amount, and $47.97 for a basic metabolic panel (CPT 80048) against $8.27 allowed. Three or four draws a year at the billed rate outruns the annual cost of the tablets several times over.
Cash Price vs. Insurance
Furosemide is one of the clearest cases on this site for skipping the pharmacy benefit entirely. A $4 Walmart fill beats almost any copay, and running it through a plan adds paperwork without adding savings.
The standard caveat still applies. Cash spending does not count toward your deductible or out-of-pocket maximum, and you cannot combine a discount card with insurance on the same fill. On a drug that costs under a dollar a month at wholesale, that lost deductible credit is not worth the effort.
Where a plan matters is brand Lasix at $22 to $57 for 30 days, which has an identical generic at a tenth to a fiftieth of the price. If you are paying cash and being dispensed the brand, that is one question for the prescriber and one for the pharmacist about whether a generic substitution is on file.
The labs are the other place worth attention. A $23 to $48 billed charge for routine electrolyte monitoring is real money on a self-pay statement, and Medicare allows $6.83 and $8.27 for the same two tests. If a clinic bills you a three-figure charge for a routine draw, run it through our fair price checker before you pay it.
How to Pay Less
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Start with the Walmart program list, verified strength by strength. The drug list effective March 24, 2025 puts furosemide 20 mg, 40 mg and 80 mg in the $4 for 30 days and $10 for 90 days tier, in the same block as hydrochlorothiazide, atenolol, clonidine and hydralazine. Note that the public $4 Prescriptions web page does not render the full list, so check the linked program document rather than the on-page tables.
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Price a transparent mail pharmacy as your benchmark. Cost Plus Drugs charges $5.59, $5.66 and $5.76 for 30 tablets of the 20 mg, 40 mg and 80 mg, plus a flat $5 shipping charge on the order. That is slightly above Walmart for a single drug but can win once shipping is spread across several prescriptions.
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Run a free discount card before you fill anywhere else. Card programs routinely cut an unhelped retail price on old generics by an order of magnitude, and the two big ones do not always quote the same number on the same prescription. Our comparison of GoodRx vs. SingleCare covers checking both and why an online quote can move between visits.
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Ask for 90 days. Fixed dispensing cost dominates this drug. Walmart charges $10 for 90 days against $4 for 30, and Drugs.com lists 90 of the 40 mg tablets at $6.94 against $5.15 for 30, so the per-month cost falls either way.
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Ask what the switch to torsemide or bumetanide will cost before you agree to it. These are clinical decisions, not shopping decisions, but the price difference is real and worth knowing: torsemide moves you from Walmart’s $4 tier to its $9 tier, and bumetanide comes off the program list entirely. If cost is a factor, that is worth saying out loud at the appointment.
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Budget the blood work separately and shop it. Ask whether an electrolyte panel or a full basic metabolic panel is what the prescriber actually needs, then price it as a cash test rather than accepting a billed charge. Our comprehensive metabolic panel cost guide and blood work cost guide cover the cash routes, a free or sliding-scale clinic can often handle both the refill visit and the draw, and if a bill arrives larger than quoted, our guide to negotiating medical bills is the next step.
Bottom Line
Budget $4 to $6 a month for generic furosemide and treat anything above about $15 as a signal to shop rather than a fact about the drug. Walmart’s $4 tier, Cost Plus Drugs at $5.59 to $5.76 and Drugs.com at $5.15 to $6.06 all agree closely enough that there is no real mystery about what this prescription should cost.
The expensive version is brand Lasix at $22 to $57 for 30 days, and the record on whether it is still marketed is genuinely mixed, with Drugs@FDA showing all three strengths discontinued while the FDA drug listing directory and CMS acquisition data both still carry it as of early September 2026. Either way, the generic is the same molecule at a fraction of the price.
The bill that actually deserves your attention is the recurring electrolyte and kidney monitoring, billed at an average of $23.38 for an electrolyte panel and $47.97 for a basic metabolic panel in 2024 Medicare data. For the rest of a typical heart failure or blood pressure regimen, see our spironolactone cost guide, which covers the potassium-sparing diuretic often paired with furosemide, plus our metoprolol, lisinopril and Entresto guides. If a cardiologist ordered imaging at the same visit, our echocardiogram cost guide covers that bill.