Elective IV therapy is one of the few corners of American healthcare where the price is printed on a menu. Drip bars, med spas and mobile IV companies publish what they charge, nobody negotiates with an insurer, and the number on the website is the number on your receipt. That makes it easy to shop and easy to overpay at the same time.
This guide prices the elective side of the market as it stands in September 2026: hydration bags, vitamin drips, hangover and Myers cocktail infusions, and NAD+. It is a separate product from a clinically ordered infusion in a hospital or infusion center, and the gap between what those two things cost is worth seeing side by side, so we include it at the end.
What Does IV Therapy Cost Without Insurance?
Every cash figure below is a posted menu price from Hydrate IV Bar (a multi-state franchise with spas in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin), Lone Star IV Medics (mobile, Texas) or AZ IV Medics (mobile and clinic, Scottsdale), all read on September 3, 2026. The contrast rows come from 2024 Medicare claims data, the most recent CMS release.
| Service/Type | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fluids only, 1 liter, no vitamins | $94 | $105 | $115 |
| Entry-level vitamin drip | $129 | $152 | $195 |
| Myers cocktail | $199 | $210 | $220 |
| Hangover or recovery drip | $129 | $225 | $275 |
| High-dose “mega” vitamin drip | $315 | $325 | $335 |
| Top-of-menu premium package | $345 | $470 | $625 |
| NAD+ IV, 250 mg | $250 | $270 | $289 |
| NAD+ IV, 500 mg | $450 | $458 | $474 |
| NAD+ IV, 1,000 mg | $769 | $823 | $900 |
| Single vitamin add-on to any bag | $23 | $36 | $50 |
| Intramuscular vitamin shot | $23 | $35 | $60 |
| New-patient exam or per-visit medical fee | $9 | $21 | $35 |
| Extra liter of fluids | $30 | $45 | $60 |
| For contrast: clinical IV hydration, first hour (CMS 2024) | $31.69 allowed | n/a | $166.48 billed |
| For contrast: clinical drug infusion, first hour (CMS 2024) | $60.45 allowed | n/a | $222.72 billed |
The average column is the midpoint of the posted prices in that row, not a national average. No one publishes a national average for a service that never touches a claims system.
The consistency across independent menus is the useful finding here. A Myers cocktail is $199 at Hydrate IV Bar, $205 at Lone Star IV Medics and $215 in clinic or $220 mobile at AZ IV Medics. Three companies in three states, priced within $21 of each other. If you are quoted $400 for a Myers cocktail, that is not the market rate.
How much does vitamin IV therapy cost?
The cheapest vitamin drip on any of these menus is Hydrate IV Bar’s Recovery IV at $129 (B-complex, magnesium and B6). Lone Star’s Bronze package, saline plus B-complex, is $140. From there you are buying ingredients: Hydrate’s Health and Wellness IV and Immunity IV are both $159, the Athletic Performance IV is $179, and Lone Star’s Gold package (B vitamins plus two add-ins of your choice) is $195.
Individual add-ons run $23 to $28 at AZ IV Medics, $30 at Lone Star, and $30 to $50 at Hydrate IV Bar depending on the vitamin. Glutathione and vitamin C sit at the top of that range at $40 to $50.
How much does NAD IV therapy cost?
NAD+ is the one line item that changes the shape of the bill, and it is priced by the milligram rather than as a flat drip. AZ IV Medics charges $75 for 100 mg, $195 for 250 mg, $380 for 500 mg, $575 for 750 mg and $675 for 1,000 mg, each added to a base bag that costs $94 in clinic or $99 mobile. Lone Star IV Medics charges $100, $250, $450, $700 and $800 for the same five doses.
Hydrate IV Bar starts higher and sells three doses only: $450 for 500 mg, $675 for 750 mg and $900 for 1,000 mg, with member prices of $400, $600 and $800.
Read those three ladders together and the practical range for a 500 mg NAD+ infusion is $450 to $474, and for 1,000 mg it is $769 to $900. Because the dose drives the price, a quote without a milligram number attached tells you nothing.
What Drives the Price
What is actually in the bag. This is most of the bill. The fluid is the cheap part. In the August 19, 2026 CMS National Average Drug Acquisition Cost file, 0.9% sodium chloride solution costs pharmacies $0.00206 per milliliter, which works out to about $2.06 for a 1,000 mL bag. Everything above $94 is vitamins, staffing, overhead and margin.
Dose, not name. Two clinics can both advertise “NAD+ therapy” or “high-dose vitamin C” at wildly different prices because they are selling different amounts. AZ IV Medics publishes 5 g of ascorbic acid for $152 in clinic and 10 g for $211. Always convert a quote to dollars per milligram or per gram before comparing.
Mobile versus in clinic. The premium is smaller than the marketing implies. AZ IV Medics charges $5 more for mobile on nearly every drip and folds travel into the price. Lone Star IV Medics is mobile-only, charges no travel fee inside its service area, and applies a $100 minimum order.
Fees stacked on top of the drip. These are easy to miss. AZ IV Medics charges a $20 good faith exam for new patients or anyone not seen in 12 months, plus a $9 medical review fee per session. Hydrate IV Bar charges a $35 medical clearance exam. Ultrasound-guided IV access at AZ IV Medics is $97 for a new patient, $48 for a verified repeat patient and $28 for an established regular.
Membership and package structure. Hydrate IV Bar’s member prices run roughly 30% below its walk-in prices: $139 instead of $199 for a Myers cocktail, $90 instead of $129 for a Recovery IV, $24 instead of $35 for a B12 shot. Whether that is a deal depends entirely on how often you actually go.
Cash Price vs. Insurance
There is no insurance side to elective IV therapy. Lone Star IV Medics states on its own pricing page that it does not accept insurance, and explains that it prices below a typical copay or deductible instead. AZ IV Medics accepts cash, debit, credit, HSA and FSA but not insurance. That is the norm across the category.
The upside is that there is no allowed amount, no network status and no surprise balance bill. What is posted is what you pay. Our fair price checker is a fast way to sanity-check a quote against the menu prices on this page.
The downside is that there is no consumer protection backstop and no regulator setting a rate. The Federal Trade Commission brought its first enforcement action against an IV cocktail marketer in September 2018, against a Texas and Colorado chain called iV Bars, over claims that its cocktails (including a Myers cocktail) could treat cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and congestive heart failure. The FTC noted at the time that the cocktails were “a simple mix of water, vitamins, minerals, and herbs” sold for $100 to $250 per treatment. The settlement barred those claims unless supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence.
FDA has also treated IV fluids themselves as prescription drugs. In a February 9, 2024 warning letter to ivsupplyclinic.com, the agency said the site was introducing misbranded IV fluid products into interstate commerce by selling FDA-approved Baxter lactated Ringer’s, sodium chloride and dextrose injections without requiring a prescription, and by removing the “Rx only” symbol from label images. Buying the bag yourself is not a cost-saving strategy available to consumers.
What a clinical infusion bills instead
When an IV is medically ordered rather than bought off a menu, it enters the claims system and the numbers change character. In 2024 Medicare data released May 21, 2026, providers billing CPT 96360 (IV hydration, 31 to 60 minutes) in an office setting submitted an average charge of $166.48 nationally, while Medicare allowed $31.69. Each additional hour (96361) was submitted at $73.00 against $12.35 allowed.
A therapeutic drug infusion (CPT 96365, first hour) was submitted at an average of $222.72 against $60.45 allowed. So the gap between what gets billed and what a large payer actually pays for the same clinical hour runs 3.7x to 5.3x.
That gap is the number a self-pay patient negotiates against on a real hospital or infusion center bill. Our guide to negotiating medical bills and the hospital price transparency guide both cover how to find and use those benchmark rates. None of it applies to a drip bar, where there is nothing to negotiate against because there is no inflated charge in the first place.
How to Pay Less
-
Price the ingredients, not the package name. A “Myers cocktail” and a “Gold package” can be the same six vitamins at a $50 spread. Ask for the ingredient list and the milligram doses, then compare.
-
Ask what the base bag costs on its own. AZ IV Medics publishes a fluids-only bag at $94 in clinic, then sells everything else as $23 to $28 add-ins. If you only want two vitamins, building your own bag can undercut a packaged drip by $50 or more.
-
Skip the drip and take the shot. Intramuscular injections run $23 to $60 and cover several of the same ingredients. A B12 shot is $23 to $40 at these same providers, against $129 and up for a bag.
-
Only buy a membership if you have done the arithmetic. Hydrate IV Bar members save $60 on a Myers cocktail and $50 to $100 on NAD+. That is real money at two visits a month and irrelevant at two visits a year.
-
Use HSA or FSA dollars if your administrator allows it. AZ IV Medics accepts both. Whether a given wellness drip is an eligible expense depends on your plan and usually on having a documented medical reason, so ask before you assume.
-
If dehydration or a real symptom is the reason you are booking, price the medical route too. Urgent care and a cash-pay doctor visit can cost less than a premium drip and come with a diagnosis. A free or sliding-scale clinic can cost less still. An ER visit is the expensive end of that path, not the cheap one.
Bottom Line
Budget $94 to $115 for fluids alone, $129 to $195 for an entry-level vitamin drip, $199 to $220 for a Myers cocktail, and $450 to $900 for NAD+ depending on the dose. Add $9 to $35 in exam and medical review fees on a first visit.
Because this market is cash-only and posted, the single most effective thing you can do is open three menus in three tabs and compare the same ingredient list. The prices cluster tightly when you do. If you are shopping the broader wellness category, our guides to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, cryotherapy and peptide therapy price the neighboring services the same way.