Orforglipron is the active ingredient, not a product you can buy. It is sold in the United States under exactly one brand name, Foundayo, in six tablet strengths from Eli Lilly. Searching the molecule name usually means one of two things: you want to know whether a cheaper unbranded version exists, or you want to know how this new pill prices against the injections everyone has been paying for.
The short answers are no and favorably. This page covers the molecule economics: what orforglipron costs per month against semaglutide and tirzepatide, why a non-peptide should be cheaper to manufacture, and what that means for where the price goes next. If what you actually need is the dose-by-dose purchase mechanics, the savings-card terms and the Medicare route, those live on our Foundayo cost guide. Come back here for the comparison.
What Does Orforglipron Cost Without Insurance?
Because there is one brand, the molecule’s price is the brand’s price. Here is what a 30-day supply costs in cash across the GLP-1s a self-pay patient is realistically choosing between, using prices published on TrumpRx.gov in September 2026.
| Molecule and form | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orforglipron tablets (Foundayo) | $149 | $199 | $349 |
| Semaglutide tablets (Wegovy tablets) | $149 | $199 | $299 |
| Semaglutide injection (Wegovy pen) | $199 | $349 | $399 |
| Tirzepatide injection (Zepbound vials) | $299 | $449 | $699 |
The low ends are not equivalent. Orforglipron’s $149 is the ordinary price of the two starting doses, one of which is temporarily discounted through December 31, 2026. Wegovy’s $199 is an introductory rate limited to the first two monthly fills of the 0.25 mg and 0.5 mg pens between November 17, 2025 and December 31, 2026, after which the price is $349. Zepbound’s $299 is the lowest strength only. The high ends are also not symmetrical: orforglipron’s $349 and Zepbound’s $499 to $699 both apply only when you let a refill lapse more than 45 days past your last delivery, which is avoidable.
What Drives the Price of Orforglipron
It is a small molecule, not a peptide. This is the whole story. Semaglutide, tirzepatide, liraglutide and dulaglutide are peptides, chains of amino acids that have to be produced biologically or by solid-phase synthesis, purified, and then filled into sterile pens or vials. Orforglipron is a conventional organic compound. The FDA-approved label gives its molecular formula as C48H47F2N10O5 as the half-calcium salt, molecular weight about 902 g/mol, described simply as a white to light brown solid pressed into film-coated tablets with copovidone, crospovidone, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose and sodium carbonate. That is a tablet line, not a bioreactor and a sterile fill-finish suite.
The list prices show it. Manufacturers set list prices for many reasons other than cost, but the gap here is hard to miss.
| Molecule and form | Wholesale list price, 30-day supply | Pharmacy acquisition cost, 30-day supply |
|---|---|---|
| Orforglipron tablets (Foundayo) | $649.00 | $620 to $624 |
| Semaglutide tablets (oral Wegovy) | $1,349.02 | $1,302 to $1,305 |
| Semaglutide injection (Wegovy pen) | $1,349.02 | $1,303 to $1,307 |
The list prices come from TrumpRx.gov, which publishes each product’s wholesale acquisition cost alongside its cash price. The acquisition costs come from the CMS National Average Drug Acquisition Cost file effective August 19, 2026, which prices Foundayo tablets at $20.66 to $20.81 each and Wegovy tablets at $43.41 to $43.51 each, and Wegovy pens at roughly $326 per weekly dose. Tirzepatide sits between them: TrumpRx lists Zepbound’s wholesale acquisition cost at $1,087.00 for a 30-day supply.
Read across those rows and orforglipron lists at 48 percent of semaglutide and 60 percent of tirzepatide for the same month of therapy. Two molecules delivered as identical once-daily tablets, orforglipron and oral semaglutide, differ by more than 2 to 1 at the wholesale level. Delivery form is not what separates them. Chemistry is.
One brand, no generic, no legal copy. As of September 2026 the FDA National Drug Code Directory carries orforglipron only as six Foundayo strengths (0.8, 2.5, 5.5, 9, 14.5 and 17.2 mg) from Eli Lilly under NDA 220934. A query filtered to abbreviated new drug applications returns nothing. CMS’s acquisition-cost file has no ORFORGLIPRON rows at all, only FOUNDAYO rows, which is exactly what a market with no generic looks like in federal data. There is also no compounded route. The compounding boom that produced cheap semaglutide and tirzepatide copies existed because those drugs were on the FDA shortage list, and those windows have closed. Anything marketed as compounded or research-grade orforglipron is outside the legal supply chain.
Promotional pricing, not structural pricing. Two of the six self-pay prices, $149 for the 2.5 mg dose and $199 for 5.5 mg, are described in Lilly’s own terms as temporarily reduced through December 31, 2026, with regular prices of $199 and $299 behind them. Roughly a third of the published ladder is on a timer.
Orforglipron vs. Semaglutide and Tirzepatide, Per Month
For a cash buyer, the practical ranking in September 2026 looks like this. The two oral options, orforglipron and semaglutide tablets, are the cheapest way into GLP-1 therapy at $149 a month, and both climb to roughly $299 at their upper doses. Wegovy pens settle at $349 after the two-fill introductory window closes, and the high-dose 7.2 mg pen is $399. Zepbound vials are the most expensive of the four at $299 to $449 with on-time refills.
The differences are smaller than the underlying cost differences, because manufacturer self-pay programs are competitive pricing, not cost-plus pricing. Novo Nordisk is selling semaglutide tablets at $149 to $299 against an acquisition cost above $1,300, which is a deeper subsidy than Lilly is offering on Foundayo. That subsidy is discretionary and revocable. Orforglipron’s advantage is that its low price does not require one.
Two things this comparison does not settle. It does not compare how much weight each drug produces, which is a clinical question and not a cost question. And it does not account for delivery: a tablet needs no needles, no sharps disposal and no refrigeration, while pens and vials do. Our tirzepatide cost guide, oral Wegovy guide and Rybelsus guide cover each product’s own pricing in detail, and GLP-1 pills cost lines up the tablet options.
Cash Price vs. Insurance
Orforglipron is unusual in that the cash price is often the good deal. Manufacturer self-pay programs put it at $149 to $299, against a $649.00 wholesale list price for the same 30 tablets, and a commercial plan that excludes weight-management drugs leaves you paying something close to that list price unless you use the manufacturer route.
Commercial insurance that does cover it beats everything at as little as $25 a month, subject to Lilly’s caps. Medicare and Medicaid enrollees are barred from every manufacturer card, and their route is the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, a CMS demonstration running through December 31, 2027 that charges $50 a month and includes Foundayo as one of only three eligible products. The eligibility rules and the traps are covered in our Medicare GLP-1 coverage guide and in GLP-1 costs without insurance.
How to Pay Less
Price the molecule, not the marketing. Every legitimate orforglipron price in the United States traces back to Lilly’s Foundayo program. If a site quotes you something different for “orforglipron,” it is either the unassisted retail price or it is not a legal product.
Compare all four self-pay ladders before you start. The cheapest GLP-1 for you depends on the dose you will end up at, not the dose you start at. Our cheapest GLP-1 guide ranks the current numbers across the class, and the cheapest way to get Zepbound walks the same exercise for tirzepatide.
Ignore discount cards on this one. Coupon aggregators discount off retail on drugs that have generics. Orforglipron has none, and the manufacturer price is already 77 percent below list. Our GoodRx vs. SingleCare comparison explains where those cards genuinely help.
Check any quote against a benchmark. If a telehealth service bundles orforglipron into a monthly fee, separate the drug cost from the service cost, then run the drug number through our fair price checker.
What to Expect on Price From Here
Three forces are pulling in different directions. The manufacturing economics push down: a tablet made by ordinary chemical synthesis has far more room to fall than a peptide injection does, and the wholesale gap already visible between orforglipron and semaglutide is the evidence for that. Competition pushes down too, since more oral GLP-1s are in development and a first mover rarely holds a price alone.
Pulling the other way is the near-term calendar. The temporary discounts on two doses expire December 31, 2026, and the savings cards expire the same day, so the most likely price move in the next few months is up, not down. And with no generic possible for years, nothing forces a cut.
The honest summary is that orforglipron is currently the cheapest molecule in its class to make and among the cheapest to buy, that the second fact depends on the first only loosely, and that every number on this page carries a date. Re-check before you commit. When you are ready to buy, the mechanics are on our Foundayo cost guide.