Oxycodone is cheap to make and expensive to obtain, and almost none of the gap is the drug. A pharmacy buys a 5 mg immediate-release tablet for under nine cents. What you actually pay is shaped by a set of federal and state rules that apply to Schedule II controlled substances and to almost nothing else in the pharmacy.
This guide covers what the generic tablets, the combination tablets with acetaminophen, the oral liquids and the brands cost as a cash payer, and which of the usual money-saving moves are closed off. It does not cover doses, and nothing here is medical advice. Every figure was researched fresh on September 4, 2026.
What Does Oxycodone 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 Drugs.com and SingleCare, both read September 4, 2026. Medicare Part D figures are calendar year 2024, the most recent full year CMS has published.
| Option | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| CMS NADAC acquisition cost, one generic IR tablet | $0.08652 (5 mg) | $0.19740 (15 mg) | $0.34979 (30 mg) |
| CMS NADAC acquisition cost, one generic 5 mg capsule | $0.37626 | $0.37626 | $0.37626 |
| Cash price, 30 generic 5 mg tablets | $15.68 (with card) | $36.06 (average retail) | $36.06 |
| CMS NADAC, one generic oxycodone-acetaminophen tablet | $0.11954 (5-325) | $0.23602 (10-325) | $0.69948 (2.5-325) |
| CMS NADAC, generic oral solution 5 mg/5 mL, per mL | $0.04717 | $0.04717 | $0.04717 |
| CMS NADAC, oral concentrate 100 mg/5 mL, per mL | $2.17027 | $2.17027 | $2.17027 |
| Brand Percocet, cash price per 100 tablets | $3,003.86 (5-325) | $3,244.63 (7.5-325) | $4,240.24 (10-325) |
| Brand Percocet acquisition cost, one tablet | $29.32054 (5-325) | $31.60997 (7.5-325) | $41.44424 (10-325) |
| Brand OxyContin ER acquisition cost, one tablet | $5.87798 (10 mg) | $15.22134 (30 mg) | $32.66144 (80 mg) |
| Brand Roxicodone acquisition cost, one tablet | $5.46804 (15 mg) | $8.08 | $10.70102 (30 mg) |
| Medicare Part D 2024 spend per claim | $14.50 (generic IR) | $712.45 (OxyContin) | $3,742.98 (Percocet) |
Two independent federal and retail sources agree on the shape of this. On the generic side, CMS acquisition data and Medicare Part D claims both land in single digits to low double digits per fill, and SingleCare’s retail figures sit a little above that. On the brand side, CMS prices a Percocet 5-325 mg tablet at $29.32054 and Drugs.com’s cash listing works out to $30.04 per tablet, which is about as close as two unrelated sources ever get.
The brand-versus-generic gap here is the widest this site has recorded for an old, off-patent molecule. Percocet costs 245 times its own generic per tablet in CMS data. Endocet, the authorized generic sold by the same company, prices at the generic level: $0.11954 per 5-325 mg tablet in CMS data and $28.29 per claim in Part D against Percocet’s $3,742.98. If a prescription is written for Percocet by brand, that single word is worth several thousand dollars a fill.
What Drives the Price
Schedule II status, which is the dominant factor. DEA classifies oxycodone as a Schedule II narcotic. That is not a label on a bottle; it is a set of operating rules that reach every part of what a fill costs you. Federal law permits no refills, so a new prescription must be issued each time. Most pharmacies run a state prescription drug monitoring program check and ask for photo ID. Many pharmacies do not stock it at all, or stock only certain strengths. Mail order and 90-day supplies, the two cheapest routes for an ordinary generic, are frequently unavailable.
The discount channels are closed. Walmart’s Prescription Program drug list, effective March 24, 2025 and read September 4, 2026, contains no oxycodone at any strength, and no opioid at all. Cost Plus Drugs, whose transparent cost-plus-15% pricing undercuts retail on most generics, lists no oxycodone product in its catalog. Discount cards do exist: SingleCare published card prices for oxycodone and for oxycodone-acetaminophen on September 4, 2026. Whether a given pharmacy will apply one to a Schedule II fill is a store-level decision, and a fair number decline.
Federal production quotas. DEA sets an annual aggregate production quota capping how much oxycodone can be manufactured nationwide. The 2026 quota, effective January 5, 2026, is 50,237,652 grams for sale plus 437,827 grams for conversion. In the comment record for that order, DEA reported that many commenters said quota decreases had left them unable to fill legitimate prescriptions, with delays and trips to multiple pharmacies. DEA responded that FDA has listed no nationwide shortage of oxycodone products. Whatever the cause, “the pharmacy does not have it” is a real cost when it means a second trip or a second dispensing fee.
Prescribing volume is falling. DEA’s own September 2025 fact sheet, citing IQVIA’s National Prescription Audit, puts total US prescriptions dispensed for all oxycodone-containing products at 43.1 million in 2024, down from 62.0 million in 2015 and 58.2 million in 2010. Fewer prescriptions means fewer pharmacies keeping deep stock, which is one reason availability varies so much block to block.
Form, as always. The 5 mg capsule costs a pharmacy $0.37626 against $0.08652 for the 5 mg tablet, more than four times as much for the same amount of drug. The oral solution is genuinely cheap at $0.04717 per mL, while the 100 mg/5 mL concentrate is $2.17027 per mL. These are different products for different situations, not interchangeable choices you make at the counter, but they are worth knowing about when you compare a quote to this page.
Cash Price vs. Insurance
For generic oxycodone the arithmetic usually favors your pharmacy benefit, which is the opposite of what we find on most cheap generics. A $10 or $15 generic copay is competitive with a $15.68 card price and clearly beats a $36.06 average retail price, and it counts toward your deductible.
The place cash payment genuinely wins is when a plan requires a prior authorization, imposes a quantity limit, or refuses a brand. Paying cash for a generic fill sidesteps that, and at these prices it is affordable to do. Paying cash to sidestep a brand denial is not: at $3,004 per 100 tablets, Percocet is a bill almost nobody can absorb.
One practical note that applies whichever way you pay. Because Schedule II prescriptions cannot be refilled, you are creating a new transaction every single fill, and every fill is a fresh chance for the price to be different. Price it each time rather than assuming last month’s number holds. Our fair price checker is built for exactly that comparison.
How to Pay Less
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Ask whether the generic is acceptable before the prescription is sent. This is the largest single lever on the page and it is worth many thousands of dollars. Generic oxycodone-acetaminophen averaged $27.39 per claim in Medicare Part D in 2024; Percocet averaged $3,742.98. Endocet, the authorized generic, sits with the generics. Brand selection is a prescriber decision, but it is a reasonable thing to raise.
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Price the fill before the prescription is sent, not after. A Schedule II prescription is not portable the way an ordinary one is. Since August 28, 2023, DEA rules allow an electronic Schedule II prescription to be transferred once between retail pharmacies for the initial fill, at your request, pharmacist to pharmacist, and only if your state permits it. That one transfer is your only sanctioned do-over, so spend it deliberately. Call two or three pharmacies first, ask for the cash price on your exact strength and quantity, and ask whether they have it in stock.
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Ask each pharmacy whether it applies discount cards to controlled substances. SingleCare’s oxycodone page, prices updated September 4, 2026, showed a $15.68 card price against a $36.06 average retail price for 30 of the 5 mg tablets, a saving of about $20 a fill. Our comparison of GoodRx vs. SingleCare explains how to price the same prescription both ways. Confirm the pharmacy honors cards on Schedule II fills before you rely on the quote.
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Do not waste time on the $4 lists or the mail-order discounters. Neither Walmart’s Prescription Program nor Cost Plus Drugs carries oxycodone, and no equivalent channel exists for Schedule II drugs. If you are also filling ordinary generics, those channels are still worth using for those, and our gabapentin cost guide and cyclobenzaprine cost guide cover the non-scheduled parts of a pain regimen.
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Budget for the appointments, because there will be more of them. No refills means a prescriber contact for every fill, and many practices require in-person visits or periodic drug screens for controlled-substance prescribing. Those visits often cost more per year than the medication. A free or sliding-scale clinic can be a much cheaper source of ongoing care, and if a bill arrives larger than you expected, our guide to negotiating medical bills covers the next step.
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Know what the adjacent costs are. Many prescribers now co-prescribe naloxone alongside opioids, and some state laws require it; our Narcan cost guide covers what that costs over the counter. If treatment for opioid dependence is part of your situation, the medications have their own price structures, covered in our Suboxone cost guide and methadone cost guide. Non-drug options are priced in our physical therapy and cortisone shot guides.
Bottom Line
Budget roughly $16 to $36 for 30 of the 5 mg generic tablets and about $12 to $24 per 100 for the generic combination tablets, and treat a quote far above that as a reason to call another pharmacy. Two federal datasets and one retail source agree closely at the generic end, so there is little real uncertainty there.
The expensive mistakes are brand-name ones. Percocet at $3,004 to $4,240 per 100 tablets and OxyContin at $5.88 to $32.66 per tablet before markup are both many multiples of identical or near-identical generics, and Part D claims data shows almost nobody is paying those prices on purpose. Beyond the sticker, plan for the logistics: no refills, a new prescription every fill, one permitted pharmacy transfer, and stock that varies store to store. Those rules cost most cash payers more time and money than the pills do.