Victoza is Novo Nordisk’s brand name for liraglutide, a once-daily GLP-1 injection for type 2 diabetes, sold in 18 mg/3 mL prefilled pens at maintenance doses of 1.2 mg or 1.8 mg a day. It is the oldest GLP-1 on the U.S. market and the only one in the class with real generic competition.
That single fact controls everything about what you pay. Every other GLP-1 (semaglutide, tirzepatide) is brand-only, so the cash story on those drugs is entirely about manufacturer discount programs. Liraglutide lost exclusivity, Teva launched an authorized generic in June 2024, and the cash price fell by more than 80%. Below is what brand Victoza and generic liraglutide actually cost, verified September 3, 2026, plus the supply problem you should know about before you shop on price alone.
What Does Victoza Cost Without Insurance?
First, the dosing math, because Victoza is sold by the pen and prescribed by the milligram. Each pen holds 3 mL at 6 mg/mL. At 1.2 mg a day you use 0.2 mL daily, which is two pens in 30 days. At 1.8 mg a day you use 0.3 mL daily, which is three pens in 30 days. That is why Victoza ships in two-pen and three-pen cartons.
Acquisition costs come from the CMS National Average Drug Acquisition Cost survey, effective August 19, 2026. Retail figures come from SingleCare’s live Victoza and liraglutide pages, prices updated September 3, 2026. Mail-order figures come from Cost Plus Drugs.
| Option | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generic liraglutide, 2 pens (30 days at 1.2 mg), discount card | $104.90 | $224.26 | $505.69 |
| Generic liraglutide, 3-pen box (30 days at 1.8 mg), Cost Plus Drugs | $129.20 + $55.00 shipping | $184.20 | $184.20 |
| CMS NADAC, generic liraglutide 2-pen carton | $202.91 | $202.91 | $202.91 |
| CMS NADAC, generic liraglutide 3-pen carton | $288.02 | $288.02 | $288.02 |
| CMS NADAC, brand Victoza 2-pen carton | $526.45 | $526.45 | $526.45 |
| CMS NADAC, brand Victoza 3-pen carton | $790.33 | $790.33 | $790.33 |
| Generic liraglutide 3-pen box, retail comparison price | $929.41 | $929.41 | $929.41 |
| Brand Victoza, 3 pens, no card, average retail | $1,403.28 | $1,403.28 | $1,403.28 |
| Novo Nordisk Patient Assistance Program (income limits apply) | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Two things in that table are worth pausing on. First, the brand-to-generic gap at wholesale is clean and large: CMS puts a Victoza three-pen carton at $790.33 and the identical generic three-pen carton at $288.02, a 64% cut. Second, the retail gap is much larger than the wholesale gap, because retail markups compound. SingleCare’s average of $1,403.28 for three brand pens is 78% above the brand’s own acquisition cost.
Discount-card prices for two generic pens on SingleCare’s September 3, 2026 read ran from $104.90 to $505.69 across pharmacies, a nearly five-fold spread on an identical product filled the same week. Those per-pharmacy figures move between sessions and should be treated as illustrating the spread rather than as a price you can count on. The stable numbers on that page are the average retail price and the lowest card price.
What Drives the Price
Brand versus generic. This is the whole game. An authorized generic is the same product the brand manufacturer makes, sold without the brand name. Paying $1,403.28 rather than $184.20 for it buys nothing clinical.
Your daily dose. At 1.2 mg you buy two pens a month; at 1.8 mg you buy three. That is a 50% swing in monthly cost between two doses of the same drug, and it is the reason quoted prices for “Victoza” vary so widely across sites: some quote a two-pen carton and some quote three.
Where you fill it. Cost Plus Drugs publishes its arithmetic on the three-pen box: $108.00 of manufacturing cost, $16.20 of markup, $5.00 of pharmacy labor, and $55.00 of next-day refrigerated shipping. That shipping charge is unavoidable on a cold-chain product and is why a mail pharmacy is not automatically cheapest here at the two-pen quantity.
Cold chain and supply. FDA’s drug shortage database, updated August 25 to 27, 2026, lists liraglutide injection 6 mg/mL in current shortage from Novo Nordisk (both the Victoza and Saxenda presentations), Hikma Pharmaceuticals, and Meitheal Pharmaceuticals. It also flags one Teva liraglutide presentation as to be discontinued as of May 14, 2026 and one Saxenda presentation as to be discontinued as of August 25, 2026. When supply is tight, the cheapest pharmacy is often the one that cannot get it.
Whether you qualify for free medicine. Victoza’s own support page routes patients to the Novo Nordisk Patient Assistance Program, which supplies medicine at no cost to approved applicants. That is a different order of savings than any card.
Cash Price vs. Insurance
Victoza is covered by most major health plans, including Medicare and Medicaid, according to Novo Nordisk’s own Victoza support page. If your plan covers it with a modest copay, use the plan. This is not a drug where cash usually wins outright.
Cash wins in two specific situations. The first is a high-deductible plan early in the year, where your “covered” price is the full negotiated rate until the deductible clears. If that number is above $184.20 for a three-pen month, buying the generic outside the plan is cheaper today, at the cost of the deductible credit you give up. The second is a plan that excludes GLP-1s entirely, which has become common. In that case there is no insurance price to compare against and the generic is simply the answer.
One thing a discount card cannot do is stack with insurance on the same fill. You pick one route per prescription. If the number your pharmacy quotes does not match anything on this page, our fair price checker is a quick sanity check before you hand over a card.
How to Pay Less
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Ask your prescriber to write for generic liraglutide. Not “Victoza, substitution permitted,” but the generic by name. The generic is the authorized version of the same product, and it is the difference between roughly $184 and roughly $1,403 a month.
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Price a transparent mail pharmacy at the three-pen quantity. Cost Plus Drugs sells the three-pen box for $129.20 with $55.00 refrigerated shipping, against a $929.41 retail comparison it lists for the same box. At the two-pen quantity, a local card price near $104.90 can beat it once shipping is counted.
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Run a discount card and re-check it on the day you fill. SingleCare’s generic liraglutide card prices ranged from $104.90 to $505.69 for two pens on a single September 2026 read. Our comparison of GoodRx vs. SingleCare explains how to check both cards on one prescription and why the online price can move between visits.
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Apply to the Novo Nordisk Patient Assistance Program if you are uninsured or on Medicare. For 2026 you must be a U.S. citizen or legal resident, have Medicare or no insurance (commercial coverage disqualifies you), and meet the income test, which is 400% of the Federal Poverty Level for uninsured patients on products other than Ozempic. Uninsured approvals run 12 months, and Novo Nordisk warns that some medicines left the program for 2026, so confirm coverage when you apply.
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Call two or three pharmacies about stock before you chase the lowest price. With liraglutide in active FDA-listed shortage, a $104.90 quote at a pharmacy that has none in the refrigerator is worth less than a $150 quote at one that does.
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Keep the monitoring costs from eating the savings. A free or sliding-scale clinic can handle the prescribing and follow-up visits this drug requires at little or no cost, and our A1C test cost guide covers the quarterly lab that goes with it.
Bottom Line
Budget about $105 to $185 a month for liraglutide without insurance, depending on your dose and whether you use a discount card locally or a transparent mail pharmacy. Budget $1,403 only if you insist on the brand name and fill it at a counter with no help, which buys you nothing an authorized generic does not already give you.
The practical risks here are supply, not price. Liraglutide is in active shortage across multiple manufacturers, so confirm your pharmacy can source it before you transfer a prescription. If you also take an oral agent, our metformin cost guide covers the cheapest drug in the cabinet and our Januvia cost guide covers the DPP-4 side. For the same molecule at weight-management dosing, see our Saxenda cost guide; for the semaglutide alternatives with no generic, see our Ozempic cost guide.