The self-pay price of the 4 mg Wegovy tablet rises from $149 to $199 a month on 1 September 2026. This is not a leak or a forecast: Novo Nordisk published the end date when it launched the offer, and the footnote was still on NovoCare’s own pricing page when we read it on 31 August 2026. For anyone buying the pill at 4 mg without insurance, the monthly cost goes up by $50 — $600 over a year. The $149 rate on the 1.5 mg tablet is unaffected.
What actually changes
Novo’s pricing footnote reads: self-pay “pricing varies by dose. Patients pay $149 for each month of 1.5 mg and 4 mg. 4 mg offer only available until August 31, 2026, then $199 per month for 4 mg.” A month, in that footnote, means one bottle of 30 tablets. So from 1 September the tablet carries two self-pay prices rather than one: $149 at 1.5 mg and $199 at 4 mg. No end date is attached to the 1.5 mg rate on the page.
The injection is priced separately and is not touched by this change. New patients on the Wegovy pen pay $199 a month for the first two fills at 0.25 mg and 0.5 mg, an introductory rate that runs through 31 December 2026; after that, Novo’s footnote puts the pen at $349 a month for the 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.7 and 2.4 mg strengths, and $399 a month for Wegovy HD 7.2 mg. Patients with commercial insurance who qualify can pay as little as $25 a month, subject to a maximum of $100 in savings per month.
Two conditions sit in the same footnotes and matter as much as the numbers: eligibility and restrictions apply to every one of these prices, and Novo “reserves the right to modify or cancel this program at any time.” These are programme prices, not a market rate.
How it compares
Novo halved Wegovy’s list price earlier this year, a move we covered at the time and one that changed little for cash payers, because cash payers were already buying through the self-pay programme rather than at list. This increase runs the other way: small next to a list price, but landing directly on the people paying out of pocket. It is the difference between a headline and a bill.
For comparison, read on the same day: LillyDirect prices Zepbound self-pay at $299 a month for the 2.5 mg starting dose, $399 for 5 mg, and $449 for 7.5 mg and above when the prescription is refilled within 45 days. Miss that window and the same doses list at $499 for 7.5 mg and $699 for 10, 12.5 and 15 mg. That is not a like-for-like comparison — an oral semaglutide tablet against an injected tirzepatide pen or vial — but on price alone the Wegovy tablet at $199 stays the cheaper branded route. It sits alongside our running account of what these drugs cost without insurance.
What is not yet known is whether Novo extends the offer. The company has re-dated these programmes before, and the footnote reserves the right to change them at any time, so a price published today is a price for today and nothing more. We also cannot tell from the public page what share of self-pay buyers actually clear the eligibility conditions, or what a pharmacy outside the NovoCare channel charges for the same bottle. And a price is not a clinical argument: nothing here indicates that the 4 mg tablet is the right strength for any particular person, which is a question for a prescriber, not a pricing page.
Sources: NovoCare, “Wegovy (semaglutide) Cost, Coverage & Savings Resources”, self-pay pricing footnotes, read 31 August 2026 · LillyDirect Pharmacy, Zepbound self-pay pricing, read 31 August 2026
