Glossary

Every term is defined the way it is used in the data and the methodology, so a word on a plan ticket means the same thing everywhere on the site.

Advertised starting price: The number a provider puts on its pricing page, recorded verbatim with the page and the date. It may be introductory, may exclude required fees, and may apply only to the lowest dose.
Introductory price: A discount limited to a first month or first order. On this site it is always labelled and always shown next to the price that follows it.
Recurring price: The post-introductory price at the labelled starting dose, normalised to one month. Plans sold per order over a supply range produce a range.
True 12-month cost: Twelve months of medication at the recurring price plus every required charge the provider publishes. A required charge the provider does not publish is named and excluded, and the total is marked incomplete.
Membership or program fee: A recurring fee a provider requires in addition to the medication. Recorded as published (with amount), included in the plan price, or required but unpublished.
Consultation fee: A charge for the initial clinical review or for follow-up visits. Some providers include it; some publish it; some require it without publishing the amount.
Dose-stable pricing: A plan whose price is the same at every dose, as stated by the provider. The opposite is dose-tiered.
Dose-tiered pricing: A plan whose price rises in bands as the weekly dose rises, usually because a vial holds a fixed number of milligrams. Each tier's dose range and price are recorded as published.
Maintenance-dose price: The monthly-equivalent price in the tier that covers the reference maintenance dose from the branded label: 10 mg/week for tirzepatide, 2.4 mg/week for semaglutide.
Upfront payment: The first amount charged: a prepaid term total, or the first month or order plus any one-time fee.
Minimum commitment: None (month to month or per order), a billed term, or a prepaid term, with the cancellation notice period and early-termination terms as published.
Verified: Read from the provider's own page or checkout on the date shown by a named checker, with the source quoted. Verified records older than 30 days become 'verification overdue' and leave every ranking.
Supplied, not yet verified: Figures given to us by a provider or seen elsewhere. Displayed with this label only; never ranked, compared or called cheapest.
Compounded medication: A preparation made by a pharmacy from the active ingredient for a patient or in bulk by an outsourcing facility. Not FDA-approved; not reviewed by FDA for safety, effectiveness or quality before sale.
503A pharmacy: A pharmacy that compounds for individual patients on a prescription, regulated primarily by its state board of pharmacy under section 503A of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
503B outsourcing facility: A compounder registered with FDA under section 503B, following current good manufacturing practice and subject to FDA inspection, permitted to compound in bulk under certain conditions. Its products are still not FDA-approved.
Beyond-use date (BUD): The date after which a compounded preparation should not be used, assigned by the pharmacy. Matters for multi-month supplies: a 90-day BUD limits how long a vial can be stretched.
Base vs salt form: The approved semaglutide and tirzepatide products use the base form of the molecule. FDA has raised concerns about compounders using salt forms such as semaglutide sodium or acetate, which are different substances.
Microdose: A regimen below the labelled starting or maintenance doses, sold by some providers as a distinct program. No published clinical trials support it; on this site it carries evidence grade D and is not placed on the standard dose scale.
ODT (orally disintegrating tablet): A compounded tablet meant to dissolve in the mouth. Distinct from the approved oral semaglutide products; no published human trials of compounded ODT GLP-1s have been located, so it carries evidence grade D.
Reference dose: The starting, maintenance and maximum doses from the branded labels that this site uses to compare tiered plans: 2.5, 10 and 15 mg/week for tirzepatide; 0.25, 2.4 and 7.2 mg/week for semaglutide (7.2 mg is the labelled maximum for qualifying adults; 2.4 mg remains the maintenance reference). A comparison convention, not dosing advice.
Provider Score: A 0–100 weighted sum of twelve measured factors defined on the how-we-rank page. Computed only for providers verified within 30 days; provisional while any factor is pending.
Category leader: The provider with the best value on a single published metric (for example lowest recurring tirzepatide price). Requires at least three verified providers in the category; ties are shown as ties.
Relationship badge: The label next to every provider name stating this site's financial relationship with it: none, affiliate, ownership, sponsorship, or not yet declared.
“From” price: An advertised floor ("from $199"). Recorded as the advertised price with a floor flag; the recurring price and every total derived from it are shown with "from" and are excluded from the lowest-complete-cost category.
Not confirmed: A required charge whose existence or amount a capture did not establish (for example, whether a consultation is billed separately). Shown as not confirmed and listed next to every total; never treated as $0.
Varies by dose (no tiers published): The provider states that the price rises with dose and publishes a range, but not the dose boundaries of each price band. Shown as a range; no maintenance-dose price can be computed.