What '$25 for the first month' actually costs over a year
A weight-loss membership advertised at $25 for the first month does not cost $300 over a year. On the prices we could verify on 21 September 2026, a cash-paying adult who joins one of the large telehealth programmes and fills a Wegovy prescription every month pays somewhere between about $2,600 and $5,600 across twelve months, because the advertised fee covers access to a clinician and an app, and the medicine is billed separately. The teaser is real, and so is the exclusion. This article puts the two together and does the arithmetic the advert leaves to you. DoseTruth is a price-comparison publisher: it is not a pharmacy, not a telehealth provider, and it does not prescribe or dispense any medication. This article is for general information about prices and is not medical advice, and you should speak to a licensed clinician before starting, stopping, or changing any medication.
The four programmes we looked at are WeightWatchers Med+, Hims and Hers, Ro and LifeMD. Every price below carries the date it was checked and the source it came from. Two of the four company price pages refused automated access during our check, so for those rows we say exactly what we relied on instead, and we mark the weaker rows as weaker.
What does the $25 first month actually pay for?
It pays for the membership only, meaning access to clinicians, coaching and an app, and it does not pay for any GLP-1 medicine. WeightWatchers states this on its own medication page, which we checked on 21 September 2026. The page offers the Med+ membership at $25 for the first month on a 12-month or 6-month plan, then $74 a month on the 12-month plan or $84 a month on the 6-month plan. The same page says that membership and medicines are billed separately and that the cost of GLP-1 medications is not included. It also says plans renew automatically for another term at the same monthly rate. The $25 figure is a discount on one month of a service fee, and no part of it buys a drug.
The other three programmes use the same structure at a higher fee. Hims and Hers said in a press release dated 26 March 2026 that its weight-loss membership costs $39 for the first month and then renews automatically at $149 a month, that cash prices for the medicine start at $149 a month on top, and that medication is not available without a membership. LifeMD's programme page, checked on 21 September 2026, lists $39 for the first month and $149 a month thereafter with the option to cancel at any time, and states that medication cost is not included. For Ro we could not open the company's pricing page, which returned an access error to our checker. The figures we use for Ro, $39 for the first month, then $149 a month, or as low as $74 a month when a year is prepaid, come from The RX Index, a commercial guide that says it verified them against Ro's pricing page on 29 July 2026. That is not a primary source, and a Healthline review updated on 26 August 2026 still lists older figures of $45 and $145. Treat the Ro row as the least certain in this article.
| Programme | First month | Ongoing monthly fee | Twelve-month membership total | GLP-1 medicine included | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WeightWatchers Med+, 12-month plan | $25 | $74 | $839 | No | Company page, checked 21 Sep 2026 |
| WeightWatchers Med+, 6-month plan renewed once | $25 | $84 | $949 | No | Company page, checked 21 Sep 2026 |
| Hims and Hers | $39 | $149 | $1,678 | No | Company press release, 26 Mar 2026 |
| LifeMD | $39 | $149 | $1,678 | No | Company page, checked 21 Sep 2026 |
| Ro, monthly plan | $39 | $149 | $1,678 | No | Commercial guide citing Ro's page as of 29 Jul 2026, not primary |
| Ro, year prepaid | not applicable | as low as $74 | about $888 | No | Commercial guide citing Ro's page as of 29 Jul 2026, not primary |
The totals are simple sums. One month at the teaser price plus eleven months at the ongoing price gives $25 plus $814, or $839, for the WeightWatchers 12-month plan, and $39 plus $1,639, or $1,678, for each of the $149 programmes. The teaser month therefore trims the annual membership bill by $49 on the WeightWatchers 12-month plan and by $110 at the others. The first-month discount is worth roughly 6 per cent of a full-price year of membership.
How much does the medicine add each month?
The medicine adds between $149 and $449 a month at current manufacturer cash prices, which is usually more than the membership itself. We use the manufacturers' own self-pay prices as the drug leg, because the platform prices we could see match them. LifeMD's page lists the Wegovy pen as starting at $199, the Wegovy pill at $149 and Zepbound vials as starting at $299, and the Hims and Hers release quotes cash prices starting at $149, which are the lowest rungs of the manufacturer price ladders below. Note the phrase starting at. The advertised drug price is a second teaser, because it is the price of the lowest strength or of an introductory fill.
Novo Nordisk's NovoCare Pharmacy page, checked on 21 September 2026, prices the Wegovy pen at $199 for each month of the two lowest strengths for patients new to the offer, limited to two monthly fills and available through 31 December 2026. After that the pen costs $349 a month for the standard strengths and $399 a month for the higher-dose Wegovy HD pen. The same page prices the Wegovy pill at $149 a month for the lowest strength, $199 for the 4 mg strength and $299 for the 9 mg and 25 mg strengths. Eli Lilly's Zepbound savings page, checked the same day, prices the KwikPen at $299 for the 2.5 mg strength, $399 for 5 mg and $449 for the strengths from 7.5 mg to 15 mg. The Lilly prices above 5 mg hold only if each refill is bought within 45 days of the previous delivery, otherwise regular prices of $499 and $699 apply, and the page says the savings end on 31 December 2026. We cover that condition in detail in the LillyDirect 45-day rule in real numbers, and the pill ladder in the oral Wegovy 4 mg price rise from $149 to $199.
| Medicine and strength | Monthly cash price | Condition stated on the page | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wegovy pen, two lowest strengths, new patients | $199 | Two monthly fills only, through 31 Dec 2026 | NovoCare Pharmacy page |
| Wegovy pen, standard strengths | $349 | Eligibility and restrictions apply | NovoCare Pharmacy page |
| Wegovy HD pen | $399 | Eligibility and restrictions apply | NovoCare Pharmacy page |
| Wegovy pill, lowest strength | $149 | One bottle of 30 tablets | NovoCare Pharmacy page |
| Wegovy pill, 4 mg | $199 | One bottle of 30 tablets | NovoCare Pharmacy page |
| Wegovy pill, 9 mg and 25 mg | $299 | One bottle of 30 tablets | NovoCare Pharmacy page |
| Zepbound KwikPen, lowest strength | $299 | Savings end 31 Dec 2026 | Lilly Zepbound savings page |
| Zepbound KwikPen, 5 mg | $399 | Savings end 31 Dec 2026 | Lilly Zepbound savings page |
| Zepbound KwikPen, upper strengths | $449 | Refill within 45 days, otherwise $499 or $699, savings end 31 Dec 2026 | Lilly Zepbound savings page |
We are not telling you which strength you would be on. That is a clinical decision for a prescriber, and the strengths appear here only because the price depends on them. All of these routes require a valid prescription.
What does the full year come to?
For the Wegovy pen, the full year comes to between about $4,700 and $5,600 depending on the programme, which is roughly $394 to $464 a month on average. The pen is the cleanest case to model because its price does not depend on strength once the two introductory fills are used. Two fills at $199 plus ten fills at $349 is $398 plus $3,490, or $3,888 for the drug. Add the membership totals from the first table and you get the figures below.
| Programme | Membership, 12 months | Wegovy pen, 12 fills | All-in year | Average per month | Teaser price times twelve |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WeightWatchers Med+, 12-month plan | $839 | $3,888 | $4,727 | $394 | $300 |
| WeightWatchers Med+, 6-month plan renewed once | $949 | $3,888 | $4,837 | $403 | $300 |
| Hims and Hers | $1,678 | $3,888 | $5,566 | $464 | $468 |
| LifeMD | $1,678 | $3,888 | $5,566 | $464 | $468 |
| Ro, monthly plan, non-primary fee source | $1,678 | $3,888 | $5,566 | $464 | $468 |
| Ro, year prepaid, non-primary fee source | about $888 | $3,888 | about $4,776 | about $398 | not applicable |
| No programme, drug only, excluding any clinician visit cost | $0 | $3,888 | $3,888 | $324 | not applicable |
Set the last column against the fourth. A reader who multiplies the $25 teaser by twelve expects $300 and the verified arithmetic gives $4,727, which is almost sixteen times more. At the $39 programmes the naive figure is $468 and the verified figure is $5,566, about twelve times more. The teaser month accounts for roughly half of one per cent of what a WeightWatchers member on the Wegovy pen pays in the year.
The month-by-month shape matters as much as the total. At WeightWatchers the first month costs $25 plus $199, or $224, and from the third month onward it costs $74 plus $349, or $423. At a $149 programme the first month is $238 and the steady state is $498. The bill roughly doubles between the first month and the third, and then it stays there.
The Wegovy pill is cheaper, but its annual cost depends on strength, so we can only give bounds. Twelve fills at the lowest price rung would be $1,788 and twelve fills at the highest rung would be $3,588. With membership added, the year lands between $2,627 and $4,427 at WeightWatchers, and between $3,466 and $5,266 at a $149 programme. That is an average of $219 to $439 a month. The lower bound is an arithmetic floor and not a realistic treatment path, because it assumes the lowest-priced strength for all twelve months. For Zepbound the drug leg alone runs from $3,588 to $5,388 a year on the same logic, before any membership and assuming the 45-day refill window is never missed. A commonly quoted all-in range of $300 to $450 a month describes the middle of this spread well. The verified edges are wider, from $223 a month for the lowest pill rung at WeightWatchers to $598 a month for the upper Zepbound strengths at a $149 programme.
Is the low first-month price deceptive?
Not on the pages we checked, because each company we could read states that the medicine is not included, but the Federal Trade Commission has acted against a telehealth firm that allegedly failed to make the same point clear. On 14 July 2025 the FTC announced action against Southern Health Solutions, a company that traded as Next Medical and NextMed. The agency alleged that the company sold membership programmes at an advertised monthly price, typically $138 or $188, without adequately disclosing that the price did not include the GLP-1 drug, the required lab work or the consultation. It also alleged a required one-year commitment with early termination fees. The Commission approved the final order by a vote of 2 to 0 on 3 December 2025, and the order requires a payment of $150,000 intended for consumer refunds, an end to misrepresenting costs, and clear disclosure of refund and cancellation terms before payment.
None of the four programmes in this article was a party to that case, and these were allegations resolved by settlement and not findings by a court. We cite it for one reason. A United States regulator has treated the gap between a membership price and the true cost of treatment as a consumer-protection matter. Disclosure is the dividing line, and on the dates we checked, the WeightWatchers and LifeMD pages and the Hims and Hers press release all disclosed the exclusion in plain words. We could not read Ro's page directly, so we make no statement about it either way.
There is also a fair argument for billing the two things separately. Hims and Hers says that separating medication costs from care fees allows reimbursement from a health savings or flexible spending account. A membership also buys real services, such as clinician visits, coaching and, at LifeMD, lab work where needed. Whether those services are worth $839 to $1,678 a year is a judgement for the reader, and we do not make it here.
What could make your own total higher or lower?
Four things move the total: insurance, plan length, how long treatment lasts, and the price reset at the end of 2026. Insurance matters most. If a plan covers the drug, the drug leg of this arithmetic no longer applies, and the membership fee becomes the main cost. This article models cash payers only.
Plan length cuts both ways. The $25 WeightWatchers price is tied to a 6-month or 12-month plan that renews automatically, and the page we checked does not say what happens if a member cancels before the term ends. We therefore cannot tell you the cost of leaving early, and that is a gap in this article. The question is not academic. A retrospective cohort study in JAMA Network Open, published on 31 January 2025, followed 125,474 adults with overweight or obesity who started a GLP-1 medicine between 2018 and 2023 across 30 United States health systems. Within one year, 64.8 per cent of those without type 2 diabetes had stopped, with a 95 per cent confidence interval of 64.4 to 65.2, against 46.5 per cent of those with type 2 diabetes. The study is observational, its definition of stopping is one of several in the literature, and its data predate today's cash prices, so it cannot tell us how many people stop at $349 a month. It does suggest that a twelve-month total is a ceiling many people never reach, which makes the terms of a twelve-month commitment worth reading before the first payment.
Timing is the last variable. The $199 introductory pen price and the Zepbound savings prices are both dated to end on 31 December 2026 on the pages we checked. Any twelve-month period that starts now crosses that date, so our annual totals are a projection at today's prices and not a forecast. We track what changes at the turn of the year in GLP-1 price routes and the 31 December 2026 reset. For a related case where the obvious discount turns out to be the expensive route, see why GoodRx costs more than buying Wegovy direct.
How strong is the evidence behind each claim here?
Mixed, and the table below marks our own weak rows on purpose. A claim rated strong rests on a government document, a peer-reviewed paper, or a price read directly from the seller's own page on the stated date. A seller's page is a commercial source, but for the narrow question of what that seller charges it is the primary record. A claim rated weak rests on a third-party guide, an older press release, or an assumption of ours.
| Claim | Evidence type | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| WeightWatchers Med+ is $25 for the first month, then $74 or $84, medicine excluded | Company page read on 21 Sep 2026 | Strong |
| LifeMD is $39 then $149, medicine excluded | Company page read on 21 Sep 2026, although a Medical News Today review dated 29 May 2026 reports $75 a month | Strong for the listed price, with a conflict we could not explain |
| Hims and Hers is $39 then $149, membership compulsory | Company press release of 26 Mar 2026, live price page not readable by our checker | Moderate, nearly six months old |
| Ro is $39 then $149, or about $74 prepaid | Commercial guide citing Ro's page, contradicted by a Healthline review | Weak |
| Manufacturer cash prices for Wegovy and Zepbound | Manufacturer pages read on 21 Sep 2026 | Strong |
| Each platform charges the manufacturer cash price for the drug | Matches on LifeMD's page and the Hims and Hers release, assumed for the rest | Weak to moderate, an assumption of ours |
| Pen year costs $4,727 to $5,566 all-in | Arithmetic on the rows above, crossing the 31 Dec 2026 offer expiry | Moderate, a projection and not a forecast |
| Pill and Zepbound annual bounds | Arithmetic on price rungs, not on any real treatment path | Sound as bounds, weak as a prediction |
| A regulator has treated an undisclosed drug exclusion as deceptive | FTC press releases of 14 Jul 2025 and 3 Dec 2025, allegations settled | Strong that the action happened, no court finding |
| Most adults without diabetes stop within a year | Peer-reviewed retrospective cohort of 125,474 adults, observational, predates current prices | Moderate |
| Cost of leaving a 12-month plan early | Not stated on the page we checked | Not established |
Read together, the strong rows support the central point that the fee and the medicine are separate bills and that the medicine is the larger one. The weak rows affect the exact totals for Ro and for Hims and Hers, and the whole annual projection depends on prices that are dated to change. Trust the structure of the arithmetic fully, and recheck every input on the day you plan to pay. We did not test any checkout flow, so fees that appear only at checkout, such as shipping or lab charges, are outside what we verified.
Frequently asked questions
Does the $25 first month include the medication?
No, it covers the membership only. WeightWatchers' medication page, checked on 21 September 2026, says the cost of GLP-1 medications is not included and that membership and medicines are billed separately. The same is true of the $39 first month at Hims and Hers and at LifeMD, according to their own materials.
What is a realistic monthly all-in figure for a cash payer?
For the Wegovy pen it is $423 a month at WeightWatchers and $498 a month at a $149 programme once the introductory fills are used. Those figures add the ongoing membership fee to the $349 manufacturer cash price checked on 21 September 2026. Pill routes are lower and upper Zepbound strengths are higher, with a verified spread of $223 to $598 a month. None of these figures applies if your insurance covers the drug.
Why do the drug prices say starting at?
Because the advertised figure is the lowest rung of a ladder. The $199 Wegovy pen price covers only two introductory fills at the two lowest strengths, and the $149 pill price covers only the lowest strength, per the NovoCare Pharmacy page. Later fills cost $349 for the pen and up to $299 for the pill.
Can the membership fee be avoided altogether?
The manufacturer cash prices do not themselves include a membership fee, but a valid prescription from a licensed clinician is still required, and seeing that clinician has its own cost. Novo Nordisk's launch release for NovoCare Pharmacy describes a home-delivery service for cash-paying patients with a prescription and mentions no membership. Hims and Hers, by contrast, states that medication is not available through its platform without a membership. We do not advise for or against any route, and nothing here suggests obtaining a prescription medicine without a prescription.
Is a 12-month or prepaid plan cheaper?
On fees alone, yes. The WeightWatchers 12-month plan totals $839 against $949 for the 6-month plan renewed once, and Ro's prepaid year is reported at about $888 against $1,678 on its monthly plan, though the Ro figures come from a non-primary source. The saving only materialises if you stay for the full term. A large cohort study found that 64.8 per cent of adults without type 2 diabetes stopped their GLP-1 medicine within a year, so the cancellation terms matter.
Will these numbers still hold in 2027?
Probably not exactly. The introductory pen price and the Zepbound savings prices are both dated to end on 31 December 2026 on the manufacturer pages we checked. Membership fees can change too, and two sources we read disagree on Ro's current fee. Treat every figure here as a dated snapshot and not as a quote.
Related reading on this site
For what expires at the turn of the year, see GLP-1 price routes and the 31 December 2026 reset. For the refill condition behind the Zepbound prices, read the LillyDirect 45-day rule in real numbers. For the pill price ladder, see the oral Wegovy 4 mg price rise from $149 to $199. For another discount that costs more than it appears to, read why GoodRx costs more than buying Wegovy direct.
Sources
- WeightWatchers, online prescription weight-loss medication page, Med+ membership prices and medicine exclusion, company page, checked 21 September 2026. weightwatchers.com
- WeightWatchers, GLP-1 cost estimator page, wording of the $25 first-month offer, company page, checked 21 September 2026. weightwatchers.com
- Hims and Hers, Wegovy pill and Wegovy pen now available with Hims and Hers, company press release, 26 March 2026. news.hims.com
- LifeMD, weight management programme page, programme fees and medicine exclusion, company page, checked 21 September 2026. lifemd.com
- Medical News Today, LifeMD review, dated 29 May 2026, reports a $75 monthly programme fee that conflicts with the company page. medicalnewstoday.com
- The RX Index, Does Ro have a membership fee, commercial guide and not a primary source, states fees verified against Ro's pricing page on 29 July 2026. therxindex.com
- Healthline, Ro review, updated 26 August 2026, lists $45 first month and $145 a month, in conflict with the guide above. healthline.com
- NovoCare Pharmacy, Wegovy pen and pill self-pay prices, manufacturer price page, checked 21 September 2026. novocare.com
- Eli Lilly, Zepbound coverage and savings page, KwikPen self-pay prices and 45-day refill condition, manufacturer page, checked 21 September 2026. zepbound.lilly.com
- Novo Nordisk, NovoCare Pharmacy launch for cash-paying patients, press release, 5 March 2025. prnewswire.com
- Federal Trade Commission, FTC takes action against telemedicine firm NextMed over misleading prices, fake reviews and deceptive weight-loss claims, press release, 14 July 2025. ftc.gov
- Federal Trade Commission, FTC approves final order against telehealth provider NextMed, press release, 3 December 2025. ftc.gov
- Discontinuation and Reinitiation of Dual-Labeled GLP-1 Receptor Agonists Among US Adults With Overweight or Obesity, JAMA Network Open, 31 January 2025, retrospective cohort of 125,474 adults. jamanetwork.com