Price per milligram: how to compare vial strengths properly
Written 23 September 2026, last changed 27 October 2026 by the trade desk. About 6 minutes to read.
Price per mg is the box price divided by the milligrams in the box, which is the vials times the strength: RT30, ten 30 mg vials at $166.00, holds 300 mg, so $0.553 per mg. Compare that figure, at the same purity and with freight counted, never the box price.
The arithmetic
Box price, divided by vials in the box, divided by milligrams in a vial. A box of ten 10 mg vials at $40 is $4.00 a vial and $0.40 per mg. A box of ten 30 mg vials at $90 is $9.00 a vial and $0.30 per mg. The second box costs more and is the better price. Every line on this site prints all three figures so nobody has to do this on a phone.
To check a quote from another supplier, put it in the price per mg calculator: the box price, the vials and the strength, and it does the division.
Why bigger vials cost less per milligram
Most of the cost of a vial is not the peptide. It is the vial, the stopper, the seal, the fill, the freeze-drying, the label, the testing and the handling, and those cost about the same whether the vial holds 5 mg or 50 mg. Spread over more milligrams, the fixed part shrinks. The retatrutide ladder below shows the effect line by line.
When the cheapest per milligram is the wrong buy
When the vial holds more than a piece of work needs. An opened vial does not keep the way a sealed one does, so a laboratory that works in small amounts can waste more in a large vial than it saves on price. Match the vial to the size of the work, then compare per milligram within that size.
Comparing across suppliers
Compare per milligram, at the same purity limit, with freight counted on both sides. A list price that excludes freight, or a purity of 95 percent set against one of 98, is not a like-for-like figure. To a US address, freight is included from $1,000 of goods and quoted at checkout below that, and every peptide line is released at not less than 98 percent by RP-HPLC; protein lines and solutions are released on the methods their own pages name.
Strength is not the only unit
Some lines are measured in international units rather than milligrams, and the two Lipo-C blends are stated by total active content in a 10 mL vial. The per-unit figure on those pages is per IU for the IU lines, per milligram of active content for the Lipo-C blends, and per millilitre for L-Carnitine, insulin and bacteriostatic water, and the same division applies.
Two ladders from today’s list
The same arithmetic on the lines sold by the single box, priced as of 27 October 2026 in USD per box of ten. The first falls steadily, and so does the second.
| Retatrutide | Per box | Per vial | Per mg | Vs smallest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RT10 10mg x 10 vials | $80.80 | $8.08 | $0.808 per mg | baseline |
| RT15 15mg x 10 vials | $112.20 | $11.22 | $0.748 per mg | 7 percent less |
| RT20 20mg x 10 vials | $136.60 | $13.66 | $0.683 per mg | 15 percent less |
| RT30 30mg x 10 vials | $166.00 | $16.60 | $0.553 per mg | 32 percent less |
| RT40 40mg x 10 vials | $213.40 | $21.34 | $0.534 per mg | 34 percent less |
| RT60 60mg x 10 vials | $271.78 | $27.18 | $0.453 per mg | 44 percent less |
| Tirzepatide | Per box | Per vial | Per mg | Vs smallest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TR10 10mg x 10 vials | $44.20 | $4.42 | $0.442 per mg | baseline |
| TR15 15mg x 10 vials | $56.54 | $5.65 | $0.377 per mg | 15 percent less |
| TR20 20mg x 10 vials | $70.84 | $7.08 | $0.354 per mg | 20 percent less |
| TR30 30mg x 10 vials | $98.85 | $9.89 | $0.330 per mg | 25 percent less |
| TR40 40mg x 10 vials | $126.82 | $12.68 | $0.317 per mg | 28 percent less |
| TR60 60mg x 10 vials | $182.84 | $18.28 | $0.305 per mg | 31 percent less |
Left out above, because they are sold only in 50-box lots: RT5, RT50, RT80 and RT100; TR5, TR45, TR50, TR80, TR100 and TR120. Each compound page prices them with their lot.
Freight and discounts in the figure
A first order of one box of RT30 is $166.00 for 300 mg, $0.553 per mg; with a $35.00 freight charge, the flat rate to a US address when no live quote is available, it is $201.00, or $0.670 per mg, about 21 percent more. To a US address, from $1,000 of goods freight is included, so seven boxes of RT30 ($1,162.00) stay at $0.553 per mg. From $5,000 of goods in one order, 5 percent comes off the goods, so RT30 works out at $0.526 per mg instead of $0.553; the order-size discount and the account tier never stack, and neither comes off the freight. Compare a quote from elsewhere on the same footing: goods, freight and any discount, per milligram.
The order minimum runs from $100 of goods on a first order, stepping up with the account to $1,000 by the fourth; the minimum-order rules. The price list.
The same arithmetic across two compounds: Retatrutide vs Tirzepatide, Tirzepatide vs Semaglutide and BPC-157 vs TB-500, and across three: Retatrutide vs Tirzepatide vs Semaglutide; every comparison is on the comparisons page.
What a milligram costs, by range
There is no single normal price per milligram, and anyone quoting one is averaging across compounds that have nothing to do with each other. This is the spread across the 157 milligram-denominated lines outside the ancillary range, priced as of 27 October 2026. Median rather than mean, because a single 1500 mg line drags an average into nonsense.
| Range | Lines | Lowest | Median | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GLP-1 & Metabolic | 50 | $0.018/mg | $0.490/mg | $4.623/mg |
| Cosmetic & Skin | 5 | $0.00359/mg | $0.565/mg | $0.783/mg |
| Repair & Recovery | 18 | $0.052/mg | $0.578/mg | $1.428/mg |
| Other Compounds | 8 | $0.064/mg | $0.702/mg | $1.270/mg |
| Longevity & Nootropic | 37 | $0.011/mg | $0.783/mg | $2.545/mg |
| Hormone & Reproductive | 10 | $0.740/mg | $0.900/mg | $1.403/mg |
| Growth & IGF | 29 | $0.553/mg | $1.747/mg | $31.160/mg |
A compound that is hard to make costs more per milligram wherever you buy it, so compare a quote against its own range rather than against the list as a whole. The whole list ranked by this column.
Applies to
This guide was written with Retatrutide and Tirzepatide in mind, and it holds for the other lines of their kind; the full list is on the compounds page.
Questions about price per milligram
How do you work out the price per mg of a peptide?
Divide the box price by the total milligrams in the box, and the total is the vial strength times the number of vials. A box of ten 10 mg vials holds 100 mg, so a box at $100 is $1.00 per mg. Comparing a 5 mg vial against a 30 mg one any other way tells you nothing, because the box prices are not measuring the same amount of material.
What is a normal price per mg for research peptides?
There is no single figure, and any source quoting one is averaging across compounds that have nothing to do with each other. What can be said is what a real list looks like: across the 157 milligram-denominated lines outside the ancillary range, the per-milligram price runs from $0.00359/mg on GTT (Glutathione) to $31.160/mg on IG01 (IGF-1 LR3, sold in 50-box lots). The spread is the compound, not the supplier: a peptide that is hard to make costs more per milligram everywhere. The price list prints the figure on every line.
Is the largest vial always the cheapest per mg?
Usually on this list, but not always, which is why the per-milligram column is printed on every line rather than left to be assumed. Each compound page names its own cheapest size outright, and where the ladder is not monotonic it says so instead of letting you guess from the box price.
Why do two suppliers quote very different prices per mg?
Check that you are comparing the same thing before you conclude anything about either of them: the vial strength, the number of vials in the unit of sale, whether freight is in the price, and what the batch is released against. A cheaper milligram of something released at a lower purity, or quoted before freight, is not cheaper.
Read next
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