Interactive tool · Pricing math
True Cost-Per-Month Calculator
A price billed “every 4 weeks” is not a monthly price — a year has 52 weeks, so a 4-week cycle ships 13 times a year, not 12. This tool normalizes 4-week cycles, prepay blocks, first-month promo rates, and per-vial pricing into one honest monthly figure, and shows exactly what it assumed to get there.
This is an educational calculator, not a live price check and not financial or medical advice. It only does arithmetic on the billing terms you enter — the same terms you would read on a program’s own pricing page. It does not verify what any specific provider currently charges, and pricing terms change; confirm the exact terms directly with a provider before enrolling.
$187.25/mo
The sticker price is $179.00 per cycle. Averaged honestly across a year, that is $187.25/mo — $8.25 more than the sticker suggests.
- Billed every 4 weeks.
- Assumes a 52-week year → 13 shipments/year (52 ÷ 4), not 12.
- First bill is $99; every bill after that is $179. Blended across the first 12 months (13 bills), since the promo rate does not repeat.
Why the math works this way
A calendar year is 52 weeks. A program billing every 4 weeks therefore charges 52 ÷ 4 = 13 times a year — twelve payments of a 4-week cycle only cover 48 of those 52 weeks, four weeks short of a real year. A “$179/mo” sticker on a 4-week cycle is quietly collecting a 13th payment the sticker never mentions.
Per-vial pricing uses a 365-day year instead of the 52-week convention, because dosing is a continuous daily rate rather than a recurring shipment. A first-bill promo is blended across a fixed 12-month window — one promotional bill, every other bill in that year at the regular rate — because that is the number that actually predicts what you will spend in year one.
Worked example: a program advertising “$99 the first cycle, then $179 every 4 weeks” blends to $187.25/mo across the first year — and its steady-state (no-promo) true cost is $193.92/mo, not $179.
Questions, answered
- Why is the "true" monthly cost higher than the price on the page?
- Most often because the program bills on an N-week cycle rather than a calendar month. A year is 52 weeks, so a program that ships every 4 weeks bills 52 ÷ 4 = 13 times a year — one more payment than a “$X/mo” sticker implies, since 12 payments of a 4-week cycle only covers 48 of the year's 52 weeks.
- How does the calculator handle a first-month or first-cycle promo?
- It blends the promotional first bill together with 11 (or 12, depending on the cycle) bills at the regular price, averaged across the first 12 months. That answers “what will this actually cost me, on average, in year one” rather than quoting either the promo price or the steady price alone.
- What does “prepay” mean here?
- Some programs charge one lump sum up front that covers several shipments — for example, $1,620 for three 12-week cycles. Check the box, enter the total and how many cycles it covers, and the calculator divides it down to a true per-cycle price before running the same math.
- Is this a live, verified price?
- No. It is arithmetic on the terms you enter — the numbers you'd find on a program's own pricing or checkout page. It does not check any provider's current price for you and is not financial or medical advice.
This calculator is informational and not financial or medical advice. It performs arithmetic on the billing terms you enter; it does not verify a specific provider’s current price and cannot know about terms it was not told. Pricing changes — confirm the exact terms directly with a provider before enrolling.