Prescription Cost Calculator

Work out prescription cost instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Prescription Cost Calculator

Builds a prescription price from ingredient cost, professional markup and the dispensing fee, the standard three-part community pharmacy calculation.

Formula

Prescription price

Total = quantity x unit cost x (1 + markup) + dispensing fee

Worked example

With the default values below, Prescription Cost Calculator returns Total prescription cost of $32.15. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Quantity dispensedaccepts 1–10,000: 60
Cost per unitaccepts 0.001–1,000: 0.35
Dispensing feeaccepts 0–100: 8
Markup on drug costaccepts 0–100: 15

Results

Total prescription cost: $32.15
Ingredient cost: $21.00
Markup plus dispensing fee: $11.15
Cost per unit dispensed: $0.5358

Step by step

1Values used
2Prescription price
3Total prescription cost= 32.15
4Ingredient cost= 21.00
5Markup plus dispensing fee= 11.15
6Cost per unit dispensed= 0.5358

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 4 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is markup applied before or after the fee?

Markup applies to the ingredient cost; the professional fee is added afterwards and is not marked up.

Do reimbursement rules differ?

Considerably by country and by payer, so the fee and markup entered should match the local schedule.