Briefing · 19 Oct 2026
What a year of hair-loss treatment actually costs online (2026)
The headline price is one month on the cheapest plan. Add the month-two rise, the consult fee and shipping, and the ranking changes. Here is the twelve-month total at every clinic in the index, and why the cheapest first month is rarely the cheapest year.
Short answer: a year of oral finasteride runs from about $103 to $420 depending on where you buy it, and the clinic with the lowest headline price is not always the clinic with the lowest annual cost. The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive route is roughly four times, for the same generic tablet.
Why the headline price misleads
Every clinic advertises a "from" price. Three things sit between that number and what leaves your account over a year:
- The month-two price. Introductory rates end. Lemonaid Health starts at $10 and settles at $20; Hims starts at $22 on a three-month plan and runs about $25 month to month. Both are honest, and both mean the first invoice is not the recurring one.
- Shipping. Most clinics ship free. Keeps charges $5 per quarterly shipment, which is about $1.67 a month, or $20 over a year.
- The consult fee. Almost every subscription clinic bundles it. Dr. B does not: it charges $19 for the consult and then leaves you to buy the tablets at a pharmacy, which is why it looks expensive on day one and cheap by December.
Twelve months of oral finasteride, every clinic that publishes a price
These totals use the index's own arithmetic: the first month at the advertised price, the remaining eleven at the ongoing price where a clinic publishes one, plus shipping and any consult fee. The same sum is available for any treatment and any length of time in the cost calculator.
| Clinic | Headline | 12-month total | What makes up the difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. B | $7/mo | $103 | $19 consult once, then pharmacy prices. Cheapest on paper, but the $7 assumes a discount card and you manage the refills yourself. |
| Ro (Roman) | $20/mo | $240 | No consult fee, free shipping, no month-two rise. $20 is the three-month plan; twelve months up front brings it to $16, or $192 for the year. |
| Keeps | — | — | Keeps removed its prices from public pages in October 2026, so a twelve-month total can no longer be built from figures it publishes. Shipping was $20 a year when it last showed one. |
| Lemonaid Health | $25 visit | — | Lemonaid now charges $25 for the online visit and publishes no medication price, so the year cannot be totalled. It previously ran $10 for the first month and $20 thereafter. |
| Happy Head | price not shown | — | Charged a flat $24 until May 2026. Oral finasteride is still sold but no longer priced before the questionnaire, so a year cannot be costed. |
| Hims | $22/mo | $297 | $22 on a three-month plan, about $25 after. The advertised "from" figure is the longest commitment on the cheapest medication. |
| Strut Health | $25/mo | $300 | Flat $25. The consult is free unless the physician approves treatment. |
| XYON Health | $35/mo | $420 | The most expensive oral finasteride in the index; XYON's pitch is its own delivery technology and dermatologist oversight. |
Two things worth noticing. Lemonaid has the lowest first month in the whole index and the fourth-highest annual bill of the cheap group, which is exactly the pattern the "from" price is designed to produce. And the spread between Ro at $180 and XYON at $420 is $240 a year for tablets that are pharmacologically identical.
Combination treatments cost several times more
Most people who stay on treatment end up on more than finasteride alone. A compounded finasteride-and-minoxidil topical is the usual second item, and the annual numbers change shape:
| Clinic | Headline | 12-month total | Plan behind the price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ro (Roman) | $50/mo | $600 | Compounded spray. |
| Hims | $35/mo | $585 | $35 on a five-month plan, about $50 monthly after it. |
| Strut Health | $59/mo | $708 | Compounded topical. |
| Happy Head | $59+ | $708+ | Dermatologist-formulated compounds. The only figure Happy Head publishes is a $59–$119 monthly range, so a year falls somewhere between $708 and $1,428 and you do not learn which until after the questionnaire. |
Note Hims again: the cheapest headline in this table and the second-cheapest year, because $35 needs a five-month commitment and the ongoing figure is $50.
What this costs against the alternative
A cash-pay dermatologist visit runs roughly $200 to $500, a follow-up $100 to $300, and generic finasteride at a pharmacy counter averages about $45 a month without a discount card. That is roughly $1,340 in year one, or about $840 if you skip the follow-up. Against $180 at the cheapest online clinic with the consult included, the online route is the cheaper one by a wide margin, which is the whole reason these clinics exist. The comparison is on the front page with its sources.
How to work out your own number
- Pick the treatment you will actually stay on, not the cheapest one in the catalogue.
- Find the ongoing price, not the introductory one. On this site it is the "from month two" column.
- Add shipping if the clinic charges it, and any consult fee.
- Multiply by twelve, then check the cancellation terms before you commit to a long plan: a discounted twelve-month plan is only a saving if you finish it. Each clinic's terms are on its cancellation page.
Or let the calculator do it: pick a treatment and a number of months, and it totals every clinic that sells it.
Where to go next
- The cost calculator: any treatment, any length of time.
- Cheapest oral finasteride, with the plan behind every price.
- Compare any two clinics side by side.
- How to get finasteride online: the process, start to finish.
Sources
- Clinic prices, consult fees and shipping: each clinic's own pricing pages as recorded in the index, with the date of the last check shown on every price. See the methodology.
- In-person comparison figures: cash-pay dermatology visit and pharmacy prices as sourced under "Where these numbers come from" on the home page.
This briefing compares published prices and terms. It is not medical advice: a licensed clinician decides what treatment, if any, is right for you.
Prices in this briefing come from the index, last re-checked 24 Oct 2026; the affiliate note on the home page explains what a partner link does and does not change. See the current ledger.