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Ozempic dosage schedule
Ozempic starts at 0.25 mg once a week. Its maximum dose is 2 mg. Only 0.5, 1, 2 mg are doses the label says you can stay on.
Source for this answer
Source: Read from the Ozempic label, revision 05/2026
Source: Read from the Ozempic label, revision 05/2026
Medically reviewed by Jennifer Montecillo, MD · non-practicing medical reviewerReviewed 2026-08-12every number here is sourced
Key dose facts
Key facts
- 0.25 mg once a week
- 0.5, 1 and 2 mg
- 2 mg once a week
- Shown step by step below
The Ozempic dosages, step by step
The label does not print a week-by-week table for Ozempic. It gives the first four weeks, then says each move up needs at least four weeks on the dose before it. So the timing column repeats the label’s own wording rather than turning it into week numbers.
| When | Weekly dose | Can you stay here? | What the label notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1 through 4 | 0.25 mg | No — a step only | Starting dosage — the label does not treat it as a blood sugar dose |
| Week 5 onward | 0.5 mg | Yes | The first dosage the label recognizes as one to stay on |
| After at least 4 weeks on 0.5 mg | 1 mg | Yes | Also the kidney disease maintenance dosage |
| After at least 4 weeks on 1 mg | 2 mg | Yes | Maximum recommended dosage, added to the label in 2022 |
Which dose do you end up on?
The label names 0.5 mg, 1 mg and 2 mg as the maintenance dosages, picked on blood sugar control. Where chronic kidney disease is the reason for the prescription, the label names 1 mg.
| Who the label covers | Dose to settle on | Approved |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with type 2 diabetes, alongside diet and exercise, to improve blood sugar control | 0.5 mg, 1 mg or 2 mg once weekly, chosen on blood sugar control | 2017-12-05NDA 209637 |
| Adults who have both type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular disease, to lower the risk of cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack or non-fatal stroke | 0.5 mg, 1 mg or 2 mg once weekly | 2020-01-16NDA 209637/S-003 |
| Adults who have both type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease, to lower the risk of sustained eGFR decline, end-stage kidney disease and cardiovascular death | 1 mg once weekly, reached after at least 4 weeks on 0.5 mg | 2025-01-28NDA 209637/S-025 |
2 mg once weekly is the maximum recommended dosage. It was not on the original label: the FDA added it as a third maintenance dose on 2022-03-28.
12Label details
Who does the label cover, and who does it not?
Every approved use is written for adults. The label sets no dose for anyone under 18.
The Ozempic label does not cover weight loss. Its approved uses are for adults with type 2 diabetes. The highest labeled Ozempic dose is 2 mg once weekly.
What if a week gets missed?
The label says a missed dose can be given within 5 days. Past 5 days it says to skip that week and go back to the usual day.
The label allows the weekly day to move as long as two doses stay more than 2 days, or 48 hours, apart.
What does it come in?
The device matters for dosing, because some of these hold one dose and some hold four.
| Device | Strengths | Doses inside |
|---|---|---|
| Single-patient-use pen, 2 mg per 3 mL | 0.68 mg/mL, giving 4 doses of 0.25 mg then 2 of 0.5 mg, or 4 doses of 0.5 mg | 4 doses |
| Single-patient-use pen, 4 mg per 3 mL | 1.34 mg/mL, giving 4 doses of 1 mg | 4 doses |
| Single-patient-use pen, 8 mg per 3 mL | 2.68 mg/mL, giving 4 doses of 2 mg | 4 doses |
| Single-dose prefilled syringe | 0.25, 0.5 or 1 mg per 0.5 mL | 1 dose |
Ozempic and Wegovy are the same drug. So why are the doses different?
Wegovy is the same drug substance from the same manufacturer, approved for weight rather than blood sugar, and its label runs to 2.4 mg and then to 7.2 mg.
Both products contain semaglutide, and both come from Novo Nordisk. They were approved under separate applications, NDA 209637 and NDA 215256. Each label sets out its approved uses, dose schedule and instructions for a missed dose.
The highest labeled doses are 2 mg for Ozempic and 7.2 mg for Wegovy. Their shared ingredient does not make their dose plans interchangeable.
Both labels print 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg. Those are the same amounts of semaglutide on either label. What changes is where each one sits. 0.5 and 1 mg are doses you can stay on with Ozempic, and only steps on Wegovy.
How long does it take to reach the 2 mg dose?
The label does not promise one date. It sets the timing for each step in the schedule below.
Ozempic starts at 0.25 mg and has a 2 mg ceiling. Read the published timing beside each row rather than adding the waits into one calendar estimate.
Nothing in the label says a person has to keep climbing. The maintenance choices are listed separately below.
Whether to move up, stay put or stop is a decision for whoever wrote the prescription.
Can you stay on a low dose of Ozempic?
Yes at 0.5 mg, which is the lowest dose this label recognizes as one to stay on.
The label names 0.5, 1 and 2 mg as doses to settle on. 0.5 mg is the lowest of those. Below it the label is describing a climb, not a destination.
0.25 mg is printed on the same ladder and is not on that list. The label treats it as somewhere you pass through.
The label sets doses. It does not rank them, and it does not say a higher one suits a given person better.
How does the Ozempic schedule compare with other GLP-1 brands?
Ozempic tops out at 2 mg once a week. Compare starting and ongoing doses for the 9 brands below.
The table below compares the highest labeled doses, starting doses and ongoing dose choices. Each row comes from that product’s label.
Milligrams do not carry across molecules. 2 mg of semaglutide is not comparable to 2 mg of anything else. The last column says so on every row where the drug substance differs.
Brands can share a drug but differ in form, approved use or dose schedule. A matching milligram amount does not make products interchangeable.
| Brand | Drug | Starts at | Tops out at | Doses to stay on | Against Ozempic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foundayo | Orforglipron | 0.8 mg daily | 17.2 mg | 5.5 mg can continue; further increases depend on response and tolerability | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Zepbound | Tirzepatide | 2.5 mg weekly | 15 mg | 5, 10 and 15 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Mounjaro | Tirzepatide | 2.5 mg weekly | 15 mg | 2.5 mg can continue; increases depend on blood sugar control | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Rybelsus | Semaglutide | 3 mg daily | 14 mg | 7 and 14 mg | Same drug, different form or schedule — milligrams do not compare |
| Wegovy | Semaglutide | 0.25 mg weekly | 7.2 mg | 1.7, 2.4 and 7.2 mg | Same drug, ceiling higher at 7.2 mg |
| Trulicity | Dulaglutide | 0.75 mg weekly | 4.5 mg | 0.75 mg can continue; increases depend on blood sugar control | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Saxenda | Liraglutide | 0.6 mg daily | 3 mg | 2.4 and 3 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Ozempic | Semaglutide | 0.25 mg weekly | 2 mg | 0.5, 1 and 2 mg | This page |
| Victoza | Liraglutide | 0.6 mg daily | 1.8 mg | 1.2 and 1.8 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
Do the side effects change as the dose goes up?
The main label table reports separate results for Ozempic 0.5 mg, Ozempic 1 mg.
A trial group’s assigned dose and each dose increase are different things. The table counts reports over the study, including time spent increasing doses.
These group results cannot tell someone whether a dose change caused their symptoms. Read each result with its trial group and study period.
The Ozempic side-effect page shows the full table and the group behind each percentage. The schedule here gives the label’s timing for dose changes.
What is the most important information I should know about Ozempic?
The label’s boxed warning covers thyroid tumors in rodents
Ozempic carries the same boxed warning as every product in this family. Rats and mice given semaglutide grew thyroid C-cell tumors, and nobody knows whether people do. The label says the drug is not for anyone whose family has had medullary thyroid cancer, or who has the inherited condition MEN 2.
A boxed warning is the strongest warning the FDA applies. It appears at the top of the label, before the dosing section summarized here.
A lower dose does not remove the boxed warning. The warning is separate from the common side-effect percentages in trial tables.
Do not use Ozempic if:
The label lists reasons a person must not use Ozempic. The boxed warning covers some of these; the full label gives the complete list.
The label’s contraindications section lists reasons not to use the drug. The boxed warning alone is not the full list.
The label separately lists 9 serious effects it tells prescribers to watch for. Each one is set out with the label’s own wording on the Ozempic side-effect page.
The dose schedule comes from the prescribing label. Read the full label for the complete list of reasons not to take it.
What are the possible side effects of Ozempic?
The most common in the label’s own trial table is nausea, reported by 20.3% on Ozempic 1 mg.
That figure comes from one trial group. Its dose, study population and follow-up period matter when reading the percentage.
The trial reports effects for each assigned group over the study. Those totals do not isolate what happened after each dose increase.
The full table, every arm and the placebo column beside it, sits on the Ozempic side-effect page.
Where to read next
4 pages sit next to this one, and each answers something this page deliberately does not.
- Ozempic side effects, dose by dose carries the label’s own trial table.
- The semaglutide dosage chart covers the drug rather than the brand, including the vial and syringe arithmetic no pen needs.
- Storing Ozempic safely covers the fridge, the room-temperature window and what the label leaves out.
- What Ozempic costs reads the price off the manufacturer’s own terms rather than the label, including who those terms shut out.
- Ozempic (semaglutide) injection — FDA-approved Prescribing Information (DailyMed)retrieved 2026-09-13FDA label
- Drugs@FDA approval history — NDA 209637, Ozempic (semaglutide) injectionretrieved 2026-08-12FDA label
- FDA approval letter, NDA 209637 — Ozempic (semaglutide) injection, glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetesretrieved 2026-08-12FDA label
- FDA supplement approval letter, NDA 209637/S-003 — Ozempic cardiovascular event risk reduction in type 2 diabetes with established cardiovascular disease (SUSTAIN 6)retrieved 2026-08-12FDA label
- FDA supplement approval letter, NDA 209637/S-025 — Ozempic for reducing sustained eGFR decline, end-stage kidney disease and cardiovascular death in type 2 diabetes with chronic kidney diseaseretrieved 2026-08-12FDA label
- FDA supplement approval letter, NDA 209637/S-009 — addition of a third Ozempic maintenance dose, 2 mg once weeklyretrieved 2026-08-12FDA label