Sources last read
Victoza dosage schedule
Victoza starts at 0.6 mg once a day. Its maximum dose is 1.8 mg. Only 1.2, 1.8 mg are doses the label says you can stay on.
Source for this answer
Source: Read from the Victoza label, revision 10/2025
Source: Read from the Victoza label, revision 10/2025
Medically reviewed by Jennifer Montecillo, MD · non-practicing medical reviewerReviewed 2026-08-13every number here is sourced
Key dose facts
Key facts
- 0.6 mg once a day
- 1.2 and 1.8 mg
- 1.8 mg once a day
- Shown step by step below
The Victoza dosages, step by step
Victoza is a daily shot, so its ladder is counted in weeks rather than months. The label gives one week at the starting dose, then a move up, then at least one more week before the top dose. Three rungs, and a person can be at the top inside two weeks.
| When | Daily dose | Can you stay here? | What the label notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 0.6 mg | No — a step only | Starting dosage. The label says plainly that it does not control blood sugar in adults |
| Week 2 onward | 1.2 mg | Yes | The first dosage a person can stay on |
| After at least 1 week on 1.2 mg | 1.8 mg | Yes | Maximum, and only where blood sugar needs more help |
Which dose do you end up on?
The label names 1.2 mg and 1.8 mg as the doses to stay on, and treats 0.6 mg as titration only. It is blunt about why the bottom rung exists. The 0.6 mg dose is there to lower the odds of a bad week in the stomach, and the label says it does not control blood sugar in adults.
| Who the label covers | Dose to settle on | Approved |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with type 2 diabetes, alongside diet and exercise, to improve blood sugar control | 1.2 mg once daily, or 1.8 mg where blood sugar needs more help | 2010-01-25NDA 022341 |
| Children and teenagers aged 10 years and older with type 2 diabetes, alongside diet and exercise | Steps of 0.6 mg, a week apart, to no more than 1.8 mg once daily | 2019-06-17NDA 022341/S-031 |
| 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 | 1.2 mg or 1.8 mg once daily | 2017-08-25NDA 022341/S-027 |
1.8 mg once daily is the maximum for adults and pediatric patients aged 10 years and older.
9Label details
Who does the label cover, and who does it not?
Patients aged 10 and older with type 2 diabetes are covered, on 0.6 mg steps at least a week apart, up to the same 1.8 mg ceiling adults have. The label says the risk of low blood sugar ran higher in this age group whatever else they were taking. Nothing is established below age 10.
The Victoza label does not cover weight loss. It also says that taking it alongside another liraglutide product is not recommended, which rules out running it with Saxenda.
What if a week gets missed?
The label answers this differently from the weekly products. A missed day is skipped: take the next scheduled dose, and do not add one or raise it to catch up. Past 3 days without a dose, the label says to restart at 0.6 mg and climb again.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Prefilled pen, one patient only | 18 mg per 3 mL, giving doses of 0.6, 1.2 or 1.8 mg | Several doses per pen — the label prints no count |
Victoza and Saxenda are the same drug. So why are the doses different?
Saxenda is the same drug substance from the same manufacturer, approved for weight rather than blood sugar, and its label runs to 3 mg a day where this one stops at 1.8 mg.
Both products contain liraglutide, and both come from Novo Nordisk. They were approved under separate applications, NDA 022341 and NDA 206321. Each label sets out its approved uses, dose schedule and instructions for a missed dose.
The highest labeled doses are 1.8 mg for Victoza and 3 mg for Saxenda. Their shared ingredient does not make their dose plans interchangeable.
Both labels print 0.6, 1.2 and 1.8 mg. Those are the same amounts of liraglutide on either label. What changes is where each one sits. 1.2 and 1.8 mg are doses you can stay on with Victoza, and only steps on Saxenda.
How long does it take to reach the 1.8 mg dose?
The label does not promise one date. It sets the timing for each step in the schedule below.
Victoza starts at 0.6 mg and has a 1.8 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 Victoza?
Yes at 1.2 mg, which is the lowest dose this label recognizes as one to stay on.
The label names 1.2 and 1.8 mg as doses to settle on. 1.2 mg is the lowest of those. Below it the label is describing a climb, not a destination.
0.6 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 Victoza schedule compare with other GLP-1 brands?
Victoza tops out at 1.8 mg once a day. 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. 1.8 mg of liraglutide is not comparable to 1.8 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 Victoza |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Wegovy | Semaglutide | 0.25 mg weekly | 7.2 mg | 1.7, 2.4 and 7.2 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| 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 | Same drug, ceiling higher at 3 mg |
| Ozempic | Semaglutide | 0.25 mg weekly | 2 mg | 0.5, 1 and 2 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Victoza | Liraglutide | 0.6 mg daily | 1.8 mg | 1.2 and 1.8 mg | This page |
Do the side effects change as the dose goes up?
The Victoza label includes side effects and warnings. This dosage guide does not include a trial-rate table.
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 source label linked below contains the trial results and warnings. The schedule here gives the label’s timing for dose changes.
Where to read next
2 pages sit next to this one, and each answers something this page deliberately does not.
- The liraglutide dosage chart covers the drug rather than the brand, including the vial and syringe arithmetic no pen needs.
- What Victoza costs reads the price off the manufacturer’s own terms rather than the label, including who those terms shut out.
- Victoza (liraglutide) injection — FDA-approved Prescribing Information (DailyMed)retrieved 2026-08-13FDA label
- Victoza (liraglutide) Prescribing Information, revised 10/2025 — Drugs@FDA NDA 022341/S-046retrieved 2026-08-13FDA label
- FDA approval letter, NDA 022341 — Victoza (liraglutide) injection, glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetesretrieved 2026-08-13FDA label
- FDA supplement approval letter, NDA 022341/S-031 — expansion of the Victoza type 2 diabetes age range to patients 10 years and older (ELLIPSE)retrieved 2026-08-13FDA label
- FDA supplement approval letter, NDA 022341/S-027 — Victoza indication for reducing major adverse cardiovascular events in type 2 diabetes with established cardiovascular disease (LEADER)retrieved 2026-08-13FDA label
- Drugs@FDA via openFDA — applications containing liraglutide, including the approved abbreviated new drug applications from Sandoz, Teva, Lupin, Hikma, Biocon, Mylan, Fresenius Kabi and others, and the label each one carriesretrieved 2026-08-13FDA label