Sources last read
Zepbound dosage: what the label actually says
Zepbound starts at 2.5 mg once a week and rises in steps to a top dose of 15 mg. Only 5, 10, 15 mg are doses the label says you can stay on.
Source: Read from the Zepbound label, revision 02/2026
Medically reviewed by Jennifer Montecillo, MD · non-practicing medical reviewerReviewed 2026-08-12every number here is sourced
Key facts
- 2.5 mg once a week
- 5, 10, 15 mg
- 15 mg once a week
- 5
- Week 21
The Zepbound dosages, step by step
The label does not print a week-by-week table for Zepbound. 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 | 2.5 mg | No — a step only | Starting dosage — not approved as a maintenance dosage |
| Weeks 5 through 8 | 5 mg | Yes | Lowest maintenance option |
| Weeks 9 through 12 | 7.5 mg | No — a step only | Escalation step only |
| Weeks 13 through 16 | 10 mg | Yes | Maintenance option, and the lower of the two sleep apnea dosages |
| Weeks 17 through 20 | 12.5 mg | No — a step only | Escalation step only |
| Week 21 and onward | 15 mg | Yes | Maximum for every approved use |
7.5 mg and 12.5 mg are steps you pass through. The label does not list them among the doses to settle on.
Which dose do you end up on?
The label names 5 mg, 10 mg and 15 mg as the maintenance dosages for weight reduction, and 10 mg or 15 mg for sleep apnea. 7.5 mg and 12.5 mg appear only as steps on the way up.
| Who the label covers | Dose to settle on | Approved |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with obesity, or adults with overweight and at least one weight-related comorbid condition, alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity | 5 mg, 10 mg or 15 mg once weekly | 2023-11-08NDA 217806 |
| Adults with obesity who have moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea. This was the first drug treatment the FDA approved for obstructive sleep apnea | 10 mg or 15 mg once weekly | 2024-12-20NDA 217806/S-013 |
15 mg once weekly is the maximum for every approved use of Zepbound. The label sets no higher dose.
12Label details
Who does the label cover, and who does it not?
Both approved uses are written for adults. The label sets no dose for anyone under 18.
The Zepbound label covers neither type 2 diabetes nor anyone under 18. It also says not to take it alongside another tirzepatide product, or any GLP-1 receptor agonist.
What if a week gets missed?
The label says a missed dose can be given within 4 days, which is 96 hours. Past 4 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 at least 3 days, or 72 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-dose pen | 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15 mg per 0.5 mL | 1 dose |
| Single-dose vial | 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15 mg per 0.5 mL | 1 dose |
| Multi-dose vial | 10 to 60 mg per 2.4 mL, delivering 2.5 to 15 mg per 0.6 mL dose | 4 doses |
| Single-patient-use KwikPen | 10 to 60 mg per 2.4 mL, delivering 2.5 to 15 mg per dose | 4 doses |
Zepbound and Mounjaro are the same drug. So why are the doses different?
Mounjaro is the same drug substance from the same manufacturer, approved for type 2 diabetes rather than weight, and it covers children from age 10 where Zepbound covers nobody under 18.
Both products contain tirzepatide, and both come from Eli Lilly and Company. They were approved under separate applications, NDA 217806 and NDA 215866, for different groups of people. A separate application means a separate schedule, a separate top dose and a separate rule for a missed week.
The practical version: Zepbound stops at 15 mg and Mounjaro stops at 15 mg. Neither label sets a dose for the other one’s patients.
Both labels print 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15 mg. Those are the same amounts of tirzepatide on either label. What changes is where each one sits. 7.5 and 12.5 mg are steps you pass through on Zepbound, and doses the Mounjaro label says you can stay on.
How long does it take to reach the 15 mg dose?
Week 21 at the earliest, from the label’s four-week minimum at each of the 5 steps.
Zepbound has 5 steps between the 2.5 mg start and the 15 mg ceiling. The label asks for at least four weeks on a dose before the next one. Four weeks at each step is where week 21 comes from.
The label does not print week numbers for Zepbound. It gives the first four weeks, and then the four-week rule. Week 21 is that rule applied step by step, not a number quoted off the page.
Week 21 is a floor, not a schedule. Nothing in the label says a person has to keep climbing, and a slower rise is a decision for whoever wrote the prescription.
Can you stay on a low dose of Zepbound?
Yes at 5 mg, which is the lowest dose this label recognizes as one to stay on.
The label names 5, 10 and 15 mg as doses to settle on. 5 mg is the lowest of those. Below it the label is describing a climb, not a destination.
2.5, 7.5 and 12.5 mg are printed on the same ladder and are not on that list. The label treats them 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 Zepbound ladder compare with every other GLP-1 brand?
Zepbound tops out at 15 mg once a week. Eight brands in this class stop in eight different places.
The table below compares the approved GLP-1 brands by their highest labeled dose. It is the only place the eight ladders are set out together.
Milligrams do not carry across molecules. 15 mg of tirzepatide is not comparable to 15 mg of anything else. The last column says so on every row where the drug substance differs.
Where two brands do share a drug substance, the comparison is real, because the same molecule is being measured. That is the case for exactly two pairs in the class.
| Brand | Drug | Starts at | Tops out at | Earliest week there | Doses to stay on | Against Zepbound |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zepbound | Tirzepatide | 2.5 mg weekly | 15 mg | Week 21 | 5, 10 and 15 mg | This page |
| Mounjaro | Tirzepatide | 2.5 mg weekly | 15 mg | Week 21 | None named | Same drug, same 15 mg ceiling |
| Rybelsus | Semaglutide | 3 mg daily | 14 mg | Week 9 | 7 and 14 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Wegovy | Semaglutide | 0.25 mg weekly | 7.2 mg | Week 21 | 1.7, 2.4 and 7.2 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Trulicity | Dulaglutide | 0.75 mg weekly | 4.5 mg | Week 13 | None named | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Saxenda | Liraglutide | 0.6 mg daily | 3 mg | Week 17 | 2.4 and 3 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Ozempic | Semaglutide | 0.25 mg weekly | 2 mg | Week 13 | 0.5, 1 and 2 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Victoza | Liraglutide | 0.6 mg daily | 1.8 mg | Week 9 | 1.2 and 1.8 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
Do the side effects change as the dose goes up?
The label does not publish side effects broken out by dose for Zepbound. It reports them across a whole trial.
This is the question the trial tables cannot answer. A label counts how many people reported something over a study, not which dose they were on that week.
The escalation itself is the closest thing to an answer the label gives. It exists because moving up slowly is how the trials were run. The four-week interval is part of the approved schedule, not advice added later.
Where a figure does exist it sits on the side-effect page for this brand. It is taken from the label’s own trial table, with the arm it belongs to.
What is the most important information I should know about Zepbound?
The label’s boxed warning covers thyroid tumors in rodents
Zepbound opens with a boxed warning about thyroid C-cell tumors found in rats. It is not known whether tirzepatide does the same in people. The label rules the drug out where medullary thyroid cancer runs in the family, and where someone 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.
It does not change with the dose. Nothing on the ladder above makes it apply more or less.
Do not use Zepbound if:
The label’s boxed warning names the histories it says rule the drug out, and they are not dose-related.
The exclusions sit in the boxed warning rather than in the dosing section. They are about who a person is, not about how many milligrams they take.
The label separately lists 8 serious effects it tells prescribers to watch for. Each one is set out with the label’s own wording on the Zepbound 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 Zepbound?
The most common in the label’s own trial table is nausea, reported by 29% on Zepbound 10 mg.
That figure comes from the label’s trial table, with the arm it belongs to attached. A percentage without its arm is not a rate of anything.
The trial reports side effects across the whole study. It does not say which dose each person was taking, so effects cannot be split by dose step.
The full table, every arm and the placebo column beside it, sits on the Zepbound side-effect page.
Where to read next
5 pages sit next to this one, and each answers something this page deliberately does not.
- Zepbound results at measured trial visits keeps the week-12 absence, the label endpoints and the continuation trial separate.
- Zepbound side effects, dose by dose carries the label’s own trial table.
- The tirzepatide dosage chart covers the drug rather than the brand, including the vial and syringe arithmetic no pen needs.
- Storing Zepbound safely covers the fridge, the room-temperature window and what the label leaves out.
- What Zepbound costs reads the price off the manufacturer’s own terms rather than the label, including who those terms shut out.
- Zepbound (tirzepatide) injection — FDA-approved Prescribing Information (DailyMed)retrieved 2026-08-12FDA label
- Zepbound (tirzepatide) Prescribing Information, revised 02/2026 — Drugs@FDA NDA 217806/S-042retrieved 2026-08-12FDA label
- FDA approval letter, NDA 217806 — Zepbound (tirzepatide) injection, chronic weight management in adultsretrieved 2026-08-12FDA label
- FDA supplement approval letter, NDA 217806/S-013 — Zepbound for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnearetrieved 2026-08-12FDA label