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Dose to units · tirzepatide
Tirzepatide dosage chart in units
A tirzepatide dose is written in milligrams and your syringe is printed in units, and the number that joins them depends on how much water went into the vial. Set the vial and the water below and the whole schedule redraws.
The chart
U-100 insulin syringe · 1 mL · lines every 2 units · 1 unit = 0.01 mL
| Dose | Draw | Volume | Nearest line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.5 mg | 12.5 u | 0.125 mL | 12 u · 4.0% off |
| 5 mgholding step | 25.0 u | 0.250 mL | 26 u · 4.0% off |
| 7.5 mg | 37.5 u | 0.375 mL | 38 u · 1.3% off |
| 10 mgholding step | 50.0 u | 0.500 mL | 50-unit line |
| 12.5 mg | 62.5 u | 0.625 mL | 62 u · 0.8% off |
| 15 mgholding step | 75.0 u | 0.750 mL | 76 u · 1.3% off |
→ dose ÷ 20.00 ÷ 0.01 = units
Given the syringe units, how much peptide is that?
A unit number alone is not a dose. What it carries depends on the vial and the water above.
10.0 units on a U-100 insulin syringe · 1 mL · lines every 2 units is 0.100 milliliters, which carries 2,000.0 micrograms from a 60 milligram vial at 20.00 milligrams per milliliter.
- 0.01 mL per unit
- 0.01 mL per unit
- 0.025 mL per unit
→ 200.0 mcg/unit × 10 units = 2,000.0 mcg
1 unit on a U-100 insulin syringe · 1 mL · lines every 2 units is 0.01 mL, whatever is in the vial. Nothing on this panel is stored or sent anywhere.
There is no fixed number of units in a milligram of tirzepatide. Divide the vial strength by the water you added to get the strength of the liquid. Divide your dose by that, then divide again by 0.01 for a U-100 barrel. At 60 mg in 3 mL, one unit carries 200 mcg and a 5 mg dose is 25 units.
Change the water and every figure changes with it. That is why a chart copied from somewhere else is only right for the vial it was made from.
Half of this schedule lands between two marks
Tirzepatide steps up in 2.5 mg. A U-100 barrel is printed one unit at a time. Those two do not always agree, and at the opening mix they agree exactly half the time.
At 60 mg in 3 mL, 1 of 6 doses stop on a printed line: 10 mg at 50 units. The other 5 land on a half mark, with no line to stop the plunger.
Half a mark is the same slice of liquid every time. It is not the same slice of the dose. On the 2.5 mg step it is 4.0% of the draw. On the 15 mg step the same half mark is 1.3%. The starting dose is the one the barrel reads worst, which is the opposite of what most people assume.
The water is the only thing you control
The vial holds a fixed amount of powder. Adding more water does not add drug. It spreads the same drug over more liquid, so every dose takes more marks to measure.
Put 30 mg into 1 mL instead, and the liquid is 30 mg/mL. One unit now carries 300 mcg, every draw is smaller, and 1 of 6 doses land on a line. Same powder, same schedule, a different chart.
So the useful question is not what the chart says. It is which mix puts your own steps on printed lines. Change the water field above and watch the last column.
Mounjaro and Zepbound pens have no units
Mounjaro and Zepbound are tirzepatide, and they run on the same six-step schedule. Neither is drawn with a syringe. A single-dose pen holds one dose and delivers it whole, so there is nothing to count and no barrel to read.
A chart in units is for a vial. If you are holding a pen, the number on this page is not the number you need. If you are holding a vial from a compounding pharmacy, the strength on that label is the figure to type above — it is often nothing like the pen strength.
Questions people ask about tirzepatide units
How many units is 2.5 mg of tirzepatide?
It depends entirely on the vial, and any single answer to that question is wrong for most people who ask it. At 60 mg in 3 mL it is 12.5 units. At 30 mg in 1 mL the same dose is 8.3 units. Type your own two numbers above and read the first row.
Why does my chart not match someone else’s?
Because a chart is only true for one mix. Two people with the same dose and different water volumes get different unit counts, and both are right. The vial strength and the water are the two facts a shared chart almost never carries.
What if my draw falls between two marks?
The barrel gives you the two nearest lines and nothing in between. The table above shows the exact answer, the nearest syringe line and the difference as a percentage. If that difference matters, changing the water volume moves the whole schedule onto different marks.
Does a U-40 syringe change the answer?
Yes, by a factor of 2.5. One U-40 mark holds 0.025 mL against 0.01 mL on a U-100, so the same count of marks carries two and a half times the drug. Pick your barrel above before reading anything else.
Is 15 mg the top of the chart?
It is the top of the labeled schedule this page draws, and the label calls it the maximum maintenance dose. The chart stops where the schedule stops. It does not stop where a barrel runs out, so a step can read past the last mark if the liquid is thin.
If your question is a single dose
This page draws the whole schedule because that is how people read it. For one dose at a time, with the rounding error and water suggestions, the tirzepatide reconstitution calculator takes the same three inputs and answers one draw. For a peptide with no schedule on record, the general peptide calculator works from any vial strength you type.