Drug facts
Tirzepatide dosage and titration
Reviewed August 2026
If you have a vial in front of you and want the mark on the syringe, work it out here — it needs the concentration printed on your own label, because a compounded vial’s strength is set by the pharmacy that made it.
Quick answer
The approved schedule starts at 2.5 mg once weekly for four weeks, then moves to 5 mg once weekly. After that the dose may rise in 2.5 mg steps, no sooner than four weeks on the current dose, to a maximum of 15 mg once weekly.
The schedule1
- Weeks 1–42.5 mgStarting dose. Intended to reduce gastrointestinal side effects, not for weight reduction.
- Weeks 5–85 mg
- Weeks 9–127.5 mg
- Weeks 13–1610 mg
- Weeks 17–2012.5 mg
- Week 21 onward15 mgMaximum dose.
The 2.5 mg starting dose is not intended to produce weight reduction. It exists to let the gastrointestinal side effects settle before the dose rises, which is why the four-week interval matters more than it looks.
Why the steps are four weeks apart1
Each increase is permitted only after at least four weeks at the current dose. Moving faster is the most common way people run into nausea and vomiting severe enough to stop treatment altogether, and the schedule is built around that rather than around reaching 15 mg quickly.
Not everyone goes to the maximum. The label describes 5 mg, 10 mg and 15 mg as maintenance doses, so a dose that is working is a dose to stay on rather than a step on the way to something higher.
What this means for a compounded vial1
On the label — Mounjaro / Zepbound
Supplied in single-dose pens and vials at fixed strengths, so the dose on the schedule is the dose in the device.
In a compounded vial
Concentration is set by the compounding pharmacy and is not standardized between sellers. The same “5 mg” can mean a different volume from a different vial, which is why the number on the syringe is not the number on the schedule. See units, milligrams and milliliters.
What this page is not
This is the approved schedule as published, not a recommendation for you. Your prescriber sets your dose, and how quickly you move through the schedule is a clinical decision that depends on how you are tolerating it.
What each dose costs2
Sellers price these doses differently. Some charge the same at every dose; others raise the price as the dose rises, which means the figure quoted at 2.5 mg is not what a maintenance dose costs.