A basic glucose meter costs between $10 and $30, but the real expense is in the supplies you need every day. Test strips, lancets, and (if you use one) a continuous glucose monitor sensor add up to anywhere from $20 to over $100 per month depending on the system you choose and how often you test. Here’s what each type of monitor actually costs and where the money goes.
Traditional Blood Glucose Meters
The meter itself is the cheapest part. Most major brands sell their devices for $10 to $30 at any pharmacy or big-box store, and some are even free with a rebate or bundled with a starter pack of strips. The low price on the meter is intentional: manufacturers make their money on the test strips you’ll buy for years afterward.
Test Strips: The Biggest Recurring Cost
Test strips are where your budget takes a hit. A 30-count box of OneTouch Verio strips runs about $20, while a 90-count box costs around $51, working out to roughly $0.57 to $0.67 per strip. OneTouch Ultra Plus strips are slightly cheaper at about $17 for 30 or $44 for 90. If you test four times a day, that’s roughly $60 to $80 per month on strips alone from a name brand.
Store-brand and generic strips can cut that cost significantly. ReliOn (Walmart’s brand), for example, typically sells strips for about half the price of name-brand options. The tradeoff is that generic strips only work with their matching meter, so switching brands means buying a new device.
Lancets and Lancing Devices
Lancets are the tiny needles used to prick your finger for a blood sample, and they’re one of the few genuinely cheap parts of glucose monitoring. A lancing device runs $10 to $17 for most brands. The Accu-Chek FastClix is about $13, the OneTouch Delica Plus is $17, and budget options like the Owen Mumford Autolet or AUVON starter kit cost around $10 to $11.
Lancets themselves are even cheaper. A 200-count pack of Accu-Chek SoftClix lancets costs about $25, while CareTouch sells 300 lancets for $9 and Owen Mumford offers 100 for $6. Even at four finger pricks per day, a bulk pack of lancets lasts one to three months and adds only a few dollars to your monthly costs. The one premium exception is the Genteel Plus, a device designed for nearly painless testing, which starts at $89 for the starter kit.
Continuous Glucose Monitors (Prescription)
Continuous glucose monitors, or CGMs, replace finger pricks with a small sensor worn on your body that reads glucose levels every few minutes. They’re more convenient but more expensive, and most require a prescription.
The FreeStyle Libre 3 is the more affordable prescription CGM. Most commercially insured patients pay between $0 and $75 per month for sensors. Abbott, the manufacturer, also offers free trial vouchers through its MyFreeStyle program for insured and cash-paying customers.
The Dexcom G7 costs more. Without insurance, Dexcom’s Pharmacy Savings program brings the price to $89 per month, saving over $200 compared to full retail. Dexcom also offers a coupon that can be used up to 12 times per year at the pharmacy on the retail cash price, saving $210 or more on every 30-day supply of sensors. To use that coupon, you need to opt out of any other insurance coverage or copay offers.
Over-the-Counter CGMs
A newer category of CGMs doesn’t require a prescription at all. The Dexcom Stelo became the first FDA-cleared over-the-counter glucose sensor in August 2024. It’s designed for people with type 2 diabetes who don’t use insulin, or for anyone curious about how their body responds to food and exercise.
A two-pack of Stelo sensors (covering about 30 days of wear) costs $99 on a pay-as-you-go basis. A monthly subscription drops that to $89. These sensors aren’t typically covered by insurance, so that price is out of pocket for most buyers.
What Insurance and Medicare Cover
Insurance changes the math dramatically. Many commercial plans cover both meters and CGMs with a copay, sometimes reducing costs to $0. If your plan covers CGM sensors, your monthly expense could be a fraction of the retail price.
Medicare Part B covers continuous glucose monitors and related supplies like sensors if you meet two conditions: you take insulin or have a history of low blood sugar episodes, and you (or your caregiver) have been trained to use the device properly. After meeting the annual Part B deductible, you pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount, assuming your supplier accepts Medicare assignment.
Monthly Cost Breakdown by Setup
To put it all together, here’s what you can expect to spend per month depending on your monitoring approach:
- Budget finger-stick setup (generic meter, store-brand strips, 2 tests/day): $20 to $35 per month, plus a few dollars for lancets.
- Name-brand finger-stick setup (4 tests/day): $60 to $80 per month for strips, plus lancets.
- FreeStyle Libre 3 with insurance: $0 to $75 per month.
- Dexcom G7 with savings program (no insurance): $89 per month.
- Dexcom Stelo (OTC, no prescription): $89 to $99 per month.
The meter or sensor gets the most attention when people shop, but strips are the real cost driver for traditional monitors. If you’re testing multiple times per day and paying out of pocket, a CGM with a savings program can actually cost less per month than name-brand test strips, while giving you far more data about your glucose levels throughout the day.