Methodology

Where the price data comes from

US pricing reflects retail and pharmacy discount-card pricing collected across a panel of US pharmacies (chains like CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger, and others). "With discount card" prices reflect a common type of free pharmacy savings program, not insurance copays — your actual out-of-pocket cost with insurance may be different (often lower, sometimes not, depending on your plan).

Canada pricing reflects prices listed by international/Canadian online pharmacies, converted to USD at the time of collection. These are typically mail-order prices for larger quantities, which is different from walking into a US retail pharmacy for a 30-day supply — worth keeping in mind when comparing.

How the "save up to X%" headline figure is calculated

For each antibiotic, we calculate the single lowest price per pill we found on each side — restricted to solid oral dose forms (tablets and capsules, including extended-release and chewable) on both sides. We do this deliberately: an earlier version of this calculation mixed forms (comparing, for example, a US liquid suspension priced per milliliter against a Canadian injectable vial) and produced a nonsense "96% savings" figure for at least one drug. Restricting to matched oral solid forms fixed that, at the cost of not being able to show a headline savings figure for every antibiotic — liquids, injectables, and topicals are excluded from this specific calculation, even though we still show their full pricing tables where available.

What this figure is: the lowest oral tablet/capsule price found on each side, of any strength or pack size. What this figure is not: a guarantee that the exact strength and quantity your prescription calls for is available at that price, or a strength-matched apples-to-apples comparison. Always check the full pricing tables on a drug's page — they show the actual strength, pharmacy, and pack size behind every number.

Update frequency

Pricing data is refreshed periodically, not in real time — check the "prices last checked" date on each drug page. Prices at actual pharmacies change frequently and can vary by location even within the same chain; treat every figure on this site as a strong starting point for comparison, not a live quote.

Known limitations, honestly

• Canadian pharmacy listings in our data don't cover every antibiotic, and coverage on the US side (particularly for retail chain pricing) is stronger for common oral antibiotics than for injectables or less commonly retail-dispensed drugs.
• The WHO AWaRe classification shown on drug pages was compiled from public WHO reference material; a portion of it (particularly toward the end of the alphabet) is still pending a final cross-check against the official published list at the time of this writing.
• Our antibiotic shortage tracker (see current shortages) is a periodic snapshot, not a live feed — always confirm availability with your pharmacy or the FDA's own shortage database for anything time-sensitive.
• We group pricing by active ingredient (for example, one page for amoxicillin covers both branded and generic listings), except where a "brand name" is actually a different combination drug entirely (Augmentin, for example, is amoxicillin plus clavulanate, and gets its own page) — see our drug pages for how that plays out in practice.

Legal ordering across the US/Canada border

See US vs Canada, explained for what's actually legal when it comes to personal-use cross-border pharmacy orders — it's more nuanced than either "totally fine" or "totally illegal."