What pharmacies paid for gabapentin, 2013 to 2026

In September 2026, retail pharmacies paid an average of 3.0 cents for a generic 300 mg gabapentin capsule, the lowest monthly figure since the federal government began its pharmacy cost survey in 2013. In October the figure was 3.2 cents, according to the latest National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) files⁴.

When the NADAC series began in November 2013¹, the same capsule cost 5.6 cents. The 43 percent drop since then did not come in a straight line. Gabapentin's price fell for four years, jumped in late 2018, held near its 2014 level for about three years, and has fallen every year since 2021.

Gabapentin is one of the most widely dispensed generics in Medicare, where generics fill most claims, and its market has kept drawing new generic applications more than two decades after the first one was approved. GxRadar analyzed CMS NADAC data through October 2026 alongside FDA approval records and Medicare Part D data to trace that path.

The record, year by year

Figures are GxRadar's monthly median of the weekly NADAC per-capsule rate for generic-classified 300 mg gabapentin capsules. The table gives October of each year, the average for each calendar year, and the cost of 365 capsules at the October rate, a convenient unit for comparison. Actual prescriptions vary widely in strength and number of capsules, and the prescriber sets the dose. The monthly series is on our gabapentin page.

The high point came early. In February 2014 the capsule cost 6.3 cents. By 2017 the yearly average had fallen to 4.2 cents.

The 2018 jump

Then the price turned. The monthly figure was 4.2 cents in June 2018 and 6.0 cents in October 2018, a 43 percent rise in four months, according to the 2018 NADAC files². September and October 2018 brought the two largest one-month increases in the whole series, 11 and 14 percent. The yearly average stayed above 5 cents from 2019 through 2021.

The federal data do not say why. Gabapentin capsules do not appear in FDA's shortage data as of Oct. 30, 2026, according to the openFDA drug shortages feed⁶ behind our shortage tracker, but that feed mostly reflects the current list, so it cannot rule out an earlier shortage. FDA's recall records for gabapentin are light. The openFDA enforcement data⁷ contain 25 recall records mentioning gabapentin since 2012, 18 of them Class II and seven Class III, with none in the most serious Class I. Three were reported in 2018, none involving a lot of 300 mg capsules. Our recall tracker uses the same data. Price increases in generics can follow supply problems, demand changes or a maker leaving the market, and our data cannot separate those here. The GxRadar piece on generics that got more expensive takes up the same question across the basket.

Five years of decline

Since 2021 the yearly average has fallen every year, from 5.0 cents to 3.2 cents in the first 10 months of 2026. The steepest single month in that stretch was November 2024, when the figure fell 12 percent, from 3.9 cents to 3.5 cents, in the 2024 NADAC files³. That was the month before CMS began calculating monthly generic rates as a three-month moving average, a shift GxRadar covers in the 2024 NADAC swings, a change its December 2024 methodology⁵ describes as a temporary measure to address volatility from "fluctuations in survey participation." Readings since then are smoother by design.

New approvals kept coming through the decline. GxRadar counted abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) for single-ingredient gabapentin in FDA's Drugs@FDA data, downloaded through openFDA⁸. There are 70, covering capsules, tablets and oral solutions, and 44 still list at least one marketed product.

Twenty of the 70 were approved from 2020 on, including eight in 2024 alone, and 18 of those 20 are still marketed. For the 300 mg capsule specifically, FDA's data show 29 ANDAs, 17 still marketed. The brand product's new drug application was approved Dec. 30, 1993, according to its Drugs@FDA record⁸, and the first ANDA covering the 300 mg capsule, ANDA 075350⁸, on Sept. 12, 2003. Our approvals tracker shows ANDA approvals across all drugs by year.

FDA economists have documented the link between the number of makers and price. In a December 2019 analysis⁹, they found that with six or more generic makers, prices were more than 95 percent below the brand price before generic entry. Gabapentin crossed that line long ago. Approvals are permission to sell, and our data cannot show how many of them turned into products on shelves, but the timing of the recent wave and the steady price decline line up. Our explainer on why generic prices fall as competitors enter covers the mechanism.

A growing Medicare market

Use has grown while the price fell. CMS's Medicare Part D Spending by Drug¹⁰ data show claims for generic gabapentin rising every year from 2020 to 2024.

The 2024 data list 40 manufacturers for generic gabapentin, against 30 for generic atorvastatin. Average gross spending per claim fell 27 percent between 2022 and 2024. A claim can cover very different quantities, so that figure is not comparable with the per-capsule NADAC. Our look at what pharmacies pay for a month of common generics puts gabapentin next to nine other high-volume drugs.

What the figure does not cover

NADAC tracks invoice prices that a random sample of chain and independent retail pharmacies report each month. CMS's methodology says discounts not shown on the invoice are left out and asks pharmacies to exclude 340B purchases. The figure carries no dispensing fee and says nothing about what a patient pays, which depends on coverage, deductibles and the pharmacy's cash price. Our NADAC explainer goes through the details.

FDA approved two more gabapentin ANDAs in 2026, on March 6 and June 23. The September 2026 reading of 3.0 cents is the series low so far, and CMS's next monthly file will show whether the October uptick holds.