What pharmacies paid for lisinopril, 2013 to 2026

In October 2026, retail pharmacies paid an average of 54 cents for 30 generic lisinopril 10 mg tablets (1.81 cents a tablet), according to the federal government's NADAC survey files¹. That is the pharmacy's acquisition cost for the tablets, not a price anyone pays at the counter. Thirty tablets is the typical fill for this product in Medicaid's 2025 State Drug Utilization Data², which counted 1.9 million prescriptions for it that year.

In January 2014 the same 30 tablets cost 64 cents, according to the 2014 NADAC files³. Over almost 13 years, then, the price fell 16 percent. That is a small move next to the GxRadar generic price index, which stood at 47.4 in October 2026, putting the basket about 53 percent below January 2014. Lisinopril had little room to fall. It was among the five cheapest tablets in GxRadar's basket in January 2014 and the sixth-cheapest of 47 in October 2026.

Few drugs are filled more often. Medicare Part D paid for 36.2 million claims of generic lisinopril in 2024, from 17 manufacturers, according to CMS's Part D Spending by Drug data⁴. GxRadar analyzed CMS NADAC files from November 2013 through October 2026, FDA approval and recall records and Medicare spending data to show how the price has moved, the one stretch when it rose, and why ACE inhibitors as a group sit near the bottom of the generic price table.

Thirteen years of lisinopril prices

Each figure is GxRadar's monthly median of the weekly NADAC per-tablet rate for generic-classified rows listed as lisinopril 10 mg tablet, drawn from the yearly files on data.medicaid.gov starting with the 2013 file⁵. The fill column multiplies that rate by 30. Fill sizes describe how prescriptions are commonly dispensed; the prescriber sets the dose and the quantity. The full monthly series is on our lisinopril page.

At October 2026's rate, 1.806 cents times 30 tablets comes to 54 cents. In January 2014 it was 2.141 cents times 30, or 64 cents. A dime separates the two.

The one stretch when the price rose

October snapshots hide a three-year bump. The 30-tablet cost bottomed at 50 cents (1.65 cents a tablet) in November 2018, then climbed almost every month through 2019, according to the 2019 NADAC files⁶. It peaked at 71 cents (2.35 cents a tablet) in August 2020, the highest monthly figure in the series, according to the 2020 files⁷. That was about 42 percent above the 2018 low. The rate stayed above 2.1 cents a tablet through 2021 and dropped back to about 1.9 cents in January 2022. The NADAC files record the movement. They do not record why it happened, and GxRadar found no FDA recall or shortage entry for lisinopril that lines up with it.

Then came the turbulence of 2024. The rate fell to 1.56 cents in July 2024, or 47 cents for 30 tablets, the lowest month on record, according to the 2024 NADAC files⁸. Swings like that hit many generics that year, as our account of the 2024 NADAC swings shows. CMS's December 2024 methodology⁹ introduced what it called "a temporary, short-term measure to address rate volatility occurring as a result of fluctuations in survey participation." Since then, monthly generic rates have been a three-month moving average. Lisinopril's figure has stayed between 1.71 and 1.89 cents a tablet in every month since January 2025, according to the 2025¹⁰ and 2026 files.

Why ACE inhibitors are among the cheapest generics

Lisinopril belongs to the class called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, according to the National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus entry¹¹. FDA approved the first lisinopril tablets on Dec. 29, 1987, according to Drugs@FDA records¹². Generics arrived in bulk. GxRadar counted 20 single-ingredient lisinopril ANDAs in FDA's data, and 11 of them carry the same approval date, July 1, 2002. Eighteen cover the 10 mg tablet, and 12 of those still list it as a marketed prescription product. Our approvals tracker counts generic approvals across all drugs.

That many sellers pull prices down hard. FDA economists, comparing generic and brand prices in a December 2019 analysis¹³, found that "with six or more competitors, generic prices using both AMP and invoice prices show price reductions of more than 95% compared to brand prices." Lisinopril has been past that point since before the NADAC series began. Our explainer on why generic prices fall as competitors enter covers the pattern, and a companion piece looks at the competitor counts.

Older ACE inhibitors show the same shape on a smaller scale. CMS's Part D data for 2024 put lisinopril's claims at more than 15 times those of any of the three other generic ACE inhibitors below.

Spending per claim is gross drug cost, which CMS's Part D methodology¹⁴ says includes ingredient cost, dispensing fees and sales tax and excludes manufacturer rebates. A claim can cover any number of tablets, so these figures do not compare directly with NADAC. They do show that the most-filled drug in the class also costs the program least per claim.

Cheap has a cost of its own. On its generic competition page¹⁵, FDA notes "increasing attention on whether the lower cost of generic drugs, especially as more generics enter the market over time, may place pressure on companies to adopt strategies that lower the cost of manufacturing, which in turn may lead to supply disruptions and shortages." Lisinopril has so far avoided that outcome. FDA's shortage list as of Nov. 3, 2026 had no lisinopril entry, according to the openFDA shortage data¹⁶ behind our shortage tracker. The openFDA enforcement records¹⁷ hold 34 recall records for single-ingredient lisinopril products since 2012. Twenty-eight were Class II, six were Class III and none was Class I. Our recall tracker uses the same data.

What sits on top of 54 cents

For a drug this cheap, the tablets are the smallest part of what a prescription costs to fill. Most state Medicaid programs pay pharmacies an ingredient cost plus a professional dispensing fee, according to CMS's state reimbursement table for the quarter ending September 2026¹⁸. New Jersey's fee is $10.92 and New York's is $10.18. California pays $13.20 to pharmacies with fewer than 90,000 claims a year and $10.05 to larger ones.

On a 30-tablet fill at October 2026 NADAC, New Jersey's fee is about 20 times the ingredient cost. None of these figures say what a patient pays, which depends on coverage, deductibles and the pharmacy's own prices. Our explainers on dispensing fees and what NADAC measures go further, and our comparison of seven blood pressure generics sets lisinopril next to amlodipine and losartan.

The moving average that has kept lisinopril's figure in a narrow band since early 2025 is still described as temporary. CMS says on its NADAC page¹⁹ that the method "will continue until further notice" and that it plans to solicit stakeholder input on a more permanent approach.