Is Propecia the same drug as Proscar?

Yes — both are finasteride, a Type II 5α-reductase inhibitor, from the same originator. What differs is the strength and the licence. PROPECIA is 1 mg once daily and is indicated for male pattern hair loss "in MEN ONLY"; PROSCAR is 5 mg once daily and is indicated for symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia in men with an enlarged prostate, with a second indication in combination with doxazosin. They hold separate FDA applications — NDA 020788 and NDA 020180 — and neither is approved for the other's condition. Both may be taken with or without food.

Can I cut a 5 mg Proscar into quarters instead of buying 1 mg?

No finasteride label forbids it, and this page will not pretend otherwise: the word "split" appears zero times in PROPECIA, zero times in PROSCAR and zero times in any generic finasteride label checked. But nothing authorises it either. Every finasteride SPL read for this site declares the FDA structured Score characteristic as 1 — a tablet of one piece — and FDA's guidance is that "If a tablet is FDA-approved to be split, this information will be printed in the “HOW SUPPLIED” section of the professional label insert and in the patient package insert. Also, the tablet will be scored with a mark indicating where to split it." More to the point, both labels state that the coating is what prevents someone else absorbing the drug through their skin, and that it does so "provided that the tablets have not been broken or crushed". Finasteride can cause abnormal development of the external genitalia of a male fetus. A quartered tablet removes the only barrier the label describes, in a house where a pregnant woman might pick one up.

How much cheaper is the 5 mg tablet per milligram?

About 3.1×, and the page states it rather than hiding it. In the CMS NADAC file dated 2026-09-16, generic finasteride 1 mg is $0.04260 a tablet and generic 5 mg is $0.06839 — five times the drug for roughly six-tenths more money, which works out at 4.260¢ against 1.368¢ per milligram. What that does NOT translate into is a yearly saving this page can quote, because a 1 mg dose cannot be made from whole 5 mg tablets. And the absolute numbers are worth keeping in view: a full year of generic 1 mg at the labelled dose is $15.55. The gap is a large multiple of a very small number.

Does Propecia affect my PSA test?

Yes, and your doctor needs to know you are taking it. The PROPECIA label reports that in men aged 18 to 41 the mean serum PSA fell from 0.7 ng/mL at baseline to 0.5 ng/mL at Month 12, and both labels warn that any confirmed increase from your lowest value while on finasteride may signal prostate cancer and should be evaluated "even if PSA levels are still within the normal range for men not taking a 5α-reductase inhibitor". The 5 mg label goes further and gives a rule: PSA falls by approximately 50% within six months, a new baseline should be established at that point, and an isolated value should be doubled for comparison with untreated men. That doubling rule is stated for 5 mg. No equivalent correction factor is given on the 1 mg label.

Do both labels warn about prostate cancer?

Both carry the same warning from the same trial, and one of them adds a caveat the other does not. The 7-year Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial randomised 18,882 men aged 55 and over to finasteride 5 mg a day or placebo and found Gleason 8–10 prostate cancer in 1.8% against 1.1%. Both labels report it; both note the parallel dutasteride finding of 1% against 0.5%. The PROPECIA label then points out that PCPT used "finasteride 5 mg/day (5 times the dose of PROPECIA)" and states: "The clinical significance of these findings with respect to use of PROPECIA by men is unknown." Separately, PROSCAR carries a numbered Limitation of Use that PROPECIA does not: "PROSCAR is not approved for the prevention of prostate cancer."

Should I buy the brand or the generic?

The generic, on both strengths, and it is the largest saving available anywhere in this comparison. In the 2026-09-16 NADAC file, branded PROPECIA costs a pharmacy $3.58511 a tablet against $0.04260 for the generic — a factor of 84.2×. Branded PROSCAR is $5.70733 against $0.06839, a factor of 83.5×. It is the identical molecule at the identical strength with the identical coating. If cost is what brought you here, this is the lever, and unlike a pill cutter it costs nothing and breaks nothing. NADAC figures are what pharmacies pay on invoice, not what you will be charged.

Head to head

Propecia vs Proscar

The same molecule in two strengths, licensed for two different things. The 5 mg tablet really is far cheaper per milligram — and the labels say exactly what the coating on it is for.

Reviewed September 2026

The short answer

These are the same drug. Finasteride is finasteride; what separates PROPECIA from PROSCAR is five times the milligrams and a completely different indication. PROPECIA's section 1: "PROPECIA ® is indicated for the treatment of male pattern hair loss (androgenetic alopecia) in MEN ONLY ." PROSCAR's: "PROSCAR, is a 5α-reductase inhibitor, indicated for the treatment of symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in men with an enlarged prostate". One tablet a day either way, with or without food, on both labels.

Yes, the 5 mg tablet is cheaper per milligram, and by a lot. In the CMS NADAC file dated 2026-09-16, generic finasteride 1 mg costs a pharmacy $0.04260 a tablet and generic 5 mg costs $0.06839 — five times the drug for about six-tenths more money, which is 4.260¢ against 1.368¢ per milligram, a factor of 3.1×. Nobody should pretend that gap does not exist.

What this page will not do is put a number on quartering one, and the reason is not squeamishness about off-label use. The word "split" appears 0 times in PROPECIA, 0 times in PROSCAR and 0 times in every generic finasteride label checked — so there is no prohibition to cite, and inventing one would be as dishonest as printing the saving. What the labels do say is that the coating is the safeguard against exposing a pregnant woman to the drug, and that it works "provided that the tablets have not been broken or crushed".

The other differences are about the prostate rather than the hair. Only PROSCAR carries a Limitation of Use — "PROSCAR is not approved for the prevention of prostate cancer" — and only PROSCAR quantifies the PSA effect at approximately 50% with an instruction to double the reading. Both labels carry the same PCPT high-grade cancer warning, but only PROPECIA's adds that its clinical significance at 1 mg "is unknown".

4 of 15 dimensions are materially the same. They are marked below rather than dressed up as differences.

Propecia

finasteride 1 mg · generic finasteride 1 mg

Finasteride 1 mg once daily, licensed for male pattern hair loss in men only, with no use in women and none in children.

Dosing protocol →

Proscar

finasteride 5 mg · generic finasteride 5 mg

Finasteride 5 mg once daily for symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia in men with an enlarged prostate — and explicitly not approved to prevent prostate cancer.

Dosing protocol →

Side by side

Every row carries how well supported it is. A claim that only reflects common practice is labelled as such rather than presented as fact.

Dimension	Propecia	Proscar	Basis
Approved indication	Male pattern hair loss (androgenetic alopecia) "in MEN ONLY"	Symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia in men with an enlarged prostate	labelPROPECIA's section 1 prints MEN ONLY in capitals and adds "PROPECIA is not indicated for use in women." PROSCAR's adds a second, combination indication with the alpha-blocker doxazosin "to reduce the risk of symptomatic progression of BPH". Neither drug is indicated for the other's condition at any dose.
Labelled dose	The recommended dose of PROPECIA is one tablet (1 mg) taken once daily.	The recommended dose of PROSCAR is one tablet (5 mg) taken once a day	labelFive times the milligrams of the same molecule, and both labels add that the tablet "may be administered with or without meals". The dose is the entire pharmacological difference between these two products.
Limitation of Use for prostate cancer	None stated	"PROSCAR is not approved for the prevention of prostate cancer."	labelPROSCAR gives this its own numbered subsection, 1.3, three lines under the indication. It is there because the 7-year Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial in 18,882 men tested exactly that use, and because of what it found about high-grade disease.
Effect on PSA	Mean PSA fell from 0.7 to 0.5 ng/mL at Month 12 in men aged 18–41	"reduced serum PSA concentration by approximately 50% within six months of treatment"	labelBoth labels warn that any confirmed rise from your lowest value on treatment may signal prostate cancer and should be investigated even if it is still in the normal range. But only the 5 mg label gives a correction rule: establish a new baseline six months in, and double an isolated value for comparison with untreated men. That rule is stated for the 5 mg dose and is not offered for 1 mg.
High-grade prostate cancer warning	Same PCPT figures — 1.8% vs 1.1% — plus "The clinical significance of these findings with respect to use of PROPECIA by men is unknown."	1.8% Gleason 8–10 on finasteride against 1.1% on placebo	labelThe trial dosed finasteride 5 mg a day, which the PROPECIA label points out is "5 times the dose of PROPECIA". Both labels carry the warning; only the 1 mg label tells you the finding was not measured at the dose you are taking. Both also note the parallel dutasteride result, 1% against 0.5%.
Does the label forbid splitting?same	No — the word "split" appears 0 times	No — the word "split" appears 0 times	labelStated plainly because the opposite is widely repeated. CIALIS opens its dosage section with "Do not split CIALIS tablets"; no finasteride label says anything of the kind, and lib/finasteride-cost records that silence as a checked fact rather than an assumption (LABELS_ARE_SILENT_ON_SPLITTING is true). Silence is not permission either — see the next two rows for what the labels do say.
What the coating is forsame	PROPECIA tablets are coated and will prevent contact with the active ingredient during normal handling, provided that the tablets have not been broken or crushed.	PROSCAR tablets are coated and will prevent contact with the active ingredient during normal handling, provided that the tablets have not been broken or crushed.	labelThe identical sentence on both labels with the brand swapped, and it appears four times in the PROPECIA document — sections 5.1, 8.1, 16 and 17. Finasteride is contraindicated in pregnancy because it can cause abnormal development of a male fetus's external genitalia, and this coating is the labels' stated protection against skin exposure. Its condition — not broken, not crushed — is in the same sentence as the protection.
FDA tablet score characteristicsame	Declared as 1 — a tablet of one piece, rendered by DailyMed as "no score"	Declared as 1 — a tablet of one piece, rendered by DailyMed as "no score"	labelStructured data, not interpretation. FDA's own guidance: "If a tablet is FDA-approved to be split, this information will be printed in the “HOW SUPPLIED” section of the professional label insert and in the patient package insert. Also, the tablet will be scored with a mark indicating where to split it." Neither of these labels carries that information and neither tablet carries that mark.
Cost per tablet, generic	$0.04260	$0.06839	literatureCMS NADAC, file dated 2026-09-16 — what retail community pharmacies reported paying on invoice, before any dispensing fee, markup or rebate. Five times the drug for about six-tenths more money.
Cost per milligram, generic	4.260¢	1.368¢	literatureA factor of 3.1×, computed from the two rates above rather than asserted. This is the row the whole question hangs on, and it is printed rather than buried — the gap is real and a reader deserves to see it before reading why this page will not turn it into a plan.
A year of the labelled dose, generic	$15.55	$24.96	literatureOne whole tablet a day for 365 days at the rate above. Both are less than the cost of a single month of almost anything else on this site, which is worth saying before anyone starts cutting tablets to save money.
A year of a 1 mg dose, by route	$15.55 — one whole 1 mg tablet a day	Not priced — the only route is a broken tablet	labelNo figure, deliberately. Composing 1 mg out of whole 5 mg tablets is impossible, and the only way to it is through a broken tablet — the exact condition under which both labels say the coating stops protecting anyone else in the house. FDA adds: "If a tablet does not include such information in the label, FDA has not evaluated it to ensure that the two halves of a split tablet are the same in weight or drug content or work the same way in the body as the whole tablet." A saving whose mechanism is defeating a labelled safeguard against fetal exposure is not one this site will compute, and the blank is the answer rather than an omission.
Brand premium over its own generic	84.2× — $3.58511 a tablet	83.5× — $5.70733 a tablet	literatureBoth brands are priced roughly two orders of magnitude above the identical generic molecule. If cost is what brought you to this page, switching from brand to generic at the same strength saves far more than anything you could do with a pill cutter, and it costs nothing at all.
Use in womensame	Contraindicated; "not indicated for use in women"; not indicated in children	Contraindicated in pregnant females and those who may become pregnant; "not indicated for use in females"	labelThe same contraindication on both, for the same reason, worded slightly differently — PROPECIA says "women" throughout and PROSCAR says "females". Both carry the same carton warning: the drug should not be used by women or children, and they should not handle crushed or broken tablets.
Exposure through semen	Measured in men on 1 mg/day; both labels point to section 12.3	Three studies in men on 5 mg/day; the highest amount in semen was "50- to 100-fold less than the dose of finasteride (5 μg) that had no effect on circulating DHT levels in men"	labelThe 5 mg label does the arithmetic explicitly and the 1 mg label refers to its study without restating the margin. This is the one route of exposure that is quantified on a label, and on the higher-dose product it is reassuring rather than alarming.

label: Stated on the FDA label
guideline: Clinical practice guideline
literature: Published literature
practice: Common practice, not documented

Which one

Choose Propecia if

You are treating hair loss. PROPECIA is the only one of the two with an androgenetic alopecia indication, and 1 mg is the dose that indication was granted for.
You want the label that tells you what is and is not known at your dose. The 1 mg label explicitly flags that the PCPT high-grade cancer finding came from five times the dose you are taking.
You are under 40 and not being monitored for prostate disease. The 1 mg PSA effect is small in absolute terms — 0.7 to 0.5 ng/mL at a year — and the label gives no correction factor because none was established at this dose.
Prescribe generic: finasteride 1 mg is a fraction of a cent over four cents a tablet, and branded PROPECIA is roughly ninety times that for the identical molecule.

Choose Proscar if

You are treating an enlarged prostate. PROSCAR is indicated to improve symptoms, reduce the risk of acute urinary retention and reduce the risk of needing surgery — none of which is on the 1 mg label.
Your urologist wants a PSA correction rule. Only the 5 mg label states one: re-baseline at six months and double an isolated value when comparing with untreated men.
You are already on an alpha-blocker for BPH. The combination with doxazosin is a separate, named indication on the PROSCAR label.
Prescribe generic here too. Branded PROSCAR is around eighty times its own generic per tablet, and that gap is available to anyone without touching a pill cutter.

If you came here to work out whether to quarter a 5 mg tablet, here is the whole answer in one place. No finasteride label forbids it — the word "split" appears nowhere in any of them, and any page telling you otherwise is borrowing wording from a different drug. But no label authorises it either: every finasteride SPL declares the FDA score characteristic as one piece, and FDA says an approval to split would be printed in HOW SUPPLIED with a score mark on the tablet. And the labels are unusually specific about what the coating is doing, which is preventing a pregnant woman who picks up your tablet from absorbing a drug that can cause abnormal development of a male fetus — protection they state holds only while the tablet is not broken or crushed. This page therefore prints the per-milligram gap, because it is real, and refuses to print a price for the quartered dose, because the only route to it runs through the one thing the label says not to do. Ask your prescriber for generic 1 mg instead; at four cents a tablet, the saving you are chasing is already smaller than the risk you would be taking.

Frequently asked questions

Is Propecia the same drug as Proscar?: Yes — both are finasteride, a Type II 5α-reductase inhibitor, from the same originator. What differs is the strength and the licence. PROPECIA is 1 mg once daily and is indicated for male pattern hair loss "in MEN ONLY"; PROSCAR is 5 mg once daily and is indicated for symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia in men with an enlarged prostate, with a second indication in combination with doxazosin. They hold separate FDA applications — NDA 020788 and NDA 020180 — and neither is approved for the other's condition. Both may be taken with or without food.
Can I cut a 5 mg Proscar into quarters instead of buying 1 mg?: No finasteride label forbids it, and this page will not pretend otherwise: the word "split" appears zero times in PROPECIA, zero times in PROSCAR and zero times in any generic finasteride label checked. But nothing authorises it either. Every finasteride SPL read for this site declares the FDA structured Score characteristic as 1 — a tablet of one piece — and FDA's guidance is that "If a tablet is FDA-approved to be split, this information will be printed in the “HOW SUPPLIED” section of the professional label insert and in the patient package insert. Also, the tablet will be scored with a mark indicating where to split it." More to the point, both labels state that the coating is what prevents someone else absorbing the drug through their skin, and that it does so "provided that the tablets have not been broken or crushed". Finasteride can cause abnormal development of the external genitalia of a male fetus. A quartered tablet removes the only barrier the label describes, in a house where a pregnant woman might pick one up.
How much cheaper is the 5 mg tablet per milligram?: About 3.1×, and the page states it rather than hiding it. In the CMS NADAC file dated 2026-09-16, generic finasteride 1 mg is $0.04260 a tablet and generic 5 mg is $0.06839 — five times the drug for roughly six-tenths more money, which works out at 4.260¢ against 1.368¢ per milligram. What that does NOT translate into is a yearly saving this page can quote, because a 1 mg dose cannot be made from whole 5 mg tablets. And the absolute numbers are worth keeping in view: a full year of generic 1 mg at the labelled dose is $15.55. The gap is a large multiple of a very small number.
Does Propecia affect my PSA test?: Yes, and your doctor needs to know you are taking it. The PROPECIA label reports that in men aged 18 to 41 the mean serum PSA fell from 0.7 ng/mL at baseline to 0.5 ng/mL at Month 12, and both labels warn that any confirmed increase from your lowest value while on finasteride may signal prostate cancer and should be evaluated "even if PSA levels are still within the normal range for men not taking a 5α-reductase inhibitor". The 5 mg label goes further and gives a rule: PSA falls by approximately 50% within six months, a new baseline should be established at that point, and an isolated value should be doubled for comparison with untreated men. That doubling rule is stated for 5 mg. No equivalent correction factor is given on the 1 mg label.
Do both labels warn about prostate cancer?: Both carry the same warning from the same trial, and one of them adds a caveat the other does not. The 7-year Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial randomised 18,882 men aged 55 and over to finasteride 5 mg a day or placebo and found Gleason 8–10 prostate cancer in 1.8% against 1.1%. Both labels report it; both note the parallel dutasteride finding of 1% against 0.5%. The PROPECIA label then points out that PCPT used "finasteride 5 mg/day (5 times the dose of PROPECIA)" and states: "The clinical significance of these findings with respect to use of PROPECIA by men is unknown." Separately, PROSCAR carries a numbered Limitation of Use that PROPECIA does not: "PROSCAR is not approved for the prevention of prostate cancer."
Should I buy the brand or the generic?: The generic, on both strengths, and it is the largest saving available anywhere in this comparison. In the 2026-09-16 NADAC file, branded PROPECIA costs a pharmacy $3.58511 a tablet against $0.04260 for the generic — a factor of 84.2×. Branded PROSCAR is $5.70733 against $0.06839, a factor of 83.5×. It is the identical molecule at the identical strength with the identical coating. If cost is what brought you here, this is the lever, and unlike a pill cutter it costs nothing and breaks nothing. NADAC figures are what pharmacies pay on invoice, not what you will be charged.

Sources

Next steps

Compare online hair loss providersWhich platforms prescribe finasteride, what the consultation costs, and what you actually pay per month.Hair restoration: what the evidence supportsThe full ladder — topical, oral, procedural — and what each one is actually approved for.

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Educational reference, not medical advice. Which medication suits you is a decision for your prescriber.