How many units is 1.8 mg of liraglutide?

On an approved product, the question does not arise: liraglutide only comes in a pen that dials milligrams, so there is no unit count to read. The arithmetic, if you want it, is clean — at 6 mg/mL, 1.8 mg is 0.3 mL, which is 30 units on a U-100 syringe. 0.6 mg is 10 units, 1.2 mg is 20 and 3 mg is 50. The doses are 0.1 mL apart, so every one is a whole multiple of ten units. None of them is a dose you should be drawing into a barrel — and what a barrel is graduated in is a separate question we could not source from any manufacturer instructions for use.

What is a unit of Xultophy in milligrams of liraglutide?

0.036000000000000004 mg, and this is the one liraglutide conversion a label actually states: “each XULTOPHY 100/3.6 dosage unit contains 1 unit of insulin degludec and 0.036 mg of liraglutide”. So the 10-unit starting dose for someone naive to basal insulin is 0.36 mg of liraglutide, the 16-unit starting dose for someone switching from basal insulin or another GLP-1 is 0.58 mg, and the 50-unit maximum is 1.8 mg — the same ceiling Victoza sets for liraglutide on its own.

How many doses are in a liraglutide pen?

Divide 18 mg by your daily dose and floor it: 30 doses at 0.6 mg, 15 at 1.2 mg, 10 at 1.8 mg, 7 at 2.4 mg and 6 at 3 mg. Two caveats, both from the label. A remainder is not a dose — at 2.4 mg you are left with 1.2 mg you cannot use. And each new pen is flow-checked before its first injection, which consumes solution that no approved liraglutide label quantifies, so the figures above are the arithmetic maximum rather than a count anybody has published.

How long does a Saxenda or Victoza pen last?

At the 3 mg Saxenda maintenance dose, 6 days — which is why the carton comes as 5 pens, covering 30 days. At the 1.8 mg Victoza maximum, 10 days, so the 3-pen carton is a month. At the 0.6 mg starting dose one pen is 30 days, and that is the only dose where the drug and the in-use limit expire together: “after first use ... the pen can be stored for 30 days”, and Saxenda’s Instructions for Use says to throw the pen away at 30 days whatever remains in it.

Is liraglutide always 6 mg/mL?

Every standalone product is, with no exceptions we could find: 6 mg/mL in Victoza, in Saxenda, and in all eight generic applications, always as 18 mg in 3 mL. The single exception is the fixed-ratio combination XULTOPHY 100/3.6, where liraglutide sits at 3.6 mg/mL alongside 100 units/mL of insulin degludec and is not dosed in milligrams at all. If a product in your hand claims some other liraglutide concentration, it is not one of the 22 labels on DailyMed.

Can I put liraglutide in an insulin syringe?

There is nothing to put in one. Every FDA-approved liraglutide product is a prefilled, single-patient-use pen — 22 labels checked on DailyMed, 22 pens, no vials — so there is no container to draw from and no label anywhere describing how to. The pen is also single-patient-use by design and is not refillable. The arithmetic on this page exists so that a number you have seen quoted can be checked, not so that a dose can be transferred: if you are holding liraglutide in a vial, it did not come from an approved product and nothing here tells you what is in it.

What happens if I miss liraglutide for a few days?

You go back to the start of the ladder, and this is the sharpest practical difference between a daily GLP-1 and a weekly one. One missed day is simple: resume with the next scheduled dose, and do not take an extra one. But “if more than 3 days have elapsed since the last VICTOZA dose, reinitiate VICTOZA at 0.6 mg once daily”, and Saxenda says the same and points at its weekly escalation table. A long weekend can cost weeks of titration — and it changes your pen arithmetic too, because you are back to 30 doses from a pen rather than 6.

Is there a generic liraglutide, and is it the same concentration?

Yes to both, and liraglutide is the only molecule on these GLP-1 pages with US generics. DailyMed lists eight abbreviated applications: five that copy Victoza and dial 0.6, 1.2 or 1.8 mg (ANDA 215245, 215421, 215503, 217590 and 218115) and three that copy Saxenda and dial up to 3 mg (ANDA 214568, 217063 and 217234). Every one is the same presentation as the brand — 6 mg/mL, 18 mg in a 3 mL prefilled single-patient-use pen. Semaglutide, tirzepatide and retatrutide have no US generics at all.

How much volume is one Xultophy unit?

0.01 mL, because the insulin component is at 100 units/mL and one unit of that is one hundredth of a millilitre. So the 50-unit maximum dose is 0.5 mL and the 10-unit minimum is 0.1 mL, out of a pen holding 3 mL, 300 units of insulin degludec and 10.8 mg of liraglutide. A Xultophy unit and a U-100 insulin syringe unit are the same volume — that is not a coincidence, it is what the “100” in the product name means.

Liraglutide units converter

There is no liraglutide vial, so “units” means one of three different things

Liraglutide is the one GLP-1 on this site where the concentration never moves. Every standalone product is 6 mg/mL in a 3 mL pen — 18 mg in total — and that is true of the brands and of all eight generic applications alike. The Victoza and Hikma labels print it as “18 mg/3 mL (6 mg/mL)”; Saxenda and Teva print “6 mg/mL ... in a 3 mL prefilled, single-patient-use pen”. Same solution, same pen, one number.

What follows from that is the thing most converters get wrong. We searched DailyMed for liraglutide on 19 September 2026 and got 22 product labels. Every one of them is a prefilled, single-patient-use dial pen. Not one vial, not one ampoule, and — unlike the retatrutide and finasteride listings we have had to name elsewhere — not one “Export only” or self-declared registration in the set. So there is no approved liraglutide product you draw into a syringe, which means a mg-to-units answer has no product to be about.

That leaves three separate things a reader can mean by “units”. The pen’s own dose counter, which shows milligrams and not units at all. The XULTOPHY 100/3.6 dose counter, which shows real units and is the only labelled units-to-milligrams conversion liraglutide has: “each XULTOPHY 100/3.6 dosage unit contains 1 unit of insulin degludec and 0.036 mg of liraglutide”. And a U-100 insulin syringe unit, which is a volume — 0.01 mL — and belongs to an instrument no approved liraglutide product is supplied for.

The U-100 arithmetic is printed below anyway, for one reason: at 6 mg/mL it is unusually tidy. The labelled doses are exactly 0.1 mL apart, so every one of them is a whole multiple of ten units — 0.6 mg is 10, 3 mg is 50 — which is the largest dose increment of any injectable we cover. That is worth knowing because it removes the usual excuse: the pen does not exist because the doses are small or awkward to measure. It exists because it is the only presentation anyone has approved.

The formula

volume (mL) = dose (mg) ÷ 6 mg/mL

units (U-100) = volume (mL) × 100 = dose (mg) × 100 ÷ 6

XULTOPHY 100/3.6:

liraglutide (mg) = dose counter units × 0.036

insulin degludec (u) = dose counter units × 1

volume (mL) = dose counter units ÷ 100

pen supply:

whole doses = floor(18 mg ÷ dose in mg)

days = min(whole doses, 30)

The 0.036 is not a separate fact to memorise — it is 3.6 mg/mL of liraglutide divided by 100 units/mL of insulin degludec, and the label states the same figure independently. The 30 in the last line is the in-use limit, not the drug: a pen “can be stored for 30 days” once pierced, whatever is left in it.

Worked example

A Saxenda pen at the 3 mg adult maintenance dose, and the same pen at the 0.6 mg starting dose:

Volume at 3 mg = 3 mg ÷ 6 mg/mL = 0.5 mL (50 units on a U-100 scale, if it were in a barrel — it is not)
Whole doses in the pen = floor(18 mg ÷ 3 mg) = 6, so one pen is 6 days and a 30-day month needs 5 pens
At the 0.6 mg starting dose the same pen holds 30 doses — exactly 30 days
That is the one dose where the drug and the 30-day in-use limit expire together: nothing is wasted, and nothing is left over
At 2.4 mg, by contrast, the pen holds 7 whole doses and strands 1.2 mg — half a dose you cannot use

Liraglutide dose chart — mg, mcg, mL and U-100 units at 6 mg/mL

Every dose an approved liraglutide pen will dial, and what it is in the other units. The syringe column is arithmetic: no approved liraglutide product is drawn into a barrel.

Dose	Micrograms	Volumeat 6 mg/mL	U-100 unitsarithmetic only	Pens that dial it
0.6 mgonce daily	600 mcg	0.1 mL	10 uno approved vial	Victoza and Saxenda
1.2 mgonce daily	1200 mcg	0.2 mL	20 uno approved vial	Victoza and Saxenda
1.8 mgonce daily	1800 mcg	0.3 mL	30 uno approved vial	Victoza and Saxenda
2.4 mgonce daily	2400 mcg	0.4 mL	40 uno approved vial	Saxenda only
3 mgonce daily	3000 mcg	0.5 mL	50 uno approved vial	Saxenda only

Victoza and its generics stop at 1.8 mg: “the maximum recommended dosage of 1.8 mg injected subcutaneously once daily”. Saxenda and its generics go to 3 mg, where “the recommended dosage of SAXENDA is 3 mg daily, lower dosages are for titration only”. The U-100 column exists because the conversion is the thing people search for and because the answer is clean — the doses are 0.1 mL apart, so every one is a whole multiple of ten units — not because anyone should be drawing liraglutide out of a pen into a syringe. The pen is single-patient-use and dials the dose itself.

XULTOPHY 100/3.6 dose counter — units to milligrams of liraglutide

The one liraglutide dose written in units. Every even setting the dose counter displays, from the minimum the pen will deliver to the labelled maximum.

Dose counter	Liraglutidemg	Insulin degludecunits	VolumemL
10 unitsStarting dosage, naive to basal insulin or a GLP-1	0.36 mg	10 u	0.1 mL
12 unitsonce daily	0.43 mg	12 u	0.12 mL
14 unitsonce daily	0.5 mg	14 u	0.14 mL
16 unitsStarting dosage, switching from basal insulin or a GLP-1	0.58 mg	16 u	0.16 mL
18 unitsonce daily	0.65 mg	18 u	0.18 mL
20 unitsonce daily	0.72 mg	20 u	0.2 mL
22 unitsonce daily	0.79 mg	22 u	0.22 mL
24 unitsonce daily	0.86 mg	24 u	0.24 mL
26 unitsonce daily	0.94 mg	26 u	0.26 mL
28 unitsonce daily	1.01 mg	28 u	0.28 mL
30 unitsonce daily	1.08 mg	30 u	0.3 mL
32 unitsonce daily	1.15 mg	32 u	0.32 mL
34 unitsonce daily	1.22 mg	34 u	0.34 mL
36 unitsonce daily	1.3 mg	36 u	0.36 mL
38 unitsonce daily	1.37 mg	38 u	0.38 mL
40 unitsonce daily	1.44 mg	40 u	0.4 mL
42 unitsonce daily	1.51 mg	42 u	0.42 mL
44 unitsonce daily	1.58 mg	44 u	0.44 mL
46 unitsonce daily	1.66 mg	46 u	0.46 mL
48 unitsonce daily	1.73 mg	48 u	0.48 mL
50 unitsMaximum daily dosage	1.8 mg	50 u	0.5 mL

Computed from 0.036000000000000004 mg of liraglutide per unit, which is itself 3.6 mg/mL ÷ 100 units/mL. Rounded to two decimals it reproduces the label’s own Table 1 figure for figure. Only the even settings are shown because “the dose counter on the XULTOPHY 100/3.6 pen displays numbers for the even units and displays lines for the odd units”; the odd settings exist and step by 0.036000000000000004 mg each. Titration moves 2 units at a time, which the label spells out as “2 units of insulin degludec and 0.072 mg of liraglutide”. The pen holds 300 units and 10.8 mg of liraglutide. Above 50 units there is no row because the label states that “administration of more than 50 units of XULTOPHY 100/3.6 daily can result in overdose of the liraglutide component”.

How long one 18 mg liraglutide pen lasts

Whole daily doses in a pen at each labelled dose, and which of the two ceilings — the drug or the 30-day in-use limit — runs out first.

Daily dose	Whole dosesin one 18 mg pen	Days from one pen	Pens per 30 days	What runs out first
0.6 mg0.1 mL a day	30nothing left over	30 days	1	Both, on the same day
1.2 mg0.2 mL a day	15nothing left over	15 days	2	The drug
1.8 mg0.3 mL a day	10nothing left over	10 days	3	The drug
2.4 mg0.4 mL a day	71.2 mg stranded	7 days	5	The drug
3 mg0.5 mL a day	6nothing left over	6 days	5	The drug

An upper bound, not a promise. Two label facts pull the real number down. A remainder is not a dose — Saxenda’s Instructions for Use says “if the dose counter stops before 3 mg, there is not enough Saxenda left for a full dose of 3 mg” — which is why 2.4 mg gives 7 doses and not seven and a half. And every new pen is flow-checked before its first injection (“check the Saxenda flow before your first injection with each new pen”), which uses solution the label does not quantify anywhere. WE HAVE NOT ESTIMATED IT. No approved liraglutide label states how much the flow check uses or how many doses a pen contains, so treat the counts above as the arithmetic maximum. The 30-day column comes from “after first use ... the pen can be stored for 30 days”, and Saxenda’s IFU puts it plainly: “throw away the used SAXENDA pen after 30 days”, whatever is left in it.

Every FDA-listed liraglutide product is a pen

The complete DailyMed census for liraglutide, taken on 19 September 2026. Twenty-two labels, eleven applications, one presentation.

Product	Marketing category	Application	Presentation	Liraglutide
VICTOZAdials 0.6, 1.2 or 1.8 mg	NDA	NDA 022341	3 mL prefilled pensingle-patient-use	6 mg/mL18 mg per pen
SAXENDAdials 0.6, 1.2, 1.8, 2.4 or 3 mg	NDA	NDA 206321	3 mL prefilled pensingle-patient-use	6 mg/mL18 mg per pen
Liraglutide injection — Victoza genericsdials 0.6, 1.2 or 1.8 mg	ANDA	ANDA 215245, 215421, 215503, 217590, 218115	3 mL prefilled pensingle-patient-use	6 mg/mL18 mg per pen
Liraglutide injection — Saxenda genericsdials 0.6, 1.2, 1.8, 2.4 or 3 mg	ANDA	ANDA 214568, 217063, 217234	3 mL prefilled pensingle-patient-use	6 mg/mL18 mg per pen
XULTOPHY 100/3.6dials 10–50 units, 1 unit at a time	BLA	BLA 208583	3 mL prefilled pensingle-patient-use	3.6 mg/mL10.8 mg per pen

Marketing category and application number read off each SPL; the concentration is computed from the pen contents rather than transcribed, so a mistyped figure would show up as a wrong mg/mL. Liraglutide is the only molecule on these GLP-1 pages with approved US generics, and there are generics of both brands — five applications copying Victoza and three copying Saxenda. The thing to take from the table is the column that never varies: every row is a prefilled pen. There is no approved liraglutide vial to draw from, at any concentration, for any indication.

Frequently asked questions

How many units is 1.8 mg of liraglutide?: On an approved product, the question does not arise: liraglutide only comes in a pen that dials milligrams, so there is no unit count to read. The arithmetic, if you want it, is clean — at 6 mg/mL, 1.8 mg is 0.3 mL, which is 30 units on a U-100 syringe. 0.6 mg is 10 units, 1.2 mg is 20 and 3 mg is 50. The doses are 0.1 mL apart, so every one is a whole multiple of ten units. None of them is a dose you should be drawing into a barrel — and what a barrel is graduated in is a separate question we could not source from any manufacturer instructions for use.
What is a unit of Xultophy in milligrams of liraglutide?: 0.036000000000000004 mg, and this is the one liraglutide conversion a label actually states: “each XULTOPHY 100/3.6 dosage unit contains 1 unit of insulin degludec and 0.036 mg of liraglutide”. So the 10-unit starting dose for someone naive to basal insulin is 0.36 mg of liraglutide, the 16-unit starting dose for someone switching from basal insulin or another GLP-1 is 0.58 mg, and the 50-unit maximum is 1.8 mg — the same ceiling Victoza sets for liraglutide on its own.
How many doses are in a liraglutide pen?: Divide 18 mg by your daily dose and floor it: 30 doses at 0.6 mg, 15 at 1.2 mg, 10 at 1.8 mg, 7 at 2.4 mg and 6 at 3 mg. Two caveats, both from the label. A remainder is not a dose — at 2.4 mg you are left with 1.2 mg you cannot use. And each new pen is flow-checked before its first injection, which consumes solution that no approved liraglutide label quantifies, so the figures above are the arithmetic maximum rather than a count anybody has published.
How long does a Saxenda or Victoza pen last?: At the 3 mg Saxenda maintenance dose, 6 days — which is why the carton comes as 5 pens, covering 30 days. At the 1.8 mg Victoza maximum, 10 days, so the 3-pen carton is a month. At the 0.6 mg starting dose one pen is 30 days, and that is the only dose where the drug and the in-use limit expire together: “after first use ... the pen can be stored for 30 days”, and Saxenda’s Instructions for Use says to throw the pen away at 30 days whatever remains in it.
Is liraglutide always 6 mg/mL?: Every standalone product is, with no exceptions we could find: 6 mg/mL in Victoza, in Saxenda, and in all eight generic applications, always as 18 mg in 3 mL. The single exception is the fixed-ratio combination XULTOPHY 100/3.6, where liraglutide sits at 3.6 mg/mL alongside 100 units/mL of insulin degludec and is not dosed in milligrams at all. If a product in your hand claims some other liraglutide concentration, it is not one of the 22 labels on DailyMed.
Can I put liraglutide in an insulin syringe?: There is nothing to put in one. Every FDA-approved liraglutide product is a prefilled, single-patient-use pen — 22 labels checked on DailyMed, 22 pens, no vials — so there is no container to draw from and no label anywhere describing how to. The pen is also single-patient-use by design and is not refillable. The arithmetic on this page exists so that a number you have seen quoted can be checked, not so that a dose can be transferred: if you are holding liraglutide in a vial, it did not come from an approved product and nothing here tells you what is in it.
What happens if I miss liraglutide for a few days?: You go back to the start of the ladder, and this is the sharpest practical difference between a daily GLP-1 and a weekly one. One missed day is simple: resume with the next scheduled dose, and do not take an extra one. But “if more than 3 days have elapsed since the last VICTOZA dose, reinitiate VICTOZA at 0.6 mg once daily”, and Saxenda says the same and points at its weekly escalation table. A long weekend can cost weeks of titration — and it changes your pen arithmetic too, because you are back to 30 doses from a pen rather than 6.
Is there a generic liraglutide, and is it the same concentration?: Yes to both, and liraglutide is the only molecule on these GLP-1 pages with US generics. DailyMed lists eight abbreviated applications: five that copy Victoza and dial 0.6, 1.2 or 1.8 mg (ANDA 215245, 215421, 215503, 217590 and 218115) and three that copy Saxenda and dial up to 3 mg (ANDA 214568, 217063 and 217234). Every one is the same presentation as the brand — 6 mg/mL, 18 mg in a 3 mL prefilled single-patient-use pen. Semaglutide, tirzepatide and retatrutide have no US generics at all.
How much volume is one Xultophy unit?: 0.01 mL, because the insulin component is at 100 units/mL and one unit of that is one hundredth of a millilitre. So the 50-unit maximum dose is 0.5 mL and the 10-unit minimum is 0.1 mL, out of a pen holding 3 mL, 300 units of insulin degludec and 10.8 mg of liraglutide. A Xultophy unit and a U-100 insulin syringe unit are the same volume — that is not a coincidence, it is what the “100” in the product name means.

Sources

Embed this calculator

Free to use on your own site, no permission needed and no account. The widget resizes itself to fit your layout. Keeping the credit line underneath is appreciated, but the calculator works exactly the same if you delete it.

Paste this

<!-- Liraglutide units converter — by Alpha Health Finder. Free to embed; keeping the credit line below is appreciated but not required. -->
<iframe src="https://alphahealthfinder.com/embed/tools/liraglutide-units-converter"
        title="Liraglutide units converter"
        width="100%" height="1500" loading="lazy"
        style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:12px;max-width:680px;width:100%"
        data-ahf-embed="liraglutide-units-converter"></iframe>
<p style="max-width:680px;margin:8px 0 0;font:13px/1.5 system-ui,-apple-system,sans-serif;color:#64748b">
  <a href="https://alphahealthfinder.com/tools/liraglutide-units-converter">Liraglutide units converter</a> by <a href="https://alphahealthfinder.com">Alpha Health Finder</a>
</p>
<script src="https://alphahealthfinder.com/embed/resize.js" async></script>

Next steps

Compare online weight loss providersTelehealth platforms prescribing GLP-1 medication, and what each of them actually dispenses — branded pen, generic pen or compounded vial.Liraglutide in fullThe labelled ranges, the boxed warning, the monitoring, the storage rules and every source, on one page.