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Penwise

The GLP-1 pen click chart, and why one number never fits two pens

Click counts circulate constantly and are wrong about as often as they are right, because they are passed around without the one piece of information that makes them mean anything: which pen. A detent on a dial pen advances a fixed volume, not a fixed dose. What that volume is worth in milligrams depends entirely on the concentration in the cartridge, and that changes between products, between strengths, and between generations of the same brand.

Updated 23 August 2026 · Written by the Penwise team

The rule that explains everything below

~0.01 ml
what one click advances on essentially every pen here
~1 unit
the same volume on a U-100 insulin syringe
6
different concentrations across the pens in this chart
0
manufacturers who endorse dosing this way

One click is about a hundredth of a millilitre, which is one unit on a standard U-100 syringe. That is remarkably consistent across the whole category. What is not consistent is what a hundredth of a millilitre contains, because these pens run from 0.68 mg/ml up to 6 mg/ml.

So: a click is a volume. Milligrams follow the concentration. Everything confusing about click counts dissolves once that is fixed in place.

Semaglutide: four Ozempic pens, three concentrations

Pen Concentration Full dial Clicks to full dial One click is
Ozempic 0.25 / 0.5 mg (3 ml) 0.68 mg/ml 0.5 mg 72 ~0.007 mg
Ozempic 0.25 / 0.5 mg (1.5 ml, older) 1.34 mg/ml 0.5 mg 36 ~0.014 mg
Ozempic 1 mg 1.34 mg/ml 1 mg 72 ~0.014 mg
Ozempic 2 mg 2.68 mg/ml 2 mg 72 ~0.028 mg

All four hold four labelled doses and are labelled for 56 days of use once started.

Look at the first two rows, because that is the whole problem in one place. Both pens say “0.25 / 0.5 mg” on the box. The 1.5 ml version, phased out from 2023 but still in circulation, is twice as concentrated as the 3 ml pen sold today. The same 0.25 mg is 36 clicks on one and 18 on the other.

Anybody quoting a click count for “the Ozempic starter pen” without saying which one is quoting a number that is right half the time. In practice, on the pens sold today:

Dose 0.25 / 0.5 pen (3 ml) 1 mg pen 2 mg pen
0.25 mg 36 18
0.5 mg 72 36 18
0.75 mg 54
1 mg 72 36
1.5 mg 54
2 mg 72

Approximate, rounded, and dependent on the exact pen in your hand. Tracking Ozempic explains why Penwise asks which pen you have.

Tirzepatide: one volume, six meanings

The KwikPen works differently. It has no dose dial – the strength is decided by which box you were dispensed, and the device delivers one fixed 0.6 ml shot. Sixty clicks make up that full dose on every strength, so the click count is identical and the milligrams are not.

KwikPen strength Full dose Clicks to full dose One click is
2.5 mg 0.6 ml 60 ~0.042 mg
5 mg 0.6 ml 60 ~0.083 mg
7.5 mg 0.6 ml 60 ~0.125 mg
10 mg 0.6 ml 60 ~0.167 mg
12.5 mg 0.6 ml 60 ~0.208 mg
15 mg 0.6 ml 60 ~0.25 mg

Mounjaro and Zepbound KwikPens are identical devices. Both hold four doses and are labelled for 30 days of use once started.

This is where a number copied from a forum does the most damage: “60 clicks” is correct on every KwikPen and tells you nothing about the dose, because a click on a 15 mg pen carries six times what a click on a 2.5 mg pen does. The single-use tirzepatide pens have no dial at all and are not click-dosable in any sense.

Wegovy FlexTouch: every strength is its own concentration

The four-dose FlexTouch sold outside the US changes both the volume and the concentration as the strength goes up, which makes it the least transferable of the lot.

Strength Volume per dose Clicks to full dose One click is
0.25 mg 0.37 ml 37 ~0.007 mg
0.5 mg 0.37 ml 37 ~0.014 mg
1 mg 0.75 ml 75 ~0.013 mg
1.7 mg 0.75 ml 75 ~0.023 mg
2.4 mg 0.75 ml 75 ~0.032 mg

The single-dose Wegovy pen has no dial and delivers its whole contents in one shot.

Liraglutide: the one that is actually consistent

Saxenda and Victoza are both 18 mg in 3 ml – 6 mg/ml – so a click is worth the same on both, and it works out to a round number.

Dose Saxenda Victoza
0.6 mg 10 clicks 10 clicks
1.2 mg 20 clicks 20 clicks
1.8 mg 30 clicks 30 clicks
2.4 mg 40 clicks
3.0 mg 50 clicks

One click is about 0.06 mg on both. Victoza dials to 1.8 mg, Saxenda to 3.0. Both are daily – see tracking Saxenda and Victoza.

Compounded vials, where there is no dial at all

With a vial and a syringe the click question disappears and a different one replaces it: how many units is my dose. The arithmetic is the same idea in reverse – you know the concentration, you want a dose, the syringe is graduated in volume.

A 10 mg / 1 ml tirzepatide vial is 10 mg/ml, so 1 unit of a U-100 syringe (0.01 ml) is 0.1 mg. A 5 mg / 2 ml semaglutide vial is 2.5 mg/ml, so 1 unit is 0.025 mg. Penwise carries five vial presets and lets you enter your own concentration, converting in both directions so the number you draw up is not one you did in your head at the counter.

Why Penwise stores clicks per dose rather than clicks per milligram

This is a design decision worth explaining, because it is the reason the app gets pens right where a spreadsheet does not.

Penwise stores, for each pen, how many clicks make up one full labelled dose. It never stores a clicks-per-milligram figure, because that number is not a property of the pen – it is a property of the pen and the strength together. Storing it the other way is exactly how two pens labelled the same end up sharing one wrong number.

Everything else follows: the app knows the concentration of the pen you told it you have, so it converts between clicks, millilitres, units and milligrams without you memorising anything. And because it knows the labelled doses and the in-use window, it can also tell you when your plan outlasts the pen – see how long a GLP-1 pen lasts.

Stop looking up click counts

Seventeen pens and five vial presets, each with its own arithmetic. Free core tracker, no account.

Common questions

How many clicks is one dose on a Mounjaro KwikPen?
Sixty clicks make up the full 0.6 ml dose on every KwikPen strength. Because the strength is fixed by the box rather than dialled, those sixty clicks are worth 2.5 mg on one pen and 15 mg on another – the count is identical and the dose is not.
How many clicks is 0.25 mg of Ozempic?
About 36 on the 3 ml starter pen sold today, about 18 on the 1 mg pen, and about 18 on the older 1.5 ml starter pen. The difference is concentration: the pens hold 0.68, 1.34 and 1.34 mg/ml respectively.
Is one click the same as one unit on a syringe?
Approximately, on these pens. A detent advances about 0.01 ml, which is one unit on a U-100 insulin syringe. What differs is what that volume contains, which is why the milligram value changes from pen to pen.
Do manufacturers approve of counting clicks?
No. Every manufacturer here advises against dosing by clicks, and none of these pens is licensed to be used that way. Penwise includes the arithmetic because people do it anyway, and presents it as a community reference rather than guidance.
Why does the same click count give a different dose on two pens with the same label?
Because they are different concentrations. The clearest example is the two Ozempic starter pens: both say 0.25 / 0.5 mg, and the older 1.5 ml version is twice as concentrated as the 3 ml pen sold today.
Does Penwise do the conversion for compounded vials too?
Yes. Enter the concentration – or pick one of five presets – and it converts between milligrams, millilitres and syringe units in both directions.

Sources

Every factual claim on this page traces to the product information a regulator publishes, or to a published trial. Links open on the site of whoever issued the document.

  1. Mounjaro: EPAR product information European Medicines Agency
  2. Ozempic: EPAR product information European Medicines Agency
  3. Wegovy: EPAR product information European Medicines Agency

Penwise is a tracking and education tool, not a medical device. Nothing on this page is medical advice, a diagnosis or a recommendation to start, stop or change a dose. Dosing decisions belong to you and your clinician. Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Saxenda and Victoza are trademarks of Novo Nordisk; Mounjaro, Zepbound and Trulicity are trademarks of Eli Lilly. Penwise is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to either company.

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