Tadalafil price UK: generic tadalafil vs Cialis by strength

Generic tadalafil and Cialis: the price difference

Tadalafil is a prescription-only medicine. The NHS lists Cialis and Adcirca as its brand names. For erectile dysfunction, online pharmacies sell two kinds of pack. Dr Fox labels the 2.5 mg and 5 mg strengths, sold in boxes of 28 or more, for daily use. It labels the 10 mg and 20 mg strengths, sold in packs of 4 to 32, for use as required.

Three UK online pharmacies were checked on 22 October 2026. In every strength, generic tadalafil cost a fraction of the Cialis price. Four 20 mg tablets cost £7.50 to £19.00 as a generic and £35.20 to £45.99 as Cialis. A box of 28 tablets of 5 mg cost £17.00 to £29.00 as a generic and £66.59 to £78.99 as Cialis.

10 mg and 20 mg prices

Per tablet, the generic 20 mg four-pack costs £1.88 at Dr Fox, £2.45 at Chemist Click and £4.75 at Zava. Cialis 20 mg costs £8.80 a tablet at Dr Fox and £11.50 at Zava.

Larger packs bring the generic down further. Dr Fox lists 32 tablets of 20 mg for £40.00, or £1.25 each, and 32 of 10 mg for £39.00. Chemist Click lists 64 tablets of 20 mg for £89.89, or £1.40 each. Zava's largest is 16 for £49.00, or £3.06 each. Cialis 20 mg stays above £8 a tablet at both pharmacies. Dr Fox charges £197.40 for 24 tablets of 20 mg, and Zava £149.00 for 16.

2.5 mg and 5 mg prices

Zava sells the brand under the name Cialis Daily. Bigger boxes cut the cost per tablet. Dr Fox lists 84 tablets of 5 mg for £43.00 (51p each) and Chemist Click 168 for £99.95 (59p each). Zava's 56-tablet box is £55.00 (98p each). For the brand, Dr Fox charges £131.19 for 56 tablets of 5 mg and Zava £147.99.

Chemist Click's page also shows lower prices with a 15% discount code. This guide uses the regular price.

What the checkout adds

Dr Fox adds a prescription fee to each order: £1.00 up to £10, £2.00 up to £20, £3.00 up to £40 and £4.00 above £40. Delivery by Royal Mail Tracked 24 costs £2.90. A box of 28 generic 5 mg tablets therefore costs £21.90 delivered, and a box of 84 costs £49.90.

Zava's prices include delivery, and home delivery or Click and Collect are both free. Its tadalafil page lists no consultation fee. Chemist Click advertises a free online consultation and no hidden fees, and its tadalafil page does not state a delivery charge.

Daily and as-needed packs: the cost side

The choice between a daily tablet and one taken as needed is a prescribing decision. The figures here compare cost only.

A 28-tablet daily box at Dr Fox costs £17.00, or 61p a tablet. The same £17.00 buys about 13 tablets of 20 mg at the 32-pack rate of £1.25. At Chemist Click the daily 5 mg box costs £18.45, close to the £16.89 price of eight 20 mg tablets. At Zava both cost £29.00: 28 tablets of 5 mg or eight tablets of 20 mg.

Over a year the daily pattern runs to 364 tablets, or 13 boxes of 28. At Dr Fox that is £221.00 for the medicine. Ordering one box at a time adds a £2.00 prescription fee and £2.90 delivery to each order, so the year costs £284.70. Four 84-tablet boxes and one 28-tablet box cover the same 364 days for £221.50 with fees, £63.20 less.

The same year on Cialis 5 mg at Dr Fox, ordered as 13 boxes of 28, costs £865.67 for the medicine and £955.37 with fees. Against generic boxes ordered the same way, the brand costs £670.67 more.

Tadalafil on the NHS

The NHS tadalafil page states the rule. You can get tadalafil on prescription for erectile dysfunction only if you have a specific condition, such as multiple sclerosis or a spinal cord injury. Men who do not meet the criteria can get a private prescription and pay the full cost.

Where a GP does prescribe, the standard charge applies. England charges £9.90 per item. In Wales a patient of a Welsh GP pays nothing, and in Northern Ireland no one pays. For sildenafil, the other common treatment, the NHS erectile dysfunction page says you can get it on prescription or buy it from a pharmacy. The sildenafil vs Viagra price page covers it.

Savings on generic tadalafil

At the same pharmacy and strength:

• Dr Fox, 4 tablets of 10 mg: £34.40 for Cialis against £6.90, a saving of £27.50.
• Dr Fox, 4 tablets of 20 mg: £35.20 against £7.50, a saving of £27.70.
• Dr Fox, 28 tablets of 5 mg: £66.59 against £17.00, a saving of £49.59.
• Zava, 4 tablets of 20 mg: £45.99 against £19.00, a saving of £26.99.
• Zava, 28 tablets of 5 mg: £78.99 against £29.00, a saving of £49.99.

Steps to pay less for tadalafil

1. If you have multiple sclerosis, a spinal cord injury or another specific condition, ask your GP about an NHS prescription first.
2. For a private prescription, check the pharmacy's GPhC number on the General Pharmaceutical Council register.
3. Ask the prescriber for generic tadalafil at the strength they approve.
4. Compare the per-tablet price of the larger packs at that strength.
5. Work out the delivered total for each pharmacy before you order.

Mistakes that add to the bill

Asking for Cialis by name. Twenty-eight 5 mg tablets cost £49.59 more as the brand at Dr Fox.

Assuming a lower strength costs less. At Dr Fox 28 tablets of 2.5 mg cost £18.00 and 28 of 5 mg cost £17.00.

Ordering small packs with a fixed fee on top. At Dr Fox four 20 mg tablets cost £7.50, but the order comes to £11.40 once the £1.00 fee and £2.90 delivery are added. That is £2.85 a tablet against £1.88 on the shelf price.

Where the figures come from

Dr Fox, Chemist Click and Zava prices were taken from their tadalafil and Cialis product pages on 22 October 2026. The three GPhC numbers were copied from the pharmacies' own sites. The Cialis page at Dr Fox shows a second set of prices in a competitor table, about £1 higher per pack, and this guide uses the main price table. The NHS rules come from the nhs.uk tadalafil and erectile dysfunction pages. The England charge is from nhs.uk, the Wales rule from the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland rule from nidirect. Whether tadalafil suits you, and at what strength, is for a prescriber to decide.