GLP-1 Overdose: What to Do If You Took Too Much Semaglutide or Tirzepatide

Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 is the national line in the US, staffed around the clock. It is free and confidential. Have the vial in front of you when you call.

1. Check for emergency symptoms. Anything in the first two rows of the table above means 911 first.
2. Call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222. Tell them the medication (semaglutide or tirzepatide), the concentration on the vial in mg/mL, how many units or mL you injected, and when.
3. Message your care team. Include the same details and a photograph of the vial label and the syringe if you still have it.
4. Keep the vial and syringe. The label is how anyone helping you works out the actual dose.
5. Do not take your next scheduled dose until your care team has told you how to continue. Your physician sets your directions after reviewing what happened.
6. Do not try to fix it yourself. No extra medication, no improvised plan for the next dose.

If you are alone and feel unwell, tell someone nearby or call 911 rather than waiting it out.

What to tell Poison Control or your care team

The concentration matters most. A number of units means nothing on its own: 50 units from a 5 mg/mL vial and 50 units from a 30 mg/mL vial are six times apart in medication. The arithmetic is in tirzepatide units to mg and semaglutide units to mg.

No Pepti page describes a separate overdose syndrome for GLP-1 medications. What the approved labels and Pepti's safety pages do describe are the medications' known effects, which concentrate when the dose goes up, and the serious reactions to act on quickly. Taking more than your directions exposes you to more medication than your current step, so those are the effects to watch.

Why the effects can last

Semaglutide and tirzepatide were engineered for once-weekly dosing. Both bind to albumin in the blood, which gives them half-lives measured in days, so a dose is still substantially present a week later. An extra dose stays with you for the same reason. That is why "I feel fine right now" is not a reason to skip the call.

Low blood sugar: the risk that depends on your other medications

On their own, GLP-1 medications prompt insulin release only when glucose is high, so they rarely drive blood sugar dangerously low. The labels warn that the risk rises with insulin or an insulin secretagogue such as a sulfonylurea. In one tirzepatide trial in adults with type 2 diabetes, blood glucose below 54 mg/dL occurred in 10.3% of those also taking a sulfonylurea against 2.1% of those not. If you take either, say so on the call. The symptoms, shakiness, sweating, confusion and dizziness, can be mistaken for other things, so someone with you should know to call 911 if you become confused.

The FDA has documented this problem in detail. Its page on unapproved GLP-1 drugs records adverse event reports, some requiring hospitalization, that may be related to dosing errors with compounded injectable semaglutide, resulting "from patients measuring and self-administering incorrect doses of the drug, and in some cases, health care professionals miscalculating doses." Its July 2024 alert described:

• patients given U-100 insulin syringes and asked to measure a small dose in units, drawing up five to twenty times the intended amount;
• clinicians miscalculating conversions between milligrams, units and millilitres, producing five- to ten-fold overdoses;
• labels where the total contents were read as the dose, because compounders often print the strength per total volume and the concentration per mL in a different order from manufactured products.

The FDA has also recorded reports of compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide prescribed beyond the approved label, as a larger single dose, more frequent dosing or a faster escalation.

The habits that matter most on your side: read the label every time, especially on a new fill; draw at a table in good light; read the plunger tip at eye level; and if your directions and syringe seem to disagree, do not inject, message your care team. More in how to inject tirzepatide, how to inject semaglutide and insulin syringe units explained.

The best-documented facts here are the FDA's: dosing errors with compounded GLP-1 vials are real, they have led to hospitalizations, and they come mostly from unit, millilitre and milligram confusion rather than from the molecules themselves. The side effects and serious reactions listed above come from the approved labels and large trials of the manufactured products, which contain the same molecules. What those trials do not describe is what happens at several times the intended dose, so this page does not offer a timeline or a list of what an overdose "will" do. That uncertainty is the reason for the call: Poison Control and your care team can weigh the actual amount, your other medications and your symptoms. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Lot test results are published at /quality/lab-results. The full side-effect pictures are in GLP-1 side effects, semaglutide side effects and tirzepatide side effects.

A GLP-1 from a source with no accountable pharmacy is the highest-risk version of this problem: if the concentration on the vial is unknown or wrong, no unit count is safe. The prescription route:

1. Complete a free online intake covering your history, medications and what you want help with.
2. A physician licensed in your state reviews it, usually within 24 hours.
3. If it is appropriate, a state-licensed, FDA-registered US pharmacy compounds a dose-specific vial, with your directions printed in mL and units.
4. It ships refrigerated with ice packs, sterile U-100 syringes and alcohol prep pads.
5. Your care team stays reachable for side effects and dose questions. Refills run every 28 days, one vial per fill.

Semaglutide is from $99 a month and tirzepatide from $159 a month, all-in, with no membership fee. Pepti is cash-pay and does not bill insurance. Bloodwork is not required for any Pepti treatment. If your physician wants labs for your care, they'll ask through your account. Step-by-step pages: how to get semaglutide prescribed online and how to get tirzepatide prescribed online.