How to Get Naltrexone Prescribed Online for Alcohol Use

• You can get naltrexone prescribed online by a clinician licensed in your state, after a video visit or an online assessment, because it isn’t a controlled substance.¹²
• As of September 28, 2026, Workit Health charges $150 a month without insurance after a $250 first month, with the medication billed separately, and says most insured members pay $25 to $35 a month. Oar Health charges a $50 consultation fee, then $297 every three months with the medication included.
• Generic naltrexone 50 mg costs $22.94 for 30 tablets at Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs, and it always needs a prescription.

A licensed clinician can prescribe naltrexone for alcohol use after a video visit or an online questionnaire, then send the prescription to a local or mail-order pharmacy. Naltrexone is a tablet the FDA approved in 1994 to treat alcohol dependence. It isn’t an opioid, and SAMHSA says it isn’t addictive.¹ Because it isn’t a controlled substance, the federal telehealth rules for controlled medications don’t apply to it.²³ Those rules matter for drugs like buprenorphine, and even there, federal telehealth exceptions currently allow prescribing without a prior in-person evaluation when the requirements are met, through December 31, 2026.³ Your state and your insurance decide which online service you can use.

This article is for information only and is not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or licensed clinician before starting, stopping, or changing any treatment.

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Why naltrexone can be prescribed without an office visit

Naltrexone is not on the DEA’s list of controlled substances dated August 2026, and SAMHSA says any practitioner licensed to prescribe medications can prescribe it.¹² The Ryan Haight Act requires an in-person evaluation before a clinician prescribes a controlled substance by telehealth, so neither that rule nor the December 31, 2026 deadline for its telehealth exceptions affects naltrexone.³

State licensing still applies. A telehealth clinician must be licensed in the state where you’re located, so each service lists the states it covers.

What naltrexone does and how well it works

The FDA has approved naltrexone tablets for alcohol dependence, based on trials that used a 50 mg dose once daily for up to 12 weeks.⁴ A 2023 JAMA review of 118 trials involving 20,976 participants found that 11 people would need to take oral naltrexone to prevent one return to heavy drinking. The review identified oral naltrexone and acamprosate as first-line medications for alcohol use disorder (AUD).⁵ Despite this evidence, these medications remain underused. In 2024, only 2.4% of U.S. adults with past-year AUD received medication for it.⁶

Workit and Ria also offer naltrexone taken about an hour before drinking, which is the approach behind the Sinclair Method. The label trials tested only the daily dose.

How to get naltrexone online, step by step

The steps for getting naltrexone are similar at every service, though the visit format and the pharmacy route differ:

1. Check your state and age. Workit covers 14 states and Oar covers 42. Workit, Oar and Talkspace’s insured appointments require you to be 18 or older, and Sunnyside requires people to be at least 21.

2. Complete the intake. Oar and Sunnyside Med use an online questionnaire that a clinician reviews, and Oar says the review happens within 24 hours. Workit, Ria and Talkspace use a live video visit.

3. Verify your identity or insurance. Oar asks for a photo of a government ID and a real-time selfie. Workit verifies your insurance before matching you with a provider licensed in your state.

4. Get the prescription filled. Oar and Sunnyside Med ship the medication to your door. Workit, Talkspace and Ria’s full program send the prescription to a pharmacy you choose, and you pay for the drug there.

A 2015 federal guide from SAMHSA and NIAAA recommends a physical exam, baseline liver and kidney tests, a urine drug screen and, for women, a pregnancy test before starting any AUD medication.⁷ Ask the service how it handles lab work before you pay.

Online naltrexone prescription services compared

Five services with published details prescribe naltrexone online for alcohol use, and three of them bill insurance. The prices below were checked on September 28, 2026, except where noted.

Workit Health

Workit Health is a fully online clinic whose clinicians prescribe FDA-approved medications by video. For alcohol, it offers a drink-less path, where you don’t need to stop drinking before starting naltrexone, and a quit path with daily naltrexone or acamprosate plus recovery groups. It serves Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington.

Workit is in-network with most major commercial plans, including Aetna, BCBS, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare, depending on the state, and its medical assistants handle prior authorizations. Visits and most medication costs are HSA and FSA eligible.

Check whether Workit Health covers your state

Oar Health

Oar Health prescribes FDA-approved naltrexone after an online assessment with no video or office visit and ships it to you. Treatment is for adults who meet the diagnostic criteria for AUD. Oar doesn’t serve Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia or DC. It also sells Clutch, a compounded naltrexone mint that dissolves under the tongue and isn’t FDA-approved.

For someone paying cash, Oar costs less than Workit’s self-pay plan. Its first year comes to $1,238 with medication and shipping, compared to $1,900 at Workit before the drug. The $50 consultation fee is charged whether you’re prescribed or not and isn’t refundable, and memberships auto-renew every three months with no refunds. Our Oar Health review covers the service in more detail.

Ria Health

Ria Health prescribes naltrexone, acamprosate, topiramate, baclofen or gabapentin, and only the first two are FDA-approved for alcohol. Members start with a video visit with their medical team and meet a coach weekly. Ria doesn’t publish a self-pay price. Our July 2026 review found out-of-pocket costs to be from $175 to $449 a month. Ria recommends staying in the program for 12 months, and it says the program is available across the United States.

Talkspace and Rula

Talkspace psychiatric providers can evaluate you by video and prescribe naltrexone as part of a broader recovery plan, filled at a local pharmacy or through Amazon Pharmacy. The medication isn’t included in the evaluation price, and most insured members pay a $0 copay. Rula also prescribes oral naltrexone for AUD and bills insurance.

Sunnyside Med

Sunnyside Med is a drink-less program built around a compounded tablet of naltrexone 50 mg plus vitamin B6. Compounded drugs aren’t FDA-approved, and Sunnyside says Sunnyside Med isn’t designed to treat alcohol use disorder. Sunnyside itself doesn’t prescribe; clinicians from OpenLoop Health’s affiliated medical groups or other independent providers review the questionnaire and write the prescription. Medication refunds are generally not permitted once an order is placed.

What is the cheapest way to get naltrexone online?

The cheapest way to get naltrexone online is a prescription from a clinician your insurance covers, filled as a generic, because the drug alone costs about $23 a month. Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs lists 30 tablets of naltrexone 50 mg at $22.94, plus shipping, compared with a retail price of $102 at other pharmacies.

Those prices exclude any visit fees. Over the first year, generic tablets from Cost Plus come to about $275 before shipping, Sunnyside Med to $1,188 for its compounded version, Oar to $1,238 with FDA-approved tablets, and Workit’s self-pay plan to $1,900 before medication. Workit says naltrexone is typically covered under prescription benefits, and a study of Medicaid managed care plans in 2021 found that 84.2% covered oral naltrexone.⁸

Vivitrol, the monthly naltrexone injection, costs about $1,758 per shot with no generic. It is not offered by Workit, Oar, Ria or Sunnyside Med. A practitioner has to administer the injection.

How to buy naltrexone from an online pharmacy safely

Naltrexone is prescription-only, and a legitimate online pharmacy always asks for the prescription. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) says nearly 95% of websites selling prescription-only drugs operate illegally, and 96% of the illegal pharmacies it reviewed didn’t require a valid prescription.⁹

The FDA’s BeSafeRx program lists signs that an online pharmacy is likely safe:¹⁰

• It always requires a prescription.
• It gives a physical address and phone number in the United States.
• It has a licensed pharmacist available to answer questions.
• It’s licensed with a state board of pharmacy.

The FDA also warns about prices that seem too good to be true. You can look up a site with NABP’s Safe Site Search tool, and a website ending in .pharmacy has been accredited by NABP, which can’t be faked the way a logo can.

Safety checks before starting naltrexone

Naltrexone blocks opioids, so the FDA label lists these groups among people who shouldn’t take it:⁴

• people taking opioid pain medication
• people dependent on opioids, including those on methadone or buprenorphine
• people in acute opioid withdrawal, or with a positive urine screen for opioids
• anyone who has had a sensitivity reaction to naltrexone

The label recommends an opioid-free period of at least 7 to 10 days for people previously dependent on short-acting opioids, and SAMHSA says 10 to 14 days after long-acting ones.¹⁴ People switching from buprenorphine or methadone may remain vulnerable to withdrawal triggered by starting naltrexone for up to two weeks after stopping those medications.⁴ After stopping naltrexone, a lower opioid dose than before can cause life-threatening intoxication. SAMHSA doesn’t recommend naltrexone for anyone under 18.¹

The label warns that hepatitis and clinically significant liver problems have been seen with naltrexone. It also reports liver injury in a substantial share of patients in placebo-controlled studies at doses up to 300 mg a day, which is six times the usual 50 mg daily dose for alcohol use disorder, so that finding does not describe the typical risk at the standard dose.⁴ The 2015 federal guide says to avoid naltrexone when liver enzymes are more than five times the upper limit of normal, unless the benefits outweigh the risks.⁷ In a large safety study, the most common side effects were nausea (10%), headache (7%) and dizziness, nervousness and fatigue (4% each).⁴

Alcohol withdrawal is a separate risk. NIAAA warns that when someone who has been drinking heavily for a long time suddenly stops, withdrawal can be painful or even life-threatening, with symptoms such as nausea, a rapid heart rate or seizures, and it advises getting medical help to plan a safe way to stop.¹¹ Naltrexone doesn’t prevent or relieve alcohol withdrawal symptoms, according to MedlinePlus.¹²

What users say about online naltrexone services

Oar Health has a 4.6 TrustScore from 840 Trustpilot reviews. Reviewers in September 2026 often report drinking less and say early side effects faded, while a few stopped because of nausea or felt no effect. Workit’s app is rated 4.68 from 951 App Store ratings.

Sunnyside has a 4.2 TrustScore from 259 reviews, and its recent 1-star reviews from August and September 2026 are mostly about billing, including unexpected fees and an account reactivated after canceling. Ria has a 4.3 TrustScore from 119 reviews, with praise for its coaches, but its App Store app is rated 2.5 from 28 ratings.

In forum discussions, users often weigh subscription fees against the cheap generic, and many say they now get naltrexone from their regular doctor. Others say it didn’t work for them.

Getting naltrexone from your own doctor

A primary care doctor can prescribe naltrexone alongside brief counseling, according to NIAAA, and the prescription goes to whatever pharmacy your insurance uses.¹³ That route keeps your care with someone who knows your history, and it’s usually the cheapest.

If you want help beyond medication, FindTreatment.gov lists treatment programs, and NIAAA’s Alcohol Treatment Navigator covers care from telehealth to residential. SAMHSA’s National Helpline, 1-800-662-4357, is free and confidential. If you’re in crisis, call or text 988.

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