# CMS NADAC drug acquisition cost

National Average Drug Acquisition Cost: what US retail pharmacies pay per tablet, millilitre or gram, from the monthly CMS invoice survey. Needs query.

National Average Drug Acquisition Cost: what US retail pharmacies pay per tablet, millilitre or gram, from the monthly CMS invoice survey. Search by drug description or NDC: price per unit, effective date, generic or brand classification, OTC flag, weekly file date, newest first. Use it to compare real pharmacy costs of drugs and generics. Each NDC appears once per weekly file. Datasets are yearly, so a new year needs a new id here.

- Tool ID: `cms/nadac-drug-cost`
- Provider: [CMS](/providers/cms.md)
- Capability: [Knowledge & research](/tools/knowledge.md)
- Price: no charge per call
- Authentication: an authorised Agentik workspace is required for execution, including zero-price tools.

## Pricing contract

No charge per call. A workspace is still needed so your agent can call it.


```json
{
  "model": "per_call",
  "amountUsd": 0
}
```

## Complete input schema


```json
{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 2,
      "maxLength": 120,
      "description": "Words of the drug description, or an 11-digit NDC when search_field is ndc, e.g. 'METFORMIN HCL 500'"
    },
    "search_field": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "ndc_description",
        "ndc"
      ],
      "default": "ndc_description",
      "description": "Column to match, e.g. 'ndc_description'"
    },
    "year": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "2026",
        "2025",
        "2024"
      ],
      "default": "2026",
      "description": "Year of the NADAC file, e.g. '2026'"
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 100,
      "default": 10,
      "description": "Rows to return, e.g. 10"
    },
    "offset": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 1000000,
      "default": 0,
      "description": "Rows to skip, e.g. 10"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
```

## Published example

This is the provider tool’s published example. Replace example values with the user’s requested inputs, respecting the schema; do not execute an example merely to test a connection.


```json
{
  "tool_id": "cms/nadac-drug-cost",
  "input": {
    "query": "METFORMIN HCL 500",
    "limit": 5
  }
}
```

## Execute and retrieve

Inspect again before execution, explain the price and obtain the required authority. Use MCP run_tool or POST /v1/run with this tool ID, valid input and an idempotency key. Save the returned run ID and follow the actual state. If Agentik answers that the tool is temporarily unavailable, do not retry it blindly; use discovery to propose an alternative.

A partial or uncertain result can still have consumed provider resources. Consult [billing](/docs/billing.md), [idempotency](/docs/idempotency.md) and [asynchronous results](/docs/async.md).

Licence: US Government work (data.medicaid.gov, usa.gov/government-works).

Attribution: Data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (data.medicaid.gov).

[Provider documentation](https://data.medicaid.gov/dataset/fbb83258-11c7-47f5-8b18-5f8e79f7e704)

[REST inspection](https://api.agentik.cc/v1/tools/cms/nadac-drug-cost) · [OpenAPI](/openapi.json) · [Connection guide](/connect.md)

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[HTML page](/providers/cms/nadac-drug-cost) · [Agent index](/llms.txt)